Lineage & Influences
Lineage & Influences
The Roots of This Work“If you want to go fast, go alone.
If you want to go far, go together.”
I have gone far. And I did not go alone.
What you’ll find on this page is not a credentials list. It’s an act of devotion — a public acknowledgment of the teachers, lineages, wisdom traditions, and unexpected moments of grace that cracked me open, redirected my path, and made this work possible.
Some of these people I studied with formally over years. Some I encountered briefly at a retreat or festival and walked away fundamentally changed. Some influenced me through their books, their presence, or simply the field they created around them. And one — the very first on this list — opened the inner door before I even had language for any of this.
I share this not to borrow their credibility, but because I genuinely believe that a practitioner who knows where they come from is a safer, deeper, more trustworthy guide. These roots are not background. They are the work itself.
— Shiva JA Lineage of Love & Wisdom
This work did not arise in me alone. It was seeded by teachers who gave generously — of their time, their lineages, their hard-won wisdom, and in many cases their hearts. I carry each of them with me into every session, every circle, every breath.
Chandrika Devi
My first spiritual guide and teacher — the one who opened the inner door before I even had language for any of this. Long before this path had a name for me, Chandrika’s presence and transmission cracked something open that set the entire trajectory of my life in motion. Her influence lives not just in the subtler dimensions of my practice, but in the very fact that there is a practice at all.
KamalaDevi McClure (KD)
Pansexual, genderqueer tantric mentor, author, creator of San Diego Tantra Theater, and ISTA lead facilitator. KD’s presence and work in the San Diego sacred sexuality community was one of the most formative early influences on my path — showing me what was possible when someone lives and teaches without apology, with radical inclusivity and joyful embodiment at the center of everything. A profound and lasting influence.
Charles Muir
Pioneer of modern Tantra in the West and founder of the Source School of Tantra Yoga, whose teachings on the sacred art of conscious loving opened something in me that has never closed.
Mantak Chia
Taoist master and keeper of ancient sexual energy cultivation practices, whose work at the Taoist Garden in Chiang Mai gave me the energetic foundation beneath everything I teach.
Monique Darling & Peter Petersen
Co-founders of Everyday Tantra and lead facilitators of Awaken as Love, who showed me what it looks like to bring radical inclusivity, playful embodiment, and fearless relating into every room you enter.
Cathleene Cienfuegos
Dakini, Awaken as Love lead facilitator, and teacher of teachers, whose weaving of ancient lineage with contemporary wisdom deepened my understanding of the sacred feminine and the art of tantric healing.
Shawn Roop
Mahamudra teacher and lineage-based Tantra guide, whose transmission of presence and energetic depth shaped how I hold space and how I understand the body as a portal.
Chris Luth
Founder of the Conscious Connection Institute, creator of the E.Sensual Tantric Massage and Energy Based Sensuality & Tantra systems, and internationally recognized Tai Chi & Chi Gong master. Chris’s work in relational energetics — the art of charging touch with conscious life-force energy — is woven into the very foundation of how I teach bodywork.
Destin Gerek
Sexologist, author of The Evolved Masculine, and pioneering voice in conscious masculinity, whose work helped me integrate power, presence, and integrity into a coherent embodied masculine path.
Dr. David Frawley
Vedic scholar and Ayurvedic master, whose wisdom traditions gave philosophical grounding to the spiritual energetics that run through all of my work.
Chandrika Devi
My first spiritual guide and teacher — the one who opened the inner door before anyone else. Long before I had language for any of this work, Chandrika’s presence and transmission cracked something open in me that set the entire trajectory of my path in motion. Her influence lives not just in the subtler dimensions of my practice, but in the very fact that there is a practice at all.
Shivakti Ma
Lineage holder in Red Tantra and Temple Arts, whose teachings on the sacred feminine awakened in me a reverence for the erotic as holy.
Guru Dev Singh
Master of Sat Nam Rasayan, whose work with subtle body awareness and compassionate presence transformed how I hold healing space.
Francoise Ginsberg
Psychologist, Tantra teacher, and intuitive guide, who bridged the worlds of psychological depth and sacred sexuality in ways that continue to inform my practice.
The ManKind Project
The New Warrior Training Adventure and the brotherhood of men who held me accountable, reflected my shadows back to me, and taught me that real strength lives in vulnerability. The lineage of Robert Bly, Robert Moore, and Douglas Gillette runs through the Sacred Kings work I do to this day.
Landmark Worldwide
Twelve years of transformational inquiry that fundamentally rewired how I understand language, identity, responsibility, and what becomes possible when you stop living inside the stories you inherited.
Notable Mentions
These teachers and community elders may not have been formal long-term guides, but their influence on specific dimensions of my work has been real, lasting, and worth honoring.
Adam Paulman
Tantra counselor, NVC practitioner, and longstanding elder of the San Diego conscious community. Adam modeled what it looks like to hold space with integrity, practice compassionate communication in real time, and show up consistently for a community over decades. His quiet, steady presence shaped how I understand authentic relating.
Scott Catamas
Emmy Award-winning educator and co-founder of the Love Coach Academy, who spent five years traveling with Marshall Rosenberg — the founder of Nonviolent Communication — filming and learning directly from the source. Scott introduced me to the world of NVC and compassionate communication, and that introduction changed everything about how I listen, how I speak, and how I hold conflict and connection in my work.
Guy Shahar
Some people teach you through their wisdom. Guy taught me through his loyalty. A friend who opened doors where others had slammed them shut, who believed in this work and in me at moments when that belief mattered most. Not every influence arrives as a formal teacher — some arrive as a true ally, and those are perhaps the rarest gift of all.
Clarity Alexandera
Local dakini, love angel, and one of the truest friends this path has given me. Clarity has been a consistent ally, cheerleader, and vocal supporter from the very beginning — the kind of presence who sees what you’re building before you can fully see it yourself, and celebrates it loudly. Her friendship has been both grounding and wings.
Taina Ixchel Jorda-Cid & James Stevenson
A power couple whose belief in me came at a time when few others were willing to step forward. Taina is a Power Priestess, International Tantra Teacher, Awaken As Love Lead Facilitator, and Life Coach whose lineage and embodied wisdom run deep. James is her partner and the creator and founder of Awaken As Love — a body of work that has touched thousands of lives and shaped my own understanding of conscious relating in profound ways. That they backed me, supported me, and stood with me when the path was uncertain is something I will never forget.
Lawrence Lanoff
Award-winning filmmaker, photographer, best-selling author, and Tantra master whose work bridges neuroscience, consciousness, and erotic freedom in ways that few teachers dare to attempt. Lawrence’s radical teachings on deprogramming, radical self-acceptance, and the relationship between pleasure and liberation have left a lasting imprint on how I understand the deeper mechanics of transformation.
The Consent Frameworks of the San Diego Conscious Community
In my early years on this path, I encountered teachers and facilitators in the San Diego sacred sexuality and conscious relating community whose frameworks for consent, boundaries, and embodied communication became the invisible architecture beneath everything I facilitate. I carry those tools into every circle, every event, every session — and I am grateful for the communities that built and modeled them.
To the Many Co-Facilitators
Some of the deepest learning happens not in formal study but in the sacred act of co-creation — standing beside someone in circle, sharing a stage, building a container together. I have been profoundly shaped by the teachers, facilitators, and practitioners I have had the honor of working with, working beside, and learning from over the years. Among them:
The Goddess Aphrodite · Shekina Ray · Armara Karuna · Nastasia Steele · Major Tom · Serendipity · Sharon Marie Scott · Malak Radwan · Cheri Reeder · SXX Coach Nikki
Each of you has contributed something irreplaceable to this work and to who I am as a facilitator. Thank you.
The Academic Faculty
To the professors and educators who taught me to think rigorously, write honestly, and hold myself to a standard of intellectual integrity — your influence lives in every paper I wrote, every argument I refined, and every time I chose precision over convenience. You instilled in me the academic rigor, honesty, and work ethic that now informs everything I do, whether in a classroom or a circle.
And to the teachers not named here — the gurus encountered briefly in ashrams and at festivals, the healers in jungle circles and temple spaces, the mentors whose names I may not carry but whose transmissions I do — thank you. You are woven into this work too.To each of you, named and unnamed, I bow in deep gratitude.