Why I Chose Tantra as a Refuge, Not an Appropriation

I’m a cis white male, and I teach Tantra.

I get accused of cultural appropriation pretty regularly. Mostly from other white guys…but hey, I get it, they just can’t see how much I’ve assimilated into the culture rather than stolen from it.

I’ve dived deep and learned the language of Sanskrit (Sanskrit beats Old English any day), adopted the customs (sacred union > sacred warfare), and even changed my values (honoring the divine feminine instead of… well….the opposite).

If that’s appropriation, then every immigrant who ever chose a better way of life was doing it wrong. Let’s just be real here….if I were to go back to my ancestors’ ways, as some have suggested I do, I’d be out raping and pillaging, waging wars, and colonizing faraway lands.

But instead, I’m actually a cultural refugee!

I took one look at my ancestral legacy of colonization and conquest and said: ‘I’m seeking asylum in a tradition that celebrates sacred sexuality instead of shame, consciousness instead of conquest, and tantric breathing instead of… well, whatever the heck my forefathers were breathing while they were raping and pillaging villages!

I didn’t appropriate Tantra….. I IMMIGRATED TO IT!

Think of it as a cultural upgrade from a tradition that gave us the Inquisition to one that gave us enlightenment through pleasure.

Pretty sure even my ancestors would approve of that trade-up.

NOTE: VIKING AI PHOTO OF ME ADDED FOR DRAMATIC EFFECT.