Tantra · In-person gathering
TURN POISON INTO HONEY: The sexual wound as a gateway to transformation
Presence, body and awareness
*Registration opens: 25 November 2026.
A gathering with Astiko
Presence · Breath · Listening · Conscious touch
The gathering
A journey through the lens of Tantra, bringing us closer to the wounds that may have left their imprint on our body and our life energy.
We live in a world that has denied us a loving, conscious understanding of sexual energy. Such a powerful energy, awakening within us as part of life’s longing for itself, has been given no conscious framework in our education or in the social and religious model we grew up with: no space for it to be felt, understood, welcomed and guided, rather than repressed, humiliated, shamed, manipulated and misused.
It is time to awaken and embrace ourselves fully, to embrace all the energies that emerge in your human story and bring light to sexual energy, supporting it in connecting the body with the heart so that it can become a conscious, dignified creative force in each of us and in humanity.
Many of us have had experiences involving our own sexual energy and that of others in unconscious and painful ways. These experiences have left a deep imprint on our psyche and our body, shaping how we experience ourselves and how we are in the world. Sometimes they have disconnected us from our vitality and our heart.
Meeting what is happening in the body today.
Approaching our experience with understanding and tenderness.
Recognising our boundaries, needs and desires.
Through the lens of Tantra
It is not who you are; it is what you remember of an experience. You can learn to relate to that experience from the Being you are and always will be.
Presence and life energy
From the tantric perspective, the first step in entering the wound is to understand that you are not the trauma, nor the wounded person. The trauma, the wound of shame, violation or unworthiness that colours your life energy, arises from an experience that has left its mark on you, but does not define your identity.
Through the lens of Tantra, we can understand trauma as an interruption of our life force. An expression denied awareness and relegated to the shadow of the unconscious. When we shine the light of our presence on it, we can reclaim it, feel it and gradually integrate it.
Presence means meeting what is happening in the body without immediately trying to change it. We learn to stay with our sensations and emotions in awareness.
Our body (soma) is the gateway to the present moment. The body expresses what we often cannot put into words: tension, contraction, fear, vibration, numbness, disconnection, and their opposites: relaxation, expansion, joy, surrender, pleasure….
safety and trust
Before inviting Shakti, your life energy, to flow freely through the body and to trust, she needs to be honoured, to feel witnessed without demands or judgement, with acceptance of this moment exactly as it feels within you.
She needs to feel heard and felt, so she can express what she feels and needs in each moment. For her to trust you, you need to be present within yourself, to stay connected to yourself. This creates the safety and trust that allow her to remember her natural way of being.
Returning to the body
Through conscious breathing, we will return again and again to the body and reconnect with our present experience.
We will explore how your body breathes in tension and in relaxation, and how to connect abdominal breathing with the chest to expand the experience of vitality and tenderness.
The breath allows us to open up space to feel, to make room for every feeling and allow emotions trapped in the body through the disconnection or numbness of trauma to be released. We will learn to recognise emotions in the body and open ourselves to feeling and expressing them.
Voice and sound can help you express what has been held back or left without words. Through specific meditations, we will explore opening space in the throat and discovering the sounds of the body: sighs, voice, spontaneous expression.
Rather than pushing ourselves or judging our reactions, we will learn to approach them with understanding and tenderness. Through meditations to open the heart, we create a space of compassion where all that we are is welcome.
What we will explore
To reclaim sovereignty over your body is to inhabit it, to stay within it. As you inhabit it in the present, the body becomes your own territory once again.
We learn to recognise that we can make our own choices about our body, our space, our touch and our intimacy.
Reclaiming the ability to choose is essential. We will explore the right to say yes, to say no, to stop, to change our minds and to express our boundaries clearly.
We will explore touch through presence, listening and respect. Touch is not intended to force an opening, but to create an experience of connection in which each person can remain free and present.
Intimacy can become a space for meeting again, rather than simply a place associated with fear or defensiveness. We will learn to move closer and step back while staying connected to ourselves.
You will be able to understand the sensation of pleasure as a path to recovery. We approach pleasure as a natural capacity to feel, receive and enjoy. Not as a goal or an obligation, but as a possibility for reclaiming our relationship with life and with our own body.
We will be able to understand sexual energy as vitality. We will explore sexuality beyond performance or the sexual act, as a dimension of our life energy, sensitivity, desire, presence and capacity for connection.
Through presence, breath, listening to the body, emotional expression and conscious touch, we will explore how to reclaim safety, trust and sovereignty, learning to recognise our boundaries, needs and desires.
A conscious, gradual process
We will move from fear to trust.
Through conscious, gradual experiences, we can discover new ways of relating to what once brought up fear, developing greater trust in ourselves and in our body.
When we begin to feel the body again, we can reconnect with our emotions, our desires and our needs. Presence allows us to return to our own experience from within.
The healing process allows us to gradually recover the ability to open ourselves to experience without losing our boundaries. Expansion ceases to be a demand and becomes a possibility.
This path invites us to reunite dimensions that may have become separated: the body, sensitivity, the heart, desire and sexuality, allowing for a more integrated experience of ourselves.
Honouring your process
In your own way, at your own pace.
You do not need any previous experience. Whatever needs to be revealed or expressed within you will unfold in your own way, respecting your pace and your process.
This is simple, meditative, integrative work. Rather than returning to the story itself, we will practise returning again and again to the body in the present, until you experience yourself as the sky and stop getting caught up in the cloud passing through it.
Healing does not simply mean an end to suffering. It means reclaiming the ability to feel, enjoy, express ourselves, connect, create and participate fully in life.
The invitation
Presence, compassion and love.
Trauma does not have to be the end of our story. When we meet it with presence, compassion and love, it can become a doorway to greater awareness, intimacy and freedom.
Beyond the experience is your being, your pure and limitless awareness. Any experience fully welcomed into the transformative field of your heart brings you home, to the recognition of Being.
In Astiko's words
This is not about blame or forgiveness. It is about bringing light to and integrating what has been banished, restoring it to its place with sovereignty, awareness and love.
This course is dedicated to each individual human being who has been hurt by the unconsciousness and ignorance in the way we relate to our sexual energy. Also to those who have hurt others through unconsciousness and ignorance of their own sexuality, and to those who have hurt themselves because they did not know how to stay true to themselves and listen to their body.
I also dedicate it to my father, who was abused at the age of 12. His trauma touched all of us who lived with him and took us through the most painful and darkest shadows. This journey has been a great teacher; it led me to Tantra and was revealing, transformative and transcendent. I bow to life and its teachings with gratitude and devotion.
Led by
Her path in Tantra began at the age of 18. She brings together meditation, bodywork and many years of therapeutic exploration.
In this gathering, she invites awareness into relationships, the body and sexuality, listening to what each couple brings and what is alive in the group.
With
He came to Tantra through Astiko. After years of working together, love is at the heart of the way he supports others on this path.
Tantra is love, presence and transformation.
Frequently asked questions
If you have any questions before booking, you can contact the team.
Please contact the organisers for the price, schedule, what the gathering includes, and the booking and cancellation terms for 2027.
Email info@tantrawithastiko.com with your name and the gathering you are interested in. The team will send you the terms and the steps to confirm your place.
Photograph: Hotel La Font d’Alcalà
The venue
Alcalà de la Jovada · Alicante
We will meet at Hotel La Font d’Alcalà, in Alcalà de la Jovada, Alicante.
Where to find us
Plaza Bisbe Vilaplana, 12
03788 Alcalà de la Jovada · Alicante
Please contact the organisers for details of accommodation and meals for this gathering.
Information and bookings
Turn Poison into Honey
A space to come home to the body, integrate what has become disconnected and gradually reclaim our ability to feel, enjoy, connect and live with greater presence and vitality.
If this gathering speaks to you, you can email us at info@tantrawithastiko.com. We will send you all the information and let you know when it is time to book your place.
Practical information
Tantra · In-person gathering
When
22–28 March 2027
Where
Hotel La Font d’Alcalà
Alcalà de la Jovada · Alicante
Your facilitator
Astiko
INFORMATION AND BOOKINGS
Write to us and we will send you full details of the schedule, prices, what the gathering includes and booking terms.
Places are limited.
