Recently, I was blessed to interview the founder of Australia’s biggest tantra festival: Marion Ellyard, together with her partner, Ron Van Twuiver for my Heart to Heart youtube show.
When I asked Marion about how the Taste of Love Festival came into being, she spoke about her calling to create a space in which people could connect with the inner experience of ecstasy.
Ah yes! This I know well, as I share this calling through my own work in teaching ecstatic dance, kundalini yoga, embodied awareness and subtle tantra.
What Marion and Ron also conveyed with grace and clarity, was how the opening to bliss that tantra supports, will inevitably be accompanied by an expansion of awareness that includes coming face to face with our shadow.
As Ron said (with laudable honesty), he was first drawn to tantra because he was hopeful of getting laid.
Those hopes were dashed, but instead, he was given glimpses of a more authentic, heart-centred form of connection, that inspired him to continue on his tantric journey, even as it meant owning all those parts of himself he was ashamed or in denial of.
Almost 15 years on from that first lusty tantric foray, it was clear to me that the fruits of Ron’s life choice were many.
As he and Marion sat there, the afternoon before the Festival was due to begin, they radiated love, relaxed ease and respectful togetherness. And spoke about a gentle tantric practice they’d just put into use to diffuse a potential clash of egos.
The Festival that followed that weekend flowed beautifully. It truly was a masterful and loving co-creation of many, with Marion and Ron’s presence and holding subtly permeating the entire event.
For me and for many who attended, I am sure, they were given not just a Taste of Love, but a veritable smorgasbord of delectable life- and love-enhancing dishes.
My gratitude to Marion and Ron for making myself and my Beloved, Prem Prashad, so welcome, and a bow of respect to them for creating such an inspiring Festival.
Catch it next year in Byron Bay, 20-22 April, 2018.