From Woman to Woman
Introduction

The Yoni-Massage (female genital-massage) -
Speech by Michaela Riedl in the book store „Licht und Schatten“ Cologne, November 2001

"Well, hello. I am happy to welcome you here, and I am
pleased to see that so many women are present. I am very
moved to be in the position to talk about this subject, which
means a lot to me.
My name is Michaela. I am a Tantra-masseuse and together
with Martina Weiser we run the massage project "ANANDA -
the Art of Touch" in Cologne.
But first of all, I am a woman - and being a woman is the most
interesting and worthy task in the life of any woman at all.
There is so much to explore in a woman's life. We carry an
endless knowledge within ourselves that is waiting to finally be
discovered. The dimension of being a woman is inexhaustible.
The earlier we start to make use of our creative and intuitive
potential, the sooner we will have the chance to really have an
influence in a man's world.

Three years ago I went through Tantra-training, where I first
made contact with the Yoni-Massage (Yoni is a word derived
from Sanscrit and describes the whole female genital area,
from the vagina to the ovaries. Personally, I like the
expression, as it keeps distance from the usual terms, which
are often used in a rather negative way).
For me it meant an immense step to agree in this kind of
massage, since I suffer, as many women do, from a wounded
sexuality. It took a lot of courage to make a conscious
decision, which is simply to regain that birthright. With the term
"birthright" I mean the right of any woman to live her sexuality to
its full potential, in order to inexhaustibly draw from this healing
source of power.

The Yoni-Massage is not necessarily an all encompassing
medicine for a wounded sexuality, but for me the massage
was and still is an experience that touches me deep inside,
which reconciled me a little bit more with my womanliness and
above all, allowed me to have a whole different attitude
towards my sexuality.
 

Our sexuality is very important. It is a great gift of Mother Earth,
and connects us with our highest creative power. Our sexuality
is not just what we need to improve our intimate relationships
or to increase our physical well-being. Neither is propagation
the only function, but rather our personal transformation. Our
sexuality takes care of physical and emotional healing, of
self-realization and spiritual growth and can be considered as
a way of learning all about life and death.

Women who are aware and have the courage to heal their
sexuality, despite the encumbered patriarchal history and the
still sexually-opposed world, have divine forces. With their
energy they can not only enthuse an individual, they have the
potential to contribute to the general welfare of life itself,
especially to that of women. And this is precisely the intention
of the massage-ritual.

Our Yoni has a very absorbent nature, which is a wonderful
characteristic. It corresponds to the female principle and has
something to do with devotion. On the other hand, it has the
disadvantage of absorbing and saving all negative
experiences, as well as the experiences of an entire
generation of women.
That is where the Yoni-Massage can reveal its healing
potential, as it very consciously and carefully dissolves these
wounds and blockages in order to make room for agreeable
and worthwhile experiences. It is holistically oriented, which
means that the ritual is meant to honour the woman in all her
divinity and celebrate her power and beauty.

The experiences and feelings that a woman may have during
the Yoni-Massage can be very different, ranging from sadness,
oceanic lust, anger, horniness, up to indifference - everything
is possible and more than that - everything is allowed. It is not
at all about focussing on a special kind of feeling or fulfilling a
particular expectation. The main idea is simply to observe and
to realise.
The feelings that actually arise, no matter of which nature they
are, can be expressed and celebrated, as they belong to us
and tell our story. The special quality of the Yoni-Massage is
the fact that during the massage only you are important and
that you are not stepping into a sexual interaction with the
giver. It is important that you let go of your concern about how
the other person is feeling at the time.

The Yoni-Massage technique originates primarily from
Chinese Taoism, which is very much influenced by Tantra. The
technique was formulated by Annie Sprinkle, a
Tantra-masseuse from America. Due to the intensive
experiences I've had with my women's research group
"Drachenspur", I've modified the formula where it seemed
appropriate.
During the Yoni-Massage a lot of energy is built up and
consciously used for transformation and mind-expansion.
Regarding the sexual energy, the Taoists, and we as well,
work with the idea of an inner flute, which runs along a vertical
line throughout the body. Even though the inner flute is not
accepted as an anatomic fact, it follows the physical and
neurological paths of the body, which connect the endocrine
glands.

Those seven glands - the genital gland, the adrenaline gland,
the pancreas, the thymus gland, the thyroid gland, the
brain-appendage gland and the pineal gland - regulate the
life-force and the energy stream of the body.
By opening the inner flute, a feeling of vitality, rejuvenation and
increased sexual energy will arise. Woman can experience the
inner flute by visualizing how the whole sexual energy flows
through this channel. As a matter of fact, a woman can actually
learn to play this flute by means of the seven finger-holes,
which correspond to the seven Chacras, or the energy centres
of the body.

The Chacras symbolize the energy fields, which are produced
by the body's endocrine glands. The seven chacras are the
sexual chacra, the navel chacra, the solar-plexus chacra, the
heart chacra, the larynx chacra, the forehead chacra, also
known as the third eye, and the crown chacra.

Rising in the inner flute, the sexual energy will be transformed
while moving through the individual chacras, which will show in
different emotions, feelings and colours. The chacras are
working together in a system, so to speak, in which each
chacra influences the energy of another chacra. If a chacra is
strained or out of balance, the other chacras will also be
affected and their life-force will be reduced. With the
Yoni-Massage, the sexual chacra and the heart chacra in
particular will be harmonized and connected with each other.

A very important muscle for intensifying the sexual energy and
desire is the “PC-muscle”. It spreads out around the pelvis in
shape of a butterfly, connecting the anus and the genitals with
the spine and the legs. It is the main muscle of the pelvis,
controlling the opening and closing of urethra, vagina and
anus. It is the muscle that woman has to trust when she urgently
needs to urinate, but circumstances don't allow it. Women can
feel this muscle especially strongly when they have to actively
press during the expulsion stage of childbirth.

Training the PC-muscle can help women to enormously
enhance their sexual desire. This pump-exercise (to flex and
relax the PC-muscle) does not just prepare your PC-muscle for
sexual practices, but woman can also let sexual energy build
up in the inner flute. This exercise, together with consciously
breathing in and out (breathing in when flexing the PC-muscle
and breathing out when loosening the PC-muscle) can always
be integrated into the Yoni-Massage.

Of course, it is also possible to have this and other massages
in our massage forum "ANANDA - the art of touch". You can
even take part in a seminar, where you will learn more about
the art of the Yoni-Massage.

Last but not least, I would like to introduce my team, who
greatly support me in my work and take part again and again
in this never-ending expedition.
Thank you very much for coming and listening. Please join me
in a song to the great goddess Yemaja. Yemaja derives from
the West African and Afro-Brazilian religion and is often
compared with Maria, the Mother of God, though without ever
losing her erotic vitality.