One of the challenges of White Tantric Yoga is that it’s done with a partner. This doubles the pressure, because not only are we keeping up for ourselves, we’re keeping up for each other too. Suddenly it’s not just about me and my practice (It might get tough but at least I can rest if I need to); it’s about us and our practice (but what if my partner doesn’t need to rest? And then I’m all alone in my agony! Scream!). And so we learn to negotiate our way through the kriyas together, both of us engaged in a dance of passive and active, yin and yang, feminine and masculine, and in doing so, we balance and heal our polarities on a physical and deeply subconscious level.
A beautiful microcosmic way to bring this same healing, balancing White Tantric dynamic into our personal relationships – with a beloved, a family member, or a friend – is through a Venus kriya, kundalini yoga’s answer to partner yoga.
The difference between Venus kriyas and White Tantra is that we don’t sit in rows for Venus kriyas so the energy is calibrated just with our partner rather than the group (if practicing in a class, we sit haphazardly in pairs around the space). We never practice Venus kriyas while pregnant, while it’s possible to do so with White Tantra up until the final trimester. And we never practice a Venus kriya for longer than three minutes each, with a maximum one or two per day.
There are a number of Venus kriyas around; ones to resolve arguments, to clear grudges, to stand united, to balance. Here’s one (Reverse Adi Shakti) that’s not strictly a Venus kriya, but Nish and I practiced it as a partner meditation for 40 days with beautiful results.
The Venus kriya we like to practice most is the Heart Lotus Kriya (see instructions above) which supports us in relating to each other’s soul. It’s such a sweet, gentle, rejuvenating practice – I highly recommend 40 days of it to support your relationship to new depths (just six minutes a day! You can so do this).
Here’s what I wrote about it way back in a dusty ole 2013 post:
‘The Venus kriya that Nish and I practice most often is the heart lotus kriya. It’s a six minute meditation, the first three minutes of which you gaze into your partner’s eyes holding your hands in lotus mudra. Sometimes we’ll giggle our way through this part… if Nish starts smiling, I can’t help but smile too, and then we’re off. But we pull ourselves back, and then we’ll get that wowee feeling of expansion, sweetness and profound recognition which we then fold into our own hearts for the next three minutes. Beautiful.
‘We don’t call it such, but for me, every morning’s yoga practice is a Venus kriya. Whatever’s on the cards each day, that hour or so of yoga in the morning is our time together. Even though we’re not talking or engaging with each other directly, we’re sharing something beyond words, something that doesn’t need chatter. And when we bring ourselves around to our closing sat nams, we’re shining with each other. It’s lovely to have that.’
Happy Venus-ing!
Sat nam x