by Hibiscus Belvedere (Shaheena)
Just as you cannot rush fermentation, when zillions of good bacteria are taking their natural time to do their work, you can’t rush Tantra. In this Slow Food plus Slow Love series of weekend retreats, you will slow down, learn to prepare delicious raw pickles, and at the same time embark on a mellow adventure in sensuousness and consciousness with your partner. The venue: an ancient Palazzo in the Italian countryside, near Napoli.
Those friendly bacteria are good not only for your innards, but are also enormously beneficial applied to the skin. Later in the course we will enjoy a Veggie Spa, with full-body masques, facials, and Tantric Immersions, as we ourselves steep in the sacred, veg-infused brine. Vegetables have their own intelligence, so whichever veg you choose to relate to, be it carrot, cucumber, cauliflower, onion, cabbage, or asparagus, it will transmit its wisdom and generosity to you as a gift as you rest in a bed of its pickled incarnation.
Each couple will have a rustic yet elegant room, where on a little balcony shaded by wisteria vines you can sit to greet the sunset, before a prolonged dinner downstairs in the huge, cool dining room. All produce comes from our vast garden, where you will also be working, weeding and tending, and talking encouragingly and lovingly to the beautiful plants. Afternoons are for siestas and your own personal Tantra practice, given each couple after an interview on the first day.
Slow is slow! We will take two months of weekends – 8 in all – to create our healthy pickles and relishes, let them ‘cook’, play with them together, and enjoy the many afternoons of slow love – along with regular sharings and group processes in the Palazzo’s former ballroom, with its French windows out onto a shady garden area planted solely with native species.
The final night will be a costume party, where you come dressed as your favourite veggie or pollinator; we have a fully-stocked costume room plus velvets, satins, and sewing materials so that you can concoct your own if you wish. To live music, we will have a Veggie Dance, after which each couple will be blessed by our on-site Vegetable Shaman, Brocco. You will then be able to take away with you all the jars of rejuvenating pickles you have created with your beloved, to devour or to gift to others… each jar carrying the matchless vibe of Slow.
Hibiscus Belvedere (Shaheena) is a regular contributor to our Satire section
Photo by Declan Sun on Unsplash
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