Desire, Fear & Taboo
Access the True Power of your Sexuality
2 Sept - 14 Oct 2026
A live 7-week online experience exploring sexuality, embodiment, self-trust, and liberation from shame.
online cohort
The Shadow Dimension of our Sexuality
The shadow of our sexuality is an expression of the unconscious.
It is that which keeps us from being able to engage with sex in full presence, consciousness and love.
Our unconscious sexuality plays out around the desire-fear polarity. Either we find ourselves governed by desires that we have little conscious control over, or our sexuality is impacted by a fear response – something we are repelled by or afraid of. Let’s have a look at both.
You are not necessarily going to like what you see here.
But if you are willing to have an honest look at yourself as you read this, your honesty will begin to set you free.
Where Curiosity meets Transformation
A New Relationship With Yourself
This live, interactive course is an introduction to transformative work that can shift your relationship with your body, sexuality, and desires. Through guided teachings, reflection, and community support, you’ll begin untangling old conditioning and developing a more compassionate relationship with yourself.
For Curious & Courageous Humans
Whether you’re beginning this journey or returning to it with fresh eyes, this course meets you exactly where you are. If you’ve felt overwhelmed by self-study courses or unsupported in online learning spaces, you’ll appreciate our nurturing approach and accessible facilitation style.
“Every aspect of our experience – including our sexuality – can be used as a gateway to the full realisation of our spiritual essence.”
What this course offers
Course Overview
- A 7-week guided online journey exploring your relationship with desire, fear, shame, and sexuality.
- 7 live teaching sessions, one each week, creating a consistent rhythm for learning, reflection, and integration.
- 7 course modules delivered in multiple formats to support different learning styles.
- Downloadable resources and recordings so you can revisit the teachings whenever you need.
- If you’re unable to attend live, recordings will be available within the course platform so you can engage with the material in your own time while staying connected to the learning journey.
Live Sessions & Timing
Classes are held at 7:00pm SAST, which corresponds to 10:00am PT, 1:00pm ET, and 6:00pm UK. Please note that while the class time will always remain 7:00pm South African Standard Time, other time zones may shift by an hour during periods of Daylight Saving Time. We recommend double-checking your local time as needed.
Each weekly session includes 90 minutes of teaching, followed by an optional 30-minute casual hang-out space for connection, integration, and informal conversation.
Course dates: 2 September, 9 September, 16 September, 23 September, 30 September, 7 October & 14 October
Learning Spaces & Format
All course materials are hosted within a private online learning space (Mighty Network), allowing you to move through the content at your own pace while remaining connected to a shared learning container.
Our live teaching calls take place on Zoom, offering opportunities for learning, reflection, embodied practice, and discussion in a confidential and supportive environment.
You’ll also have access to a WhatsApp group for connection, reminders, and community support throughout the course.
The course is designed to fit into real life, with materials available in multiple formats and downloadable for future reference.
Across seven sessions, you’ll explore visualisations, subtle movement, breathwork, and other embodied practices designed to help you connect more deeply with your sexual body and discover the sacred essence of your sexuality.
Classes are held at 7:00pm SAST, which corresponds to 10:00am PT, 1:00pm ET, and 6:00pm UK.
Session 1: What is the Sexual Shadow
Live session: Wednesday 2 September
- Tune into your unconscious mind and witness how it shapes your experiences
- Discover how your sexuality speaks from and for your unconscious
- Learn how to meet and embrace your sexual shadow
Session 2: Eros Running Amok
Live session: Wednesday 9 September
- Discover the polarities (desire and fear) that comprise your compulsive sexual fantasies
- Learn how to bring presence and integration to your unconscious polarities and projections
- Learn the art of slowing the whole show down…
Session 3: Opening to Desire and Exploring your Inner Erotic Landscape
Live session: Wednesday 16 September
- Learn about desire and allowing yourself to be a “subject” of desire rather than an “object” of desire
- Dig into referred desire and how it opens the doors to the unconscious
- Uncover what your deepest desires are
Session 4: Facing Your Fears
Live session: Wednesday 23 September
- Learn about fears and how they impact your eroticism
- Identify your biggest fears and learn to “face the tiger”
- Discover how your biggest desires are linked to your biggest fears
Session 5: Breaking free from the Victim-Rescuer-Persecutor Triangle
Live session: Wednesday 30 September
- Learn about the victim-rescuer-persecutor drama triangle and its impact in your life
- Identify your familiar roles and how you take or give away power
- Break free from habitual patterns and learn who you are without your story
Session 6: Frozen in the Act
Live session: Wednesday 7 October
- Understand trauma’s role in erotic response and why it can become frustratingly frozen
- Examine the role and wisdom of the nervous system in this response
- Explore simple strategies for thawing the freeze and recovering the life force within you that longs to be expressed as your integrated sexuality
Session 7: The Wise Erotic Body
Live session: Wednesday 14 October
- Discover how to understand and make friends with your body’s subtle and overt wisdom
- Learn about the impact of neurochemistry on your choices
- How to move from sexual habituation to sexual integration in your personal sexual expression
Bonus Material & Support
Conscious BDSM by Shakti Malan
Conscious BDSM – A Tantra Talk by Shakti Malan, founder of the Shakti Shiva Academy. Listen to this recording of some of Shakti’s advanced teachings. This workshop is focused on BDSM (Bondage/Discipline + Domination/Submission + Sadism/Masochism) as an exploration of our relationship to power.
This 140-minute recording covers:
- How desires and attractions like those brought forth in BDSM are fueled by associations that show up in our eroticism
- The dynamic between arousal and fear that can help liberate us from compulsions
- The relationship between the inner feminine and inner masculine
- The dynamic of the ‘junior male’ and the ‘senior male,’ in which the patriarchy conditions us to see power as a very specific masculine phenomenon
- The Drama Triangle of victim-rescuer-persecutor
- How to work with the nervous system in the context of BDSM sessions and play
Office Hour with Lisa Grace
A regular, ongoing opportunity for connection, inquiry & sharing, free to join for our whole Shakti Shiva Academy community. Please use this space to check-in, ask questions, start conversations, initiate inquiry, request support on your path or simply share what’s moving for you in your messy living loving human life.
How to join
- Have an account on our Circle of Fire community, which is hosted by Mighty Networks.
- Once you are logged in, go to ‘Events’
- RSVP to the event
- Access the Zoom link via the event description
Note: Office Hour sessions are NOT recorded.
Feedback from past students
Facilitation Team
Desire, Fear & Taboo is facilitated by Valentina Leo and Swami Rahasya, two experienced Tantra teachers who bring together decades of embodied practice, spiritual study, and a shared passion for helping people develop a healthier relationship with their bodies, sexuality, and desires.
Drawing from the wisdom traditions of Tantra, embodied sexuality, and lived experience, they create a learning environment that is nurturing, accessible, and deeply transformative. Their teaching balances profound spiritual insight with humour, compassion, curiosity, and practical integration.
About Valentina Leo
Valentina is known for her unique talent in creating safe and sacred spaces where seekers of all ages can claim their own Spiritual Eroticism. With grace, charm and humour, she has guided and supported many men and women on their sacred journey towards themselves. From this place, ultimate Freedom can be experienced as the True Essence of Love – which is the heart of all Tantric teachings.
Her deepest desire is to birth a generation of TRUE LOVERS to populate our Beautiful Planet. Italian by birth she has been living in Cape Town for over two decades, offering classes, retreats and private sessions.
About Swami Rahasya
Rahasya has been a lifelong student of tantra. His worldly involvement has included the practising of several professions, the learning of an unusual range of skills and the sexual learning available through several relationship styles, including 14 years of monogamy.
He’s the founder of the Advait Tantra School, a school known for producing remarkable teachers (several of his students are now significant tantra teachers in their own right) and author of Terribly Tempting Tantra.
Rahasya has been teaching tantra since 2002 – he lives and teaches in South Africa and is now mostly teaching the volunteers who’re helping him build Little Tibet, a retreat centre 200km from Cape Town.
Specialities: Shadow work, erotic work, touch work, fantasy & taboos, polarity processing
Join the Advait Tantra School on FaceBook
Email: tantraschool@gmail.com
What people are saying...
About Valentina
About Rahasya
Valentina & Rahasya's work
Ready to Enrol?
Investment & Payment Options
To support accessibility, payment can be made as a one-time upfront payment or spread across 2 or 3 monthly instalments
Please note: Currency selection is location-based and will be applied automatically through the registration system at check-out.
Early Bird enrolment is available until
9 August 2026
One-Time Upfront Payment
Original price was: €530.€460Current price is: €460. for 1 monthSign up now
Payment over 2 Months
Original price was: €3,884.€3,377Current price is: €3,377. / month for 2 monthsSign up now
Payment over 3 Months
Original price was: €187.€163Current price is: €163. / month for 3 monthsSign up now
See click-down options below
EARLY BIRD (until 9 August)
FULL PRICE (until 2 September)
Investment in Yourself
Financial aid will be available to a limited number of students in the form of partial bursaries. Please note that bursary awards are based on several factors, including the size of our award fund and the approximate number of students enrolling at the full tuition rate.
All students requiring assistance are welcome to apply for financial aid. We welcome applications from serious seekers of all races, sexual orientations, and beyond.
F.A.Q
Who is this for?
This course is for curious and courageous humans who want to explore their relationship with their body, sexuality, desire, and the stories they’ve inherited around them.
Whether you’re beginning this journey for the first time or returning to it with more life experience, you’ll be welcomed exactly as you are. You do not need any previous knowledge, training, or expertise — only a willingness to approach yourself with openness, curiosity, and compassion.
This course may be especially supportive if you’re ready to untangle shame, challenge old conditioning, deepen your self-understanding, and cultivate a more authentic relationship with yourself.
Does the course require specific knowledge or experience?
No. Actually, sometimes the less you know, the better it is – this opens you to beginner’s mind and enables you to meet the materials in a fresh way. What is important however, is that you are totally committed to doing the ‘work’ of becoming more of who you really are. This course is designed for those humans who’re ready to take radical responsibility for everything in their experience. If you’re ready to birth the new world through the awakening of your sexuality, then this course is a good fit for you!
How much time should I set aside each week?
We recommend setting aside 120 minutes for the weekly live teaching session, plus an additional 30–60 minutes each week to engage with the course materials, reflections, and practices in your own time.
This course is designed to fit into real life. While consistency will help you get the most from the experience, there is no expectation that you dedicate hours every day. The intention is to gently integrate the practices into your existing rhythm and return to them in a way that feels sustainable and supportive.
If you miss a live session, recordings will be available so you can revisit the material at a time that works for you.
Do I need a partner to do this work?
No, this course is designed to be a personal journey, tapping into your own personal desires, fantasies and inner discoveries. For those who are in partnerships you may find that doing this work will bring a greater dimension to your relating and intimacy with one another.
I can't attend the LIVE sessions - what now?
Not a problem. All LIVE teaching and Q&A sessions are recorded and will be available within 48 hours so you can download and watch / listen to them at your convenience.
What if I need more support?
“Office Hours” is a weekly online gathering space hosted by Shakti Shiva faculty member Lisa Grace.
You’re invited to use this space to check-in, ask questions, start conversations, initiate inquiry, request support on your path or simply share what’s moving for you in your messy living loving human life.
If you find you require additional support aside from the LIVE calls and group sessions provided with this course, then you are welcome to approach either of the facilitators and book private sessions. These sessions are booked and paid separately and negotiated between you and the facilitator in their private capacity.
What about confidentiality?
Your journey remains completely confidential. If you wish to share on the private course cohort on our Mighty Network Community platform, there is a confidentiality agreement in place.
What materials will I need for the training?
You’ll need reliable internet access, a computer, speakers or headphones.
Is financial aid available?
Yes. We recognise that financial circumstances vary, and a limited number of financial aid spaces are available for this course. If cost is currently a barrier, we invite you to complete a financial aid application form so we can better understand your circumstances and explore what support may be available.
What is your refund policy?
Unless you cancel your registration timeously, the Shakti Shiva Academy does not offer a refund for any other reason. During the first week of the course, that is up to and including 8 September, you can de-register from the course by writing an email to info@shaktishiva.academy.
- If you selected the 3 x monthly payment plan when registering, we will cancel your future payments, however, please take note that no refunds will be provided.
- If you selected the 2 x monthly payment plan when registering, we will refund 30% of your 1st payment and will cancel your future payments.
- If you selected to pay in full upfront when registering, we will refund 80% of your payment.
After 8 September 2026, no de-registrations from the course will be considered.
Terms & Conditions
You can read our full terms & conditions here.
Still have questions?
If you’re interested in participating in this 7-week course and still have questions that need answers, please schedule a free 20-minute discovery call with Principal & Senior faculty Rhianne van der Linde here.
Investment in Yourself
From: €163 / month for 3 months
Facilitation Team
Lisa Grace
Based in the Bay Area, California, Lisa has spent the last two decades gathering tools to support humans in being fully embodied, expressed, and able to stay present with the truth of What Is.
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Swami Advait Rahasya
Swami Rahasya is as much a rascally trickster as he is a serious pundit of Tantric Spirituality. He uses tongue-and-cheek, irony, and colourful stories (personal, archetypal, and beyond) to share the high teachings of the Tantric adepts of old.
Read More
Rahasya has been a lifelong student of tantra. His worldly involvement has included the practising of several professions, the learning of an unusual range of skills and the sexual learning available through several relationship styles, including 14 years of monogamy.
He’s the founder of the Advait Tantra School, a school known for producing remarkable teachers (several of his students are now significant tantra teachers in their own right) and author of The Rocky Horror Tantra Book.
The Rocky Horror Tantra Book is a deep exploration of Tantric practice and has become a standard work for modern students of tantra. It describes the path through stories and discourse. Be warned. This book strongly challenges many popular ideas about love, relationship, spiritual endeavour. It is also powerfully and unashamedly erotic, as is the journey of tantra itself.
“Tantra is the roughest, rockiest and unquestionably the most horrible of spiritual paths. It is not a journey for the faint-hearted, the weak-minded or the emotionally troubled. It presents serious difficulties even to the heroic. It is as harsh as the Truths of Life themselves. Just reading about it though, is probably not all that dangerous …”
Rahasya has been teaching tantra since 2002 – he lives and teaches in South Africa and is now mostly teaching the volunteers who’re helping him build Little Tibet, a retreat centre 200km from Cape Town.Specialities: Shadow work, erotic work, touch work, fantasy & taboos, polarity processing
Watch Rahasya on YouTube || Join the Advait Tantra School on Facebook
Email: tantraschool@gmail.com
We look forward to sharing this journey of sexual awakening with you!
Join us for the year-long Sexual Shadow Integration online course beginning in 2025
After the Desire, Fear & Taboo live course ends, you can join our next Sexual Shadow Integration Work (starting May 2025) that will provide a deeper dive into the same themes as well as introducing some new ones.
As a student of the Desire, Fear & Taboo course, if you sign up for the year-long Sexual Shadow Integration Work course, you will receive a coupon code qualifying you for a discount (the cost of this course) off the year-long course fees.