Last weekend we participated in the opening event of the IKSK – Institute for New Body Research and Sexual Culture, a unique project from Felix Ruckert and Michaela Bagnoli in corporation with a lot of friends who were involved in former Schwelle 7. IKSK is located in the cooperative of Holzmarkt 25 at the riverside in Berlin.

Because of distancing and safety rules it wasn’t possible to have many people inside at the same time, so there was quite a long queue and unfortunately some people could not get in; regardless, we had about 300 people total coming during the three days, which is a good start.

On Friday I had a long 2 hours talk about Neo Tantra and surprisingly, a lot of ladies were very open and interested in what I was talking about and in what I do.

There was a cute lesbian couple during the talk that stated their wish to be invited to the Tantra Jams. I could totally go for that… and what about you? What about the rest of our community of gay men? Could the next step be to play with our dicks when the ladies (or gender non-conforming people) are around? 

This can be a very touchy topic. As gay men, given our history of oppression, we can often feel the need to hide, to separate ourselves and identify very strongly with our sexuality, especially the old guard. But this is something worth thinking about and looking into.

Saturday I was interviewed by Jana Scherle about my sexual and spiritual upbringing, while on Monday, when all the courses started, I had the chance to be part of my colleague Sonjas beautiful systemic work evening.

On Wednesday there was an open meeting with the Holzmarkt people, and Ania Pilipenko (one of the two co-operative’s executive board members) was with us, stating her wish to have the IKSK community connected to the Holzmarkt community.

There are about 300 people working on lively, alternative space at Holzmarkt 25 and while I could just a few of them, the ones that I had a chance to interact with very unique and lovely. IKSK is situated in Haus 4 between the river and a vibrant railway. Holzmarkt is mainly alive in the summer season when you can take full advantage of the very pretty outdoor space, but there will also be a Winter Market coming up soon.

The IKSK itself is also a beautiful space. The big room is impressive, and with the black stage floor and the stage lights under which you can see the dust dancing, it reminded me (and not only me) of the Schwelle 7, which has been my second living room in Berlin for many years.

I am personally very happy to be part of this evolving project and community. The vibes are very open, sex positive and it felt good to be a “Tantra Master” in an environment with mixed genders.

We hope to see you there for our Constellation evenings and our Tantra Jams, or maybe just for a chat and a drink along the riverside. And every beginning has its own magic…