travels through the psychic centers and finds fulfillment in ecstatic union with the passive Shiva-principle in the Head Center. This is the consummation if inner living, the goal of Tantra. Ecstatic sexual orgasm, the outer consummation of love, is a mixture of active and passive, the blending of “fire” and “water,” the passions and secretions. Orgasm results from a mutual giving and taking, a balance of loss and gain. The inherent bisexuality of both man and woman seeks fulfillment in the exchange of active and passive roles. The mystical, alchemical, Tantric, and Taoist teachings express this concept in the symbol of the androgyne, the form that is at once both male and female. The Chinese novel of the late Ming period called Jou Pu Tuan (The Way to Holiness through the Flesh) contains an illuminating account of how a woman can take the active part during love-making. A bordello madame, who had been taught the technique by a Taoist wizard when she was sixteen, offers the instruction, couching her description in diplomatic terminology: FIRST PRINCIPLE It is not the gentleman who should court the lady, but the reverse. If he lies down on his back, she mounts to the saddle and guides his Ambassador into the right channel. When the ambassador is flushed with enterprise, she holds him tight as a flute in a flute case. When he is listless, she rekindles the flame of his desire with deft finger-play. The wilder the fray, the more active and enterprising she should become; withstanding her adversary’s attacks, she should joyously take the counter-offensive. Try as he may, he will be bound to miss certain spots, so the best thing to do is to help him find every sensitive place. Both will benefit. That is what is meant by the Taoist technical phrase “solicitously to lower the Pleasure House [Yoni] toward the Ambassador.” That is the first artifice. SECOND PRINCIPLE Ready for the fray, the lady takes her place beneath the gentleman. But she does not leave him to do all the work; full of sympathy and understanding, she