Tantra
A family of Hindu and Buddhist ritual traditions, widely misread in the West as sexual technique or as black magic.
Also: tantrik, tantrika, tantric
Tantra comes from a Sanskrit word often glossed as loom or weaving, and names a set of texts and ritual systems that grew from about the sixth century CE. It exists in Hindu, Buddhist and Jain forms and includes initiation, mantra, visualisation, the worship of goddesses, and in some lineages rites performed at cremation grounds. A practitioner is a tantrik, and popular belief in India often casts the tantrik as someone who can both heal and harm, which makes the word a mixed one. In Western use, tantra has mostly come to mean sexuality, a narrow reading. Most tantric knowledge is passed from teacher to student, and much is closed to outsiders.