There have been many civilizations which have deified sexuality as the most approximate expression of cosmic love or God. Regardless, the point is that tantra is moldable. It changes with each moment and environment. It especially depends on the nature of the practitioner.

In traditional pockets of Taantrik practice in India, such as in Assam near the venerated Hindu temple of Kali, Kammakhya, in parts of West Bengal, in Siddhanta temples of South India, and in Kashmiri Shiva temples up north, Tantra has retained its true form. Its variance in practice is seen, where many Taantrik are known to frequent cremation grounds in attempts to transcend their worldly attachment to life, and others are assuredly performing still more arcane acts. But what is common to them all is the intense secrecy in which their secrets are kept and the almost godlike reverence paid to the Guru, who is seen as a the pinnacle of Tantra. It would be safe to say that every single Hindu Tantra Yogin in India is a Shiva and/or Shakti worshipper, and the more wide-spread practices to which all Hindus commit themselves, like pooja and worship through devotion, are maintained while more occult yogic practices involving sacred rites continue. Tibet too has a very strong Buddhist Taantrik background which continues, albeit many have been transplanted to monasteries in India, but can be said to widely cleave to the right-hand path, in contrast to the more varied Hindu counterparts.

Modern Tantra may be divided into practices based on Hinduism and Buddhism, Indian and Tibetan traditions. In America, a mutilated and extremely narrow-minded, sensationalist approach encompassing only a misguided thinking about "sacred sexuality" with little reference to its true practice, has captured the Western mind. Real Tantra involves much more than mere wizardry or sexual titillation: like the rest of Yoga (Hindu and Buddhist), it requires self-analysis and conquering of material ignorance, often through the body, but always through a pure outlook of the mind. Real Tantra is about transforming one's sexual energy into spiritual progress, and has nothing to do with sex just for fun. Those without a guru or lacking in discipline of the mind and body are unfit.

Those most fit for Tantra almost never take it up, and those least fit pursue it with zeal.