In mainstream society, as well as within academia, contemporary western Tantra (sometimes referred to as "neo-tantra") is most often associated with sensual or sexual practices and rarely with religious experience. Still, many practitioners of contemporary western Tantra regard the practices they are engaged in as "spiritual" and frequently use tantric terms like kuṇḍalinī to describe their internal effect. This paper will present material from recently executed qualitative interviews with teachers within the field of contemporary Tantra in Europe to examine their use and understanding of the term kuṇḍalinī. The results are discussed in relation to theoretical perspectives on "experiences deemed religious," as well as historical descriptions of kuṇḍalinī. In conclusion, contemporary tantra in Europe is proposed as a contemporary form of "erotic spirituality" which ties into a long tradition of combining eroticism with religious/spiritual experience, whether within strands of (western) esotericism or South Asian forms of Tantra.