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FifthAngel@artofbdsm.com
http://www.artofbdsm.com/
SENSUOUS SADIE: You are
well known for your unique perspective in combining BDSM and the martial
arts. When did you first make the connection? Can you describe the first
scene you did with this in mind?
FIFTHANGEL: “I was in a scene and I needed to turn the bottom around
and I wanted to do it rather forcefully and push their head and face up
against the wall. I grabbed the bottom’s neck and sunk my thumb and
forefinger into acupoints whose locations I’d learned from martial
arts training. I heard the ever cherished ‘ouch,’ the bottom’s
body relaxed after a second or two, and with minimal effort they were
slammed against the wall. The remainder of the scene consisted of
nothing but finger pressure on acupoints.
“When it was all over the bottom lay on the floor in fetal position,
elated with the newly discovered sensations. Never before did they think
pain and pleasure could be invoked in such places on the body with
nothing more than the pressure of a finger.
“It was not long after that when I began to use my weapons as
‘toys’ also.”
Sadie: You trained as a child in traditional Japanese Martial Arts
and currently train Karate-Do, Kobudo (weapons) and Iai-Do
(swordsmanship). I know you have a whole article on this, so I
won’t ask for too much detail. How do the skills of those particular
disciplines add to your experience as a Dominant?
FifthAngel: “The skills obtained from swordsmanship, kobudo and empty
hand I feel directly relate to BDSM in that many of the techniques are
the same. Take swordsmanship for example; just think of it as a really
big knife. We all know how fun and intimidating knife play can be. I
just step things up a little when I use a four-foot razor blade.
”Bruce Lee did a wonderful job of introducing the general public to
martial arts and the use of nunchaku. This Japanese weapon can be used
singly or in pairs just as floggers can be. My training with this
implement transformed into the way I use my floggers. In fact, the
floggers I use are based on the nunchaku design.
”Training with weapons in general gives a person the chance to further
develop hand eye coordination and the use of ‘props.’ If an
individual uses his or her hands in everyday use, like a carpenter does,
they will become much more adapt to using ‘toys’ in BDSM. And of
course there is the building reputation that the Shinai has for extreme
caning.
”Learning how to hit properly and effectively like we do in Karate-Do
(way of the empty hand) makes for some of the most intense punching
scenes you could ever imagine. There is a special beauty found in the
art of kicking and punching. Seeing the functions and capability of the
human body in its full and natural form is something to behold.
”Then there is subject of Ki (energy), philosophy and focus that would
take a book to even touch upon.”
Sadie: You have gone through several rites of passage in your spiritual
path. What are these, and how have they contributed to who you are
today?
FifthAngel: “‘Right of passage’ can come with many definitions so
let me define the phrase as a transition from one stage to another. Some
may be subtle while others can be very traumatic. Living on the island
of Oahu in Hawaii is where I first began to understand rights of passage
and ritual under the Polynesian and Asian cultures. Being a surfer there
is a right of passage that takes place inside when one starts to ride
the ‘big waves’ of the North Shore, just paddling out as we did was
a commitment. Walking across a bed of hot coals taught me that fear is
something many people can never overcome, as there were some who could
not do it. Skydiving for the first time is a great learning experience.
It is placing yourself in a situation where you are responsible to
determine your own outcome, to a certain extent. I mean if your rig does
not deploy you are pretty much doomed.
“My slave went through this rite of passage and she learned that you
have to remain in control of your emotions and mental state to live. At
it relates to BDSM, I went through a very heavy pain scene from
bottoming to become a ‘recognized top.’ It was after this scene that
I was given my name FifthAngel. Fakir pierced me with flesh hooks in my
chest in preparation for an energy pull dance and I consider that to be
a rite of passage as well.”
Sadie: Using acupressure in a scene is one of your specialties.
Considering that this was designed as a healing skill, why do you use it
for creating pain?
FifthAngel: “Ah yes, sounds like an oxymoron. Well, pain heals. Myself
and some other students/receivers of Shiatsu agree that ‘Shiatsu is
all the pain you will feel in the next three weeks condensed into three
minutes,’ the pain from the injury or illness that is. So many of my
scenes though painful can be healing. I do not look at myself as a
‘healer’ though but instead as a person that guides another to a
door. There is the old saying, ‘You can lead a horse to water, but you
can’t make them drink.’ This is so true for what we do in BDSM,
using pain as a gateway.”
Sadie: You say that, “I do use pain as a means of opening the
gateway.” There is a current body of literature about using pain as a
transformational tool to spiritual places. Is this what you are doing?
How do you go about doing this?
FifthAngel: “Yes, I agree there is a great deal of information about
pain and spiritual journeys. Much of what I know and write about myself
is through self-exploration. It is unfortunate that the Western World
does not really understand this. Here in the United States much of
spirituality is synonymous with religion, which it can be, but does not
have to be. There are scenes, sometimes called heavy or intense scenes
where I will take a bottom beyond where they can feel pain. In essence,
we have to be conscious of pain to feel it, if the mind is somewhere
else, you don’t ‘feel’ pain. A common example I use is when an
athletic gets hurt during a sports activity. They continue to play, not
knowing they have a serious injury until the event is over. They are so
focused on the game they forget to feel pain. I think we can apply this
concept to pain and sensation processing within BDSM. When the mind is
free of the physical self, extraordinary things can happen.”
Sadie: With your background in martial arts, it’s natural for you
to feel comfortable with bringing those skills into the BDSM arena. What
would you recommend to someone who wanted to explore this area without
necessarily going full tilt?
FifthAngel: “I guess by ‘full tilt’ you mean going out and signing
up for classes at a dojo (school). There are a few educators that are
starting to bring more of the martial arts into BDSM. A few seminars
that I have scene have been about takedowns, punching and Tai Chi. One
experienced martial artists came up and said, ‘I never even thought
about using my sai in a scene.’ A sai is a martial arts weapon that
looks like a short pitchfork. There are many books out there about
Karate, philosophy and weapons. One I would recommend is ‘The
Book of Five Rings,’ which deals with mindset and strategy. The
famous swordsman Musashi wrote this book in 1645, yet it is still used
today by business people throughout the world. Fumio Demura has written
some very good basic technique books on martial arts to include weapons
training. Just as a side note, not many know about the erotic literature
written by the samurai or the prevalence of homosexuality between the
older and younger samurai. A movie titled Taboo by filmmaker Nagisa
Oshima illustrates this well.”
Sadie: One of your favorites quotes is, “It’s my job as a Master
to teach you how to serve me. It’s my job as a sadist to completely
screw that up.” I have a feeling that this is a good example of your
humor, but maybe also true. Can you explain this quote to me?
FifthAngel: “<laughing> I was driving down the road one day when
my slave turned to me and asked why I made things so difficult
sometimes. I thought for a minute and said, ‘It’s my job as a Master
to teach you how to serve me. It’s my job as a sadist to completely
screw that up.’ For example, I have trained my slave to only eat after
she has been given permission to do so, that is what a Master would do.
Now on the other hand, a sadist will find ways to trick the slave into
thinking they have permission to eat, like nodding of the head and a
look like ‘go ahead.’ I instituted protocol for my slave that says
she goes by the last given verbal order. So nods and gestures do not
count as permission, yet she will slip up and start eating. That is what
a sadist does. That statement lead to me writing an essay about it that
appears on the MAsT website title, Masterism vs. Sadism.”
Sadie: You and slave leslie are in a formal Master/Slave type
relationship. Having this kind of relationship is a common fantasy, but
not all that commonly realized. Can you describe your relationship and
how you resolve the challenges of that with the demands of everyday
life?
FifthAngel: “Well I keep her naked in the house at all times while she
waits for my beck and call. Yea right. But this is what you read about
in the erotic fiction books. As you know reality is very different. She
does work out of the house, since her career permits this. The
downstairs of my house is very vanilla, decorated in mission and Asian
decor. Upstairs, the master suite has been converted into a permanent
dungeon. There is no way to ‘vanilla-ize’ it, so it is kept locked
when company comes over. Day-to-day duties my slave performs for me
include making food, doing laundry, and keeping the house clean. She is
so cute, each day in my lunch she puts a little note. She also takes
care of my travel plans, bank accounts and bill paying. I trust her very
much to allow her to do these things for me. We are not married and at
times for vanilla people and my daughter to understand, I have to say
she is my girlfriend, but that is not her role. She is my consensual
slave.
The funniest thing happened when my six-year-old daughter came to live
with me while my ex-wife was deployed to the Middle East. A few hours
after she arrived, I had asked leslie to go do yet another something for
me. After she left the room my daughter turned to me and said, ‘Daddy,
you treat leslie like a slave.’ My jaw hit the floor and I started to
laugh. When leslie came back in the room I had my daughter tell her what
she told me, she started laughing to hard she had to leave the room to
contain herself.”
Sadie: You write quite a bit on BDSM topics, and many of your pieces
have run in top drawer magazines like Prometheus. What are your favorite
topics to write about? Which have gotten the most feedback, positive or
negative, from your readers?
FifthAngel: “Writers have to be very brave people. You and I both know
that when you step into that spotlight, everyone becomes a critic. Here
you are spilling your guts and heart out for everyone to see and all
that some can do is say something terrible about what you said. In my
first essay, which was written specifically for Prometheus, was a how-to
about Combining Martial Arts and the Art of BDSM. All of what I write
about whether it is a how-to article or other wise is reality based. I
think people will begin to see many more specialized how-to books about
BDSM. Certainly fiction has it place, but I am an educator and this is
what comes out when I write. Unfortunately in our desire to educate via
the written word, there may be some person out there who will hurt
someone by not following directions and then will want to sue the
publisher, the writer and his dog for his own act of stupidity. So we
attach all these disclaimers to distance ourselves from liability and I
think we can lose sight of our original objectives, to teach others.
Soon I will be putting myself in front of the firing squad once
again.”
Sadie: I understand that you’re working on publishing your first
book. What do you plan to include?
FifthAngel: “Due to the demand of workshop attendees to get material
on acupoints and BDSM I am writing a book about it. The material out
there does not discuss the erotic potential of acupoints. As I started
to write I realized I could not talk about acupoints without talking
about energy, spirituality and using the BDSM scene as a partnership. So
it has expanded to include cupping, martial arts and the accounts of a
Top and bottom in what was termed a very spiritual and heavy pain scene
that took place at Thunder in the Mountains 2002. The scene I think is
very important because it gives the mindset of the players as events
took place. It was compelling to read both accounts and how they
intertwined. Though at one point in the scene the individuals were way
off, it goes to show we are human.”
Sadie: Your name, FifthAngel is very interesting, being as it comes
from the book of Revelations. Do you find that sometimes readers assume
that you are female because the “Angel” word is so often used by
women in the scene? What other kinds of responses do you get?
FifthAngel:
“Oh you would have to ask me that, sadist. Yes, online many people
think I am female. Though no person has ever said to my face, ‘I
thought you were female.’ That could be due to the fact that I often
have my sword with me. Other comments like ‘What happened to the first
four?’ are common. When I explain where it came from and people see
the sadistic side of me they understand. FifthAngel is a part of me that
comes alive in SM play. According to the scripture, the Fifth Angel
opens the pit of hell on judgment day. And since I am a Gemini, all the
people who follow astrology understand perfectly.”
Sadie: You do a fair bit of edge play. What in particular do you
enjoy the most, and what does it give you that you don’t get with
“regular” BDSM play?
FifthAngel: “There are many definitions to ‘edge play’ but to
simply it for our questions I will say it is any type of play that
challenges the limits of an individual. Whether it is testing the limits
of physical pain, mental pain or more ‘dangerous’ types of play it
is all edgy. I think regular BDSM play does not address issues that I
think need addressing. We must constantly strive to build upon our
lives. To grow and learn, life should not be a simple stroll in the
park. At times it is very difficult and it is these difficult times that
we learn about ourselves. Edge play addresses life issues by placing us
in situations in which we can learn from. I am a strong advocate of what
is learned in the BDSM scene should be carried on into other aspects of
life. If I have taken a bottom to a new level of sensation they should
use that newfound inner strength in the workplace the next time they are
fronted with a difficult task.”
Sadie: You work as a registered nurse. What has your background added
to your skill in both playing on a personal level as well as through
your teaching? Do you find that some people find it difficult to imagine
you simultaneously as a nurse, which is generally seen as a nurturing
feminine job, with your role as Master?
FifthAngel: “<laughing> Immediately what comes to my mind is the
image of Nurse Ratched from One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest and
the Annie
Wilkes character in Misery, both nurses, but a very different
type. To tell you the truth nobody has ever mentioned a
‘nurturing’ conflict, rather many see the nursing skills as a
valuable asset. I mean all day I get paid to poke needles, catheters and
various other types of tubes into people. Other things like knowing
proper sterile technique, anatomy, and teaching others how to do a
variety of skills crosses over as well. In my day-to-day career I teach
diabetics to give themselves injections. Now this is a group of
individuals who would rather not do this, in fact some are scared to
death of them. So patience, guidance and good teaching skills are
important to have in nursing. When it comes to teaching BDSMers who want
to poke needles in themselves it is much easier. One funny thing though,
I hate to give enemas at work because at times I am doing them on
people who can’t clean up after themselves. But when I do enemas in
BDSM it is totally different in that it is a means to an end, no pun
intended. It serves a purpose for me as well at the bottom because now I
have a clean GI tract to work with.
“My slave will say that even though I am a pretty demanding Master, my
nurturing side shows through.”
Sadie: You write that, “Perfection is not easy to obtain,
nonetheless it should be strived for. It is through this principle that
it is possible to become one with what we do. The whipmaster who has
practiced extensively appears as one with the whip.” And yet we have
all observed people who are technically sophisticated with a single tail
or some other toy, but are emotionally absent. In your vision of
perfection where do you see the emotional and spiritual connection?
FifthAngel: “Shin Gi Tai is something I have been taught as a martial
artist. Shin Gi Tai means Spirit, Technique and Body. I was taught the
three form a triangle in which the whole is greater than the sum of its
parts. A table can have three legs but remove one leg and the table will
topple over. What is seen most often are technique and body as these are
believed to be the least difficult to obtain. As we practice technique
we condition the body. As it relates to swordsmanship we will perform
cuts for hours and this conditions the body while technique is being
learned. Yet if the heart and spirit do not become involved, that
special something that sets one apart from the others will never be
there. In Iai-Do we essentially train alone; there is no physical
opponent against which we are drawing our swords. In my heart and spirit
I place a person before me. Though I am cutting air physically, in my
spirit and heart I feel that I have just opened the flesh of another. As
it relates to BDSM, I feel what my flogger does to another when we
strike. We must learn to communicate through our ‘toys.’ The focus
and concentration of the spirit is what separates a flogging from an
intense and sensual dance.”
Sadie: You write that, “Through the use of energy projection and
transference it is possible to orgasm without physical stimulation of
the body.” From the reading on this it seems to be something akin to a
state of hypnosis. How do you go about training someone to orgasm this
way? Is this usually in connection with also orgasming on command?
FifthAngel: “I am not sure if physiologists would call it hypnosis or
a conditioned response. Pavlov’s dog showed the power of using
external stimuli for conditioning. That is what I would call
‘orgasming on command.’ This sort of training takes time as in
months or years depending on what you are trying to achieve. Right now I
am training my slave to count down from five each time an orgasm is to
occur. So each time an orgasm is getting close, the counting begins.
This is becoming a conditioned response to the onset of an orgasm. In
time my slave may learn to only orgasm with counting, if no counting is
permitted then no orgasm. And perhaps in time I will simply have to
count for her to orgasm on command.”
Sadie: You do some work with various Japanese type knives. Do you find
that your slave truly finds them frightening when she knows perfectly
well that you won’t hurt her (permanently)?
FifthAngel: “Oh, very interesting question, which has a kind of
complicated answer. A bottom can feed into a scene by allowing their
mind to wander. To temporarily suspend reality and delve into a fantasy
is a great gift to have. When I ‘become’ a serial killer type with a
knife in my hand, my ability to project those feelings is very important
also. It is just like when you go to the movies to see a horror film,
you know it’s not real but you can make yourself scared anyway. One
important aspect to note is how the use of acupoints can access the
emotional ability of a person. So with a harmless ballpoint pen you can
instill fear into any person if you know where to place it.
<Laughing> Indeed, the pen can be mightier than the sword.”
Sadie: You write about consensual non-consensuality. Can you explain
what this is, and if it is really possible? For example, even a signed
slave contract has no real legal basis in our country. In other words, a
slave, collared or not, can still leave anytime.
FifthAngel: “Agreed, it has no legal basis. I would be thrown into
jail if my slave wanted to leave and I did not allow it. This is an
agreement between two people that must fit into the realm of what is
safe and rational. ‘Consensual Non-Consensuality’ (CNC) is a term
that I disagree with.
“To consent is: ‘To give assent…to the proposal of another.’
Non-consensual would be to disagree with what is proposed by another
under any and all circumstances. So by logical sequence, CNC in
SadoMasochism (SM) would be an agreement to not necessarily be
in agreement with the actions that are forthcoming. Some consensual
slaves and other bottoms receive a great deal of satisfaction through
unconditionally submitting to the will of another. It is through the
process of giving total control to another that they achieve deep
submission, leading to spiritual well being. It takes great strength and
overwhelming trust to place total control into the hands of a Master or
Top. This exchange of power should never be done thoughtlessly. It takes
immense self-discipline, enormous character and responsibility on the
part of the Master not to abuse such power, once it has been given.
“Many BDSM practitioners hold the opinion that a bottom should under
no circumstances ever give up the right to use a safeword. Yet there is
an opposing segment in the Leather/Fetish community that chooses not to
use safewords for various reasons. Some are bottoms who feel they cannot
go as far in a scene as they wish to if they have a safeword; others are
consensual slaves in committed Master/slave arrangements. Perhaps an
even more motivating factor is fear of the unknown. Some get off on
fear, and not everyone gets off on knowing exactly what is going to
happen to them.
“However, I believe that an individual who has given consent to not
using a safeword has not given up their human right to stop an unsafe
scene. I believe giving up a safeword is a declaration: ‘I will place
my trust in you to do the right thing and I agree to your actions as
long as I feel you are looking out for our best interests and safety. I
give you consent, and I expect you to be rational with your actions. I
do not give up the human right to stop you should you deviate from this.
Nor should you ever attempt to take away my human right to object to
your actions.’
Sadie: Is there anything else you’d like to add?
FifthAngel: “Yes, thank you very much for this opportunity to share.
You are a wonderful interviewer with very sadistic questions. I end most
of my BDSM teaching with this saying that I have. I feel it is only
appropriate now:”
Never
play under the influence of alcohol, drugs,
or other mind-altering substances.
Make your play mind-altering!
~FifthAngel~
Sadie: Thank you very much!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Sensuous
Sadie is the author of It's Not
About the Whip: Love, Sex, and Spirituality in the BDSM Scene (http://www.trafford.com/robots/03-0551.html).
She is the founder and leader (1999 - 2001) of
Rose
&
Thorn
,
Vermont
's first BDSM group.
Comments, compliments and complaints, as well as requests for reprinting
can be addressed to her at SensuousSadie@aol.com
or visit her website at www.sensuoussadie.com. Sadie believes the universe is abundant, and that sharing information
freely is part of this abundance, so she allows reprints of her writing
in most venues.
Copyright
2003 Sadie Sez Publications
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