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When Abraham asked Eliezer to swear fidelity, he told him to "place
your hand upon my thigh." This was an ancient custom, not some
bizarre kink of Abraham's. When taking an oath to a Master, a slave
would place his hand upon the Master's thigh near the testicles. Then he
would swear to honor his Master's will.
~ Master Alan
For most of the world, domination is a sign of anger
and suppression, yet in the context of a leather scene it can be an act
of caring and affection. As children we were taught that submission is a
sign of weakness, yet in our realm submission becomes a voluntary
surrender of power and an act worthy of respect. To some, bondage is a
cruel affliction to be fought against. In our community, it can be an
experience of soaring freedom and release. Acts of discipline can be
punishment, a source of fear and trauma, but when it is part of a
"scene" it can be a framework of protocol for our play. We
take pain, ordinarily something to be avoided at all cost and embrace
it, transforming it into pleasure.
~ Hardy Haberman
There are rituals of lust and joy and pain and fear.
These, forced to extremes, meld in the mind, and in that melding they
may make or dissolve our egos, bodies, or spirits.
~ Raven Greywalker (Lilith)
In a sense, you will find that it does not matter what
stance you take in bondage and discipline games. Either role done well
transcends into the other, and to be done well both require trust.
~ Lady Ravinia
I have found alternating roles to yield the most
intense results as this develops the dynamic of master and slave within.
As within, so without. This mirroring between interior and exterior
culminates in an orgasm of transcendance in which one is no longer
defined by the limitations of an either/or neither/nor universe.
~ Raven Greywalker (Lilith)
Some of us have been learning how to harness the
"hurts so good" feeling through the refinement and control of
both physical and mental stress usually in an erotic, ritual setting or
context.† More specifically, bondage and SM techniques are used to
stress the body, while dominance and submission are used to stress the
mind.
~ Guy Baldwin
BDSM rituals often include the actions that induce
altered states of consciousness and ecstasy, which is a "complex
emotion containing elements of joy, terror, triumph, surrender and
empathy.
~ Terrence McKenna
Accessing the trance-state consciousness can be
achieved through BDSM play. In transiting to the higher realms of
consciousness the mind shifts and clarity, beauty, answers and knowledge
are more easily accessed because you can bypass the ego. The body also
releases endorphins, which provide a chemical stimulus conducive to
trance states as a response to pain. But a high trance state can be
achieved soly through the mind without pain but this takes more
concentration and discipline.
~ Goddess Inanna
D/s is filled with similar paradox's. Such as
Pain/pleasure. Enslavement/freedom. A circular and connected balance to
exist between apparent opposites.
~ Master Nik
The weight of the frame bit into my shoulders; the
points of the spears clawed at me; the grass sliced my feet; the breeze
tore at my skin - I was one large, exposed nerve. I was so completely
open and vulnerable and yet, at the same time I felt trapped, caged.
~ Arin Reddog
It never fails to amaze me how interchangeable a lot
of Christian rock is with a lot of secular rock. It's all about love and
longing. On the Christian rock station it's about longing for God, and
on the secular rock station it's about longing to get laid (to be crude
about it), but half the time you wouldn't know which was which if you
didn't have the station ID to tell you. As several wise people I know
have observed, spirituality and sexuality are both about the desire for
union!
~ Rebecca Brook
We do not seek unity within individually (at least not the S/m part of
our lives) but unity within our relationships. The yin and yang are
separated into individuals, and individual roles and it is the practice
of the scene, which creates the unity.
~ Rick Umbaugh
Religious practice contains a number of sado-masochistic elements, from
penance, confession and forgiveness, to servitude, abstinence and
flagellation… The reason BDSM looks so much like a religious act is
quite simply that it is a religious act.
~ J. Mikael Togneri in Spirituality In Slavehood
Submission is more fundamental than sensation
~ quirk in Thoughts on a daily practice of submission to the divine.
A submissive who spontaneously enters space for the first time will
frequently recount transcendent and transforming and/or radical mental,
emotional, interpersonal, psychic, spiritual and lifestyle thoughts and
experiences.
~ Mistress Steel in Kundalini Rising
The role of the dominant is more comparable to that of a priest in
Christian tradition. That is to say a human among humans who guides the
congregation, himself included, into a deeper submission to and
reverence for that which is holy. The priest is a vessel of sanctity,
the link between congregation and the divine; he himself possesses
neither more nor less divinity than any other.
~ J. Mikael Togneri in Spirituality In Slavehood
Ritual sexual practices, tantra, and S/M techniques can be used
separately or combined to create a powerful cosmic orgasm that is highly
spiritual and deeply healing. To be a sacred slut is to be aware of the
animalistic erotic animal side within us.
~ Master Jim, in Master Jim's Message: Limitless Love, Prometheus Issue
#38
Surrendering to the Mother Goddess is the most sacred form of D/s. That
is what I teach, using the forms of Fem-Dom as training in surrender and
submission so students can learn to become a slave of their own inner
divinity.
~ Mystress Angelique Serpent in BDSM and Spirituality
D/s isn't just a physical thing. It's mental and emotional and, yes,
spiritual as well. I wasn't terribly good at that part of it, I knew,
but I couldn't deny the bond that existed between us. If there is
reincarnation - and I firly believe there is - this man and I were bound
together by something that transcended time and space.
~ Gillian Fitzgerald, in Toughest Job in the navy, Prometheus Issue #38
I have come close enough to know that there is something to the
"spiritual" side of leather.
~ Jack Rinella in SM Travel
The one thing I would disagree with as far as comments I have heard is
the idea that you can't get to that place with casual SM partners. I
can. When I touch someone; when I look into their eyes, I am in love
with that person's humanity, their spirit. Even if I just met them,
there is a connection.
~ Anna, in Spirituality & BDSM
To experience the fullness of human experience, we need passivity and
receptivity as well as assertion. We need a sense of mystical wonder as
well as rational problem solving. We need to be in touch with what the
psychoanalyst Carl Jung called "the shadow" -- the weak,
limited, degraded, sinful side of ourselves as well as the strong,
loving, compassionate, competent side. We need to move out from under
the onus of our egocentric way of viewing life; to abdicate control as
well as to take it. Masochistic submission, in centering on lack,
inadequacy and weakness, puts us in touch with the entirety of our
humanity.
~ By Dorothy C. Hayden, CSW in Masochism as a Spiritual Path
Our selves are the only thing we have to sacrifice. Everything else we
offer to the gods has come from the earth; this is a way to give back to
the Mother something which we did not get from Her. This way you spill
your blood and endure the pain as your offering to Her.
~ Bear-dreamer on why he does the Sundance ceremony, in Amanda Silver's
article An Intimate Look at Ritual Pain.
She finds that giving the person the pain they need she can indeed turn
lead into gold, through the alchemical process of love… sometimes the
bottom develops faster because the top throws up a lot of walls and has
a hard time surrendering.
~BDSM and Spirituality Panel Program, December 22, 1998, Review by
Artesia
BDSM appears to stand in opposition to much religious doctrine (speaking
primarily to the Christian doctrines here), and there are aspects on the
extreme fringes that in fact are in opposition to direct religious
teachings. I said 'appears' for a very good reason. In fact, a large
percentage of the spiritual teachings parallel the basic premises of
D/s.
~ Mistress Steel in Spirituality
Pain in itself is only sensation and it is our attitudes of resistance
to it, and fear, that make it uncomfortable. These attitudes are
conditioning and can be released, or simply traded for more fulfilling
attitudes. Acceptance and gratitude. Offer it love, instead.
~ Mystress Angelique Serpent in Why Seek Painful Experiences?
Whereas psychology considered masochism as a disease, pre-nineteenth
century religion regarded it as a cure. The ancients were in touch with
the spiritual, physical and emotional value of masochism. For them, it
was an essential part of reality; a combination of the soul in a
tortured state, rapturous delight, exquisite pain and unbearable passion
that brought them closer to experiencing union with something greater
than their individual egos.
~ By Dorothy C. Hayden, CSW in Masochism as a Spiritual Path
They may also experience blissful sensations in the head, heightened
awareness including acuity of the senses, and mystical experiences (such
as a sense that they are communing with their identification of the god
presence) … Many express a new and intense interest in spiritual
truths, self-awareness and expression, intensified understanding and
sensitivity as well as a compelling need to pursue further insights into
their inner essence.
~ Mistress Steel in Kundalini Rising
How does a master center a slave? Being centered is a Zen term that
means a person is balanced, calm, healthy, peaceful, grounded,
nourished. Some might see it as a relaxed state, one of calm, creative,
full of the realization of being well-off, in communion with one's self
and one's environment… How does a master center a slave? He does it by
creating, with his slave, a right relationship, that is, one in which
each is free to be him or herself; one with openness, honesty, and
clarity of purpose. Centering comes from having a clear focus, mutual
support, encouragement, and purpose.
~ Jack Rinella in SM Leather
Intense sensation or pain, bondage, sensory deprivation can produce
powerful altered states of consciousness. Some bottoms report reaching
meditative states which can lead to out of body experiences, visions,
spiritual ecstasy or a deep sense of well-being. In this context, the
top serves as a guide to help the bottom reach that state and safely
return again.
~ Kirk Job Sluder in Spiritual BDSM, Magical BDSM and masochismo FAQ
A sexual slant does not in any way invalidate the experience and
emotions themselves. Rather, sexuality (as well as spirituality) is a
tremendously primal and personal part of one's life. To be able to
express my feelings to a man through sex can be in itself a mystical
experience, even before bringing in the complexities of dominance and
submission.
~ Megan in Spirituality, Surrender, and Submission
Slavehood is a vocation, comparable and equal in every way to any
religious calling.
~ J. Mikael Togneri in Spirituality In Slavehood
A submissive washing dishes for his dominant, knowing that each soap
bubble, each swirl of water is a gift, an honoring, may feel the humming
resonance of a hunger, partially satisfied, deep in his spirit. A domme,
caught up in the meditative precision of tying each knot precisely *so*,
may feel an echo of cathedral walls around her, each motion guiding her,
and those around her closer to the God they seek. A masochist, floating
in the scintillations of painwaves as the whip falls against her time
and time again, may begin to feel their cadence as the cadence of
prayer. A hesitant sadist may, with the first hissing of his partner's
breath, begin to understand the transformative power he wields with his
strap.
~ quirk in BDSM and Spirituality
If you tell people you're kinky, they may assume you barbecue babies for
breakfast; if you tell people you go to church, they may expect you to
begin spewing fire-and-brimstone Bible verses.
~ Rebecca Brook
A slave submits primarily to her own nature… That she requires a
material, extrovert focus for her submission, i.e. the dominant, does
not alter the fact that on the spiritual level her submission is
essentially introverted. One could say that through the dominant she
submits to herself by proxy… Each makes the other possible, tied
together as they are in symbiotic interdependence.
~ J. Mikael Togneri in Spirituality In Slavehood
This notion is at least one explanation of what we call the power
exchange. It is also the reason that so many of us feel the sharp focus
of illumination as we come away from a successful scene. DomSpace is
less physical than the experience of subspace and considerably subtler,
but it is every bit as powerful as the experience of subspace. So, what
we are after in this exceptional act of passion and cruelty we call a
scene is that oneness, that transcendence which is the same goal as
religion, which is the same goal as vanilla sex.
~ Rick Umbaugh
The BDSM ritual may be predominantly sexual in expression, however the
goal is not gratification per se, but ecstasy. BDSM is, above and beyond
a physical need, the psyche's effort to make sex a sacrament. Only
through the understanding and acceptance of the sacramental value of
submission will slavehood be true. By the same token, of course, it also
becomes holy.
~ J. Mikael Togneri in Spirituality In Slavehood
Every Sunday in church, we confess our dependence on God, the power in
whom we live and move and have our being, whom we praise and thank for
all good gifts. We kneel in joy, not terror. To the people who sneer at
such submission, who claim that church is a crutch, my answer now would
be a simple shrug and the response, "Yes, sure it is. So's
breathing."
~ Rebecca Brook
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