Guest Columnists on Spirituality and BDSM

Deborah Addington	My meditative practices take me to other places; rich, darkly-textured places, caves of heaven and clouds of sweetness that have nothing to do with incense. ~ Deborah Addington God Wears Black Leather; Kink and the Unitive Experience SCENEprofiles Interview with Deborah Addington, BDSM & Spirituality Author *This interview is running exclusively with Carter Steven's S&M News through June 1. The link goes directly to his website.
Master Alan	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 The Talmudic Laws for the Acquisition of a Slave Mini SCENEprofiles Spirituality Interview with Master Alan
Daddy Bob Allen	I haven't really embraced any pagan deities. I'm lucky if I get the car started in the morning. *~ Daddy Bob Allen* The Spiritual Daddy The Wearin' O the Hides Interview with Daddy Bob Allen
Mimi Andronica	Those who practice power (or ashtanga) yoga and BDSM are experiencing similar things. Both the yoga practitioner and the bottom or submissive are using their bodies, and are undergoing stringent physical and mental discipline in order to reach beyond the corporeal. ~ Mimi Andronica Higher Ground: The Relationship Between D&s and Yoga Mini SCENEprofiles Spirituality Interview with Mimi
Rebecca Brook	For me, both the scene and the church offer the comfort of communal ritual while affirming the sacredness of the body. ~ Rebecca Brook Body & Soul: Confessions of a Kinky Churchgoer SCENEprofiles Interview with Rebecca Brook
Cléo Dubois	Pieces of my dress were flying away as my spirit soared. I fell under the spell. My body dancing towards the blades and then away from them, only to come back wanting to feel their dangerous caress again. ~ Cléo Dubois, Writer & Teacher of the BDSM Arts Journeying into "Time of Old," a True Story Confession of an ex-Catholic Schoolgirl SCENEprofiles Interview with Cléo Dubois Review of Cléo's Videos by Sensuous Sadie What Lies Beneath The Pain Game Interview With Cleo Dubois and Her Bottom, Lori By Marianne Messina
Crimson Lord	Nothing existed that couldn't be experienced. The only sin being not to. ~ Crimson Lord, Writer & Editor of BDSM-online BDSM & Spirituality BDSM & Christianity Tantra & Sacred Sexuality
Mistress Damiana	I wail with the sound of an animal, a cat. I growl, and I resist moving away even as I feel my body grow warmer and warmer still. I think that blood must be running out of me at this point, and I pray to the Goddess that they will stop, as each of them lashes me with the cruel whip. I feel myself beginning to slip out of my body, and I hear my priestess say, "Stay with us, dear one, it is for naught if you go away." So I try to focus my energy as I shift my weight on my knees, and the lash continues. ~ Mistress Damiana An Intimate Look at Ritual Pain
Decima	The frame of BDSM is created by complex rituals, roles and dynamics and together these allow both Dom and sub a glorious sensual freedom to explore their dark eros in a way which the vanilla world finds difficulty in understanding. ~ Decima True Freedom SCENEprofiles Interview with Decima
Divinity	This inner peace that i found in meditating, this pool of energy that was available to me at any time, was what i had been missing. That i didn't have to go to "Church" that my worship was a personal thing, and not one that necessarily had to validated by a church, or a priest. ~ Divinity BDSM/Religion...
GettinSassy	I offer Jesus my life as a result of believing His great love for me and make Him my Master! ~ GettinSassy How Does BDSM Fit with Jesus?
Hardy Haberman	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 Soul of a Second Skin: Spirituality, Christianity and the Leather Community Mini SCENEprofiles Spirituality Interview with Hardy Haberman
Dorothy C. Hayden	The masochistic components -- the longing to serve, to submit, to abandon oneself sexually, emotionally, and physically makes one a slave either to a man, a woman or to God. Submission to that passion is divine degradation. ~ By Dorothy C. Hayden, CSW, Author & Psychotherapist Masochism as a Spiritual Path
Chris M.	People who engage in SM (bottoms, more often than not) have reported all sorts of odd experiences that lend themselves to description in spiritual terms. Feelings of transcendence, healing, euphoria, intimate union with your partner, your god, even the entire world. I, myself, have encountered such feelings. Maybe you have too. - Chris M., Writer & and Emeritus Board Member of Black Rose, Washington DC Introduction to Going Deep: Topspace, Bottomspace, and Sado-Erotic Ecstasy The Spiritual Dimension of SM Topspace, Bottomspace, and Sado-Erotic Ecstasy Mythic Reality: Building the Inner Cathedral Bodyplay and the Spirit The Black Leather Space Suit: Pleasure and the Oft Forgotten Top On Holiness & Higher Powers Ritual SCENEprofiles Interview with Chris M. See Art by Chris M.
Jrsygir1	The gift of submission is a gift i give myself first. In fact everything i do in BDSM. whether its Topping or Domming or bottoming or submitting, is a gift to ME. Everyone else gets to come along for the ride. ~ Jersygir1 Spirituality and BDSM
Raven Kaldera	Regular touch is good for building intimacy, but for purposes of magically inducing changes of behavior, body contact and gentle stroking is extremely useful. It's what you'd do to an object that you were "charging", and you can "charge" the submissive in the same way, releasing a little of your own will into them as a way to "set" a command. ~ Raven Kaldera The Ordeal Path: Introduction to Neo-Pagan BDSM Don't Break The Spirit; Slave Training in an Animistic Pagan World SCENEprofiles Interview with Raven Kaldera, Author, Intersexed Female-to-Male (FTM) Activist and Minister
Mary	I cleared the room energetically. Selected the music. Burned the white sage. And was ready for the next session. ~ Mary The Spiritual Aspects of Bottoming
Megan	Sexual submission is an utterly spiritual endeavor for me. The feelings that I have as I feel another's control, as I allow someone to use me, fill me, shape me, teach me, guide me and protect me; the feelings which are awakened as I submit to another without question in a circumstance, striving to act in ways which will only bring pleasure and happiness to him. ~ Megan Spirituality, Surrender, and Submission
Stuart Norman	Although accepted as an integral and necessary part of the tribe, the shaman is always “the other” or outsider in some respects, too strange and mysterious to be a regular guy. ~ Stuart Norman Shamanism
Poppy	I began to shake and vibrate from the energy of the circle, and from the drums and bells. Our friends, uncoached and unrehearsed, had found a rhythm and a feeling that swept me away. I felt myself going deeper and deeper into sensory, non-verbal awareness, nourished by the rhythms and bells. ~ Poppy A Very Special Night Mini SCENEprofiles interview with Poppy
Quirk	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 Submission is more fundamental than sensation ~ quirk In Service: Thoughts on a Daily Practice of Submission to the Divine BDSM & Spirituality
Lady Ravenia	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 Ravenia Sado-masochistic Ritual in a Thelemic Context
Arin Reddog	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 Arin Reddog Takes Kavadi
Jack Rinella	The scene quietly flowed into a high level of intensity. Both of us were "buzzing" with delightful sensations. In that moment we both had an indescribable experience. Something passed between us, engulfed us, lifted us to some celestial plane. It was what I have come to call a "white light" experience. ~ Jack Rinella, Author Zen Leather SM Travel
Sensuous Sadie	What I want to explore is not the "stuff" of BDSM, but the enchantment. That trembling feeling that wakes me far past midnight in a sheen of heat. ~ Sensuous Sadie BDSM is About Spiritual Transformation – My Own Story My Travels With Griffin Series: My Travels with Griffin: Getting on the “Spirchul” Train Surfing the Whole Body Orgasm Is it Spiritual or is it Subspace? … Six Months of Spelunking with Griffin Commitment and a Catawampus Arousal and the Doors of Perception Total Surrender Sadie has a Meltdown Love, BDSM Style The Feminist Submissive, and a Spiritual Approach to Surrender
Sloyd	Leather is a symbolic overstatement, an exploration into the realm of erotic excess. ~ *Sloyd* Spirituality and the Leather Lifestyle
Gary Switch	They've selected twenty-two tales of catharsis, epiphany, empathy, self-revelation, the supernatural, ghosts, elves, aliens, rituals, sacrifices, and quests for the unobtainable. ~ Gary Switch Gary's Review of the book: Sacred Exchange: Stories of Spirituality and Transcendence in Dominance and Submission SCENEprofiles Interview with Gary Switch
Mistress Steel	Many people discover their personal spirituality inside the BDSM world. They find personal happiness, instinctive understanding and within the purity of their interaction with their partner they "touch forever" inside the deepest part of themselves. ~ Mistress Steel Spirituality Kundalini Rising Altered Mental States
J. Mikael Togneri	Regardless of her status of collaring, a slave submits primarily to her own nature. ~ *J. Mikael Togneri* Spirituality in Slavehood
Treasure	Masochismo refers to consensual Bondage, Domination, Sadism, Masochism, or Submission done primarily for the purpose of challenging physical and emotional limits. ~ Treasure Spiritual BDSM, Magical BDSM and Masochismo FAQ
Rick Umbaugh	We play on a submissive body much in the same way a violinist plays a violin in order to give it depth and pliability. The difference between music and S/m, which makes so much of what we do so intense, is that music exists for a mass audience, while we create music for an audience of one. More importantly the instrument is also a participant. It is a dance in which two people acquire a different state of mind, a transcendental state has many names but is without definition. *~ Rick Umbaugh* The Art of S/m SCENEprofiles interview with Rick Umbaugh Mini SCENEprofiles Spirituality interview with Rick Umbaugh
yielding, Slave to Master Stern	I believe in the bold and fiery expansion of the incalculable universe and in the small incalculable spark of the individual epiphanic experience. ~ yielding, slave to Master Stern Spirituality & slavery Part I Spirituality & Slavery Part II SCENEprofiles interview with Yielding