Spirituality and Ritual

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Spirituality and Ritual

Postby The Madame X » Fri Nov 09, 2012 9:24 am

Spirituality and Ritual
full article at: http://purple_onion.tripod.com/spiritua.html
From a post to the news group soc.subculture.bondage-bdsm


"I've just watched the 'scene' in Catherine Breillat's movie 'Romance', where the leading lady gets her elbows tied together, and found it very ritualistic?

I'm very wary of ritual, because I usually feel the underlying reasons for most ritual are negative for me. I hadn't realized how much ritual could be involved in bondage, but I found that ritual mesmerizing. I don't know if the filming, or the film treatment of the bondage, imbued more of a ritual element than the act itself.

I wondered how often, consciously or not, the ritualistic elements are the major element, in what would be an otherwise be an unremarkable 'scene', bondage or otherwise?"

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For me, one of the main attractions of BDS/M is the element of ritual and spirituality.

The linking of spirituality and ritual to S/M activities may appear to some to be an incongruity, but in reality it is not so. Nietzche said:" Our certain duty is to develop ourselves, to expand ourselves wholly in all our potentialities. It is to succeed in becoming fully what we feel ourselves to be. What we want is to become ourselves. Nothing that is should be suppressed. Nothing is superfluous." Since spirituality means different things to different people, that potential is different for everyone, as is the route for reaching it, some have found their route to wholeness is through S/M.

Many people intertwine their feelings of spirituality, ritual, and religion with their BDSM activities. Although this section will not cover all the possibilities in detail, note that many people who do BDSM combine it with either traditional or non-traditional religious or secular spirituality.

Rituals used in BDSM range from BDSM-specific personal activities (such as the submissive removing the Dom's boots at the end of the day or kneeling to receive a collar), to mood-creating activities (such as lighting candles, burning incense, or repeating a prayer or poem before playing), to religious-based activities (Leather Pagans) introducing specific Wiccan, Buddhist, or Judaeo-Christian symbolism around holidays or as part of the everyday play. Most couples who have an interest in combining their spiritual beliefs with their BDSM relationship find personal, creative ways to intertwine the two.

It is surprising but true that many traditional religions, notably most Judaeo-Christian based religions, do not specifically object to BDSM activity within a marital context! Perhaps because wife-beating and near-slavery of wives have also, unfortunately, not been activities traditionally objected to by these religions, consensual BDSM is also not considered grounds for objection by Church or Jewish law. BDSM activities between married partners are formally viewed as private practices within the confines of the marital relationship. This does not necessarily mean that one will find a sympathetic ear when talking to a priest or rabbi about how much closer the beatings and servitude of your particular BDSM relationship with your spouse have brought the two of you. But it does mean that it might not be necessary to hide the BDSM you do in other private discussions with your minister, priest, or rabbi.

Multiplicity of partners, however, is not accepted by most modern Judeo-Christian religions. (The most notable exception is in a component of Church of The Latter Day Saints, which permits a man to take on several wives.) Multiple partners are condemned by religions as adulterous, and are often grounds for religious (and of course civil) divorce, as well as possible censure by the religious group. Thus, polyamory and Swinging are not consistent with these religions.

For those who maintain strict religious outlooks ranging from Catholicism to Judaism, it is sometimes reassuring to realize that BDSM per se does not necessarily present an insurmountable inconsistency.

So, why do people turn to S/M for spirituality? The three main reason appear to be: a sense of alienation from society, a feeling of disenchantment with organized religion, and a need to experience things rather than just follow rote or dogma.

Alienation:

Many feel some form of alienation from society and from themselves. No one wants to feel cut off from society, but belonging to the S/M community puts one in the minority, or do most people like to feel that their head is separate from their body, a feeling of duality, of walking in two worlds at the same time. For these people there is a void, and for some, S/M spirituality helps build a bridge across that void.

Disenchantment:

There are some that feel disenchantment with organized religion, any organized religion. They are unhappy with the formalization, and the dogma associated with structured worship and spirituality. They want to experience their God first hand; by whichever route they feel best suited for communion with that God and their inner self. Alternatives to organized religion are becoming more and more common. If organized religion does not work, many are willing to try an alternative path to worship and internal spirituality.

The third reason people turn to S/M for spirituality is that, in the search for meaning in their life, some find that actual experience is more important to them than any form of rote or dogma. They devise rituals of their own. This could include forms of physical and or mental testing, and ritual. Such ritual may involve, but not be limited to the use of candles, or special music. Special clothing made from leather, rubber, and latex or even denim maybe worn, or they may use other items such as rope, leather, chain, collars or cuffs to bind, or impede their movement or that of another. All this is done to set the atmosphere and a goal or purpose for the ritual itself. These rituals can evoke very powerful moods, emotions and motivations. For people ritual can provide empirical evidence of the sublime, in the way that others might go in to rapture over a ballet or an opera.

Many times there is often an overlap between the three reasons for the search for spirituality. In the modern, western world, there are very few physical rites of passage that are also spiritual. Certainly there are currently few organized, religious means to put a person into a state of altered conscious.

There are three basic phases of ritual. Before the ritual, a person, may feel that daily live is mundane, and that there is something else to life: the sacred and the profane. These two are alternate sides of the same coin, in that they are, literally, extraordinary: unlike the daily grind. In times past, spirituality and eroticism were inextricably linked (e.g., the Beltane fires in England), but today they appear to be separated. Many would like to bring them together again. The second phase of ritual occurs during the ritual itself. There is a limited period, where a state of limbo and/or confusion may occur, and it might extend beyond the ritual. (If the ritual is a S/M scene, it is important for the Top to ensure that there is clear communication with the Bottom at this point.) The final phase of ritual is a new state of being or awareness, where people describe a feeling of being connected to something beyond themselves; of some thing or some thought that can improve them and their lives; and of having learnt something more about themselves. It could be described as a new form of reality for that person.

There are many paths to S/M spirituality. Sex and tantra (the use of sex, other forms of eroticism, and sometimes breath control to alter consciousness), scourging and/or flagellation, and blood control can be used alone or in combination to good effect. Blood control can include "body play" (a term coined by Fakir Musafar) with constriction, cutting, piercing, and/or puncturing the skin. Other paths include changing the body state, such as with breath control the controlling the intake of breath and pace of intake oneself or by another, and chanting and singing. If carefully managed, masks, hoods, and gags can all be used in this context, and can lead to very powerful feelings and states. Dancing and drumming can also induce altered states, particularly if used with forms of breath control. Likewise, meditation and trance can alter states, but many people find it difficult to set aside the time. A trance state can be attained through dancing and drumming, and flagellation and blood control, and these may be an easier way than chanting "ah-oom" for hours at a time. (I know of some people, who can reach trance states just by doing housework, so not everyone needs S/M or religion to get there.) Exhaustion has been used as a path to spirituality, but it also takes time to get there this way. (It could also be very dangerous in a S/M context, due to one's diminished concentration when in this state.)

The ceremonial sacraments can be used to attain an altered state. I am careful here to separate the term recreational drugs from drug initiation. Using the sacraments during ritual initiation is an advanced practice. It does not work well with any form of S/M practice, because the person using the drug cannot properly assess the risks involved. Also, the "set" and "setting" (Timothy Leary's terms for the state of mind of the person using the drug and the environment in which the drug is taken, respectively) can drastically alter the effects of most drugs. This is particularly true for psychedelic drugs. If you involve a mind trip with the drug, you might end up with semi-permanent or permanent psychological damage. Please inform yourself well before you decide to use any ceremonial sacrament/drug.

Many use rites of passage and or body play to attain their altered states. These can include contortion like gymnastics, or yoga exercises. Other ways like enlargements of piercings, stretching parts of the body like the labia, lips, or ears, cupping (suction cups on the back), high heel shoes, and foot binding can be used. Constriction of the body (mummification, compression, ligatures, belts, tight clothes, body presses, and other forms of bondage may be used to help "center" the person’s attention to their body. Deprivation of food and/or senses, attention control, restriction of movement, isolation boxes, bondage suits, bags, multiple layers of clothing (this can be dangerous because you're playing with the homeostasis of the whole body), and sound and light deprivation) can be used to heighten the senses. The use of heavy objects like anklets, leg irons, etc. may be used to restrict the person's movement. Heat (sun tanning, electricity, baths, sweat lodges, branding, burning, etc.); penetration/invasion (flagellation, puncturing, piercing, spikes and skewers, tattoos, beds of nails, and ball dancing); or suspension (by the ankles, wrists, etc., or by flesh hooks); and forms of sensory overload (light, sound, and mind fucks, all of which can cause the mind to shut off) all are effective means of attaining an altered state.

That's quite a list, particularly since they could all be mixed in varying quantities. Both those who enjoy S/M and those who practice alternate spirituality are likely to recognize or to have practiced many of them. This easily accounts for much of the crossover from S/M to spirituality and vice versa.

These activities can lead to ecstasy, which has been described by Terence McKenna as "a complex emotion containing elements of joy, fear, terror, triumph, surrender and empathy." Broadly, the states of ecstasy occur at the lowest level in the body (sensation), and proceed through the heart (catharsis), to the head (insight), where the greatest rewards tend to be found. Descriptions of physical ecstasy include self-reward and feelings of extreme vitality and well being. Catharsis from S/M can cause forms of release and purification, and communion with one's partner or one s self. Many describe the rewards from insight as a powerful increase in knowledge and self-knowledge, creativity, understanding, and further, intellectual communion.

The ecstatic states can provide positive loss of inhibition (also called boundary ecstasy), i.e. loss of personal limitations, fears, sorrows, desires, and attachments); loss of senses of time or place; loss of structured thoughts in the forms of words and images; and, ultimately, loss of the controlled self (also known as ego dissolution). There is a sense that all forms of boundaries are dissolving. At this point, the connection between the Top and Bottom is probably at its peak. These states can also lead to feelings of continuousness, such as unity, eternity, and heaven; communion with a higher power, with one's self, and possibly, with other worlds and times; catharsis is a release into pure feeling, often in the guise of salvation and freedom; and also joyous satisfaction. Other rewards include insight, in the form of knowledge and creative inspiration; feelings of death and resultant rebirth; an intense physical well being and courage borne of an increased self-esteem.

There are quasi-physical experiences associated with ecstasy from S/M play and spirituality. They have been described as a high; senses of light and dark; feeling changes of energy that make a person feel as though he/she is taking up the whole room, or has withdrawn inward with a sense of inner peace and calm; sensations of flowing; and "electric" feelings of tingling and being on fire.

With these rewards from S/M activities during spiritual expression, it is no surprise that there are many that have crossed from S/M play to spirituality and vice versa. As the last decade has progressed, we have seen more people integrating one expression into the other. Perhaps this is because they now feel freer to do so, in the same way that the rigor of the S/M old guard is being replaced by a newer, more relaxed climate in S/M community, where people feel much freer to admit to being "switches."
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