Shogun's Sweet Dreams - Tantra & D/s

It has been a known fact for centuries that kundalini energy is stored at the base of the spine. The goal of many eastern spiritual traditions is to activate this potent force through various means including chanting, meditation, austerities, yogic positions, and sacred/ritual sexuality.

Tantra (which means "woven together") is a term loosely applied to a system of Hindu yoga in which the union of male and female principles is worshipped. In practice, this has led to a form of sexual ritual in which slow, non-orgasmic intercourse is seen as a path to an experience of the divine. A modified version of Hindu Tantra can also be found in Tibetan Buddhism. The term tantra is also -- for the sake of convenience -- applied to other (primarily Western) religious or spiritual practices in which a ritualized, sexual union forms a path to the experience of spiritual ecstasy.

Most westerners use the word "Tantra" to cover sacred and enhanced sexuality. Tantra, as often practiced in the West, borrows from many traditions including Taoism, Hindu Tantra, Native American Quodoshka, African, Polynesian, Wiccan, Christian Gnosticism, etc. Real "Tantra" is a rigorous spiritual discipline and vast field of study -- the sexual aspect is a small but important part of it. Mystical experiences and altered states of consciousness result from many of the processes, especially the ones dealing with sexual energy.

Tantra when practiced correctly, allows the participants to experience what seems to be -- what IS, for all intents and purposes -- the presence of *deity* in the person or the sex partner. A transformative experience. This is not to say that the other person BECOMES a deity...it is the experience of Union itself that allows one to see the same divinity that exist in oneself, in another. A sacred mirror so to speak. The goals of my submission, the place i seek to go is the same search for unity and the ritual context of D/s allows me to experience a much more meaningful combination.

i studied tantra for years and found that the experience i sought through D/s was very much the same and as a result have combined tantric practices within the context of dominance and submission. The endorphin *rush* from an intense flogging is quite different on some levels from the kind achieved in a tantric ritual..but the INTENSITY of the experience is equal in my experience.

When i speak of the ritual aspects of D/s for me, it is about creating a context where the exchange becomes in a sense sacred. There is an intent and acting out of a dynamic that has elements drawn from tantra and other forms of sacred sexuality. For instance...in many Hindu forms of worship where there is a Guru or *Master*, the devotee bows before the teacher. They are not bowing before the actual person..they are acknowledging that they are humbling themselves in order to learn. It is a symbolic act that enables the true enlightenment to occur. When i kneel before a Master at the beginning of a session...it is very much like that act. It is a symbolic evocation that i surrender to His wisdom and care. When i assume a position i have been taught, for example to kneel in a particular way with my thighs opened, my hands behind my neck, elbows pointing upward, eyes lowered....by beginning each session that way it becomes a ritualized act. My sensual memory records the experience in such a way that each time i assume that position, i become aroused. Also certain phrases, smells...all of this ritualizes the experience for me.

Rituals imprint and mark a submissive's soul more profoundly than any mark that could ever be placed on their body. Rituals can more readily pave the way for the layers of self to be stripped away into that state of just ~being~...the primal essence of ourselves.

By creating a context in using ritual we do tap into the primal and archetypal levels of experience. It is very much setting apart a space in which to Journey.....much like exploring the Shadow self in Jungian psychology. In order for a person to integrate and become *whole* they must first reveal their hidden Shadow selves in order to emerge into the Light of the ego Self. In D/s...the Master acts as the arbiter between the self preservation instincts of the sub`s ego and the desire for the sub to become empowered by facing those fears (the Shadow). The Master creates the safety zone thru the ritualized act itself: the soul imprinting.

There has been nothing more powerful for me in my submission than the times when i have been brought face to face with a limit i (thought) i had ::smile:::and thru the creation of a ritualized context offered to move thru that fear by wanting to please a Master so much that i was willing to walk thru the fire of it for him. During the times i am speaking about, i was brought up to the very point of being commanded to engage in whatever that limit was but my Master did not require me to actually *do* it. The lesson...the RITUAL itself was about the obedience and trust in His guidance and love and the resulting proof of my trust and devotion to Him.

This kind of dynamic cannot be simply demanded out of the blue to be an empowering experience for a sub. All the things combined, including the soul imprinting... must accompany it for a true *breakthru* to occur.

Ritual also serves to ground and strengthen the bond and allow for these kinds of �moving to the very edge of the abyss� experiences which serve not to have a sub face the terror of the abyss itself..but the safety and Light of knowing they have crossed to the other side!

This is not to say that every time i submit to a Master i expect it to be a solemn cosmic ritual...<g> On the contrary there are many times where this never occurs...the majority of the time actually...but it is the ideal for me. The place i speak of, when reached together with a Master, is pure magic. It is something i never experienced in vanilla tantric relationships. We all get there different ways...we all call it something else....but the complete awe it inspires is amazing! i know that i want to return there again and again and again and reach it thru the combination of pain, pleasure and ritual. The activation of that kundalini energy and the explosion of Light into all the chakras (energy centers of the body) is a powerful experience more humbling than anything i have yet to encounter.

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