Sacred Kink

I was played out today when I arrived home - blood sugar was ebbing and my brain was overloaded with too many conflicting priorities and deadlines.  Once upon a time I'd have stayed at work until I dropped and then convinced myself that whatever I managed to produce in that state would be acceptable. These days I cut my losses and go home to rejuvenate and make a sensible plan of attack for the next day.  I felt validated for my decision when I saw what was waiting for me at home.

In today's mail, the first of two books I recently ordered had arrived:  Spirit of Desire: Personal Explorations of Sacred Kink edited by Lee Harrington.  I've only just begun reading it and already I'm moved to write about it. 

Lee Harrington's preface serves as a portal of sorts, preparing the reader for journey ahead.  In fourteen paragraphs, he weaves a tapestry of images and ideas selected from the thirty three "slices of autobiography" contained in the book he has edited.   The experience of editing these very personal stories appears to have been equally profound for him:

"Slices of autobiography filled me with hope.  Glimpses of glamour from lives hard lived shook me to tears.  Dreams of desires painted their way across my brow and I felt myself renewed with possibility."  p. xii

How's that for an opening?

Story telling is a powerful exercise in which human experience is illuminated and individual wisdom is shared.  In the first several chapters of this anthology, I've already been offered windows into very personal, spiritual and profoundly moving experiences of people who practise BDSM.  But more than that, the stories offer language and imagery for the epiphanies that many kinksters have likely experienced but been at a loss to name and describe.

The first truth that jumped off the page was how it about much more than sexual satisfaction.  That's easy enough to say, but the statement in no way conveys the deep soul connection that many experience.  Now contrast it with these two passages:

"I have swallowed your heart, your sacred fire/ I feel you burning deep inside." p. 15

"It was exactly what I had been longing for from my sexual experiences, that elusive place of focus that I had sometimes touched but not been able to sustain, those moments when I was so deeply in my body that my mind was quiet and I was just feeling and being.  Sweet, delicious surrender." p. 3

Feel the difference?

Anyway, time to get back to reading this wonderful book.  To order your own copy or to check out other books by Lee Harrington, go to: http://passionandsoul.com/
 

This was post #126 - From Beneath the Rose - http://www.frombeneaththerose.com