BDSM CEREMONIES: Part II CATHARSIS… AN ACT OF LOVE

“Her position as submissive is active: she is the altar as well as the sacrifice. Two seemingly antagonistic images rise in my mind as Guillaume and I tighten the fetters, fasten the buckles, arrange her lovely copper hair, and acquaint myself with the grain of her pale skin: Iphigenia at Aulis… and a Maenad. Quiet surrender and commitment to martyrdom on the one hand, and a ferocious, visceral craving to be taken by a mighty force on the other. To be at one, perhaps? To be transformed beyond her humanity by experiencing the extremes of her own frailty?”