Bless You!

A thought I had on my drive home from work/Starbucks tonight, as the first flakes of snow were falling.

I'm not alone in my belief that in SM, we are approaching something sacred and holy. It's transformative, we feel ourselves to be a part of something greater to ourselves, and we touch something beyond words.

With me so far?

Cool.

Now theologically, an action like this is referred to as a "sacrement." A sacred act. In some traditions, sacrements are specifically listed, and their forms are prescribed. Think Baptism, Marriage, Last Rites, the Lord's Supper.

Here's the insight: with the prescribed forms of any sacrement, there are a couple of common elements: one is that the person receiving the sacrement is charged with a mission. And the other is that it comes with a benediction, or blessing.

Huh.

I think that's pretty cool.

So if we really really wanted to get technical about it, the sacred scenes we do are--most of'em--incomplete. The charge and the blessing are either merely implied or missing altogether.

So what if we change that? What if, the next time you whip some lucky bottom, or bind him or her with your ropes, or nourish him or her with your piss, or send him or her to seventh heaven with needles piercing the skin, you prepare yourself, when all is said and done, when you're both sitting their sweated, stars in your eyes, grinning like fools at each other, to impart a blessing? Like, "From now on, you're heart will never break again," or "I will always be in your corner," or, "I will hold you in my heart forever," or, "No more will you be troubled by self-doubt."

And the mission. It might be good for the bottom to think up what the mission might be. What he or she will take into the world, and offer as a gift henceforth. C'mon, you've just received a great gift, and with every gift comes a task. Read your mythology! "When you (I) leave this Holy Place and go out into the world, I will try to ease the pain of the first suffering person whom God places in my path." "I will show kindness and compassion to the next person who treats me with malice and spite." "I will spend time with someone who is lonely."

And hey, who says the bottom can't turn around and offer a blessing to the sublime sadist who gave of himself (or herself)? And if the Top wants the scene to really mean something, think hard about what task you might take on.

As with sacrements as they are understood in the religious sense, that extends the scene well beyond the sconce- and eye-bolt festooned walls of the dungeon. And out into a cold, cold world. And deeply into your life.

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