The Eightfold Paths of BDSM and Beyond

by Lee Harrington

  Noble Eightfold Path

  The idea of an eight-part path to enlightenment also appears in another place: Buddhism. The Noble Eightfold Path describes the way to the end of suffering, as it was laid out by Siddhartha Gautama, more commonly known as the historical Buddha. The system breaks down into three overarching developments, with eight steps along the path, where each “right” thing is an ideal, a striving towards perfection or completeness. They are:

  Wisdom

  Right View (a.k.a. “Right Perspective,” “Right Vision” or “Right Understanding”)—Coming to understand the true nature of the world.

  Right Intention (a.k.a. “Right Thought,” “Right Resolve” or “Right Aspiration”)—Aspiring to rid one’s self of what is wrong or immoral, commitment to the spiritual path on all levels.

  Ethical Conduct

  Right Speech—Abstaining from lying, negative or abusive language and idle gossip or talk.

  Right Action (a.k.a. “Right Conduct”)—Abstaining from taking life, from stealing, and from sensual or sexual misconduct.

  Right Livelihood—Abstaining from business in weapons, human trafficking, animal slaughter, intoxicants, and other immoral business.

  Mental Development

  Right Effort (a.k.a. “Right Endeavor”)—Making an effort to abandon all the wrong and harmful thoughts, words, and deeds.

  Right Mindfulness (a.k.a. “Right Memory,” “Right Awareness” or “Right Attention”)—Becoming mindful and aware of the body, emotions and mind, making sure not to act or speak due to inattention or forgetfulness.

  Right Concentration—Using awareness and skills built in the other seven Paths to go into deep meditation and awareness, finding wisdom that cycles back into Right View.

  In many ways, the Noble Eightfold Path can be looked upon as the classic system for examining spiritual exploration and personal evolution through the lens of asceticism. It lays out a system of focus, self-examination, restriction, and discipline. Not only is this a fascinating system for ascetics and seekers of focus alike, but within the kink community it has been used by some Sacred Kink practitioners as a template for service and various Master/Slave or Dominant/Submissive relationship structures. Two of the more eloquent speakers on this correspondence are Alex Bettencourt (International Ms. Bootblack 2006) and Master DVNT of Chicago, though they are not alone in this comparison.

  The Noble Eightfold Path can be a system for consideration not just on the submissive side of the equation. There seems to be a belief by some that this is the case. Just as a submissive partner must follow right concentration to be able to provide quality service that feeds all of the needs of their partner, so must a dominant partner follow right concentration to find what Great Work the energy of their journey and the journey of those in service to them will be lent to. Both Master and Slave have the opportunity to live and thrive in excellence using the Noble Eightfold Path as a form of self-concentration.

  Gift of the Journey

  In my daily preparations, I bathe and cleanse myself and wash away the day, inside and out. Frustrations and challenges tumble away, and I feel myself moisten, hopeful that he will use me tonight, but aware that even in this moment I can enjoy how turned on I am.

  Sitting in on a Slavery discussion at a local kink event, I had someone point out that I must not feel sadness because I never seemed frustrated when Master chose not to use me sexually. My face squeezed up and then smiled—oh gods, no! I felt frustration, sexual and otherwise. Of course I wanted him to fuck me, use me, fill me. But when I did not get it, I have learned to appreciate what I do receive all the more. A caress of my cheek becomes a powerful gift. Every day, I become so thankful to be alive, to have these things that the world has gifted me with.

  Thinking about the assumptions of others, I begin to ponder all the thoughts of others that I carry. I realize I carry so much debris on my spirit, not just my body. So many assumptions of what a relationship should be, who I should be. How many things did my parents teach me to be? The media? Teachers, pastors, friends?

  I breathe in and state that my journey is my own, and then I erupt in laughter. My journey. Ha! There comes that attachment again. I breathe in and reframe. The journey I am on. I wear a smile the rest of the weekend, aware of the simple truth exposed through alternating between daily practices and studying with the wise man who walks this path next to me.

  Sometimes the wisdom is revealed over time, it seems. I still my mind, and thank the world for the gift of this journey.

  Chapter 10

  The Path of Sacred Plants

  Consuming Our Fate

  The seven of us began as casual friends years ago, discussing kink and magic alike at a variety of events. After our respective scenes, we always seemed to find our way to the aftercare area, cuddling and talking about philosophy, obscure fantasies, and processing the play we had earlier that night or years before. As the years went by, people started jokingly referring to us as the coven, and I guess it struck a chord because within a year of the joke starting, we decided to consciously form one.

  Some members of the coven have only been in the scene for a few years, but most of us have been around for a while. But when one of our group had proposed combining sacred plant work with our kink explorations and experiments, I had balked at first. I had experienced some amazing truths years before, exploring hallucinogens back when I was a raver, but I’d told myself I was past that phase of my life. Spun stories that I was better than that now. I didn’t do that stuff anymore.

  For six months I had weighed out the idea, and the coven had made a rule that everyone needed to agree to a working before a ritual scene like could take place. It was just the idea that was on the table, no one had asked me to be the one going on a journey—so why was I so against it? I thought about it, contemplated it, had heated debates with friends about the concept – and finally realized I was so against it because I was intrigued by it. There was some part of me that wanted to use the tool in a sacred setting, not just to get high.

  When I told them that I wanted to be the Seeker for the journey, a few folks were surprised, but not everyone. It took three months to pull everything together—the supplies, the right venue, a time when all of us could set aside a weekend just in case one night’s ritual turned out to need two days of aftercare. As the time approached, I was asking myself “what was I thinking? Why did I want to do this?” But inside my core I knew it was the right choice, I knew that I needed to hack into the core of me, I knew I had the right group to do the work with me. I just knew.

  On the night of the working, the lights were low and the room smelled of sage to clear the energy of the space. I came to the rite dressed in a long white robe, and everyone else in the space is dressed the same. On my knees, my coven stands around me and the Priest opens up a tin to reveal what is inside.

  I close my eyes. I have the right to say no, to not go on this journey, but I know that in the safety of this circle that this is what I need. I keep closing myself off, keep stopping short, and having negotiated this, I am ready. I reach into the tin first and pull out a collar, placing it around my own neck. I claim myself first in this, set my intention in submitting to this act, surrendering to this journey. I breathe in again and reach into the tin again.

  Hand to mushroom to lips and I bow before each of them, thanking each of them, as the music begins and their hands and ropes slowly descend onto my body.

  The Path of Sacred Plants

  The Path of Sacred Plants is drinks lifted to longing mouths and smoke wafting in the air, our minds dancing in a different space. Using specific plants, herbs, strong drink, chemicals, and other external inputs, the body is triggered into altered states of consciousness. Any physical input from outside the body that creates a biological change inside the body is also included for this path.

  All forms of altered states involve playing with the chemicals in our brain and body. The difference with working on the Path of Sacred Plant
s is that instead of accessing the primal programs of the mind, creating altered states as a form of secondary response to an input, we go in and directly hack the brain. Rhythmic patterns of a flogging may create an altered state, or it may not. This is not the case with Sacred Plant work.

  But note the word “sacred.” This path is not about the profane work of combining drugs with kink or sex. Though some may choose to do so, the point of working with the variety of stimuli and tools available in the Path of Sacred Plants is to use those tools and stimuli to create altered states of consciousness for sacred, transformational or ritual experiences. When a tool becomes a crutch for social interaction or is a form of addiction, it is no longer part of this discussion, because these are not part of the path.

  There are many reasons that this path calls to people. For some, it is the seeming suddenness of the epiphanies that come out of chemically induced altered states. The drugs seem to line up the information that was already present in the subconscious and deliver them in a neatly wrapped package. Others have challenges stepping out of the day-to-day, and smoking or popping a pill that forces them out of the mundane may feel like their only choice. For the skeptics and scientifically minded, sacred plant input is measurable, dose-able, and the experiments repeatable, offering the feeling they are in control of their altered states.

  I have also met some for whom this is simply what feels right. Cultures the world over have used the Path of Sacred Plants for astral journeying, rites of passage, creating tribal or inter-tribal unity, and focusing on challenging tasks. Hallucinogens especially have been used in religious rituals since prehistoric times. Whether explored as a tool once or as a path for repeated workings, different sacred plants and inputs affect us each differently, and some may choose to dance between tools on this path in the same way that someone on the Path of Ordeals may move between hooks, academic challenges, humiliation and tattooing.

  Ecosexuality

  The term “Path of Sacred Plants” is easily confused with the Sacred Erotic Path of the Earth and Plants, also known as ecosexuality. Brought into modern language through the work of ecological and sexological activists/educators/performance artists Elizabeth Stephens and Annie Sprinkle (Ph.D.), this movement embraces the work of transforming the classical concept of Earth visualized as an all-mother (e.g. Gaia, Pachamama, Prithvi, Terra) into the concept of Earth as lover.

  “We make love with the earth. We are aquaphiles,teraphiles, pyrophiles and aerophiles. We shamelessly hug trees, massage the earth with our feet, and talk erotically to plants. We are skinny dippers, sun worshippers, and stargazers. We caress rocks, are pleasured by waterfalls, and admire the Earth’s curves often. We make love with the earth through our senses. We celebrate our E-spots. We are very dirty.”

  - Ecosexual Manifesto, SexEcology.org

  There are a number of practitioners of Sacred Kink who use the vision of Sacred Kink as the way in which they explore their altered states of consciousness. These tools often fall under the other paths already explored in this text. For example:

  Path of Rhythm: Being whipped by a lover using the vegetables you will be eating later, giving thanks and offering to that which you will be consuming

  Ordeal Path: Standing underneath a water fall as you are beaten by the flow of nature

  Path of the Flesh: Rolling around on the grass blindfolded as the sun caresses your skin and your body feels every texture beneath you

  Path of Ritual: Being bound to a tree and pierced, giving a blood offering to the tree/lover

  Path of Breath: Fucking a partner face down in the dirt as they struggle for air, reminding them to be grateful for every gasp of air they take in

  Path of the Horse: Having one lover take on the role of the land that has been cut down and raped, while the other enacts the role of the corporations, to understand the suffering of the planet

  Ascetic Path: Choosing to become collared to a mountain in a formal ritual, committing to serve and protect that mountain for the rest of your life

  Embracing the Path of Ecosexuality is a powerful opportunity to explore the world, and is a profound act of world liberation. World (r)evolution. However, it is not the focus of this chapter within the book. For those passionate about the concept of Earth as lover, partner, or opportunity for personal growth and connection, I strongly encourage you to seek out the work of those focusing on ecosexuality elsewhere. It is deeply inspirational to see the diversity of ecosexual practitioners changing the world, one orgasm at a time.

  Traditional Tools

  Around the world, entheogens have been used by shamans, magicians, ritualists, priests, and lay people to explore altered states of consciousness. An entheogen is a psychoactive substance that effects the brain chemistry to change mood, perception, behavior or consciousness, used specifically in a religious or shamanic context. Entheogens can also include substances used for their religious or spiritual effect, even outside a formal tradition. Entheogenic drug usage is not to be confused with recreational drug usage, even when the materials used are the same.

  Alcohol

  Beer has appeared in sacred texts and religious references for over 4,000 years, and wine, mead and other strong drink have been part of a wide range of world spiritual traditions. Some religions such as Islam and many varied Christian, Hindu and Buddhist sects forbid the consumption of alcohol as they contaminate the body, the community, or the ability to be mindful.

  The depressant effects of alcohol consumption can cause delayed reflexes, slurred speech and clumsiness, which in and of itself is a form of altered state. However, far more often at play in altered states featuring alcohol, is the expectation of what we think will happen when we drink. In some pagan cultures for example, drinking has been encouraged as a way to increase sexual desire and lower inhibition, thus promoting fertility rites. In modern cultural use, drinking is believed by some to make them “happy drunks” or “social drinkers,” promoting group cohesion through being in an altered state.

  Tobacco

  Though used predominantly now as a recreational stimulant, tobacco had long before been used as an entheogen in the Americas. Used for ritual purposes, some tribes believed that tobacco was a gift from the Creator, and that the smoke could carry one’s prayers to the heavens. The ritual aspects even of profane tobacco uses (such as packing a pipe or preparing a cigar) allow for the power of its preparation to be just as spiritually useful as its physiological uses are, such as releasing dopamine and endorphins which our brain associates with pleasure.

  Cannabis

  Also known as marijuana, hashish, and ganja, cannabis has been used cross-culturally for thousands of years as a tool for spiritual connection, enlightenment, and trance working. THC (the psychoactive chemical in cannabis) is a mild hallucinogen with both sedative and stimulant properties, and depending on the culture in question, has been smoked, eaten, used in tinctures and oils, burned as an incense, or combined with other drugs to amplify or extend their effect.

  In early Chinese texts, cannabis is mentioned as a tool for seeing demons and communicating with spirits, and bundles of the herb have been found buried next to Chinese mummies. The hemp plant has been associated with the Hindu god Shiva, with some stories saying that the plant was created from his body as a tool for purification, and is offered as a sacrifice and smoked as a devotion at some of that god’s temples and festivals. Reference to cannabis use can be found in India as early as 1500 BCE in various Vedas; however, though wise consumption of bhang (a drink containing cannabis flowers) may cleanse sins and unite one with the divine, foolish drinking of the substance without ritual purpose is looked upon askance.

  Rastafarians and some modern Gnostic Christians claim that cannabis is the same plant referred to in the bible as the Tree of Life, and thus, smoking it is a holy sacrament. Other traditions have associated it with the Eucharist (Ethiopian Zion Coptic Church), worship of Freya (Ancient Germanic Cultures), and laying on of hands and other healing work (Ear
ly Christianity). Sufi practitioners, and modern spiritual figures alike have referred to cannabis use as a tool for clearing energetic vision and allowing access to other planes of consciousness or connection with the divine.

  Hallucinogens

  Throughout historical records, hallucinogens are cited as agents for opening up perspective, changing minds, inducing visions, and more. Natural plants or plant derivatives that have been used for sacred journey or experience work include amanita muscaria mushrooms, ayahuascha, belladonna, coca leaves, cohoba, ergot, Hawaiian baby woodrose, ibogaine, jimsonweed, kava kava, morning glory seeds, peyote, psilocybin mushrooms, salvia divinorum, and san sedro. Some of these plants are illegal to possess, others are available only with proof of their religious purpose, and there are those that have no restriction upon them. Some, such as jimsonweed and belladonna, are highly toxic and potentially deadly if handled improperly or consumed in too great a quantity. For this reason, and because the trip often leads to long periods of being “lost” in the journey, jimsonweed (and other forms of datura) is rarely used by modern spiritual Journeyers or psychonauts.

  Some use hallucinogenic substances as a one-time experience to wake them out of their habits, acting as a catalyst in their lives for change or transformation. For others, it is a regularly engaged tool to open up closed doors under the eye of a Guide, such as the use of MDMA (the active chemical in ecstasy) in the late 50’s in some forms of counseling and therapy, until it was outlawed. It has been recently explored as a tool for veterans with PTSD to work through their traumas.