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Peter Masters |
Peter Masters |
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Ritual
| Penetration |
| Engagement |
| Consent |
| Communication |
| Power |
| Authority |
| Control |
| Trust |
| Fetish |
| Defence mechanisms |
| Mapping motivations to activities |
| Derived from [Masters2009], 4.3, Ritual |
The Oxford English Dictionary[1] defines ritual to be: "A prescribed order of performing religious or other devotional service." As it is related to service---an aspect of BDSM which is relevant to D&s and master/slave relationships---it's useful to note that it is behaviour or work beyond what is strictly necessary to get the underlying job or service done.
For example, when a submissive makes her master's bed each morning and does it a particular way, perhaps kneeling at each corner as she tucks the sheets in, then we can say that, yes, she is performing a service by making the bed, but she is making it a ritual by the additional touches which don't effect the service itself but which make the performance of the service into something symbolic. Such an additional touch could be the abovementioned stylised way she kneels at each corner of the bed as she tucks in the sheets instead of simply bending over, or perhaps by kissing his pillow once the bed is made, and so on.
Within a D&s context we can compare it to the structure which a dominant or master imposes on his submissive or slave and note that structure is a set of rules and values which guide and regulate the behaviour of the submissive or slave (such as do this and don't do the other), while rituals modify behaviour and can be used psychologically to change the mundane into the profound.
- Structure is imposed only by the dominant or master
- Ritual can come from the dominant or master, but frequently comes from the dominant or slave themselves
