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Short public review of Raven Kaldera's Dark Moon Rising: Pagan BDSM and the Ordeal Path:
Wow, that was so much more useful than Carnal Alchemy.
This is a substantial book, a bit more than four hundred pages of trade paperback, printed with Lulu's reasonably good quality print on demand process. It is primarily written by Raven, of course, but with a number of essays from various other people, including names I recognise such as Bridgett Harrington, Morning Glory Zell, and of course Raven's boy, Joshua (![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
cauldronfarm). It is divided into six sections, the first of which is introductory, the last of which is a poetic afterword, and the four in the middle are the meat of the book: a section on S/M, bondage, and related subjects; a section on ritual theater and the descent to the underworld; a section on service and mastery; a section on the gods Themselves.
Each of these sections is, from my perspective, a thorough and practical overview. The essays include brief 'scene' interludes of description illustrating the surrounding material; the material ranges from the personal experience of the authors through to practical laying out of tools, techniques, concerns, ideas, purposes; there are poems and photographs. (There are also rituals, which I mostly skimmed, as I tend to skim published ritual material unless I have a direct research reason.) Among other things, the S/M section was sufficiently informative about the use of ritual and sacred pain and similar matters to make me -- someone who does not consider herself to have a masochistic kink at all -- recognising the usefulness of that range of tools and contemplating places I might use them.
Verdict: well worth the investment. Will probably need to chew on it a little more.
[ detailed review will be appearing in the relevant filter when I get it written. ]
In other news,arawen knocked me sub and braided my hair.
Wow, that was so much more useful than Carnal Alchemy.
This is a substantial book, a bit more than four hundred pages of trade paperback, printed with Lulu's reasonably good quality print on demand process. It is primarily written by Raven, of course, but with a number of essays from various other people, including names I recognise such as Bridgett Harrington, Morning Glory Zell, and of course Raven's boy, Joshua (
cauldronfarm). It is divided into six sections, the first of which is introductory, the last of which is a poetic afterword, and the four in the middle are the meat of the book: a section on S/M, bondage, and related subjects; a section on ritual theater and the descent to the underworld; a section on service and mastery; a section on the gods Themselves.Each of these sections is, from my perspective, a thorough and practical overview. The essays include brief 'scene' interludes of description illustrating the surrounding material; the material ranges from the personal experience of the authors through to practical laying out of tools, techniques, concerns, ideas, purposes; there are poems and photographs. (There are also rituals, which I mostly skimmed, as I tend to skim published ritual material unless I have a direct research reason.) Among other things, the S/M section was sufficiently informative about the use of ritual and sacred pain and similar matters to make me -- someone who does not consider herself to have a masochistic kink at all -- recognising the usefulness of that range of tools and contemplating places I might use them.
Verdict: well worth the investment. Will probably need to chew on it a little more.
[ detailed review will be appearing in the relevant filter when I get it written. ]
In other news,
arawen knocked me sub and braided my hair.
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And can I borrow that book sometime? I'm willing to buy my own copy once I know for sure that it's worthy of shelf-space, something I'm starting to run out of. :}
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I'll be happy to lend it to you once I've written the private review. That should have gotten me my first pass of what I'm going to get out of it quickly.
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Mine does appear to have a sideline in the manufacture of sex toys, though, which amuses me no end.
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http://www.shadowsacrament.com/call_for_submissions.htm
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Also, I find that I can't adopt tools readily unless I run into them framed in a structure that makes sense to me -- once I have that initial 'aha, that's how that can be used' I work more fluidly from there. This gave me a bunch of those ahas.
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