The formal lifestyle is filled with traditions and ceremonies that are seldom witnessed by the outside world and perhaps one of the most moving and meaningful is the "bonding ritual" or Ceremony of the Roses. This ceremony is steeped in symbolism and mystique. Today we explore this beautiful ritual together!

Do you have a spirit of submission, that is an aura or an essence of it? Is submission just something you do or is it also part of your inner being? If being a submissive is your identity, you should be developing submission in your heart. Today we give you two practical exercises you can do to immediately begin to develop your submissive identity.

When beginning a power exchange dynamic in a new or existing relationship, it is usually helpful to have a series of discussions in order to form a Training Contract. Today we give you tips for creating them and help ease the anxieties surrounding making relationship contracts.

Consistency is great for an identity within a power exchange relationship. As long as those involved have the good character and willingness to make the relationship work, consistent structure will work for them. But consistency is bad for fetishes, kinks, and sexual expressions. There is a time and a place for those things.

We find ourselves in a middle path between Tradition and Innovation trying to do a power exchange relationship that is both modern yet respectful of traditions. How do we tell that we are being successful in those goals? What can we use to measure success? Today we talk about the hidden key to it all.

Today we look for a middle path somewhere between traditional BDSM and TNG. Because we can't go back in time and yet we want to honor what has already been built and passed along to us. "Having a good idea of what has been tried in the past is an enormous asset, but it has to be combined with a willingness to adapt the lessons of the past to the needs of the ever-changing present. A body of knowledge that remains absolutely fixed over time, incapable of absorbing new lessons and insights, is not a tradition but a corpse." -John Michael Greer

BDSM Summer School is in session this year focusing on consensual Master/slave relationships. In this episode we look at how the Leatherman subculture of the 1950s shaped modern M/s relationships. We highlight portions of a handbook from 1972 showing how early practitioners of BDSM viewed M/s.

BDSM Summer School is in session this year focusing on consensual Master/slave relationships. In this episode we look at the path from abolitionist propaganda to sadomasochistic pornography. Much of this development occurred after the abolition of slavery in Europe and North America. As slavery receded from living memory it lost moral urgency and became a fertile source for sexual fantasy.

BDSM Summer School is in session this year focusing on consensual Master/slave relationships. In this episode we look at the origins of ancient Greco-Roman slavery and contrast them with modern BDSM relationships showing the vast differences between the legal and social implications of both forms of slavery.

BDSM Summer School is in session this year focusing on consensual Master/slave relationships. In this episode we look at Orlando Patterson’s "Slavery and Social Death" (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1982) contrasting the three-part definition Patterson uses to define involuntary slavery with that of non-violent, consensual Master/slave relationships.