Porcupine Quills: Pokey & Potent

The intrigue of a porcupine quill is palpable. Playing with these natural needles can be aesthetically beautiful, surprisingly potent, and sensationally intense. They are fascinating for their remarkable physiological therapeutic applications, and awe-inspiring for their innate mystical power. Quills will invariably catalyze you, transform you, and leave you wanting more. Come out to unlock the door to this uniquely ecstatic and deeply divine playground, and be prepared to get poked! This class will teach you the practical skills of porcupine quill play, including how to properly use them in scene, negotiation procedures, and safety concerns, as well as reflections on the historical use of quills across multiple cultures and how to ethically source supplies. We will extensively discuss the chemical play nature of quilling, and the potential for deep emotional, psychological, even spiritual experiences during play, quill removal, scene aftercare and integration. After supervised practice in allergen testing, removal, and specific play techniques, we conclude with a conversation around how to stretch this exquisite tool into combination with other sensations or settings such as rope or wax, power exchange, performance, stationary art, meditation, and ritual ordeal.

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Herbal Ordeals: Nettles, Thistles & Thorns

Thorns and thistles and flora, oh my! From stinging nettles to aloe edges, blackberry branches to eucalyptus leaves, that which grows from the ground is abundant in sadistic play options, either accenting on pain or manipulating sensory input. Methods for gathering and preservation will be discussed to create a bounty of possibilities for play with sharp sensations, olfactory stimulation, edible curiosities, chemical play, and dermal reactivity. Bring work gloves, and be prepared to be stung!

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Feathers: Foul & Fair

We've all had our hands at a little feather play. The deft control of gently brushing on the skin, the quick delight of tickling. What else is there to discover? Starting with an examination of the evolutionary design, this class will cover gathering and cleaning techniques, legal concerns, as well as how to prepare your feathers for different approaches to sensation play, including constructing your own feather fans, quills, and other toolsand accessories. Several local species (such as crow, hawk, turkey, and seagull) will be discussed for their unique properties and energetic strengths, including potential for primal play. Come prepared for a class that bridges between serious focus, and inspiration for the whimsical trickster in all of us!

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Human Canvas: Edible Inks & Feather Quills

This class will cover constructing your own feather quills for a a delicious, intuitive, and magical form of sensation play: human canvas ink art. Learn how to prepare your own colorful, sumptuous, even medicinal edible inks, with the intent to be used in combination with your newly crafted feather quills on a willing partner, partners, or yourself! Use this opportunity not only for sensation, but to employ our greatest tool the human body to create art, tap into your playful side, or manifest powerful symbols. Then, release the beast and primally devour (or lovingly lick off) these spells cast upon skin.

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Blame the Woo: Energy & Science

Let's cut to the quick: not everyone is "of the woo" but all humans rely on intuition, skills of observation, and this elegant energy-powered meat-sack we call our home - our bodies. The human body is proclaimed by philosophers, spiritual esoterics and scientists alike as a conduit, a system of electricity, a powerhouse of potential - get down to the nitty gritty of it, swallow anti-woo pride, and learn about, practice, even debate what it is to “play with energy” and examine those “feels” and “coincidences” that happen every so often as an innate part of the human experience. Learn what it means to be energetically sensitive, and coping skills for practitioners (and partners of) from all walks of life. Meditative and somatic techniques, channeling and intentive magicks, juicy warm up and soothing aftercare skills, and marginalized community awareness will be offered alongside lecture and group discussion.

 

Bite Me: Tooth & Claw

Across many traditions, species-specific claws, bones, fur, and teeth all have been employed with particular intent for ritual – why not also for play? Tune into various birds and beasts with opportunities to touch and wield handmade tools, and explore a selection of locally found stones (such as quartz, obsidian, pyrite and others) known for energetic potentiality and capable of offering a range of sadistic or intense experiences. After a conversation around the impact of sensation both to the body and the psyche or spirit, we will make our own tooth or claw talismans not only intended as tools for play, but also as reflections of strength, self-discipline, and grounding.

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Strike Me: Wands & Staffs

As seasons come and seasons go, plants sprout and grow and fall and die, just as animals or humans are born into life and eventually sleep. This month we will tune into the cycles of life and impermanence as organic providers for tools of power any time of the year, as well as tools readily used for pleasure and for pain. The potential of simple sticks and stones will be tapped into as well as a general conversation around objects of power both foraged and constructed. Take your play deeper by discussing how we can create items with intent and manifest personal meaning through the incorporation of the energies of fire, water, air, and earth. Physical impact and sensation play techniques with found natural tools (as well as preparation and safety concerns) will offer opportunities to explore how primal instincts can assist in both scene development and ritual practice. Leave class with your own natural wand crafted with potent charms and focused power.

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Bind Me: Rituals & Restraints

Many spells (and sadists alike!) are rooted in a mechanism of capture and control, whether with intention to link sacred power into objects, or the physical process of winding a twisted rope around our bodies. After a brief chat about historical rope bondage as well as modern construction and safety concerns, we will reveal options of local flora good for physically crafting binding mechanisms including hands-on education on constructing your own natural cordage. Learn how the act of creating your own rope, much like cleaning your own quills or blacking your boots, is a demonstration of service and intention (to your partner, or to your craft) and can be an entire scene unto itself. Methods of psychological restraint utilizing minimal contact to create control will also be discussed along with a more general conversation about the meaning of ritualism within consensual BDSM exchange, and how scenes are in many ways kinetic and connective spells. By the end of this class you will feel emboldened and empowered to take any toy and turn it into a ritual tool of power and sensation.

 

To the Bone: Tools & Tricks

Bones are at the core of our being literally. These intricate internal cages continue to retain their power post mortem, as physical objects with incredible options for the application of sensation, channeling intent, and creation of tools. Explore the historical significance of bones as relics and divination tools, and make your own decisions as to what spirits may echo back into your awareness. Learn about species-specific shamanic qualities with hands-on access to a plethora of bones while soaking up a range of options for primal empowerment. Discuss ways to honorably claim the spiritual impact of a primal affiliation without perpetuating poisons of cultural appropriation, commodification, and erasure. Proper collection, cleaning techniques, and construction will be demonstrated, concluding in an introduction to bone carving for the incorporation of personal sigils in your sacred play.

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Instruments: Musical & Magickal

As we ache for sunshine in the deep of winter, it is the shadow that dances with us and begs to play. Add a little light into your practice with the power of sound! Learn how to make your own rattles and drums using foraged objects and conscious craft supplies, and dive into a conversation about music as a communal instinct and a method of emotional storytelling. Listen to the rhythms in your body to unleash primal joy or trapped pains in the stillness of meditation or in consensual sadistic exchange. Somatic techniques will help curate skills for auditory play as well as how to balance (and manipulate) heartbeat and breath as intentional tools for ecstatic experience. Discuss urban applications for impromptu access to empowerment, and explore the potential of the human body as an instrument. Give yourself permission to feel expanded, loud, and alive, and take away skills and tools to complement the rhythms you already write in your connections with others and your rawest self.