The
Temple of Aphrodite places the dungeon within the context of a temple
dedicated to the practice of all the sensual arts. As with the Roman
Bath, moving from hot to cold and back again, the temple facilitates
the ecstatic experience by offering the opportunity for explicit
eroticism in a safe and beautiful environment. When the psyche has
been opened and changed through discipline and torment, it can be
reassured and stabilized through erotic pleasure. After the thorns,
for a while, the petals, perhaps with the inevitability of more thorns
to come.
The
temple is, above all, a place of loving sexuality. It is a safe place
for women to bring their lovers or be by themselves to explore their
erotic potential within a ritualized spiritual setting. The temple
priestesses serve in the same role as the dungeon master, ensuring
that inappropriate or disruptive behavior is dealt with immediately.
Practitioners
are greeted with a simple, beautiful ritual of cleansing, reminded
of the intent of the space, anointed, and invited to enter. The outer
temple is place of quiet exploration. Hugging, touching, gentleness.
You may stay there for your entire visit, but there is also the inner
temple beckoning. There, you may go further. As far as you want within
the limits of respect for others in the space and for your partner(s).
Remember this is a place of ecstasy, and of finding the transformative
spiritual power of that experience.
