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Workshop: Zen in semenawa with Saara Rei (2017)

One way to think of zen is a total state of focus that incorporates a total togetherness of body and mind.

Semenawa can be defined as rope that creates a feeling of helplessness and endurance, often with the use of pain and discomfort.

In both Zen and Semenawa a key is the practice of letting go. Letting go of comparing the present experience with experiences from the past or future. No longer attempting to change the present, but accepting it while still being responsible for one’s emotional and physical well-being. Practicing this paradox is the theme of this weekend.

Semenawa can bring the height of dramatic expression and the depth of trust. It teaches us to slow down and tune into a universe of intimate nonverbal communication. The beauty of semenawa is the raw emotions that form a strong bond of trust and vulnerability between the top and the bottom.

People often ask why one would like to be tied or tie another person. The answer is always vulnerability in the polarity between surrender and holding power. When done in a consensual and loving way it empowers intimacy, healing, and growth.

Eve Arm – Today I saw a dragon (2017)

Today I met the pain
Raw, strong and fierce
And suffering had to leave
Through the magic of letting go

Today, I met with shame
Through humiliation and enjoyment
It welcomed and already had to leave
Was in a hurry to visit other’s homes

Today, I met with my shadow
And it was not so scary
One step closer to freedom
Shadow has been diffused by light

Today I saw a dragon
Spitting flames in the evening sky
Stretching wings stretched out over the sea
Witnessed only by few boats

Chorus:
This is Freedom
This is Life
Hand in hand with sadness, anger and joy
Hand in hand with pain and with blaze of pleasure
This is Freedom
This is Life
All feelings are OK

Fredlig beröring och lekfullhet (2012/SWE)

Another writing early writing on playfullness and play parties from the early days, written in Swedish.

“Let’s try a metaphor. Imagine a human being as an artichoke. The artichoke’s tough, spiny leaves are the innumerable shields we put up to defend that which is must tender and sought after – the heart. We can tear tan artichoke’s leaves off to get at its heart, just as we can attack a person; but there is a much easier and more effective way. If we steam the artichoke, it surrenders its leaves, exposing and sharing its heart with us. In the same way, play does not attack a person’s defences. Play creates an environment in which we drop our shields and share our tender human heart, which is what we all want in the first place. But if our shields are ripped off from the outside, we try to build even stronger ones. In play we interact heart to heart, without any of our cultural separations.”

“What motivates some people to forego security and explore outside the cultural limits? We must believe that faith, that life is more than we are told, that it goes beyond the ordinary cultural means to give. The power of play lives in its timeless pattern of sharing. It does not seek to obliterate or transform differences. It allows for interaction because it operates on a deeper level where there are no differences that make a differences.”

“We must somehow trust that there will be something to hold us if we let go of the sociocultural norms within which we are enmeshed. Constantly confronted as we are with the uncertainty and mystery of life, we may know that total security is illusory. But illusion or not, we think and act as if our culture is a security blanket. To conceive of coming out from under it requires fearlessness.”

Manifesto: We Are Play (2012/SWE)

We Are Play was one of my early projects to explore BDSM and sexuality in a playful way. I did together with my friend Denice. This was our manifesto written in Swedish.

Play party: BJUDNINGEN (2012/SWE)

Another of my early play parties on theme a decadent dinner, and what happens when hosts, guests, servants, and entertainers meet. The description is written in Swedish.

Play party: MAKT (2012/SWE)

One of my first play parties with the theme POWER, and our relationship to it. What will you do with the power, and what does the power do with you. The description in written in Swedish.

Play Party: GRÄNSLANDET (2015)

GRÄNSLANDET (the in-between space in Swedish) was a public play party that I organized twice during 2o15. My ambition was to explore the exhibtionism and voyeurism in erototism. The space offered around 20 miniatur stage defined by stage lighting in a dark space. To focus on the present experience, all talk was banned outside the stages. This create an audience witnessing the play. The first party had 100 visitors, and the second one 300. I wanted to use live musicians that could adapt to the room, and artist drawing what was happening as an form of documentation. I decided to not repeat the experience until I had something to – to go deeper.

Dark woods, dark emotions (2018)

What does bondage look like in Japan? What is the aesthetic that we inspire to reach? These amazing photos by Ken Buslay speaks that to me. The decaying forest. The suffering body. Raw.

Ängsbacka Tantrafestival (2017)

I’m known for teaching “tantric ropes” but what is that really? More focus on giving time and space to experience what is going on. And less focus on achieving something. Maybe. Here are some photos from the Tantrafestival at Ängsbacka 2017.

Workshop: GRÄNSLANDET (2015/SWE)

This was an eight week long course that I made to teach the, for me, most important skills to have a interaction in a play space. It was ran three times during 2016 and 2017.

Workshop: The Play Party Retreat with Saara Rei (2017)

A play party is then a party where (in this case) adults come together to play. But how do we come together to play together? Answering this question for ourselves is what this retreat is all about. In this workshop, we will use techniques from theater, dance, BDSM, tantra, and ritual play to come together as a group to form two play parties of our collective, playful desire.