Faith - Where I am Led (by Julala)

The definition of "Faith" gives us two main avenues to explore in its relevance to D/s.

noun
[mass noun]

1. complete trust or confidence in someone or something
2. strong belief in the doctrines of a religion, based on spiritual conviction rather than proof

Let us start with the first of these two.  Complete trust or confidence in someone or something.

There are many that would say this would be a wonderfully positive trait of a submissive to have in their Mistress or Master.  In fact, one could argue that in order to give oneself to another, one would surely have to have complete trust or confidence in that person.  How foolish would it be to give yourself to someone that you had not complete trust or confidence in?

But....is it unrealistic to consider having complete trust in someone?  When we discussed Trust, it was widely accepted that trust is layered and that whilst we would require certain "must have" elements of trust in that person we might not trust "completely" in order to take steps towards submission and that it would be something that grew - not that was given as a whole.  

If this is the case....if we choose to submit to someone that we do not implicitly and completely trust in every aspect of life and being....is that in itself the act of faith?  The leap of faith.  The belief that it will be ok.  Is that rather a faith in the relationship rather than the person? or indeed faith in something completely different...

Faith can give strength, can give comfort.  Faith can keep you going when nothing else can.  Faith can kill, can break your heart, can save your life.  Faith is an undeniably powerful thing.

Faith is a rare loving strength that is a blessing to have even when it hurts to keep it.

Christina Parker, Where I am Led

The second definition of faith gives us something else to consider.  How much do we see D/s as a "belief system" in itself?  I was at a discussion last night and among other things we were talking about how much more we consider our values as part of a D/s relationship than we ever did in a vanilla relationship.  That is not to say that the values are different...but that we perhaps spend more time considering them, reflecting upon them and talking about them (I certainly never went to discussions about such things during my vanilla relationships).  We do, in D/s, tend to have a defined set of desirable values and qualities in the people and the relationships and the community.  Nobody can deny that familiar topics for discussion will include Trust, Honour, Love, Service, Obedience, etc.   It came to my mind though that there are other communities that get together to talk about values, and to reflect upon them - that base their relationships on standards and values that have been defined and are actively encouraged among their fellow [insert religion here].

So....how much faith do you have in D/s as a chosen [yikes I'm going to say that word] lifestyle?  Is it D/s as a way of living in a relationship that you have belief in? Have you found that you have lost faith in D/s?  

Danger tends to lurk when the second definition of faith starts to merge with the first.  When one develops a trust and confidence in someone purely because of our strong belief in the D/s religion lifestyle/values.  "He is Master, therefore I must obey, therefore when He tells me to lay down in the road I will, and I will take joy in it",  "She is Mistress, therefore I belong to Her and only Her and so when She denies me seeing my friends and my family I know She is doing it for my best interest and I accept it with joy".  Yes, we hear such things......yes, some of us may have thought such things, yes we might have thought that this was the "done thing", the way it must be if you want to be a "true submissive".  Blind faith can be dangerous in every context.  But is not blind faith....the only type of faith there is?  

“A casual stroll through the lunatic asylum shows that faith does not prove anything.”

― Friedrich Nietzsche

Please do join us on Monday (24th June) at 12pm SLT at the Temple of Discussion on Respect sim. Discussion is voice led but text also very welcome. Everyone welcome.

These Monday discussions are loosely using the service exploration workbook "Where I am Led" by Christina Parker as a point of reference. You do not need to have read or even seen the book to fully participate in the discussion.