I wish we had as much presence in our daily life as we have in a rope session.
There are infinite possibilities around time and space frames in art worlds, and in my rope experiences I do also consider there are some intrinsic artistic manifestations, but what is art? We may question therefore… It can be creativity’s materialization (in my perspective), it’s allowing our imaginary to expand and unfold its infinite creative potential, but creativity is so present in everyday life as in claimed artworks, it just exists in another frequency, in thinner fragments that our perception captures when it’s awakened, connected and aware.
In the speed of life it loses it’s place, presence is absorbed by thousands of stimulation that we’re constantly submitted to, willingly or not. So it seems to me that it requires some state of meditation or emptiness, so that everything-ness can exist and be witnessed, integrated.
The artistic journey mostly requires the artist to go through different stages of perception while pure creative impulses seed something into this reality. These stages unveil the layers of being, unbecoming, like an onion peeling through each artwork, every act and impulse of creation guides the journey of the soul to the present, where all the mindful logic of material reality loses its potential purpose and the words fade with the numbers.
As in ropes, the journey can research on veils between body, mind and soul and how somatic work reconnects them through conscious experiences. I would avoid talking about pain in ropes as the first topic when I approach Shibari in this reflection, but I’m speaking about em(body)ment. So, a lot of this experience actually starts when our neo-cortex maps physical pain and uses this information to protect us by blocking the amount, intensity and frequency of pain’s blueprint in our experience, allowing us to get closer to “out of body experiences” in extreme body practices frames.
Not only in suspension we get to touch these states, the rope itself is a energetic channel and its tension, speed and texture, are feelings that awaken ancestral memories, since rope is one of the most primal human inventions and it is deeply rooted in the collective consciousness. Also, the breath becomes conscious when we’re tied, and for me that’s a direct tool to presence: breathwork.
One of the most known and researched Shibari structures is the Takate Kote, which consists of hands tied on the back, a torso-blocking chest harness style — this structure is for me one of the most interesting in terms of deprivation of senses, since it restricts the body but also the breath, becoming a key to conscious breathing and presence. And there we are… could add all the rope I wished, or the first touch of rope could actually be enough to bring you Here and Now.
As complete as undone, while time starts to slow down.
So much of “human beingness” rests in the tight entangled skin, overcoming the pressure of ropes on the body, drifting out of feelings like gravity. The space is framed by the rigger, who now holds the thread that connects both to the “real” reality.
It takes such sensibility, no rush, non-verbal communication to explore those realms, the only way is to meet in presence, where breath synchronizes, all the macro sounds and micro movements are information. From physical to intellectual and emotional information. The quality of presence is dependent on personal connection, technical skills, and spiritual sovereignty.
When rope is approached as a ritual (a repeated, structured sequence of actions or behaviors that alters the internal or external state of an individual, group, or environment, regardless of conscious understanding, emotional context, or symbolic meaning) we choose the experience through will power, meaning that it’s something we look for, it’s a choice, therefore it’s easier for us to be present, sensitive, open… so are we living with will or with unchosen patterned behaviors? When we lose presence in our rushed daily basis, launched into mind-labyrinths of our problems and jobs, we don’t really get close to what’s just here and now. So what is the purpose of our tasks besides surviving?
For me ritualism is also presence and sensibility, as in meditation, music, dance, food, walking in the forest… as tying the fingers and lips, grasping ropes into the skin, veins and bones… as smelling, tasting… and reading the story of another human being, reminding each other to breathe out of time, to just be, raw. And to enjoy every little fragment of that present.
Mush love,
Amanita