The Magical Power of Rope: Rope & Consent Workshop

This workshop is both for people who are completely new and curious about working with rope and people who have already experienced the amazing world of rope and all the different states and effects that playing and working with rope on the body can give you as the person being tied and the person tying.

Living in a fast society where we are constantly in our heads makes that many people are disconnected from their bodies and with that, their physical, emotional, and mental state. When we ‘play’ with rope, we take the time to connect with our bodies, each other, our boundaries, and our desires. We slow down and focus only on what is happening in ‘the now’, in our bodies, and our minds (most people who get tied say this is the only time their mind is ‘still’ or ‘empty’). Being tied can also bring up emotions that can be felt because we can’t run away from them when we are tied. This way old emotions, trauma, and other feelings we don’t allow to surface can be worked through turning some rope sessions into a cathartic experience. This whole workshop focuses on both the experience of the rigger (the person tying) and the model (the person being tied).

THE ROPE & CONSENT WORKSHOP HAS TWO PARTS

PART ONE:

Is built up of three building blocks resembling the three parts of any rope session followed by a demo.

1. Consent and Check-in

This section of our workshop is a fundamental part of every rope session and we strongly believe that it actually should be a basis for every (sexual and non-sexual) deep connective interaction. In fact, out of all the three main blocks, we believe this is truly the most important one. This is basically a “negotiation” where, with utterly high respect and no judgment, we agree on all things needed for a SAFE and TRUSTWORTHY experience.

First things first: We’ll do a self-check-in on what our physical and mental states are.
Then we will take turns expressing and communicating our boundaries which should be respected and honored at every point, the invitation for our desires to be fulfilled (Or not! Remember, expressing a desire does not grant ANYONE consent straight away!) and lastly our expectations and needs for safety and aftercare we would always want to make sure are fulfilled and some tips and tricks.

We’ll be guiding this in a small set of exercises, building up the intensity. This might sound like a ‘put off’ in the first place as you might be EAGER to get down to playing with ropes already, but with practice, you’ll soon realize how liberating it is that the more you practice, the more you can put your hidden desires into words, and even more importantly, understand the power of setting boundaries.

You might be familiar with either the RBDSM or the Wheel of Consent frameworks, which we’ll implement slightly adjusted to and for the ropes!

2. Working with rope

The goal of this section is to learn the power of the ropes as a tool to conduct a connective and communicative session. We will break it down into a few distinctive parts.

First of all, we will start with some fundamentals of the ropes; some basic knots and concepts for first-timers, and tips and tricks for the more advanced rope enthusiasts. This won’t be the main goal of this section, as those basics are only mastered through hours and hours of practice, but will be giving some directions and “quick-starter” steps.

We will then work on different styles (based on the four elements) and explore how to incorporate different energies into the play; reflecting on how all these might help induce or conduct the session in the directions that have been beforehand agreed, triggering different feelings and emotions, etc.

3. Aftercare

Aftercare is very important as the rope can bring both the rigger (person doing the tying) and the model (person being tied) into different states of consciousness. The check-in that we do in the first phase of this workshop will be linked to the aftercare too. Here we explain what is important after a rope session.

PART TWO:

Complete Rope Session
When we have explained the three building blocks: consent and check-in, rope fundamentals, and aftercare, it’s time to dive into a complete rope session! To practice all the things you’ve learned, get creative, and have lots of fun!

If you have questions, feel free to contact us through: ourarcanatribe@gmail.com and if you want to know more about us then check out our website: https://www.arcanatribe.com/about-arcana We would love to see you there!

💛☀️🤗
Nanouk & David

Ps. This event will be in English but also has Dutch support if needed!
This event includes: 5 hour-workshop, drinks, and snacks, 1 professional 10-meter rope per person.