These two ladies are for me the Lewis and Clark of the naked soul. In biker leathers flogger in hand they seem to go after that spiritual world that shows up sometimes when hot sex meets hot love. As a reader, this is quite a confession for me, a pretty much vanilla non-practicing BDSMer with a seminary studies background in mystical theology. I'm still somewhat surprised that this theme keeps showing up in what I read of late; this Divine Eros, even the Eros Maniakos spoken of by holy men of the monastic desert in the Christian East, men and women going all out for God. I see the same thread in Easton and Hardy except they are not afraid to have some naughty fun along the way. My spiritual side keeps coming back to their head scratching edgy sex, feeling strongly that there's a connection there that is almost religious and most certainly in touch with the Divine.
Such is the power of orgasmic bliss these two women explore in Radical Ecstasy. Theirs is a serious and athletic climb mixed in with heart-felt compassion and friendship and an intense desire for more that goes for both pleasure and healing at the same time. If you're like me, knowing for certain somebody dropped you off at this party broken and you'd like to leave whole, maybe this book is for you.
Both words in the title hooked me. Ecstasy? Radical? Give me both. And what of that Kundalini snake running up and down the spine of that naked lady on the cover? What's not to like here for the spiritual traveler? For the many neophyte kinkster voyeurs just tuning in around us, those who have ventured as far perhaps as having spanked a lover but once or twice as an experiment, this book will shock and awe perhaps. Yet so many are exploring now various doors into the realm dark eros, braving entrance into the leather world. Maybe this spiritual book is for those with a churchy past? And why not? Like many of us, my experience with dark side sex and kink has been the last ten awful years of a formerly good marriage. And many do come to the party as watchers rather than doers, the intrigue for many may well be the spiritual part as much as the edgy sex. And what could be more fun than coming to the game looking for steamy sex and finding God, too?
I've long identifying as a sensual person seeking a soul connection. Shadow work has kept my interest through the years as a bookophile starting back when I encountered Plato in his Republic in college. Indeed, shadow, shadow on the wall, which is the real and which is the illusion? Hardy and Easton explore this question cover to cover.
If you liked the extreme honesty and passion of Ethical Slut, you'll see Radical Ecstasy is equally honest. Both of them reference an erotic pursuit that is almost monastic in its severity. I've toured and retreated at many a monastery from California to the Middle East and find it not all that much of a stretch to see an Easton/Hardy connection with the intensity of fasting and asceticism found there. And also, oddly, in BDSM in general, not unlike for me are the severe activities of say, kneeling on a rock for a thousand days as saints have done. And why do spiritual folk do such severe things with their bodies, be they these authors or saints? Because they want at any price to be close, near to their Beloved, be he or she as lover human or Divine. Powerful for me was the devotion, friendship and spiritual pursuit found here in the deep relationship between these two women: it's the main pith of their tale.
If tears and sweat and howls and pain and naked skin mixed in with scare-the-crap-out-of-you fear of embracing the Divine makes you queasy, stay far from this book. These are two dangerous ladies. But let's say you've a wound or two that is painful and runs soul deep and you want real bad to reach that wound and find healing. And let's say you've got an open mind to what tools are permissible to add to your toolbox. Then read this book. But you've got to want to go deep. And you've got to be willing to not even care if you look good going there. Risk this book. It will give you some new religion to mix in with your old perhaps. I'd also read their excellent When Somebody You Love Is Kinky. If you've a serious spiritual side, you might just find that the particular someone in your quest is yourself.
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- R C CookeReviewed in the United Kingdom on August 18, 2013
Wish I'd been able to read this years ago
Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase - yetanotheruserReviewed in Germany on January 14, 2019
This book is about nothing in particular
Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase
