Master Taino’s definitions of Master and slave:

“A Master is a very special and unique human being who craves to take responsibility for the well-being, growth and development of his slaves.”

“A slave is a very special and unique human being who craves to surrender in service and obedience to the Master he trusts and respects.”

On Mastery:

“The Master is overall the owner of his slaves. A good Master assumes full responsibility for the well-being of His property. As slaves crave to serve and obey, Masters crave to take that responsibility over Their slaves and to make a difference in their lives so they can be a real reflection of their Owners. The focus of Mastery should go beyond the dominance – the BDSM, the sex, the use. A Master should never ignore the other dimensions of the relationship. Mastery is not only about what the slave can bring to enhance the Master’s life. The Master does have a great responsibility when He takes on a slave. The Master has to plan for the future of the slaves beyond His own passing. As in many other things, to be a Master, one needs to have the calling and the heart. Many of us have known that since We were in Our early teens.”

On slavery:

“A slave is a precious human being born with a slave heart, born to serve and find his own happiness in serving his Owner. Serving his Master/Owner makes a slave’s life fulfilled and complete. The slave deserves the respect of his Master. There is a common misconception that slaves are underachievers, losers, loners, uneducated, etc. What makes a great slave is his inner need to be subservient; one can be a great slave, and still be highly successful in his career and other areas of life. A slave is the most precious property a Master can have. slaves should not be treated like shit… after all, why would a Master want to own shit?”

On the slave’s humanity:

“For years, slaves in our community were thought of as not humans or less-than-human. No matter how submissive a slave is, a good Master will never forget that the slave is a human being with feelings and needs. The fact that a slave places his Master’s feelings and needs first doesn’t mean he doesn’t have any himself. A Master should pay attention to His slave’s needs and feelings. On that line of thought, this Master does not believe slaves should refer to themselves as “it”, as if they are a thing, not a human being. This Master supports the slaves referring to themselves in the third person, but using the term “slave” and not “it”.”

On mentoring the new generation:

“Each Master has a responsibility to mentor new slave boys coming out… the new generation and the future of our community. Too many boys have bad experiences when they decide they want to explore the Master/slave or BDSM lifestyles. A single bad experience can damage a boy forever. It’s the responsibility of every Master to make sure this does not happen. The new generation has the right to be mentored, trained, and taught in a way that provides them with positive experiences. Too many Masters take advantage of vulnerable boys eager to learn. The Master/slave lifestyle is a great way of life and the essence of our lives, and we have to be responsible and teach about it in a correct and caring manner.”

On Master/slave relationships:

“The Master/slave relationship involves one of the strongest bonds that can exist in any relationship. For the slave, the opportunity to submit, to surrender, to relinquish control, to please, to serve, to obey, to honor, and to trust his Master and Owner is extremely powerful. For the Master, to take full responsibility of His slave’s well-being, and the opportunity to guide, help, control, love, care and nurture the slave is also powerful. For this Master, making a positive difference in a slave’s life is the best reward.”

On the Leather Family:

“A Master’s philosophy usually grows out of His own background, training, and experiences. Some Masters have a military background, and for Them, strict discipline and structure constitute the core of their Mastery. Others, myself included, come from a background of strong family values. Some of us have had the opportunity to raise children ourselves. For those Masters, strong family experiences earlier in life grew naturally into a desire to create a leather family. This leather family concept is a perfect fit for slaves that just need a place to belong. One of my first slaves told me once that what he cherishes most is ‘when we sit down at the table together as a family.’”

On abusive mastery:

“In our Master/slave community, we face a significant problem with Masters who take advantage of their slaves. I call it ‘bad mastery’. The abuse is sometimes physical, but more often it is emotional, and increasingly financial. Some Masters take advantage of their slaves financially by forcing them to relinquish their pay check and financial assets for the Master’s profit. And when the slave needs to move on, he has nothing. This type of exploitation is both immoral and wrong. As my mentor Master Steve tight me, a slave has to contribute to the household in a fair manner but a Master should never profit financially from the slave. slaves need to be empowered to identify a Master’s inappropiate behavior or abuse, and they need to act accordingly – either by avoiding the situation altogether or by getting out as quickly as possible.”

On fantasy versus reality:

“We all begin by having our own fantasies. But there are two kind of fantasies: those that we can be made a reality and those that are not real. Some fantasies are not healthy, and some can be dangerous. slaves may fantasize about serving the Master of their dreams, but if they are not careful they can spend their whole lives waiting to meet a Master that does not exist in reality. Other fantasies, such as being kidnapped against one’s will, being in a cage 24/7, being kept isolated from the real world, and so forth, are for the most part scenes that cannot be carried out as a real lifestyle on an on-going and permanent basis.”

Points of view that Master Taino shares:

About Leather Family:

“Just what is a “leather family?” This is the group of people who care about us enough to share the important feelings and experiences that come with living life. For me, this always includes the leather/SM/fetish parts of myself. With these people, we can be ourselves and not feel the need to hide the important parts of ourselves. They discover and like the fact that we are good people and that we have good intentions…. Our values about what is important in life are similar enough to create respect and tolerance for those differences that inevitably emerge in all relationships. We cherish each other in different degrees at different times.”

Guy Baldwin, Ties That Bind

“Give me half a dozen hunky, honest, open men, free of guilt and shame. Men whom I can trust, who will listen and respond. I’d like a good fuck now and again, but what really matters is the relationship. My family will be comfortable whether clad in leather, buck naked, or dressed for the symphony. We’ll share the rent and dishes. Each will have a rightful place at the table. Masters will rule; slaves will serve. The only acceptable limits will be our own potential. We’ll be true to our inner selves within each other. To expect perfect harmony is unrealistic, but we will face disagreements with mutual respect and crises with love. For families are for growth and challenge as well as solace and comfort.”

Jack Rinella, The Master’s Manual

The call to submission:

“…some of us choose it because we must do it; because no other pursuit makes any sense to us. We choose it because we don’t — perhaps can’t — feel nearly as much passion about anything else. And passion is like a butterfly, hovering above the fields of life in bloom. It has a will of its own. The issue then is whether to surrender to and honor the place where our passion leads us, or whether to deny it, ignore it, turn away and force our lives to turn aside towards another destination. But for some of us, it is our passion that dictates our destiny.

“All this is a preamble to making my point that, for some of us, our passion alights on the flower of submission. And when it does so, we must face the same decision faced by all passionate people: whether to acknowledge and honor passion’s call or not.”

Guy Baldwin, SlaveCraft

Heart of slave:

A slave is an individual born with a slave spirit. No one can make an individual have this spirit; nothing can be dome to create this state in an individual’s being. No one trying hard or wishing for this sense of spirit can develop it within themselves and no Master can cause it to occur. slave is an extraordinary human being who is born with this slate spirit – as much as they are born to breathe, or have gifted talents like design or music. A slave is extraordinary, rare and most often confused until they discover their slave spirit heart. Most slaves wander through life feeling unfulfilled – as if they have a “dark hole” in their spirit – a hole that can be temporarily filled with an abundance of sex, work, addictive behavior or other whole-life-consuming factors. slaves often have a sense of the spiritual (some become clergy), but feel this sense of spiritual awareness to be disconnected from their desire for a Mastery/slavery relationship. A slave has a right to feel joy and pride in their slavery and in service to a Master.

Master Steve, Butchmanns SM Academy

Heart of Master:

“A Master is an individual born with a spiritual sense of presence and connectedness. No one can make an individual a Master except that individual his or herself – in their own growth process in becoming centered and growing into a state of connectedness in the universe. A Master is an individual who feels incomplete without the love and service of an individual with heart of slave.

Master Steve, Butchmanns SM Academy

slavery requires bravery:

“If you’re not courageous enough to make yourself take the risks, then i suggest that you go out and insert yourself into programs designed to help you find your own bravery within yourself. If you are too frightened to proceed toward the realization of your slave passion, then the acquisition of this courage must be the first part of your preparation for the journey into submission.

“There is no shame in being fearful. It is only a shame to remain so. And this shame in esteem-killing and destroys integrity and self-respect. Who can afford that? Besides, what worthwhile Master wants to try things with a slave wannabe who is paralyzed by his fears and has no self-respect? It is not that you must do away with all fear. It is that you must find enough courage within yourself to prevent your fears from paralyzing you to the point where you will be unable to submit enough to actively seek your bliss in surrender.

“Each of us who hears the call of slavehood must accept responsibility for our fears about it and wrestle with those fears.”

Guy Baldwin, SlaveCraft

a slave speaks!

“Do you really believe the old stereotype of the submissive as being someone of no worth, a plaything to be used and abused at will by the Dominant? Did you come to the lifestyle with an extreme case of low self-esteem, believing that you are so worthless you deserved to be misused? Think again. That stereotype is the furthest thing from the truth. Being a submissive requires intelligence, a deep sense of self worth, coupled with a strong desire to care and serve the one you love.

If you take all the words that are used to describe the various type of submissives, be it boy, boi, girl, slave, submissive or bottom, you can’t find the letters to make up “worthless”, “ignorant”, or “piece of shit”.

late slave bob harris, property of Master Doug Harris

My kind of slave:

“I want a slave who is creative, resourceful and imaginative. I like a powerful, capable slave, because his power and capabilities, submitted to me, make me more powerful and capable…. He will bring to the dungeon the same sort of creativity. I like to get inside a bottom’s head and play around a bit. It makes for a very short evening when there is little or nothing inside to play with. He will want to please me, and I will want to give him every reason to continue to obey my every command and serve my every wish. He is to be a cherished and protected possession.”

Robert Davolt, Practical Slavery, Drummer Magazine

Obedience:

“…in the context of serving the One we have chosen to give ourselves to – of serving. The Master, our obedience can eventually become independent of all, or almost all, of these other things. i think it is safe to say that the usual goal for slaves who have given themselves to Him is that our obedience become absolute, automatic, instinctive, and immediate, given the limitations of our bodies.

“For slaves, our obedience determines what can be enjoyed. It determines our self-esteem and pleasure. It connects us. It gives us purpose. It protect us. It validates us. i have come to believe that obedience is the very spirit of slavery; it is the special charisma of slave creatures. Obedience is the structural steel of our slave identity, and the spine of a slave’s conviction. Obedience alone determines what is right and what is wrong. It frees a slave to be what only a slave can be – one whose will has been replaced by that of another. Obedience is usually the single most important concern of a slave, and this frees us from almost all other concerns. It is the overarching principle through which right and wrong is assessed by us, and by Those we serve.

“The slave in perfect obedience neither offers nor reserves anything. His only obligation, his concern, his evaluation criteria, his only question, his only satisfaction is from determining if he obeyed.

Guy Baldwin, SlaveCraft

Thoughts on ownership:

“Ownership of another human being is both an honour and a responsibility. The honour is to be entrusted with another’s life by someone who, giving informed consent, makes an adult decision to allow their well-being to be in the care of another. The responsibility is living up to that trust, and making sure to take the appropriate care.

Ownership is not something to take lightly by either party. For the one who would be owned, it requires a good deal of faith. For the one who would own another, it means being sure that your own person and affairs are in order.”

Cyd Athens

What slaves need:

“…the things that feed and strengthen a slave’s slavery: things like direction, discipline, and service… Ideally, what slaves need – whether they’re aware of wanting it or not! – is clear direction, firm goals, consistent rules, unambiguous orders. And it takes a Master with great presence of mind, intelligence, self-control, and self-under standing to provide that kind of environment…. slavery is a demanding, challenging vocation, or calling, and its challenges cannot end once the slaves enter into service with a Master… a slave needs to feel, overall, that he is fulfilling his potential for service, or he will not remain content in his slavery for long…

slaves need to look out for ourselves in terms of making sure that our needs for direction, discipline, and service get fulfilled.

slave david stein, “What slaves need…”

About talking and being proud:

“Learning to talk together has not been easy for leather and SM people for exactly the same reasons that it was hard for lesbians and gay men to learn to talk together in the ‘50s and ‘60s. You see, kinky people, like gay people, are only supposed to do it in secret, in private, in fear, in self loathing, and most of all, in silence. An so we did. For a very long time. Until now.”

Guy Baldwin, Ties That Bind