Setting My Intention to Honor My Man

1. Stand as a Courtesan. Trust in your Presence. Draw him in with your desire. Prepare for his arrival. Let him come in his own time. Enjoy your endeavors.

2.Listen for how to love him. Care and he will begin to trust you. Offer compassion and he will reveal himself. Hear him and you will know what he yearns for.

3. Appreciate who he is. See him for more than his appearance, for more than what he does, for more than how much money he makes, for more than what he can give you. See him -- past your judgments, expectations, prejudice and family history. See him -- as Divine. Believe in him. Give him back to himself.

4. Captivate him with your pleasure and your passion for life. Model everything. Slow him down. Awaken his senses. Intrigue him with a possibility. Arouse his desire. Take your pleasure.

5. Take him beyond what he knows. Explore and appreciate the intimacy of his body. Expand the boundaries of his mind. Initiate his union with the Divine.
Receive him completely. Love him unconditionally. Drink him into your soul.

6. Embrace his vulnerability. Let him rest in your arms. Accept his gift.

7. Let him go in deep love. Surrender to the experience. Express your deep gratitude. Trust your mark on his soul. Let him know he is free.

And so I shall try.

What about you? How do you bring out the hero within your partner? How can we love and support, rather than belittle and denigrate?

from Jill Rogers’ Seven Sacred Steps

A courtesan's bold confession

Dangerous Beauty Monologue: A Bold Confession

A Venetian courtesan becomes a hero to her city, but later becomes the target of an inquisition by the Church for witchcraft. This is Veronica Franco's bold confession at the trial.

"I confess as a girl I loved a man who would not marry me for want of a dowry. I confess I had a mother who taught me a different way of life. One I resisted at first but learned to embrace. I confess I became a courtesan. Traded yearning for power, welcomed many rather than be owned by one. I confess I embraced a whore's freedom over a wife's obedience. [Inquisitor: This is not repentance.] What am I to do? I must confess my evil as the church instructs. These are my sins. I confess I find more ecstasy in passion than in prayer. I confess I confess I pray still to feel the touch of my lover's lips, his hands upon me, his arms enfolding me. Such surrender has been mine. I confess I hunger still to be filled and inflamed. To melt into the dream of us beyond this troubled place to where we are not even ourselves. To know that always, always this is mine. If this had not been mine, if I had lived another way a child to a husband's whim my soul hardened from lack of touch and lack of love... I confess such endless days and nights would be punishment greater than any you could mete out. You, all of you, who hunger for what I give but cannot bear to see such power in a woman, you call God's greatest gift, ourselves, our yearning, our need to love, you call it filth and sin and heresy. [Inquisitor: Enough. One last time before you are condemned: Do you repent or not?] I repent there was no other way open to me. I do not repent my life."

from the movie Dangerous Beauty