Worship

[Sunshyneee]

Worship.
It’s a loaded term filled with meaning, both secular and religious. Merriam-Webster defines worship as “to honor or show reverence for as a divine being or supernatural power” and “to regard with great or extravagant respect, honor, or devotion.” Kink, at its best, transcends both definitions. But what does it mean to worship another human as a god while maintaining your belief in their humanity?
For me, worship is at its purest when language ceases and touch rules an interaction. It’s when I’m on my knees in nothing more than my underwear, slowly, reverently, dutifully pressing my tongue and lips to their boots before my kisses scale their calves and my hands find their thighs. I stay as long as they’ll have me, and then I start again. From the top. From the bottom. Left leg. Right leg. Wherever they direct me, I use my touch to help them see their value and their worth and to feel my adoration and gratitude for being allowed to worship at their feet. 
It’s the closest I come to subspace, that promised land of an empty mind and relaxed body. So much of kink revolves around the submissive’s pleasure, but it isn’t until my pleasure is removed from the equation that I can fully submit. When I worship my Dom, tongue pressed against the warm leather of their boots, fingers kneading the sore muscles of their legs—everything disappears. All that’s left is the deep sense of rightness that blooms when I kneel at their feet and worship the pieces of their body that they allow me to touch. 
Sometimes, that touch becomes less gentle. It becomes the rocking of hips over their boots as my hands continue their ministrations, a moan escaping me as their hand dips inside their jeans. Worship creates a space for my Dom to take as much pleasure as they want and need. When I’m in this space, their pleasure subsumes mine. I’m not turned on because they’re touching me; I’m turned on because I experience their pleasure as my own. 
In that way, worship is not so different than service—albeit heightened. I give myself with no expectation of return because my love and adoration move me in that way. It may seem contrary, but worship is the time in which I’m mostly clearly able to see my Dom. When I worship them, it’s because they are worthy of it, and a human in need of it, to remind them of their strength and their power and their worthiness.
Worship asks what I’m willing to give, and I find myself answering everything. And for those five, ten, fif*** minutes when I’m nothing but lips on black leather boots and hands on jean-clad legs, I know no other truth. 

[Deleted Member]

You know, the concept of worship makes me question whether I am actually submissive. I can't conceive of actual worship as I understand the term (and I think you described it pretty well) because it implies a ... well a subservience I just don't feel. To me, it puts the person/ thing/ concept being worshipped on a level with a god, and I just can't put anyone that high above myself. Pride, and all that.

I enjoy doing cock worship, but I think that's something different. To me, that's laving attention and seeking not to bring my Dominant to orgasm, but just to pleasure. I couldn't do that to boots, as in the example you gave, because I don't really like feet and shoes are dirty lol but also because it's not sexual so much as subservience.

Maybe that's it? Maybe I can offer sexual submission but not personal? Does that make me a bad submissive? Does that make me "not a real submissive"? No idea. Thoughts welcome. But I am fairly certain that I couldn't bring myself to "worship" my Dominant as a whole.

[Deleted Member]

(Also I'm so glad you posted this interesting topic, because I'd be lamenting a lack of deep discussion around the site recently, and this made me happy).

[Sunshyneee]

52 minutes ago, Charmander said:

You know, the concept of worship makes me question whether I am actually submissive. I can't conceive of actual worship as I understand the term (and I think you described it pretty well) because it implies a ... well a subservience I just don't feel. To me, it puts the person/ thing/ concept being worshipped on a level with a god, and I just can't put anyone that high above myself. Pride, and all that.

I enjoy doing cock worship, but I think that's something different. To me, that's laving attention and seeking not to bring my Dominant to orgasm, but just to pleasure. I couldn't do that to boots, as in the example you gave, because I don't really like feet and shoes are dirty lol but also because it's not sexual so much as subservience.

Maybe that's it? Maybe I can offer sexual submission but not personal? Does that make me a bad submissive? Does that make me "not a real submissive"? No idea. Thoughts welcome. But I am fairly certain that I couldn't bring myself to "worship" my Dominant as a whole.

I’ve learned services can mean different things to different people. Just as submission is different depending on the person and dynamic, so is the type of service that submissive provides. What draws us all together is the feeling of fulfillment that comes from doing something for the person receiving service, that this person requested. This fulfillment may take the form of emotional fulfillment or even sexual arousal and satisfaction on the part of the service orientated person. I personally think if you feel comfortable with a more sexual submission service, then that does not make you a bad submissive at all.

[whenwetalklikethis]

I think a good rule might be that this form of worship has to play out in the psycho-sexual arena. Boots definitely can make an appearance there,washing up dishes almost certainly has no relevance as worship in the D/s sense. I have a very nice pair of highly polished black Church’s Oxford shoes against which a sub may rest her smooth cheek whilst she is praised or corrected. The leather and the memory of its smell and its smoothness are what is important. It’s not the shoes that are being worshipped but the context. Loving, needing or desiring the stool upon which you are sent to kneel does not fetishise the stool but imprints the worship of the one who sent you there