Collar of Protection

The Collar of Protection
by Master Ebony Blade

Greetings to A/all,

In light of the previous announcement made by my Sister and Friend, Mistress Dove regarding the matter of the Collar of Protection requested of and granted by Sir Knight. I was asked what is the significance of the Collar of Protection and why did a Mistress (Dominant) ask for one.

The why, can only be answered by Mistress Dove. I will only deal with the significance of the Collar of Protection.

The practice dates back to the very early days of BDSM (before the term BDSM was even coined), where existed Houses, Clans, Orders and any other names given to organized groups of lifestylers. For this discussion I will use the term Order in referring to organized groups.

Within each Order existed its own set of rules of conduct and protocols of etiquette governing the activities of both Dominants and slave. These rules and protocols were in many cases, very similar across the board, but each Order added their own flavor to the mix if you will. The slaves within each Order,who did not have a personal Owner, were collared to and owned by the Order. Any Dominant, whether from the same House or another House seeking to take one of these slaves as their own, would first approach the Dominant Council of the Order and seek permission to put the slave under consideration for his/her own personal collar.

This practice, afforded the slave the best possible chance of being taken by a Dominant who was not only a person of excellent reputation and honor, but who was also not a novice. It also worked well for the Dominant, who would also not have a novice sub to train in the very basic principles of slavery, but could concentrate on training the slave to his/her own specific requirements only.

Since the slave was owned by the Order, he/she wore the collar of the Order for their own "protection". This collar also fostered a sense of belonging and pride in the Order for the slaves concerned and alerted any Dominant seeking to take the slave as their own personal property that the slave was not "free" for the taking, but was under the protection of the Order.

This protection was not just extended to the "unowned" slaves, in fact all members of the Order were under the umbrella of protection of the Order, which granted them safe passage and access to other Orders who were allies. Thus one could travel to another city or country and be welcomed and hosted by an ally Order. Identification of individuals both Dominant and slave was made possible by rings worn on specific fingers with the Order's crest or mark.

Today the practice of "protection" is not as elaborate as before, since the typical structure of Orders doesn't appeal to many and very few are in existence today in the true sense of the structures of an Order. However, we still do see the requesting and granting of Collars of Protection and even in these cases, there are those who object to such practices mainly out of ignorance to their true meaning.

As I've said before, the why is for Mistress Dove to answer. However, I will further state that the ramification of this is not a matter to be taken lightly or scoffed at. In my own personal view of this arrangement, Mistress Dove has made herself accountable to Sir Knight, who has in turn taken on the responsibility of being her Overseer. Hopefully my opinion is correct and will help answer the question of a Mistress having the Collar of Protection of another Dominant.

In the past, I've spoken of the need for our community to return to the fundamental basics of the lifestyle. This has been met with many oppositions and concerns of why such a move is necessary? The issue of mutual protection of members of the lifestyle from those who would prey upon members of our community for their own selfish gains is one reason why such a move is necessary. We have all seen and heard about the destruction left in the wake of Predators (not just those of the dominant kind). Just imagine what would happen if an Order was in place and the victims were members of an Order? The chances of such incidents occurring would be a lot less.

Finally, I wish my Sister well in all that her path leads her to.

Wishing A/all enough,
Blade