Container & Rules of Ritual Play
CONTAINER
Defined time – timer
Defined space – mat about 2 x 2
4 RULES:
- Don’t physically injure self, other, space or objects. Pace yourself and other enough to move within the skill level of both.
- Non – verbal: use sound, breath, movement
- Stop – word
- One person can step out of play area. Other person can’t follow
4 INVITATIONS:
- No goal – no intention to achieve any particular expression, experience or feeling. Open ended interaction. Timer stops the interaction.
- Do not censor yourself, but give – moment by moment – the honest impulses and responses you have. Consider everything that arises within the Ritual Play structure – every state of mind & emotion, impulse & response as material for play. The embodied states, put to play, can be described as silly, nurturing, caring, distant, close, erotic, curious, devotional, power hierarchical, restful etz. All emotional & bodily expressions –gestures, in self and other are equally valuable material for play. This is the material that leads your play forward.
- Self-care: only engage in what is meaningful & safe enough for you, nothing else.
- Play within the frames of reversibility. Reversibility means the ability to stop an action or an emotional process – to restart it, reverse it, or drop it all together. What ever you give to the dynamic, give it so the other has a choice on how they respond to i
Structured beginning & end to play
10 STEPS
- Set up space (yoga matts, matt, mattresses, futon)
- Make sure all involved know the invitations and the rules
- Communicating if any injuries
- Decide the time of Play + set timer
- Eye contact
- Placing technique *
- Unfolding dynamic, honest moment by moment
- Timer ends the dynamic
- Both finds own way out of the mat
- Eye contact + sign of thank you
(Sharing some sentences verbally is helpful for integrating the play dynamic in a meaningful way)
*Placing technique alternatives:
- Person 1 places itself first and gives a signal when ready. Person 2 places itself and gives the signal. Now the unfolding of the play begins.
- Person 1 places person 2 first and then itself in relation to person 2 and space. Person 1 gives signal when the placing is done. Unfolding of the play begins.