How could this be? Do i really believe i have the freedom as a slave? That is the question... and maybe by the end of this intrepid journey through my mind i can find the reasoning with clarity. i want to look at my understanding of the word 'freedom' and how i interpret its use in context to my life as a person, as maori and as kajira. In due respect i also speak in first person, simply because these thoughts are mine.

First and foremost to me freedom is a condition where i am free from restraints. These restraints arent necessarily physically visable or tangible, but inhibitors that disallow me to perform particular functions in every day life. i am unrestrained in my freedom to express my feelings and my love for my Master, my heart and my Family. There are no restraints in my ability to share and show my slavery. However how i choose to show this is my question .i have the freedom of choice to choose how i am going to behave, be it the right choice or not i still own the freedom to do so. That decision is mine alone, the responsibilities for the consequences or rewards for the decisions i receive are also mine to own. The freedom i have as a slave,is the ability to excercise choice and free will to execute them. However,the administering of guidance, protection and correction still soley remain the duty, honor and commitment of my Owner, my Master, my Mentor and the community i live in including my siblings whom i also respect.

Societal changes see freedom as the liberty of a person from slavery, detention or oppression. i ask my self am i really oppressed? are the feelings inside me so sad and detrimental to myself as a whole being that i am inhibited to feel and perhaps display the emotive power of this certain freedom? i am Maori before i am gorean, i choose to be gorean to enable me to find common and like minded people, so beit that my culture exists along the same lines , parallel to alot of Normans ideals. Many of which remain in practice and exist in reality today.

Once at a 'Womens Network' Conference, i was a guest speaker. My paper was on " I am Maori and I am female, which do i choose? ". I was approached by 2 female counterparts who proceeded to tell me that they felt for me, because Maori women were Opressed. I was curious about their conclusion. They began by disecting my culture,something they had observed obviously made them experts no doubt. They believed the protocols, many traditions and customs were sexist and oppressive. They couldnt accept that only men were able to speak.(Dependent on tribal affiliations) and women were relegated to the 'song' that came after in support of what the "Male' had just said. This showed not their sincerity for my oppressed plight but more the cultural ignorance of my people. Common sense rules. They had described a traditional welcome where there is a 'karanga' a call from a 'woman' in welcoming, then the Men stand and speak. Why men only? They asked? In the old ways this area or marae atea is sacred ground. Fighting took place and there was much blood shed, hardly a place for women, they were protected from such things. The very first sound You here in this traditional 'pohiri' is that of the female. In their ignorance and inability to speak my language they couldnt even understand what was being said . In actual fact the 'women' say everything the Male reiterates in His own speech later on and then she has the ability to enhance those words with a song or traditional chant. Alhough there is no bloodshed in current times, the rigours of this custom remains embedded.

This psyche belongs to all peoples not of either culture. to differing modes of thought, to all realms of the unknown or misunderstood. These meddlesome people hurt cultures and their future generations. They intend to force change, impress on the negative and push ideals of inequality, of misguided sexism, of being Maori,of being female,of being different, of being subserviant and of being slave. Proudly, i am all of the above and more. Likewise with slavery and gorean life in general, ignorance is often called bliss, but in this case its just a shame. So the same could be said for non-goreans who pass comment and judgement upon those who choose to live the natural gift born as Free or slave. Enough said.

The ease or facility to have the freedom of movement for such things as dress and garb. Watch a dancer in silk or naked, the expression of their freedom to paint this lambent picture through body movement in its free state is freedom. Frankness or boldness and lack of modesty or reserve evident in the passionate embrace of their servitude. There is the sensual, the sexuality, the heated serves, the pride in which one exudes their femininity and slavery, celebrating their freedom of expression and to that one dance where the slave possesses and commands their freedom to shine and show their fire.

"In Gorean slavery, to both Masters and slaves, the collar and brand are much more than simply a band of steel and a mark upon one's flesh. Both have intense symbolic and personal meanings, which impress themselves upon the very being of a girl and mark her both internally and externally as slave. The brand is impersonal; the collar intensely personal; the brand marks her property; the collar proclaims whose property she is, who it is who has either taken or paid for her; that the brand is an impersonal designation of absence of status in the social structure is perhaps another reason why Masters do not brand their own girls; the brand relationship to the free man is institutional; the collar relationship, on the other hand, is an intensely personal one." Tribesman of Gor, page 42

Who would have ever thought that being branded and collared was freedom? Only a slave of course. Being proclaimed "property" is hardly what society outside my normal life as kajira would call being free. The instituion of the steel band is the physical, it has no meaning unless i am free to love, free to serve, free to express my servitude to my Master and Owner.

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Paradox of the Collar"The true slave is within the woman. She knows it is there. She will not be happy until she terminates inward dissonances, until she casts out rendering contradictions, until she achieves emotional, moral, physiological and psychological consistency, until she surrenders to her inwards truths.". Vagabonds of Gor, page 41

This collar that is lovingly placed in most cases about the neck of a girl, impresses the totality of her slavery. there is only one escape from slavery and that is death itself in its finality. When the mind is confined to the pressures of denial, does one ever think about the amount of energy it takes to deny what is burning? would it not be better to embrace this ache and give all that energy to a focus that will be the salve to a yearning as long as human existence . The aspect of emotional and psychological slavery belongs to the soul of the slave. I believe it is my Master's responsibilty to ensure that He is Master enough to handle the chest of mystery that i come with, bringing to His life the magical presence of my femininity

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"Only in a collar can a woman truly be free." Tribesman of Gor, page 75

What does the collar mean to me as a slave? It is symbolic, a physical reminder that my Master loves me enough to consider me ownable, to regard me as being worthy to serve. Master has seen attributes that He believes suit His needs and things that bring Him pleasure. For the collar sets the boundaries, its parameter is however far my Master allows me from Him, It is in this state that i can learn about Him, how to please Him and see to His needs under His protective embrace. The collar impresses His presence at all times, so i am never alone. He is always with me. I have the freedom to trust or not in Him, i also have the choice to embed this into my heart and soul, never losing the sight of one important thing, my Master has made a life long commitment to me whether i am good or bad, He loves me.

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"Though I am slave," she said, "yet for the first time in my life, I am free." Nomads of Gor, page 303

Final realisation that one no longer will there be a need to think beyond that of my Master. I will not have to worry about the mundane decisions and menial tasks for i am owned, and now free to explore the gift bestowed upon me, yes my freedom to know where my place is without a worry. I am not incarcerated by slavery,i'm freed by His love

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"There is something about being owned, and belonging to another which is very meaningful to a woman," she said.
"It is also, in a way that is hard to make clear to a man, profoundly satisfying." Beasts of Gor, page 312

It is my Master's commitment to sharing His wealth of Mastery with His slave, it is His personal vow that He will offer me the freedom to be who i am and what i am in His protection and loving devotion.

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The collar is put on from without, but what it encircles comes from within. Slavery, true slavery, comes from within. Savages of Gor, page 210

This is my favourite expression of the beauteous nature that my slave freedom gifts to me. It clarifies and justifies the means to which i as a slave have this right , my freedom to feel my fire, feel my belly . When i place my soft palm gently over the well of my inner being, the very place where, joined to my Mother,i was fed and nurtured, my pito , i feel the burn against my skin, permeating the softness i know that it is the eternal flame of my slavery and i am blessed.

In conclusion,the Freedom is of expression - verbal, silent, physical or through the power of thought. It embraces who i am as slave, uninhibited to show my total devotion within the bonds of my slavery to my Master. It gifts me the ability to live in the devine security of free knowledge that i serve at the feet of my Master with my all, without inner conflict, with the willing to only please. my behaviour and freedom to choose be it right or wrong bares witness to the notion that as a slave i have that freedom of choice and it is my Masters will that if He needs to correct and guide me, it is so i can please Him in more ways. He will adjust the disciplines i practice as changes evolve and i grow within my slavery, accordingly.

These are written expressions of how i view my freedom .By embracing my Master's Dominance and celebrating His Masterdom, i have the freedom to choose between right and wrong, good and bad, obedience or defiance,to live my submission or create a very painful existence.

"..There's something curious about freedom that comes from knowing you have no alternatives, no choices, and can only react as your own true self to the situation you find yourself in..."Anon