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Some of you know that I’ve been teaching in witchy woo-woo, magick and occult topics for even longer than I’ve been teaching in kink — about twenty years as an instructor, and closer to thirty as a public ritualist in my primary traditions. Often in the cooler months — when I’m not as busy with kink events — I pull out some of my magick classes and offer them through the Grounds for those who are also interested in this stuff. (Fun fact: the kink community tends to have both more secularists and more pagan folks than the population at large.) Everyone tends to have a specialty or favorite area, and mine tends to be an eclectic mix of kabbalah and what we used to call chaos magick: so you’ll see a lot of my classes popping up lately on things like kabbalah, Jewish mysticism, and sigils. I have to put that Jewish Studies major in college to use somehow! Like kink, I don’t teach kabbalah because it was an easy first fit. My first reaction — when a friend suggested I start studying thirty years ago — was that I didn’t want to learn a lot of “archetypal, patriarchal bullshit.” Well . . . famous last words. Now, the core work of kabbalah is the stuff I can teach in my sleep. It’s the structure that I used to organize my thoughts, without thinking about it too much. As Zalman Schachter-Shalomi might say, it’s as close to me as breathing in is to breathing out. If you’re called to this kind of work, and think it might be easiest to learn from someone like me, we have several opportunities coming up — including the huge omnibus course that I only offer every 3-5 years. Here are a few classes that might be relevant to your interests: Multi-week January 29th – March 15th: ​All the Kabbalah You Really Need to Know (in 7.2 Hours or Less). ​ This six-week course includes pretty much all of the material that will be covered in our regular classes, so if you take this one there’s no need to take the others below. January 16th 7pm PDT: ​All the Kabbalah You Really Need to Know in 72 Minutes or Less​. My core class. January 20th 2pm PDT: ​Sex Magick for Kinksters​. If you can do kink, you can easily learn how do to magick. January 27th 11am PDT (4.5 hour class): ​Kabbalah for Tarot, Tarot for Kabbalists. ​Bring your deck, and learn a new framework for letting tarot cards tell you their stories. February 22nd 7p PST: ​Put a Sigil On It! ​Learn the most common and practical technique for channeling sex magick energies. If you are also a bit woo — or just curious, or just think this is all a metaphor for how the brain works — I hope to see you in one or more of these classes! Warmly Mir

As I write this, I’m sitting at the plant- and crystal-laden registration desk Mukunda Studio — a warm, welcoming, queer yoga space in the Leather and LGBTW Cultural District. Outside, you can hear Folsom Street traffic. Indoors, we’re surrounded by fabrics, wood, plants and shells, huge Quan Yin statues and a bevy of Ganeshas. It’s a usually a quiet haven in the neighborhood, but today sensual R&B is playing in the studio space. We’re hosting our first Erotic Movement class since closing the old Wicked Grounds Annex last June, and I feel truly at home. It’s taken a while, but I am beginning to feel the best of what it means to be Wicked Grounds in community with other local spaces. All the more so because I parked just up the street at the Folsom Street Community Space, where we also hold classes. This afternoon, a crew of friendly leather folk are building a set of new shelves to house the collection of the Center for Sex and Culture — which is also operating as a force in the world long after leaving a space of its own. The garage at Folsom Street is full of table saws, sawdust, sweat and smiles. The industry of building together. The quiet of finding one’s own way to move, in a supportive group. Loud and quiet. Fast and slow. The ways we build relationships and community ebb and flow like that. Some days are busy; some days are quiet. Some days we reach out; some days we nestle inward. Thankfully, we try to build opportunities for both. If this is a time you really want to connect with community, take a small first step now. What is the next class, the next playshop, the next party you want to check out? Our friends at Forbidden Tickets and Bloom offer safe, curated events not just in the Bay Area but all over the world. If this a time you want to turn inward, make time for that. Here’s what I see as the important part: when you want to reach out, reach out. When you want to go in, go in. Honor that natural ebb and flow. It’s when we fight that instinct and get in conflict with ourselves that we get stuck. I’ll close with the Goethe quote that’s on my mind today: “Whatever you do, or dream you can do, begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it.” This is often paired with a commentary from William Hutchison Murray, Until one is committed, there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back, always ineffectiveness. Concerning all acts of initiative and creation, there is one elementary truth the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans: that the moment one definitely commits oneself, then providence moves too. All sorts of things occur to help one that would never otherwise have occurred. A whole stream of events issues from the decision, raising in one’s favour all manner of unforeseen incidents, meetings and material assistance which no man could have dreamed would have come his way. Wherever you are in your journey right now, Wicked Grounds is here for you. Never hesitate to reach out for help connecting with community, at the speed that’s right for you. Warmly Mir PS: WHOA! Talk about synchronicity! I was just wrapping up a final re-read of this post, and the class started chanting “Slow is sexy!” to affirm the instructor saying that slowness fuels eroticism. Perfect. Truly perfect.

Hello Kinksters – Happy new year! I hope that this week back to work is gentle, and that all your resolutions are staying resolute! If one of your goals for this year is to go deeper in BDSM & sexuality, we have you covered. Check out our full (and growing) set of classes here. If you’d like to get in a lot of classes, a Wicked Grounds events pass offers substantial discounts over regular per class pricing. This week we launched our monthlong mindfulness & habit building challenge, and several of us have been journaling and sitting ever since, which has been really helpful for me to create a bit more mental space. If you’d like to join us, it’s not too late — we’re allowing late registration through Sunday, and offer a bit of supplemental orientation in our Monday evening session. Sunday will also be the last day to purchase Your (Kink) Year in Review: a 26-page comprehensive look back at the past year, to help you celebrate successes and learn from challenges, preparing for a your best kink year ahead! Read on for this week’s events! Memberships keep Wicked Grounds going. Join our Patreon VIP program for excellent benefits, from free and discounted classes to discounts and free shipping on gear all year round! Annual memberships now available! Events Roundup! Thursday, Jan 4 Join Lee Harrington online at 6pm Pacific for an exploration of D/s in Sir! Yes Sir!: Exploring Protocol in Power Exchange Dynamics. Tickets will be on sale until tonight’s start time of 6pm Pacific/ 9pm Eastern. If you’d like to attend, please take command of the situation and get your tickets here. Need more rope in your life? Join us at 7pm for the Wicked Rope Jam at Folsom Street Community Center. Get your advance tickets here!. We will also have tickets available at the door (and possibly limited rope for sale on site.) Saturday, Jan 6 Want to get the most out of the San Francisco Bay Area Kink Scene? The very best way to get oriented, connect with resources, and find your community is in Wicked Grounds’ Welcome to the SF Kink Scene, offered live once per month on first Saturdays at noon. This class is only offered live, and we’ll be at Trellis in downtown SF (near 5th & Mission). Miriam Green will be teaching this month. Advance ticketing strongly recommended. Get yours here! Sunday, Jan 7 Getting more movement in your new year doesn’t need to feel like so much . . . well, work. Why not explore getting back into and honoring your body in a way where you don’t have to leave so much of yourself at the door? Join Alexandria of Click Your Heels for Erotic Movement at Mukunda Studios in SOMA at 2pm. Space is limited, and we recommend advance ticketing. Get yours here! Monday, Jan 8 Navigating consent in BDSM dynamics is a nuanced conversation, and cannabis use adds an additional layer of complexity. If you consume cannabis, but also want to keep super clear about its role in your kink life, Blunt Talk with Lilith Foxx (6pm Pacific, online) is the class for you. Participants will learn strategies for discussing preferences and consent beforehand, mitigating risks, recognizing how cannabis might affect consent communication, and staying aware of nonverbal cues and intoxication levels. The insights and tools provided will foster healthy, consensual connections in scenarios where cannabis is part of the equation. Advance ticketing required – get yours here! Tuesday, Jan 9 What is the link between BDSM/ kink and leather (the object, and the frame of mind)? Explore this link in our 6pm Pacific online class, What’s Leather Got to Do With It? Leather Identity, Fetish, Sex, and Soul. From tools of pain and pleasure to the wide varieties that wrap around our form and conform to our shape, tonight’s class with Lee Harrington will examine our tough exteriors to find how leather fetish has inspired leather sex, and in turn, leather soul, identity, and spirit. Advance ticketing required – get yours here! Join us in San Francisco tonight for a great hands-on intro to flogging! This month, our new FlogLab instructor Reika Minxie will guest host on our regular SpankLab date to introduce you to her new playshop! This hands-on playshop in San Francisco will be taking over second Tuesdays each month (and we’ll be back with a new day and time for SpankLab starting in February). Whether you’re an experienced flogger who wants to learn more, or brand new to using these tools, you are welcome here! We’ll start at 7pm in SOMA, San Francisco. Details & ticketing here. Wednesday, Jan 10 The sacred is everywhere if we know what to look for! In our class partnership with Magickal Crossroads, we bring you Urban Magick: Sacred Sites in Your City with Diana Rajchel. This online class starts at 6pm Pacific/ 9pm Eastern. Get advance tickets here! Thursday, Jan 11 Electro play has a different toolkit from other types of BDSM play, and that includes particular skills to cultivate as an electro play bottom. Join Carmen Pandiego and Nick -Illuminaughty- at 6pm Pacific online for SubSpice: Bottoming for Electro Play. This class will discuss preparing yourself mentally, physically, and making sure you have the right information to be an empowered bottom. Advance ticketing required – get yours here! Saturday, Jan 13 Dollification is the process of evolving yourself–or someone else–into a “living doll” using consensual modification of mental/behavioral and physical/clothing traits. Learn the secrets of this dynamic fetish in our hybrid workshop Dollification for New Dolls, Makers & Owners with Danarama Saturday, Jan 13th at 2pm Pacific – either online or in person with us in San Francisco! Advance ticketing required – get yours here! Ongoing or upcoming events Daily: Sign up for Wicked Grounds’ Adventures in Daily Kink Journaling to receive prompts on all kink topics with bonus insights from Mir! January 29-March 15, 2024. Miriam BatAsherah Green is offering their “only

As a young adult, I struggled with developing my sex positivity. Many of us do. Let’s face it: most of us grow up with terrible support around sex, pleasure, consent and communication. I grew up queer, and realized I was non-monogamous in high school. (Kink came soon after.) Trying to figure this out as a Catholic school student during the Reagan/ Bush years was . . . not easy. I became very at home in the queer books section of my local public library, and tried to figure it all out on my own. My journals from young adulthood are filled with one phrase, over and over: “I will be sex positive by the year 2000.” As if I could just write out that mantra (and read a lot of Annie Sprinkle, Susie Bright, and On Our Backs) and it would all work out. Because of my own internalized fears, I took years before connecting with the public BDSM scene. Years of making it up on my own. Years of taking the word of the dominants I found on my own rather than cultivating my own desire and will. If I had one thing to do over in the world of kink, I’d have connected with the public BDSM scene sooner. Connecting with the world of kink isn’t (just) about finding potential play partners. It’s about building a group of friends and co-adventurers who can see you as you are. It’s about finding reputable information from folks with lived experience. It’s about having people to celebrate your wins and commiserate with you when things are rough. Some might even say it’s about creating a sense of community, or leather family. In many ways, I teach now in order to help people be a little less scared than I was. I’d have been safer and happier if I’d connected with my local scene sooner. If you’re looking to explore, and intimidated, a few tips. We’re all just nerds. I’m serious. You know how nerds have a special hobby that they really just want to share all the details and gear with anyone who will listen? Ask a whip enthusiast about single-tails sometime. Most of us started out scared, too. Maybe we still are sometimes. That accomplished rope performer you see doing self-suspension? They still get butterflies in their stomach before going out on stage. And that’s okay! Enthusiastic consent is paramount. In a good class / party / venue, you’ll never “have” to do anything. Watching is ok. Hanging out is ok. Saying no is ok. Good players and good organizations will respect your boundaries. There is no one right and only way. If you are new to kink, you’ll attract folks that want to impress you talking about The Old Guard, or various Leather Tenets, or their various rules for D/s. You know what? Maybe those are important . . . to them. And we should respect that. But you? You get to find your own way. You get to be your own authority. There are many right ways to do kink, and only a very few wrong ones. Every single one of us has things we prefer, and things we won’t do. As you explore the world of kink, you’ll find things you are definitely attracted to, things you’re puzzled by, and things that you’re definitely turned off by. That is completely normal. Hard limits are a sign that you’re listening to yourself, your wants and your needs. Our goal is not to “outgrow” them, but honor them. (Some of my personal hard limits are medical play, piercing, and . . . cuddle parties. Hard no on the cuddle parties.) ​ I’m not going to tell you that every single space out there is safe. Pretty much anyone can put out a listing on FetLife for an event, so vetting for trustworthy educators, social event leaders and party hosts is important. But it can be done — not just where I’m blessed with a zillion resources here in SF, but almost anywhere. If we can do anything to help you connect with your scene (or yourself!), please reach out. I’m still paying it forward to my younger self. xoxo Mir PS: If you’re in the SF Bay Area and you’d like help connecting with our local scene, I’ll be teaching Welcome to the SF Kink Scene for Wicked Grounds tomorrow (Saturday, 1/6) at noon downtown. We also teach an online/ national version of this class every six months or so, so keep your eye on our classes if you’re interested in that. PPS: Ironically, I taught last year for the exact same Arizona group I was terrified to attend the classes of in the last 90s. They were all lovely, and I wish I’d have connected way back then! If you’re in Arizona, check them out! Miriam Green is a BDSM educator and kink-centered personal coach in San Francisco. A lifelong queer kinkster, they have been part of the public BDSM scene since 2006 and teaching kink since 2014, when they became the owner of Wicked Grounds.

Happy new year, kinksters. I just saw a meme in which someone says — against all fear — “I think 2024 will bring flowers.” The other creature in the panel says, “Yes? Why?” and our little hero says: “Because I am planting flowers.” It won’t be a surprise to you: that resonated with me. I am a strong believer in the power of intention. It’s why Wicked Grounds puts self-awareness and intention at the heart of kink education. It’s been a heck of a year at Wicked Grounds, but because of you we are still here and still building community. While we’ve closed the brick and mortar (for now), we are offering more classes than ever to a widening Bay Area and global audience. Looking forward, we’re preparing for a community with more play spaces, more classes, more events, and more fun! These things take time, and difficult decisions. They also take us not bouncing the rent check. 😉 So: the ask. Please, commit to our future. Don’t wait: do it today. Quickest & easiest! Contributing seats to our scholarship fund is always the way to get your money helping us and others most quickly. Thanks to you we gave out over 300 (!) scholarship seats in 2023! Scholarship fund: Contribute directly by Zelle to this address Scholarship fund: Contibute via Venmo or PayPal​ ​ You can also use those means and earmark your funds however you want. (aka, “Use this to pay off cafe debt.”). We take orders! If you’re one of our community who has significant privilege and resources, please reach out if you’d like to brainstorm. Sticky & fun! Join or increase your membership contribution at Patreon​ Shop for upcoming courses or consulting at WickedGroundsAnnex.com and use code EFFINBIZ at checkout for 20% off. Shop for magick books or tarot decks at MagickalCrossroads.com Shop for rope, impact toys, books and more at WickedGrounds.com and get 20% off with code EFFINBIZ (or 25% off with code EFFINBIZINSTA with Zelle, Venmo or PayPal) Book a class with us at ForbiddenTickets​ ​ We remain at a critical juncture, and it is honestly going to be a very challenging year to finish paying off the old cafe debt. It would be irresponsible of me to let us fail because I’m too embarrassed to ask. Not when our community has already lost so many things we value. I believe in 2024 we will have flowers. Because we are all planting flowers. With true gratitude – Mir

Hey, it’s Mir. It’s early (early, early!) on the first business day of the year, and I’m sitting in the home office on my second cup of coffee already, trying to catch up. I traditionally spend the last week of each year camping. Even in tight times, I find camping is a great way to find restoration and expansiveness. This year, I was delighted to find a spot out in the southern California desert with a truly exceptional starry sky and — get this! — enormous pools filled with hot spring water. (All this for less than my local NorCal campgrounds! Amazing!) Getting away isn’t the challenge during the quiet of the end of year. Heck, coming back isn’t the challenge. (I truly love my work, even in hard times.) The challenge is holding on to that sense of expansiveness as the new week, month, and year arrive. Perhaps you’re feeling the same way. My recommendations today: Take a moment to breathe. There’s nothing that can’t wait for 90 seconds while you have a moment to be present. Most things will even be better if you can come back to them more present. Remember who you are. Most of us can’t be fully “out” at work, whether that’s about our full queer selves, our poly families, or our kink resolutions. It’s okay to make strategic decisions about what we disclose and where. But we don’t need to lose our sense of self to do that. Make a promise to yourself for time to be yourself. Make a commitment. Is there a class you really want to take? A part of your city or countryside you’ve wanted to explore? A practice you want to take up? Schedule some time for it. Just setting aside 15 minutes a day for a personal practice or a time of reflection on days off can be a way to keep a sense of expansiveness in the hustle and bustle. If part of your commitment to yourself this year is expanding kink knowledge, I hope that we can be of service to you. Never hesitate to reach out for help connecting with community! (Usually you can email me but . . . maybe not this week! Our FetLife messages might be quicker till I pile through my own backlog.) Happy new year, and hang in there today – Mir PS: If you need a little structure to stay true to yourself this week, I’ll be allowing late registration to our Creating & Cultivating a Daily Practice for Kinksters course throughout this week. It’s not too late to join us for a month of daily meditation, journaling and habit-building practice!

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It’s the end of the year. A great time to make those resolutions! Our resolution is to keep offering you the best in BDSM & kink education in the coming year. Perhaps one of yours is to expand your kink palette! Now through the end of year, we’re offering a 10% discount on regular event passes when you use Venmo, PayPal or Zelle for payment and use code CLASSY at checkout. Event passes get you discount codes for absolutely free admission to all our regular classes, playshops and other ticketed events offered through Forbidden Tickets, as well as substantial discounts on multi-week courses and consulting during your pass period. With 15-20 classes offered each month, our passes are already an excellent deal. With this additional discount, they’re really too good to pass up! Find your monthly, quarterly or annual pass here, use code CLASSY where you’re prompted to click to enter discount codes, and then pay way Venmo, PayPal or Zelle at checkout to get this offer while it lasts! Happy new year from your friends at Wicked Grounds! Mir PS: If you’d prefer to pay it forward, our scholarship fund is always happy for contributions! We’ve given away over 300 scholarships in 2023! Links below: Via our website Venmo PayPal or Zelle to Mir@WickedGrounds.com

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