ON DESIRE | Conscious Kink, Ritual Theatre & Embodied Exploration

About this event

The Conscious Castle proudly hosts ON DESIRE, a four-day embodied workshop created and guided by Andy Buru.

Held at our 13th-century retreat center in the Belgian countryside, this intimate experience explores desire through conscious kink, ritual theatre, character play, witnessing and consent-based group practices.

What do you truly long for—beneath social roles, familiar labels and the version of yourself you usually allow others to see?

What if desire were not something to hide, control or immediately satisfy, but something you could meet with honesty, curiosity and care?

🌹 ABOUT THE EXPERIENCE

ON DESIRE invites you to explore desire as more than erotic craving.

Desire can shape creativity, relationships, identity, power, imagination and the way we move through life. It can feel clear or contradictory, playful or uncomfortable, tender or wild.

This workshop does not promise to help you “get what you want” or find a perfect answer.

Instead, it creates a structured space to investigate what moves you emotionally, sensually and erotically—and what happens when those longings are expressed, witnessed or given a symbolic form.

Unlike workshops centred mainly on couples or fixed roles such as dominant and submissive, ON DESIRE works through solo explorations, trios, small groups and larger constellations.

This allows desire to be experienced as something layered and relational: a living web of people, energies, emotions, fantasies and choices.

✨ WHAT YOU MAY EXPLORE

During this experience, you may explore:

• What attracts, excites or emotionally moves you

• The difference between fantasy, desire, intention and action

• How shame, fear or social conditioning influence self-expression

• The courage to reveal parts of yourself that are usually hidden

• The sensitivity required to witness another person without judgment

• Personal boundaries, choices and changing levels of consent

• Power, vulnerability, playfulness and erotic imagination

• Desire beyond binary roles and traditional relationship dynamics

• How individual desires interact within a group

• The creative potential of contradiction and uncertainty

🎭 THE ART OF PLAYING WITH DESIRE

Desire rarely fits neatly into categories.

We often learn to divide experiences into opposites: good or bad, dominant or submissive, masculine or feminine, leader or follower.

This workshop intentionally moves beyond those familiar divisions.

Through masks, roles, ritual scenes and embodied group dynamics, you will be invited to give shape to different parts of yourself without needing to define them permanently.

This is not acting for an audience or performing a fantasy correctly.

It is a creative process of experimentation: noticing what changes when a desire becomes visible, when another person responds to it and when the group becomes part of the exploration.

🔥 WHAT THE WORKSHOP INCLUDES

The program includes:

• Conscious kink principles and practices

• Ritual theatre and character exploration

• Masks, roles and symbolic scenes

• Solo embodiment journeys

• Trio and small-group exercises

• Full-group rituals and constellations

• Desire, fantasy and boundary mapping

• Consent and communication practices

• Relational power and role exploration

• Witnessing and being witnessed

• Sensual and erotic themes

• Movement, improvisation and playful experimentation

• Reflection and integration circles

*The exact practices may adapt according to the group and the unfolding process of the workshop.

🫶 CONSENT, CHOICE & CONFIDENTIALITY

All practices are invitations.

You decide how deeply you participate and may decline, pause or adapt any exercise. Consent must be specific, informed, ongoing and freely given.

Participation in one activity never implies consent to another.

The workshop may include sensual, erotic or emotionally vulnerable themes, but attending does not create an obligation to touch, perform or reveal anything you do not choose to share.

You may attend alone or with a partner.

Expect to work with different people and group configurations. Those attending as a couple may request to remain together for particular practices, although the workshop is intentionally designed to explore dynamics beyond the couple structure.

Respect, confidentiality, honest communication and personal responsibility are fundamental agreements of the experience.

🌙 WHO THIS EXPERIENCE IS FOR

ON DESIRE may resonate with you if you:

• Feel curious about the wisdom held within desire

• Want to understand your longings with greater honesty

• Are interested in conscious kink, embodiment or ritual

• Want to explore beyond fixed relational or gendered roles

• Feel ready to be seen and to witness others with sensitivity

• Are open to working individually, in trios and in groups

• Want to explore shame, conditioning or fear without forcing an outcome

• Can communicate your needs, limits and boundaries

• Are willing to meet complexity without demanding quick answers

• Want to bring greater awareness and playfulness into your relationships and life

All genders, sexual orientations, relationship structures and bodies are welcome.

Previous experience with kink, Tantra or embodied practice is not necessarily required, but openness, emotional maturity and respect for consent are essential.

👤 MEET YOUR FACILITATOR

Andy Buru is a teacher and facilitator working within the European fields of conscious kink, esoteric eroticism, sadomasochism and embodied exploration.

His background includes Japanese rope bondage, theatre, massage and neuro-somatic approaches. His work brings taboo, tenderness, ritual and relational complexity into spaces designed around consent, curiosity and personal responsibility.

Andy is the author of Rituals and Paradoxes and regularly facilitates workshops, retreats and festival experiences across Europe.

His approach is known for combining emotional depth with playfulness, imagination and the willingness to remain present with paradox rather than reducing experience to simple labels.

🏰 HELD AT THE CONSCIOUS CASTLE

The workshop takes place at The Conscious Castle, a 13th-century retreat center and conscious community in Verlaine, Belgium, near Liège.

Surrounded by nature, water and old stone, the castle offers an intimate environment where participants can step away from everyday roles and enter a more intentional rhythm.

The Tower Temple provides a dedicated space for ritual, movement, relational exploration and group practices.

Shared meals, bedrooms, quiet corners and the surrounding countryside offer space to rest and integrate between sessions.

🕰 PROGRAM HOURS

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 8

19:00–22:00

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 9

10:00–22:00

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 10

10:00–22:00

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 11

10:00–15:00

This is an immersive program with long practice days. Please consider whether this rhythm feels appropriate for you before applying.

🛏 ACCOMMODATION & FOOD

The participation fee is €795 per person.

This includes:

• The complete four-day workshop

• Three nights of accommodation

• Meals and drinks throughout the experience

• Bed linen and towels

The first sixteen confirmed guests will be accommodated in double or triple rooms at The Conscious Castle. Many castle rooms have ensuite bathrooms.

Later registrations will be accommodated at the adjoining Conscious Farm, where bathrooms are shared.

Private rooms with a double bed may be available for couples upon request and according to availability.

Room allocation follows the order in which registration is confirmed.

📋 APPLICATION & REGISTRATION

To apply:

1. Complete the participant registration form

2. Pay the €275 deposit per person:

Account holder: D.L. Karijopawiro

IBAN: NL77 SNSB 0941 2552 47

3. Pay the remaining balance in cash at the venue.

Your place is confirmed only after the registration form and deposit have been received.

Please verify the payment information directly with the organizers before transferring money.

↩️ CANCELLATION POLICY

For cancellations before September 8:

• A €100 administration fee will be retained

• Bank or payment-processing fees may also be deducted

For cancellations from September 8 onwards:

• The €275 deposit is non-refundable

For cancellations from October 8 onwards:

• 50% of the total participation fee will be retained

✨ YOUR INVITATION

Desire does not always offer a clear answer.

Sometimes it arrives as curiosity.

Sometimes as contradiction.

Sometimes as something strange, tender, playful or difficult to name.

ON DESIRE is an invitation to meet those layers without immediately hiding, judging or acting upon them.

To feel more.

To conceal less.

To witness and be witnessed.

And to explore what becomes possible when desire is held with presence, consent and imagination.

If this experience speaks to you, you are invited to complete the application and join Andy Buru at The Conscious Castle.

https://hipsy.nl/event/204470-on-desire-conscious-kink-ritual-theatre-embodied-exploration