1. Perhaps you can see your unborn children in the eyes of your beloved, but we'd really rather you not try to make any of them while you're here. This is not your honeymoon, OK, guys?
   
   
   
   

   Let's not play the Bill Clinton Game here. "Is oral satisfaction really sex, your honor?". You know darn well that it is. Any time that you touch anybody in that private, um, reproductive area (is that inoffensive enough), and you're in public at one of our gatherings, you're out of line. Sex is not a spectator sport.
   
   We'll be reasonable. This is a clothing optional environment, and if two people are embracing or one is sitting on the other's lap, accidental contact may occur. Obviously, that is not what we are talking about. This is not a Monty Python skit and we are not going to be running about with rulers to make sure that the lovers are far enough apart from each others' "naughty bits".
   
   A good guide is to forget that you are skyclad (if you choose to be), and consider what would be reasonably courteous behavior, while with a clothed date. It can get passionate, right? But within limits.
   
   If you're off in a corner, out of sight of the others, as the rationale for the rule is weakened, we become a lot more relaxed about this. But we might ask you to leave a sign that people should knock, first - we'll take a red veil at the entrance as such. Oh, and don't leave a mess, cleaning supplies are under the kitchen sink. If we're at my place, no, you may not use my bed.
   
   
   

   (Note : At those events at which minors are invited, clothing is required, and stricter rules apply. Let us not even have the appearance of impropriety).

   
   
   To be clear on this - for the most part, yes, our events are clothing optional. An exception to this comes when the tradition specifically requires us to make one. If, traditionally, a rite had to be performed clothed, all who are present must be properly attired. While we are not aware of any rituals that had to be performed skyclad, *) if we come across one and decide to do it, one will have to be skyclad to participate.
   
   However, we should emphasize that there is no requirement for a member to take part in all or even most of the rituals. If one feels uncomfortable one may wait outside, or, if all of the participants are comfortable with the idea, one may wait and watch, in absolute silence, in a portion of the room declared to be profane space. Being outside of the sacred space, one would not, in our view, be violating the ritual requirements. If the tradition allows and the participants consent, the silent watcher may cross the line and become a participant, if (s)he should become comfortable with the idea.
   
   Let us further add that the current membership has no intention of adding any skyclad rituals to the list of those already mandated by tradition, even if that list should have 0 entries, as we suspect is the case, breathless speculations on alt.pagan to the contrary notwithstanding. (See note).





2. No pain, mental or physical. No dominance, no S and M. If you are feeling the need to be tied up, you might consider setting up a group of your own, and mentioning it on ReligioRomana.
   
   
   
   

   No bondage gear or anything else of the sort, except maybe on some costume nights. Clothing may be provocatively elegant, but it must be in good taste. Nothing dangling out, no pants without seats ... in fact, how about skipping the visit to Cupid's Treasures on the way here, altogether?
   
   The sexuality of some is mixed with cruelty. This, to our way of thinking, goes against what love ideally is about and for, most of all. The basic human need to have that one person one can absolutely trust, who would never hurt one. We are not perfect, and that ideal isn't achievable, but as in all things, we have to try.
   
   In a group devoted to Aphrodite Urania, the goddess of Celestial love, love and sex take on a religious dimension, and we are serious about our religion. If you want to live in a way contrary to the values we would represent, you are free to do so, but please don't come. The only way we can embrace all value systems (or lack thereof), and all ways of life - absolutely all, as being part of us, is to stand for nothing. If we do that, then what's the point to even having a religion?





3. Your fellow party guest is not a toilet. Bodily fluids go where expected, thank you. We have to clean this place up afterwards.



4. Keep expressions of sexual interest within your species, but not within your family. My name is not Jerry Springer.



5. Don't disrupt the proceedings. It'll be a little hard to hold a discussion of epistemology, if two of us are going at it in the middle of the discussion - literally. For example.



6. One does not "(four letter expletitive referring to intercourse deleted)", one makes love. There's some nasty emotional baggage that comes with that particular word, so please don't use the former as if it were a synonym for the latter, however fashionable that may be getting, lately. In general, let's try to scale down the profanity.

Let's move on.

(*) A partial correction :

If one includes Roman festivals (and certainly Roman ritual is borrowed from, in these notes), the Lupercalia did have to be performed nearly skyclad, by the male participants, and, in practice, by the female as well, after a while. A reference is made to a myth in which the god Faunus, sometimes identified with Pan, came across Hercules and his sleeping lover, with whom he had traded garments. Faunus, thinking that he was taking liberties with a young woman, awoke a greatly annoyed Hercules. Ever since then, the story goes, a certain degree of nudity has been required of the participants in the rites of Faunus, in order to avoid similar embarassing incidents.

On a less whimsical level, the Lupercalia were fertility festivals, celebrating reproduction, so the nudity makes sense.

But, we are a Hellenic group that borrows details from the Roman tradition, not a Roman group, and wouldn't necessarily be celebrating such a festival. I picture us being far likelier to celebrate St. Valentine's Day, than the Lupercalia. But, of course, each will decide for herself, what manner of celebration she desires, as always. (Aside: One might also point out that, at the time of the writing of these comments, we had intended to be a purely Hellenic group, and not any sort of Graeco-Roman one. That, like the Christo-Paganism, came later. Consequently, at the time we wrote this, we had not overlooked the Lupercalia, we simply had no reason to concern ourselves with it).