Let us introduce you to Mistress Cleo – Kink Witch of Sydney. Her style is intuitive, intentional and ritualistic, one of softly spoken sadism and calm cruelty, preferring to play on the subtlety of BDSM than the cliche, and crafting sessions with a tangle of technical skill and twisted creativity. As described using her own words, Check out her interview below to find out more, Want to find out more? Arrange to see her? Mistress Cleos details on how to get in touch are at the bottom of the interview for you to check out.
1. We see on your twitter account you have in your bio Professional Kink Witch. Can you let us in on why you chose to describe yourself that way?
I identify with the term Kink Witch precisely because it invites this question. I like that it’s not easily defined and understood, but instead mysterious, expansive and borderless. I believe kink is a collaborative, alchemical process that two (or more!) people contribute to and create equally, even if temporary power dynamics are an integral aspect of a scene. ‘Dominatrix’ has always felt as if the term assigns more agency to the top, or as if hierarchy is necessary, which I don’t think is entirely accurate. Binaries like Top/bottom, or Dominant/submissive are useful, but they illuminate the limits of our collective sexual imagination. Creative/receptive is better, perhaps, and better again if we understand those roles as a fluid feedback loop, or a dialectic relationship. Kink Witch gets closer to this reading, but it also allows the person interpreting it to fill in the blanks and define it for themselves. Magic means something different to everyone.
2. When you talk about preferring to play on the subtlety of BDSM than the cliche what does that mean for those who might be new to BDSM?
I’m not one for strictly defined immutable roles or shouting at my clients. I write in my bio that my style is one of ‘softly spoken sadism’ in an attempt to communicate this. The depth of potential in BDSM is in how it allows us to explore ourselves in relation to our collective external environments and personal internal experiences, which can look different for every individual, but this isn’t what is immediately conjured when one hears the term. The cliche is all leather and latex and whips and bruises, but when we slow down and really observe what is happening, the lasting impact lies in what isn’t visible. That’s what excites me.
3. When people contact you for a session, what is it they mainly seek you out for? Like do you have something youre known for?
My style is more ritualistic than recreational, and I tend to attract clients who are drawn to this. In saying that, I’m more than willing to fulfill a hedonistic fantasy on someone’s lunch break, but I myself am most fulfilled when we’re creating something more than an orgasm. I love medfet or any style of blood play, and I almost always include elements of bondage and sensory deprivation. The intimacy and vulnerability those elements allow is so beautiful.
4. What is it that drew you to BDSM? What is it that you love about it the most?
I’ve been drawn to BDSM before I had acronyms to understand it. I’ve always pushed the limits of my experience, as a teenager I sewed my own lips together and did hook suspensions, in my early twenties I devoured psychedelic literature (and it’s influences!) and I’ve always been fascinated with alternate communities on the edges. I’m originally from a coastal country town and grew up on BMEzine and in the golden age of forum culture, so I first encountered BDSM essentially as strangers’ trip reports on the internet, and I knew I wanted to have similar experiences. When I moved to Sydney I found the right people and had the right relationships and followed the path of least repression. It was inevitable that I would find myself facilitating other’s exploration of themselves because I knew the value in it, and that is what I love so much about BDSM. Kink is radical and challenging and inspiring and interesting and vulnerable and valuable. To provide others with the space to ask for what they wish to experience, and the skill to provide it, is humbling.
5. Would you say youre a lifestyle Mistress as well as a Professional Mistress?
There’s a reasonable amount of distance between my day to day life and ‘the scene,’ in Sydney at least, and I don’t have personal subs driving me around or cleaning my house, but in no way is my interest in BDSM merely professional. I’m a lifestyle Kink Witch, maybe!
6. When you arent fine tuning your craft or doing sessions what can we find you doing with your time?
I spend a lot of time reading, more in 2020 than usual as you can imagine, predominately at the intersections of leftist political theory and history, sexuality, and technology, but in another time, and hopefully again in the not too distant future, I’m most at home within “extreme” music subcultures. I DJ a little bit – mostly dark psy, psycore, doomcore and experimental stuff – and I love the lower and upper bpm manifestations of metal – doom metal and black metal and the genre-less coastlines, so when we are able to gather on dancefloors again is when I’ll feel whole again! I also make post apocalypkink cyberpunk style jewellery, accessories, clothing, floggers and other toys from predominately recycled materials under the label Syzygy Creative, and I teach the odd kink workshop when there’s an opportunity to. Outside of that I’ve spend as much time travelling the world as possible, and although I find never ending inspiration in the flux of cities I’d lose my mind without regularly getting as far away from them as I can.
7. We see you mentioned completing Urban Tantra Professional Training Program, what is that? And do you incorporate any of that training into your sessions?
Yes! I incorporate tantra into every aspect of my life, so absolutely it informs my sessions. Urban Tantra was developed by an incredible women named Barbara Carallas from the USA, but tantra is an ancient esoteric eastern tradition that recognises that all aspects of human experience – including sexuality – are a path to understanding the nature of consciousness. I did a week long professional training with Barbara in 2019 and haven’t taken my breath for granted since. My clients are taught and expected to treat their own breath with the reverence that I have learned to. The possibilities for pleasure and experience are enhanced so much when we are present and receptive.
8. If someone is completely new to BDSM and wants to come see you, how can they make a good impression and what do you need from them for a session to go ahead
Pay a deposit! The sooner someone does this the faster I will know they are serious, and the more responsive I will be. Fifteen paragraphs about your fantasies are useless to me unless you intend to pay me to facilitate them and provide a financial commitment. Following that, polite and respectful enquiries from people who have read my profile are always given more weight than one or two line emails asking questions that are already answered in my bio.
9. If someone hasnt met you before how would you describe your personality? And how would you describe yourself as a Mistress?
It’s always a challenge to describe my own personality, but I asked my housemates and they’ve informed me I am “dark and quirky”, “smart and seductive”, and “relaxed and easy going with a sense of humour.” I’m probably a more intense and icy compartmentalisation of myself when in session, but I don’t take myself too seriously and I’d like to think I’m open minded and care deeply for others.
10. Lastly, is there anything you want to share about yourself that you would love the readers of this interview to know?
I’ll like you more if you join your union. I’ll like you even more again if you donate whatever you can spare to the Scarlet Alliance Emergency Support Fund for Australian sex workers, which can be found here: https://chuffed.org/project/emergency-support-sex-workers-australia
COVID-19 has been devastating for our industry and many sex workers are struggling in silence, especially migrant sex workers and those who are not ‘out’ or able to access government support. If you appreciate the existence of the sex industry, materially support the people that populate it.
Also, read Malatesta. 😉
To find out more about Mistress Cleo or to get in touch with her to arrange a session – Click here for her details.