Gorean Commands and Positions

Non-Verbal Signals

Silent Commands; Hand Commands

“Who is the traitress?” demanded Lara.
“I do not know her name,” said Ost.
Thorn laughed.
“But,” said Ost, hopefully, “I once spoke with her and I might recognize her voice if I were but allowed to live.”
Thorn laughed again. “It is a trick to buy his life.”
“What think you, Dorna the Proud?” asked Lara of she who was Second in Tharna.
But instead of answering, Dorna the Proud seemed strangely silent. She extended her silver-gloved hand, palm facing her body and chopped brutally down with it, as though it might have been a blade.
“Mercy, Great Dorna!” screamed Ost.
Dorna repeated the gesture, slowly, cruelly.
But the hands of Lara were extended, palms up, and she lifted them slightly; it was a gracious gesture that spoke of mercy.
“Thank you, Beloved Tatrix,” whimpered Ost, his eyes bursting with tears, “Thank you!”  OUTLAW OF GOR; 2; Page 96

Everywhere I saw the silver masks, and heard the shrill command, “Slay him!” On every side I saw the merciless gesture, the extended right hand, palm turned inwards, the cruel, downward chopping motion. Those who wore the silver masks had risen to their feet, and the force of their cries pressed in on me like knives, the air itself seemed filled with the bedlam of their command, “Slay him!”  OUTLAW OF GOR; 2; Page 115

He clapped his hands sharply twice, and there was a scurrying and tumbling of bodies and the sound of the long chain slipping through the ankle rings. The girls now knelt, each in the position of the Pleasure Slave, in their camisks on the grass, in a line between the two trees to which their chain was fastened. As I passed each she boldly raised her eyes to mine and said, “Buy Me, Master”.  OUTLAW OF GOR; 2; Page 194

“Kajira!” he snapped in Gorean. Every muscle in my body tensed.
He suddenly snapped his fingers and, in the swift double gesture of a Gorean master, pointed to a place on the dirt floor before him, almost simultaneously turning his hand, spreading his first and index fingers, pointing downwards.
I fled to him and knelt before him, my knees in the dirt, in the position of the pleasure slave, my head down, trembling.  CAPTIVE OF GOR; 7; Page 143

Marlenus snapped his fingers, pointing to his cup on the table.
The slave girl came forward, from where she knelt to one side, and, kneeling, from a two-handled vessel, filled it. She was very beautiful.  HUNTERS OF GOR; 8; Page 149

He looked at me, but he did not release me from position. I remained as I was, in that position so symbolic of female subjugation.
It was now in the early evening.
He gathered up the pouch and bota, and slung them at his belt. He slung his sword, in its scabbard, over his shoulder. He donned his helmet. He lifted his shield and spear. I looked at him. Was I not to bear his burdens? Was I not to carry the pouch and bota? Was I not to bear his shield?
With a snap of his fingers and a movement of his hand he released me from position.  SLAVE GIRL OF GOR; 11; Page 36

"We must make haste, Slaves," said he. We readied ourselves. I looked at him. He was not regarding me.
He was Gorean, and a man. It was not that he had dared to be a man. It was rather that he simply was a man.
"Attend me, Coffle," said he, "for bondage march." He held his hand, the visible signal of preparation, poised over his thigh.
We tensed.
But, strangely, though of Earth, I did not object to a world in which men, like larls, were healthy. I wanted them that way, rich and glorious in their power. I sensed, perhaps, my complementarity to them. Only in a world where there were true men could there be true women.
I felt the steel on my wrist, with its chain.
He struck his right thigh with his open hand, suddenly, sharply. We moved out, slave girls, on the left foot, that the pace of the march be uniform.
We were owned.  SLAVE GIRL OF GOR; 11; Page 133

I looked at the girl. I nodded to her to approach me. She did so. I held my left hand open, at my waist. She stiffened, and looked at me, angrily. I opened and closed my left hand once. I saw her training in Gorean customs had been thorough. But she never thought that such a gesture would be used to her. She came beside me, and a bit behind me, and, crouching, put her head down, deeply. I fastened my hand in her hair. She winced. Women are helpless in this position. I carried the dart-firing weapon, loaded, in my right hand. I looked cautiously about the frame of the door. I entered, conducting the girl. The room, large, seemed deserted.  BEASTS OF GOR; 12; Page 409

“And your outfit tonight,” I said, “like yourself, whether you like it or not, is deliciously feminine.”
She looked down at herself. She, without really thinking, smoothed the sheath on her hips. It was a very natural gesture. I supposed slaves might be taught such a gesture. But with Miss Henderson it was totally natural. I found her very exciting. I wondered if there were such things as natural slaves. If there were, I was confident the lovely Miss Henderson would qualify.  FIGHTING SLAVE OF GOR; 14; Page 24

She was aware of my eyes on her, but she did not look at me directly. She tossed her head. It was a lovely gesture I thought, of a girl who knew herself inspected, a slave’s gesture.  FIGHTING SLAVE OF GOR; 14; Pages 28-29

The Lady Gina turned her right hand, back down, to the floor, and lifted it slightly. Both girls, obedient to the gesture; rose together to their feet.  FIGHTING SLAVE OF GOR; 14; Page 65

She was then conducted to the small side door, thougt which the attendant had emerged. Beyond it, I gathered would lie such things as the kitchens, the offices, the cellars and pantries, the storaqge rooms, the dressing rooms, the discipline chamber and the kennels. At the door the attendant let her pause and she turned to me. “Good hunting, Master,” she called to me, “Show her no mercy,” she said. Then she brushed a kiss with the tips of her fingers in the Gorean fashion. I returned this gesture. She was then conducted through the door. In a short time I heard the sliding downward and locking in place of a kennel gate. Shortly afterward the attendant returned to the floor and let me out, thought the main entrance. I heard it being bolted shut behind me. I stood then in the streets of Ar. I looked up at the moons and stars, beyond the cylinders and bridges. I then turned my steps toward the Street of Tarns, that somewehere among its many shops and cots, I might arrange transportation northward, toward the Salerian city of Lara.  ROGUE OF GOR; 15; Page 22

The proprietor approached our table and I stood up, holding my goblet of paga to welcome him. “You fought well, Jason,” he said. “Thank you,” I said. I looked down. Kneeling at my right knee, her cheek against my knee, was the red-haired dancing girl. She looked up at me timidly, her eyes shining. As she knelt the slender chains at her collar depended to the polished floor. “You fought well, Jason,” said the proprietor. “She is yours for the night. Use her for your pleasure.” “My thanks, Kind Sir, “ I said. I lifted the paga which I held, saluting the proprietor and too those at the table. “My thanks to you all,” I said. Felicitations were exchanged. I then transferred the paga to my left hand. I then snapped my fingers and held my right hand open at my hips. Swiftly the girl rose to her feet and half crouching, put her head by my hand. I fastened the fingers of my hand deeply and firmly in her red hair. She winced and kissed at my thigh. I then, the goblet of paga in my left hand, her hair in my right, dragged her beside me, her slender chains rustling, to the nearest empty alcove.  ROGUE OF GOR-, 15; Page 59

I snapped my fingers, and the girl, to the side, rose from her knees and lightly hurried to the table, beside which she again knelt, head down.
“You may clear, Lola,” I told her.
“Yes, Master,” she said, and began to remove the dishes from the table.  ROGUE OF GOR; 15; Page 127

I extended my hand. I would snap my fingers. When I snapped my fingers she would rise to her feet and follow me, heeling me, like the sleek domestic beast she was, to her master’s lodge. One of the first things a girl is taught to do is to heel.  BLOOD BROTHERS OF GOR; 18; Page 108

Hurriedly, then, the five women knelt. They knelt with their knees pressed closely together and their heads inclined. Deference, thus, slaves, did they display, knowing themselves in the presence of one who was not of the Waniyanpi. Only their own men it was whom they needed not, and did not, show respect. How different, I mused, would have been their responses, from the beginning, had they not been females of the Waniyanpi, but Gorean pleasure slaves. To be sure I had not announced my presence to them, and by design, as might have a typical Gorean male. Such a male, entering among hooded slaves, in particular, pleasure slaves, might have signified his presence by smiting his thigh once, or by twice clapping his hands, sharply, perhaps, at the same time, calling, “Position.” Such women, then, had they been hooded Gorean pleasure slaves, and not Waniyanpi females, would have scrambled to kneel, and beautifully and vitally. Too, they would have knelt with their knees widely spread, exposing the soft interiors of their opened thighs, indicating thereby, and sensitively and beautifully, their vulnerability to male might and their submission to male power.  BLOOD BROTHERS OF GOR; 18; Pages 159-160

I cautioned her to silence, holding my finger across my lips. This is a very natural gesture. I do not know if the gesture, considered as a Gorean gesture, had an independent development, or if, specifically, somewhere in the remote past, it had an Earth origin. There are many Gorean gestures, of course, some of which are very similar to Earth gestures and some of which are not. Another way of warning an individual to silence, incidentally, is to touch the fingers twice, lightly, to the lips. The origin of that gesture, as far as I know, is uniquely Gorean. I looked back at the female. Her lip trembled. She was frightened. She wanted desperately to speak. She could not speak, of course. She was a slave. She had been silenced. I lifted up the back of the tent, and inspected the terrain behind it. I would take my leave in this fashion. I looked back once more at the girl. She was kneeling, looking after me, frightened. She would remain, of course, exactly where she was. The chain on her ankle would see to that. How beautiful they are in collars. I then slipped from the tent.  PLAYERS OF GOR; 20; Page 179

“Strip,” commanded Chino, “now, totally!”
“No!” cried the girls, but, at a menacing gesture from Chino, the meaningful lifting of his open right hand, suggesting that the least dilatoriness might be rewarded with cuffings, or worse, as though they might be mere slaves, they hastened to comply. The audience shouted its encouragement. The girls were quite lovely. Their disrobing, leaving only scarves about their necks, concealing their collars, and round, adhesive patches on their thighs, concealing their brands, was done mostly in character, but Bina, once, with a final wrap-around, sliplike garment, drew it away from her with a sensuousness, a pride and insolence, that clearly proclaimed her slave. I did not think she would have done this before having been given in to the use of the player. Indeed, she was facing the player when she did it, and I suspected that it was primarily for him that she had so slave-bared herself. He, in the audience, joined in the applause. She smiled. His slave bracelet was on her wrist. Her use was his.  PLAYERS OF GOR; 20; Page 304

“Perhaps you find me gross and loathsome,” he speculated.
I trembled, head down.
“But is doesn’t matter,” he said. “You are my slave.”
“Yes, Master,” I said.
“And at so much as the snapping of my fingers, you will bring yourself running to me, obediently and warmly, desperate to please me.”
“Yes, Master,” I said.  DANCER OF GOR; 22; Page 145

“I must go now, Master,” I said. I wished to leap up, and be on my way.
“Have I given you permission to rise?” he asked.
“No, Master,” I said. “Forgive me, Master.”
I could see, behind him, that the two men of my master had stopped, apparently adjusting the tarpaulin in the cart.
“The key has been left in the belt,” he said. “Did you know that?” he had had no difficulty in making this determination, as I had knelt before him, earlier, my head down to his feet.
“Yes, Master,” I said.
“That would seem very careless of your master,” he said.
“Yes, Master,” I said.
“Perhaps he does not pay as close attention to you as he might,” speculated the fellow.
“Perhaps, Master,” I whispered.
I looked beyond the man, to my master’s men. The cart was now a few yards down the street. The first of my master’s men was looking at me. The second was pretending to be inspecting the wheel of the cart.
“Doubtless Master has pressing concerns,” I said. “He must doubtless soon be on his way.”
“No,” said the fellow. “What is the matter with you?”
“Nothing, Master,” I said.
“I think you are needful,” he said.
I looked beyond the fellow. I saw the first of my master’s men make the sign, the signal of designation.
“Something is wrong,” said the fellow before whom I knelt, “I can tell.”
“No, Master,” I whispered.
The first of my master’s men then, unpleasantly, severely, impatiently, abruptly, as though he could not understand my dalliance, made an angry gesture across his lower belly. I put my head down, in my hands. I sobbed.
“You are in need,” said the fellow before whom I knelt.
I lifted my head. I lowered my hands from before my face. “My master,” I said, “is much preoccupied with his business, and neglects me.”  DANCER OF GOR; 22; Pages 309-310

I regarded the stranger. He was tall, very tall. He was broad-shouldered and narrow-waisted. He had long, bronzed arms. His hands were very large. I trembled. He held a steel sword, where such things made law. He was tall, fierce and hard. I was very small, and soft and weak. It was only the swords of Callisthenes and Sempronius which separated him from me. I saw myself then, noting his eyes in the mask, the subject of his gaze. I saw the point of his sword. He, looking at me, moved it, slightly. Inwardly I laughed with joy. I swiftly, in response to his gesture, as I could, spread my knees before him. Callisthenes, first, then Sempronius, hurled their swords, blade first, into the earth at their feet. The handles, upright, were visible in the grass. We belonged to the stranger! I looked wildly at him.  DANCER OF GOR; 22; Pages 424-425

I then gestured her up with a casual motion of my finger and away, that she should hurry to the kitchen.  RENEGADES OF GOR; 23; Page 71

“You may beg to be caressed,” I said.
“You’re mad,” she said.
“Is it your intention to be difficult?” I asked.
“Do not beat me,” she said.
“You may now beg to be caressed,” I told her.
“Have I fallen into the hands of a monster?” she cried.
She was a legally free woman, but she was now before me, half naked, blindfolded and braceleted, my captive and servant. Indeed, she had even purchased her captivity and servitude. I wondered if she regretted what she had done. She now, at any rate, understood it more clearly.
“Beg,” I said.
“I am not in the mood,” she cried.
I laughed. How amusing are free woman! Slaves learn to be in the “mood” instantaneously, at so little as a glance or a snapping of the fingers, and a pointing to the floor.
“Please,” she said. “please!”
“Beg,” I said.
“I beg to be caressed,” she said, weeping.
I then began to caress her, she before me, weeping, trying to resist, captive and servant, clinging to the pommel.
“Monster,” she moaned. “Monster.” Then she sobbed, suddenly, partly with surprise, partly with sensation.  RENEGADES OF GOR; 23; Page 146

I found it hard to understand the warder’s hatred for Lady Claudia. It surpassed anything which seemed rationally connected with her culpability in the matter of espionage. The first time I had used Lady Claudia, the first day I had been in the cell, flinging her to my feet in the straw, I had taken little time with her. Later that afternoon, after I had slept, I had awakened and snapped my fingers. She was over against the far wall, wide-eyed, half covered in the straw, lying on her side, watching me. At my signal she had crawled across the floor, through the straw, and then knelt before me, her head down, submitted. I had taken her by the arms and thrown her again to the straw. I had not expected the intensity and helplessness of her response. Within the Ahn she had become, in effect, my slave.  RENEGADES OF GOR; 23; Pages 214-215

I did not withdraw from the bow deck, as no one seemed to pay me much attention. Had they not wanted me there, or thought that I should not hear, surely I would have been advised of this. Too, I gathered that what was to be said, if secret now, would soon be common knowledge. Too, there were two or three fellows of Port Cos there, those who had set up the outjutting display beams, and would presumably handle the forward lines in wharfing. Too, of course, prone on the deck, in their shackles, their shackles and chain-and-leather harnesses attached to the beam chains, were the two slaves. No matters of prolonged moment would be likely to be discussed in the presence of such. Normally slave girls, with a snap of the fingers or a wave of the hand, are dismissed from an area when sensitive information is to be discussed. They then scurry away, until summoned back. Also, interestingly, they will usually take pains on their own behalf to avoid such areas. Total ignorance, they know, as they are mere slaves, is often in their best interests. If they hear too much they know that it is only too easy to dispose of them.  RENEGADES OF GOR; 23; Pages 417-418

I snapped my fingers and Ina hurried to me. As I had kept the palm of my hand up, she did not kneel. She stood happily before me. I took the wet rope which dangled behind her and wrapped it about her waist, tucking one end in, to keep it in place. The fellow whose rope it was could retrieve it later. I looked down at her. She looked up, happily. She was filthy. I wondered if she would bring much of a price now. Yet, I thought, as I stood there, near her, that it might not require much of an imagination for a fellow to consider what she might look like if she were cleaned up a little, and brushed and combed. And then, I thought, having gone so far, might he not consider what she might be like if she were perfumed, made up and silked, perhaps with a pearl droplet on her forehead and bells on her ankle. Yes, I thought, it might not require a great deal of imagination for a fellow to be willing to pay an excellent price for her, that is, if she were not a free woman, but only a slave, merchandise.  VAGABONDS OF GOR; 24; Page 327

I spread the first two fingers of my right hand and gestured downward, toward a place nearby in the sand. Immediately she knelt there, her knees widely spread. There are many signals by means of which such behaviors can be commanded. In this particular signal, one of several which, from city to city, might have similar import, the downward movement of the hand indicates that the girl is to kneel, the place where she is to kneel is indicated in effect by pointing, and the spreading of the fingers indicates how she is to kneel, in this case, in effect, in the position of the pleasure slave, the knees spread.  VAGABONDS OF GOR; 24; Page 328
 

Kudos to you, Mr. Norman for writing the Gorean series!
A rich, yet utterly simple saga; a world, a time, a people;
those of the Counter-Earth .. the planet .. Gor.
Thank you!

The material presented herein was researched and compiled by me, naia{Saul}.
The material referenced comes from John Norman's Gor Series, The Counter-Earth Saga.
This is a work in process.
Please, do not take, copy, duplicate, or use this work as your own.
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