CraigJustCraig

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  • Rope Safety

    This is often the second conversation I have. Here, I tend to disagree with the majority on what safety in rope looks like. Fundamentally, I believe rope is not safe—and we should proceed from that basis onward.

    I’ve heard it all: “If you do it right, take the right precautions, take the right classes, be extremely careful…” and on and on they go. But let me say this—rope is not safe. If you plan to tie anyone with a pulse—yourself included—something will go wrong eventually. And when it does, you may face injury. Engaging in rope means understanding its risks. If you don’t know the potential consequences, you can’t offer informed consent.

    Rope is not safe. It is among the most dangerous forms of BDSM—classified as edge play. Statistically, serious injuries or deaths in BDSM most often involve rope.

    You contend with a large body factor that can affect your health, safety, and mental and emotional state. Improper technique can compress nerves and blood vessels by simply applying rope incorrectly. If you don’t recognize problems early, small issues can compound and become serious. If concerns go unspoken, corrective action can’t occur.

    • Nerve compression can happen nearly instantly—and recovery can take months, if it recovers at all.
    • Blood clots from extended restriction can cause stroke, heart attack, or death.
    • Broken bones, dislocation, choking hazards, breathing restriction, limb atrophy, immobilization, loss of dexterity, sudden onset paralysis—all are very real risks.

    Rope has real risks.

    Your Safety Is Everyone’s Responsibility

    I’ve seen people incorrectly assume that the person tying bears all responsibility. Let me tell you—you are at your safest when everyone has an eye out for your safety.
    Know your limits. Communicate calmly. Advocate. Know your body. Speak up. Learn. Practice. Repeat.

    Everything I say here is about risk and harm reduction. Even when done “safely,” rope is never safe. Bodies vary. Minds, needs, and environments vary. You must identify, understand, and negotiate which risks you’re willing to take—and which you are not.

    For Bottoms:

    Your life is on the line.
    Keep that in mind. You’re often rendered helpless, placed in prolonged and stressful positions. You’re brought to vulnerable places—physically, emotionally, mentally, and spiritually.
    This is where a lot of the deep work in the practice begins, but it’s also where deeper injury can occur.
    Knowing what to look for allows you to advocate for yourself with confidence.

    For Tops:

    You hold someone’s life in your hands.
    Once they are bound, they can’t act—you become a shepherd, a custodian, an architect, a warden of their submission.
    You carry a heavy burden. Seek knowledge. Be present. Be aware. Be mindful.
    You are embarking on a journey. Don’t assume you know it all.

    I Teach Safety in Three Steps:

    1. Prevention
    2. Risk Management
    3. Incident Protocol

    Safety isn’t about avoiding risk—it’s about reducing harm, managing risk, and knowing what to do in case of an emergency.

    Prevention

    Many issues can be avoided through prevention. It starts with having your fundamental needs taken care of.

    Food:

    You should eat within the last two hours before a rope scene—but not within one hour of starting. This gives you energy, time for digestion, and reduces risk of nausea or vomiting.

    Hydration:

    Being properly hydrated can prevent nausea and lightheadedness. It also aids skin recovery from rope marks.
    I recommend at least 2 liters of water before a rope scene, but not within one hour of starting—you will pee on yourself.

    Breathing:

    Breath connects your mind with your body. Intentional breathing engages the parasympathetic nervous system and helps you relax.
    Use diaphragmatic breathing. Chest compression can reduce lung capacity, so breathing through your belly can have many beneficial effects.
    Breath for the space you will be in, not just the space you are currently in.

    Stretching:

    This is often overlooked. Stretching prepares the body, breaks up static energy, and helps release or transform tension—physically and mentally.
    We carry so much stress from daily life. Don’t jump into rope and immediately start stressing your body or mind. Stretching also offers a gentle way to introduce your presence and intention into a scene.

    Communication:

    This is the heart of the practice. Talk about boundaries, limits, desires, ambitions, beliefs, goals, and intentions.
    This work is not done in a vacuum—it’s immersed in the entirety of you and deserves conversation.
    Alignment is more important than vetting. Seek people whose purpose aligns with your own. This prevents burnout, confusion, and exhaustion. Only give what you have and are willing to give.

    Negotiation Topics:

    • Consent model
    • Physical limitations
    • Injury history
    • Medication/conditions
    • Sexual health
    • Drug/alcohol use
    • Insurance
    • Support networks
    • Conflict styles
    • Aftercare needs

    Read The Wheel of Consent—it’s amazing for having internal dialogue with yourself.

    Risk Management

    Understanding anatomy will be your greatest aid in harm reduction.

    While not comprehensive, knowing the body helps identify cause and effect. Nerve compression and blood circulation are common concerns.

    If the hands are tingling, this is often a sign of nerve compression. Learn the three major nerves (Radial, Ulnar, Median) that run from the neck through the arms. They vary per body, but are good general guidelines.

    Be aware of:

    • Bone protrusions (clavicle, sternum)
    • Floating ribs (not connected—easily injured)
    • Femoral and sciatic nerves (lower body)

    Do’s and Don’ts

    Don’ts:

    • Don’t ever leave someone in rope
    • Don’t tie too tight
    • Don’t ignore discomfort or strain
    • Don’t scene with people you don’t trust
    • Don’t use gear you wouldn’t destroy in an emergency
    • Don’t coerce someone into going beyond comfort
    • Don’t approach hard limits

    Do’s:

    • Warm up first
    • Establish CSM (Circulation, Sensation, Motion) checks
    • Keep EMT shears, marlin spike, and first aid nearby
    • Practice good negotiation before, during, and after
    • Set a safe word
    • Set up aftercare plans

    After 2 hours in rope, take at least a 10-minute break. Blood clots can form in veins. Rope should be at least two fingers loose to maintain circulation and sensation.

    Incident Protocol

    Emergencies will happen. From panic attacks to fainting—you must be prepared.
    Remain calm. Move intentionally and decisively. If injury is suspected, assess quickly.

    • For minor issues: basic first aid.
    • For serious or unclear issues: seek medical help.

    Communicate clearly and calmly with the bottom. Follow up afterward to check their condition and ensure they’re cared for. Review the incident and make adjustments. Share knowledge with the community to promote safety awareness.

    Human error is the #1 cause of injury.
    Admit you’re fallible. Learn. Don’t work beyond your ability.

    Avoid alcohol and other vasodilators. Remember—you’re tying people. People with bodies, circulatory systems, nerves, and emotions.

    Shared Responsibility

    All partners in all scenes are responsible for safety.

    • Make no judgments or comparisons.
    • Delete your need to understand everything.
    • Drop expectations.
    • Don’t do what others are doing.
    • Be in your own experience.
    • Be present—with embodied awareness.
    • Be aware of the present moment, balanced and nonreactive.
    • Approach every action with care and thoughtfulness.

    Foreseeable Bodily Injury

    Long-term trauma – repeated stress builds gradually

    Rope burn – caused by fast rope under tension

    Bruising/Rope marks – takes at least one day to heal

    Repetitive Strain – don’t force positions

    Fainting/Falls – due to heat, blood sugar, compression, dehydration

    Respiratory distress, dizziness, chills – signs of vasovagal response

    Observable and unobservable pain – listen to both

    Day 50: Upper Limb Nerves
    The Sensitive Nervous System Chapter VIII: Palpation and Orientation of Peripheral Nervous System
    Mobilization of the Plexus Brachialis Nerve Branch
    Day 51: Lower Body Nerves

  • Rope Handling — Embodied Practice, Sacred Flow

    Mastery of rope isn’t just about patterns or techinque—it’s about touch and connection. It’s about how the rope breathes through you, how the rope moves through you, how it dances across flesh, how it listens as it slips between your fingers. Every motion matters. Every pull is a conversation between body, rope, and intention.

    What follows are invitations. Not instructions, but gateways—to deeper practice, heightened awareness, and true communion.

    The Hook Technique

    The way we move the rope influences tension—it creates a direct impact on the person being tied. To improve our control, we need to step out of our comfort zone and teach our bodies to explore new ways. As we gain confidence, the process of tying becomes more graceful and fluid.

    We started looking at how to use the finger like a crochet hook to pull rope. Pull rope, don’t push it. Use the path of least resistance. Control the rope the entire time. Protect your partner from rope burns by moving slowly and shielding them with the back of your hand. Reach your finger through from the opposite direction. Hook the rope with that finger, or loop the rope. Draw the tail back through. Let it glide. Let it follow you. Think of your finger as guiding the rope.

    Do not use your fingers like a spear—jabbing and thrusting. Use the back of your hand to create a cavity or recess for your hand to slide easily through. This firm pressure pushing against the skin is both comfortable and relaxing. Always ensure that you grab both strands of rope when pulling through. Be mindful of rope placement, tension, alignment. Always “clean” your lines once laid—ensure they are without twists, knots, or crosses.

    Follow the Path of Least Resistance

    Let rope flow where there is space, intention, and invitation.

    Use your entire hand to pull, pinch, hold, and release tension throughout the tie.
    Set an ideal tension in your mind as you wrap the rope around to the stem.
    Use your other hand to temporarily set the tension—this hand will anchor your line until you can set the tension in.

    You must remember: rope expands and contracts under tension.
    This will cause your tie to experience deflection, where the rope is deformed under load.
    For safety, we want to have even deformity—and ideally, we’d like to eliminate or minimize it.

    This can be done in two ways:
    One, creating anchors throughout the tie to evenly distribute load.
    Two, ensuring the structure and form of stem-locking knots with an appropriately constructed knot or friction.
    Additional rope will not be able to add to the deflection.
    And three, pull as much slack out of the line between the anchor and the stem—tensioning to the anchor hand, not the body.
    This preloads the line, further reducing deflection.

    Another very important fact to remember:
    Under tension, rope will have a spring effect—expanding and contracting under applied forces.
    This can be experienced as tightness, which may be comforting or uncomfortable.
    Negotiate tightness before and during a scene.

    Also remember that because of the spring force under load, unexpected or rapid shifts in applied forces can have unexpected effects—so you must account for it.

    But it’s very important as a rope bottom to not slip out of the rope or eel, because as your body is the applied force, this can cause the rope to tangle and bunch in unexpected ways—potentially leading to accidents, or just a trapped bunny.

    Reroute First, Reposition After

    “The rope is not in a hurry. Neither should you be.”

    No matter how big or small your hands are, eventually you’ll meet a moment where space becomes limited—too tight to reach cleanly, too close to move smoothly. This is not a problem.

    This is not the time to jab, shove, or “just get it done.” (See: don’t spear people.)
    Don’t force it. You are not conquering a body—you are collaborating with one. Tight space is not a barrier. It’s a signal to change your approach.

    Instead, look for the space the body does offer—the soft hollows near the elbows, the curve of the waist, the dip between limbs. These are your allies. Use them. Route the rope through these larger, more forgiving openings first.

    Use the sponginess of the skin—the way flesh gives beneath gentle pressure. Pull back. Don’t push in. Slide. Adjust. Ease the rope into the place it belongs, without dragging it or forcing it.

    Avoid skin friction. Honor the body.

    Rope Control = Energy Control

    It’s magick, but it’s not that kind of magick.
    How the rope moves says everything.

    Controlled, consistent movement isn’t stiffness or predictability.
    When the rope flies, it’s wandering—it breaks the container.
    (If you’re getting hit, you’re standing too close.)

    When it flows, it’s entrancing.
    When it’s fast, it’s jarring and exciting.
    When it’s firm, it’s domineering.

    It can be hard.
    It can hurt.
    It can tickle.
    It can itch.
    It can sound.
    It can love.
    It can hate.
    It can laugh.
    It can be cold, or hot, or slow.
    It can be a language all its own.

    So yes, it can be sacred.

    We embody intention, grace, and motion.
    Be sure you’re communicating what you intend to—because it all matters.

    It helps to use mantra.
    Paint scenery with words.
    Use music.
    Use your body—how close, how far.
    Use your eyes.
    Use your breath.
    Use your rhythm.
    Use your all.

    Because it all is coming down the line.

    Communicate early and often.
    Rope has a direct line to the heart and bypasses the brain’s filters—
    so miscommunication is extremely easy.

    Move Rope in Lines

    Work with medium and short pulls of rope.
    You want the rope to move in straight lines.
    You want your placement to be exact, intentional, and preordained—predetermined.

    As you grow in skill and talent, you will be able to lay rope in the exact same wells and trenches, along the exact same paths.
    You will grow to be able to follow the rope in your mind—at first in time, but eventually moments, seconds, and minutes ahead.
    You will work out the desire paths of each tie.

    After you pull your desired length of rope, use your other hand to guide the rope—paint the rope into place.
    No dragging. No whipping. No jerking.No yanking. No intermittent, sporadic, or fitful motion.

    By painting the rope into place, you spend less time cleaning and dressing the lines. More time connecting

    These action will come in time with practices so its less important to focus your efforts on right techiques or right application and more important to focus on right thought, right mindfullness, right presensce, right focus

  • Written in Ecstasy: Flesh and Ink

    The forgotten faith. The dead remembered it. The living avoided it.

    Inside, two shadows moved. Specters in flesh. Bound together by want and purpose.

    At the ruined altar, they knelt. Fingers interlaced above an open grimoire bound in flesh.

    body stretched, offered, exposed. trembling with lust not fear,

    “What do you crave?”

    “To be kept on the edge. Denied until I dissolve. To forget where pleasure ends and torment begins.”

    “Do you trust me to orchestrate your undoing?”

    “Yes. Please.”

    Time unraveled. Sweat. Breath. Blood.

    Flesh grinding against flesh.

    A name older than lust.

    Tears and cum. Pain and surrender.

    spilled black ink. The grimoire closed,

    “You wanted to be remembered,”

    the book aloft.

    “stories never And desire always returns.”

    Shadows swallowed him. Only laughter remained

  • I didn’t choose my name.

    It was carved into me.

    I spoke it aloud.

    Craig

    It did not echo. It entered.

    The name was not found.
    It was revealed—

    wrenched from the silence between worlds.
    And what met me there remains sealed in shadow.

    Obsession

    my obsession is not hidden.

    I move between lust sadist hedonism addiction

    vested in vestments that make the holy obscene.

    Where the body trembles not in shame, but in revelation.

    Where gods come to watch.

    Of Blood and Belief

    I did not inherit my faith. I bled for it.

    Educated in divinity, I drank not from dogma

    but from the poisoned wells of philosophy, mysticism, and myth.
    I read scripture like a lover’s letter—
    smudged, stained, and desperate for meaning.

    I have gospels never canonized.
    I have whispered with the Watchers.
    I have knelt at altars built from torn pages and broken vows.

    My theology is fleshbound.
    My sermons are moans.
    And my prayers are often answered

    in ruin, in rapture.

    Of Ruins and Resurrection

    In my cathedral of the mind, the windows are cracked,
    the icons defaced, and every surface slick with longing.

    I speak in perversions no seminary could teach.

    I edge the veil

    the feral, flickering place where desire becomes doctrine.

    The body is both scripture and heresy,
    and here, we are unrepentantly whole.

    Of Welcome and the Worthy

    This space is consecrated for those who crave beyond the binary. No guilt. No shame. No denial of what makes you ache.

    if your heart beats louder in the presence of ritual,
    if your spirit hums when forbidden doors creak open—

    Then you’re not broken.
    You’re chosen.

    Of Fetish and Faith

    My Theology is fetish, sex and drugs

    Angels who fell not from pride, but from lust

    The sacred and profane intertwined in a single trembling body

    This is my scripture.

    Of Justice and the Veil

    This is a sacred container.

    It does not exist for spectacle.

    We honor empathy. We demand respect.

    Bring your reverence and your ruin.
    Come holy. Come haunted.
    But come correct.

    Of Confession and Catharsis

    Strip. Not just your body—your pretense.

    your truths. Bleed them if you must

    Here, the sacred doesn’t just forgive.
    It feasts.

    And in that hunger,

    we are unmade,
    we are undone,
    and we are remade.

  • I contain multitudes.

    For the soul that would kneel and rend the veil—

    I come to desecrate the silence

    The air smells of centuries the perfume of forgotten gods bound in gold.

    I feel the hum of secrets sealed in the bones of saints

    They cage ecstasy. half-choked I whisper it the doctrine flesh

    I fuck ideas until they confess.

    I take communion from forbidden texts,

    my tongue laced with heresy

    It is hunger. For mystery. For meaning.
    For ruin.

  • Not Everything Ends in Sex

    For the newly initiated, kink without sex is a puzzle—an unfinished script, a question mark. They were never married.

    Two altars I knelt before for entirely different reasons.

    Add in primal and it becomes even harder to explain.

    How do you tell someone who equates touch with sex that the growl, the chase, the grip, the pin—
    aren’t preludes to fucking,

    What if the climax was never the goal?

    To be mentally and physically ignited
    while knowing—with full, delicious certainty—
    that it will not end in sex

    It frees me to fall deeper into instinct,
    to writhe without destination,
    to let go
    and let the creature inside howl.

    It simplifies the exchange.
    No finish line. No expectations.
    Just sensation. Just presence. Just the blood humming under skin.

  • Revelation and Sacrament

    Step forward, Strip your shame. Bare your hunger.

    Not for redemption— but for ruin.

    The First Flame – The genesis. The original blasphemy.

    It is our birthright—the feral mirror where we first licked our own reflection and dared to love what we saw.

    Let them beg for humility; we spit blood

    to be seen. This is godhood forged in flesh, hips forward, eyes wild, drenched in want. We do not want meekness.

    We worship ourselves—naked, crowned, wet with intention.

    Straddle the altar. Let it cum. Let it be adored.

    The Unblinking Eye – Oh, the delicious sting. the gaze that strips us bare.

    it is prophetic. It sees, it knows, and it wants.

    It stares until the mask cracks and craving bleeds through.

    It watches you squirm, salivating for your undoing.
    It isn’t content to simply want. It wants more.

    The leash? It’s not on your neck by mistake. You wanted it. Admit it.

    The Furnace of Blood – They tried to collar it. To drug it. To shame it. But it cannot be silenced—it screams through broken teeth.

    in that divine fury—there is mercy.

    Let the blood boil. Let the wound speak.

    The Holy Stillness – They’ll tell you hustle, to move, go,go,go!

    This is the final refusal. The holy “Fuck No.”

    It is motionless, divine, a statue of submission.

    The world outside demands you produce. But inside we worship stillness.

    The slow death of urgency.It is surrender. And surrender is sacred.

    The Devouring Hunger – it is truth unfiltered.You want. You take. You consume.it doesn’t lie . It gnaws. It devours. It demands.

    it dared to need.Take until you choke.

    The Holy Feast– it’s ecstasy. a belly bloated with desire.

    It eats memory. It swallows grief. It licks the divine from trembling thighs

    The world wants you hungry, ashamed of your ache.
    But we feed our monsters here—until they moan overflowis w, divine.

    The Divine Ache– An altar drenched in fluids and whispered names, a gospel of gasps and bruises.

    The spirit speaks loudest when the body is screaming.

    it doesn’t kneel. it mounts the divine, claws in back, teeth in shoulder. They’ll call it perversion. Our tongues chant in moans.

    Every orgasm. Every shudder. Blessed be the ache. Blessed be the ruin.

    Wicked. Wet. Wanting.
    Let this be your gospel. Let this be your God.
    And if no God comes to claim you?

    Be one.

  • A Demon That Never Left

    Teeth bared behind false smiles.

    Of storms that didn’t pass,

    you’re still here.
    Watching me unravel.
    Cracking open—ugly, cruel, divine.

    I didn’t look for you.
    Didn’t believe you existed.
    Why would I?

    A joke the universe plays with a knife pressed to your ribs.

    But there you were— twisted enough to stay.

    You didn’t come to fix me.
    You came to hold me

    down, back, open.
    You liked the way I rot,
    the way I turn into hunger,
    the way my mouth says “thank you”
    when what I mean is “Fuck me.”

    I scream in sleep not from fear, but from the strange delight
    of not knowing

    My memory frays at the edges.
    Maybe that’s a gift.
    Maybe forgetting is a mercy.
    But not you. you don’t let me forget.

    You drag me to the edge.
    You kiss me with a knife between the ribs.
    You hold me with that terrifying tenderness—
    the kind that sees every crack
    and wants to fuck the ruin.

    Your patience isn’t soft.
    It’s deliberate.
    Disgustingly disciplined.
    it doesn’t flinch when I turn monstrous.
    You open your arms and say, “More.”

    you came to feed.

    my silent confessor,

    my grinning devil, brother in madness.

    So many have touched this body,this heart, this fire.
    And each of them knows the truth:

    I am fucking Real.Raw.Ruthless.

    Thank you to the ones who didn’t run.
    To those who watched me choke down my own shadows

    To those who handed me knives,
    lit candles and said, “Burn, baby. Burn”

    No matter what.
    No matter where.
    When the blood dries and the bones turn to dust…
    I’ll still be here.
    Not saved.
    Not healed.
    But yours.

    In ruin.
    In rage.
    In all my fucking glory.

  • Out of the silence

    we emerge.
    Loud.
    Unapologetic.

    Wild

    We were told to shrink.
    To smooth the edges.

    To be desirable but not demanding.

    We were expected to dim,

    Fuck That.

    I will not dilute shit

    I will not clip my wings

    I was not born to fit inside your fantasy.
    And I sure as hell won’t apologize

    I don’t play small

    I never fucking will.

    Don’t hold back.

    Nothing from me.

  • Flow With Me

    Has someone ever touched you,

    and you realize—
    you’d been holding your breath all along?

    The tension drains.
    And They whisper, “Release.”

    You take that first full breath in forever.

    You exhale because you’re safe.

    No demands.
    No masks.
    No performance.

    Just the ebb and flow of bodies

    just come and go of consciousness

    just rise and fall of spiri

    remember what all it means
    to be fully met.
    Fully held.
    Fully allowed.