The “Greeting” tie has actually blown my mind. When I first learned of it, I was deceived by how seemingly simple it was. I didn’t see the point. But then, when I actually tried it out… holy shit, this is actually deceptively powerful.
What This Tie Is For
This tie is designed to give you a sense of your person’s comfort at at the beginning of a rope or tying session. It’s surprisingly good at allowing you to get a sense of how much tension the person is carrying in their body, even if they can’t quite articulate it, and get a sense of their underlying mood. It’s a great way to start a session, and to be a good “Greeting” with your rope bottom.
The Pattern of The Greeting Tie
This is a very simple pattern.
You take your length of rope, which, as always, is folded in half. You have your knots at one end, and your bight at the other.
Now, you run the length of rope behind someone’s neck, stopping at about the point where you have equal lengths on either side of your person’s neck.
Now, take both lengths into one hand. I recommend doing this roughly where I’ve shown in the picture, so you don’t compress your person’s neck.
So now you have four lengths of rope bundled in your hand, and from here on out, this is now the band of rope that you’re tying with.
I highly recommend sitting or standing either at right angles to your person, as if you’re about to give them a hug from the side, or sort of half way between being directly in front of them, and to their side. At a 45 degree angle, if you were. This enables you to manipulate their arms and body, and gives you a great view of their face.
We take our band in one hand, and start creating columns going down their arms.
I find it’s good to use a “reverse tension” wrap on the next bit; bringing the band over the arm, meeting your initial band, wrapping around it and pulling down. Then you start wrapping the rope around the arms again, creating another column tie. Make sure to avoid the elbows; you might want to put the next wrap around the forearms instead.
Once you’ve got another wrap in place, then you just need to find a way to tie off.
You might add another wrap, if you have enough rope. Or you might just create a knot at the last intersection you’ve just done, or a closed half hitch of some kind. That’s it.
So that’s the pattern.
How To Do The Actual Tying
As I said before, this is a VERY simple tie. The pattern doesn’t take much concentration.
Which is great, because that means we have lots of resources and attention left over whilst tying it to interact with our partner. And this is important, because how you tie someone to begin with helps set the tone of the session. It’s an essential consideration in doing the greeting tie.
When we initially lay the rope behind the neck, if our partner has a lot of hair, we can take our time gently moving the hair over the rope, or sliding the rope sensually along the back of the neck. That being the sensitive area that it is, you can easily raise some goosebumps.
When we are creating the first wrap under the arms, we can hook our arms beneath that of our model, creating more personal contact as we pull the rope under. In the below picture, I have multiple points of contact that allow me to brace my model, but also that allows a bit of personal connection.
As we’re sliding the rope beneath itself, we can almost enfold our person into a hug, by tying with one arm bracing their back, as in the below picture, and controlling our rope ends as we do.
All things considered, there are a lot of opportunities to play while we do the tie, simply because it’s so simple.
Analysis And Effects Of This Tie
This first time I tied this, during a rope social hang out with other people, I was amazed.
I could literally feel my rope bottoms’ pliability and relaxation through the tension of the rope. I could pick up on how tense or on how relaxed she was. She folded sweetly into my arms with just a little bit of smooth pull on the rope.
The next time I tied the “Greeting tie” just at the start of a sex party…
The effect was entirely different. Instead of relaxation, I could feel in the tension transmitted through the rope just how rigid and anxious my partner was feeling. It gave a very solid impression that she wasn’t quite ready for that interaction… it was the first such party we’d attended together, and naturally she was a bit nervous and tense.
Same tie. Same person. Different mood.
It’s super effective.
Note: I suspect that the position of the rope across the back of the neck, resting on the spine, is a key part of what allows for that transmission of tension, allowing you to pick up on the person’s mood. Although further experimentation will be ongoing.
Christian Red also has a video on this; I’ve done photos for my own notes and learning, but feel free to check out his perspective, too. I always like to encourage other people’s perspectives on rope as well.
