I live with the dead all around me.

One of the first things people notice when they walk into my house is the bones.  There is a goat’s skull above my couch.  Small skulls of birds and reptiles sit in my window nooks.  Hanging above my dining room table is a large water buffalo skull, an antelope skull and multiple dog skulls.  

I have an ancestorial altar in my home that enshrines the ashes of my Father, my Mother, a dearly departed friend, and two dogs and four cats, as well as photos of friends and family that have died. It is encased in a permanent hutch that divides my living room and my dining room. There is a tall selenite lamp that sits on top of the hutch that softly glows as a beacon to guide the departed, a candle for warmth and an offering bowl with gifts of food and water.  When I had a friend who is a feng shui practitioner come to map my house, she told me I had instinctively set this altar in between the baugua positions of family and knowledge.  

As you move deeper into my home, you will find more bones, many in different stages of cleaning.  Some still hold on to bits of dirt or patches of skin and fur.  Others bathe in the degreasing sink.  I have several hearts that are mummifying at the moment, buried deep in salts and herbs.

Each bone has a story to tell, and I am a willing listener. When I receive a new bone, I sit with it for a long time.  I hold it in my hands and I listen with all my senses.  Bones have their own stories to tell, and if you pay attention, you learn so much about the spirit still present within the bone. 

When I create a piece of artwork that incorporates bone, I always make sure that the bone is willing.  Some bones want to be seen, heard and felt.  They want to be acknowledged and not forgotten.  Some bones have no one to remember them, and they want to participate in the artwork so they are not forgotten.

On the other hand, some bones want to sleep.  They want to rest, undisturbed.  Many are still sorting out the confusion of their death.  This happens a lot with animals killed by cars along the highway or ones that have been hunted.  Many of them still carry the trauma of an unexpected passing.  These bones often need soothing.  Sometimes I rebury them or I tuck them away in wooden boxes lined with soft fabric.  I check in on them from time to time.  The dead like to be remembered.

I rarely purchase bones.  Most of the bones I have are found in forests or along roadsides, or are given to me as gifts.  Of the few bones I’ve purchased, they seem to come into my awareness in special ways, as if they aligned themselves to me.  One dog skull I purchased happened to show up while I was looking for jewelry supplies on Ebay.  When she appeared in my feed, I felt drawn to her and made the purchase.  When she arrived in the mail, her energy literally leapt out of the box as I lifted the skull from the packaging.  I instantly saw the image of a small purple flower in my mind’s eye and realized she was telling me her name was Violet.  She has a special place in my home and in my heart.

As bone art becomes more popular, many people are cashing in on selling bones as craft supplies.  Animals are purposely killed in order to monetize their bones, teeth, claws and pelts.  These are often imported from places like China and Ukraine and are usually easy to spot.  These bones come with complicated emotional energy, and are often wanting to hide.   Many are sold under the heading “ethically sourced” and are produced under conditions that are undeniably unethical.   They come “clean and sanitized” from the supplier, and confused and frightened from the process.  

To work with bones, you have to be willing to embrace the process of death.  The stigma, the smells, the rot and the adipocere (corpse wax) that comes with the process.  Death is not “clean and sanitized”.  It is slimy and stinky and dusty and dirty.  The process of taking a rotting limb and producing a beautiful bone specimen is art in itself.  

Bones are sacred objects, and should be treated as such.  They are a direct link to the archetypical energies they represent and can assist you in accessing the power of the animal and the magic it possesses.  Like crystals, they can be employed to heal, to protect and to manifest, but they need to be cared for and cherished.  They were once a part of a living, breathing being, and that energy still exists.  They have so much to offer us, if we are only willing to listen to them and treat them with respect and reverence.