Bone Magick
By

Lily Gardner

A Blackfoot myth tells the sotry of a young woman whose father was trampled to bits by a herd of buffalo. A friendly magpie helps the woman find a tiny bone from the father's corpse. The woman covers the one with her robe, sings a magical song over it, and the body of her beloved father is restored.

    A Version of this story exists all over the world because of the primal belief that our beingness is retained in our bones. Catholics make pilgrimages to sacred sites where holy relics that ( That is a sain'ts ones) bestow blessings. When well-meaning monk moved the bones of Saint Swithin from his humble churchyard to a magnificent shrine they had built especially forhim, the saint wept in protest. It rained for forty days straight. Eleven-hundred years later, July 15, Saint Swithin's Day , Remains a weather marker;
       Saint Swithin's Day, if thou dost rain
       Full forty days it will remain.
    There are many customs associated with  bones. the most northern tribes were careful not to break any of the bones of the game they killed. They belived if the skeleton was kep  intact, the animal could come back to life, ensuring future game for the tribe. One myth recounts Thor resurrecting three goats that were sacrificed to him. The men who had feasted on the goat broke the shin bone of one of the goats to suck the marrow from it. When that goat was resurrected, he was lame, much to Thor's  Chagrin. Siberians hung the skull of the bear they killed in a nearby tree.  If a passerby greeted the bear skull with respect, he would be protected from other bears.
    Bones were commonly used in healing work in western Europe. If one carries the knuckle of a sheep in a pocket, that person will be free from rheumatic pain and cramp. Mixing red wine with powdered bone cures dysentery. Headaches can be cured, it is said by driving a dail into a dead man's skull. Epilepsy can be cured y drinking from the skull of someone who has committed suicide.
    The oldest and most common practice of all is using bones as a diviniation tool. Throwing the bones was a precursor to throwing dice, as dice were originally made from bone. The method I have developed is combination of African and Thai bone throwing. The African method uses a combination of bones and stones which seem more practicle in modern times.
    The biggest challenge is to collect enough bones. As city dweller, the butcher and the rock shop are my best sources. Most rock shops sell fossilized bones of animals that are not available at the meat market. Be sure to put the word out to everyone in your acquaintance that you're looking for bones.
    Each none will contain the toem energies of the animal it came from. The following are a few examples of bones e asy to obtain.  The chicken is a solar animal and thus associated with light and ressurrection. Cows and Moon animals representing fertility. The horse is a messenger etween heaven and earth, consciousness and unconsciousness, living and dead.
    In addition to using the toem energies of th ebones, determin wheather the one is closer to the head, which represents intellect, or the foot, which represents physicality.
    I'm fortunate to own a skull and a skull and shin bone. Because of their size and fragility, these two bones are the stationary pieces on my divination board. The skull represents matters of the intellect,  the shin represents matters of physicality. In addition to these bones, I use fossilized teeth ( thoughts or projects) a piece of spine ( support), a wishbone ( matters of the heart), smaller leg bones, (work on Travel), two red stones ( bad fortune ) two tigers' eyes ( wisdom or ability to perceive), two rose quartz ( love), and five shark teeth (facing challanges).
    To throw the bons, close your eyes and rotate the divination table so that you don't know which dirrection the stationary bones lie. Shake the smaller bones and stones in your cupped hand in the same way you would throw a handfull of dice. The interpitation is based on the prximity of these stones and bones to the stationary pieces.
   To increase the power of your divination bless bones over the next four Full Moons.Bathe the bones in the moonlight, thanking thes spirits of the animals for the use of the element of the Moons current sign to purify your bones. Thus if the Moon is full in Aries, a fire sign, pass the ones over a flame.
    May many new insights come to you with this oldest divinatory tool.