The Closing of the Bones was my way of showing love to my postpartum body. I didn’t like my body when I was younger. I loved my body enough, but I took it for granted. I didn’t really care – until the transition to motherhood. My first pregnancy was difficult and I had a traumatic C-section. My second pregnancy was harder than the first, but by then I had learned to fall into my body to process and heal my emotions.
My inner work helped, but the constant discomfort and health issues during pregnancy often made me want to “get out of my body.” During that time I was told by my spirit guides that my lesson was to remain in the body despite the discomfort. So I stayed. And I remembered that despite everything, I had to remain grateful and love my body as much as possible. I must have done something right, because my body did its utmost during the birth and I recovered well and quickly after birth.
The power of women coming together in ceremony
The closing of the bones was one of the most emotional events of my life. What you don’t see in the video on IG is the intention at the cherry tree where my placenta is buried and the yoni steam and herbal bath I had before the rebozo (scarves) part. I bathed, something we only experience in childhood!
When Tierra (practitioner) started gently swinging my feet in the rebozo, I burst into tears. I felt the presence of many female spirits in the room. I was held by all these women and was reminded that when someone does a ritual like this, it is not just for her, but for all the women before her in her lineage and for all women in general.
The ceremony felt familiar to me, like something I have been a part of before, probably in past lives, at a time when women lived in community and cared for each other. The transition to motherhood was sacred and celebrated with rituals in which the mother was held and supported.
We’ve all been there, but we’ve forgotten it. The spiritual work, at its core, is simply a journey of remembering who we really are. As women we are incredibly powerful, but at some point the patriarchal system took over and over time we internalized the patriarchal way of life. In this society, most women don’t feel good enough and compete with each other.
But many women are slowly claiming their divine essence. The transition to motherhood offers the opportunity to remember our feminine power. This became clear to me during my home birth and during this postpartum ceremony. At the cherry tree, I wanted to bring this incredible power I felt during birth to every area of my life.
The Closing of the Bones is one of many rituals that can bring women together and help them remember that our power lies in community. Through ceremonies we can bring deep healing to our body, mind and spirit (especially during the transition to motherhood), heal our ancestors and reclaim our feminine power in the process.
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