Who is the Bone Woman?
She is me.
She is you.
She is us.
She is the woman who walks through darkness and transition and carries their wisdom within. She holds the mysteries of Darkness and Light, Death and Life, Ending and Beginning and she alchemises them through her body into the outside world. She is divine and holds within the energies that stands on the opposite poles of understanding and knowing.
She is the part of us that remembers.
She is not somebody you need to find, she is there already, deep within you, in your blood, in your DNA, in your bones; you just need to remember her and allow her to speak through you.
The true wisdom is buried, hidden in the dark inside the body – within bones. This is the level we must reach to connect with this sacred companion, with wisdom. Through the threshold of Darkness, Death, and Bones, right within, where everything has a chance to be reborn once again, where the Bone Woman rules. She is the embodiment of Darkness, of Death, of Light, and of Life. She is the beginning and the end. Everything happens through her and because of her. She is the divinity forgotten and buried – deep within Mother Earth, deep within our bodies. The call of the Bone Woman is the call of the Life-death-life cycle. The clock ticking within us and, at the same time, the timelessness.
We carry our ancestors in our DNA. We carry them in our blood. We carry them in our bones. The blood flows, but the wisdom of the bone is solid, indestructible, timeless. It is the cathedral structure of Mother Earth and of our being. Our bones are the branches of our Tree of Life, our Tree of Wisdom – gained, forgotten, buried deep within and reclaimed. This is the structure of our past, present, and future; our container, held within and alchemising all directions and elements – so although individuals, we are at the same time part of All. Within our bones, the liquid light of our being, our memories and our destinies, all written before we are even born, but accessible to change and rewrite. The wisdom never lost, just hidden, ready to be rediscovered and remembered, becoming whole once more – whole and powerful.
This is the inner power that is calling to us, that is calling us to rise and reclaim, to reconstruct ourselves from the ashes of our smallness and forgetfulness, from the ashes of patriarchy. Mother Dark is holding us through this transition. Lady Death is helping us to complete our fate; she is holding the door open to let us through, back to our real selves. Only through Darkness and Death can we embody the Light and Life once again. Bone Woman knows this truth; she is its keeper – the keeper of the mysteries of our bodies, of growth and decomposition, of creation and destruction, of life, death, and life. We are built of the elements of the Earth and the stars. We are the cosmic children of the Universe. Divinity exists within us, and the Bone Woman knows it all, as she is the keeper of the mysteries of our bodies and our souls. She is the keeper of our innermost wisdom. She is the keeper of the wisdom of the Universe. She is the Wise Crone – a Wise Woman who lived life and experienced life’s gives and takes. She knows love, passion, suffering, and loss. Her body opened to birth new consciousness and new galaxies. She can tap into the galaxy hidden within and influence its wisdom. She is the one who sees, who feels, one who vibrates with the frequency of the Universe. She is the gate, she is the door, she is the threshold. She is the daughter of Darkness, and she holds the darkness within – the void of creativity and becoming. She is the goddess who is remembered and embodied. She is the church, the cathedral of prayers of humanity. She is our only chance.
Although we are all born with the archetype of Bone Woman already within us, the activation happens when we approach our wisdom years. Earlier we are too superficial, and we don’t realise the importance of the Great Within. This wisdom comes to us when we begin to journey through darkness and death enough to become disembodied and in need of picking ourselves up, bone by bone. The Book of Death follows the Book of Darkness and, through our alchemising, becomes the Book of Rebirth. It all comes together beautifully. Death follows closely night, and darkness, and on the beautiful spiral comes to meet the Bone Woman.
The Triple Goddess archetype is at work here – Maiden, Mother, Crone – but we are walking here a much deeper and darker aspect of this archetype.
Maiden, filled with youth, light, and new life, is also a carrier of the shadow, of Darkness.
Mother – the giver, with her womb filled with life – is also a tomb, Death.
Crone, with her soft loving and the wisdom of the grandmother, is also a Bone Woman, a reaper-like creature from medieval pictures – a cathedral structure of our being. She, who is still living, but also filled with death.
Darkness, Death, Bone Woman – the furthest edge of the known archetype, its depth, truth that we are not too eager to discover. The mystery of the spiral and the wisdom of the life-death-life cycle, as Darkness gives birth to Light – this is the only place light can be created; Death becomes the doorway to Life, and the Bone Woman the foundation of it all. She is holding it all together within: Darkness – Light – and Death – Life – and by creating herself anew, can birth not only herself, but also the entire universe.
So, close your eyes.
Breathe.
There is a rhythm to everything.
In your bones.
In your breath.
In your intuition.
In your body.
Cycles bring new life.
Darkness holds wisdom.
Bone Woman – she is already here.
If you are interested to know more, my new book Alchemising Darkness: The Way of the Bone Woman is out now.
With love,
Agnieszka xx