1.4.13

deerie

     


i found this little dear awhile back on a walk through our woods.  hir skull was poking up through the leaves just as bright and heady as a queen surveying hir realm.  i stopped in my tracks and without even thinking, gathered hir to myself.  i soon realized that there was much more of hir bone gold to be found under the layers of damp leaves and earth, and each limb bone and vertebrae that extruded felt like another gift, and there were many.  i hadn't brought a bag or basket for gathering, so i took off my aran sweater, a long-ago gift from mum and a staple for me on cold winter days, and laid hir out.  the green and brown staining made me wonder if bones could be dyed like easter eggs.  




i have since cleaned and bleached dearie's remains and they are pristine, blanched, beautiful.  i have thought about making hir into a mobile, in which i would crochet hir back together and add some of hir missing bits, as i imagine hir when s/he was alive.  i have been guilty of following the trend toward bone collecting, toward rewilding, earthing, primitive living - they are all connected somehow, are they not?  is there not a bone craze making itself felt throughout the craft world, in jewelry and on etsy? 




 i know i'm not the only one gathering and crafting with bones and animal-ephemera, not the only one with a red fox tooth ear cuff and tail, a crow cast skull necklace, a set of my own indigo-dyed cat bone adornments, a gifted antler wand, a cache of precious traded squirrel bones, a grandiose four-horned sheep skull and any number of thrifted taxidermied friends whom i've collected since childhood (and i'll only barely mention here my roomfull of wool).  we are, many of us, held rapt in their presence.  lupa has written about the magick of animal parts, and hoodoo has a long tradition of using animal claws and bones along with herbs to make their mojo.  although with hoodoo, i believe many root doctors don't shy from a human finger bone or other as curio.  



 i am wondering though if i was right to unearth dearie.  if this fetishization of animal remnants is yet another form of speciesism.  most of us wouldn't consider having human bones around.  and yet while we seem to separate nonhuman animals out this way for adornment or decor, it isn't on surface smacking of disrespect, but rather of honour.  we who fetishize hold them sacred.  we don't venerate human bones in the same way partly out of human exceptionalism, but also because they aren't that interesting.  (although i do have a close friend who was able to snatch up a small bone of her dear friend who met an early death.  she found it when they scattered her friend's cremains, and kept it, a beautiful story).

deerie seemed comfy there in the woods, no matter that her skull sung out to me, a beacon.  i am not the most observant of kin, something i'm trying to change, but still i need company when morel-hunting to spy the little phalluses.  i tend to miss the glorious details, but s/he shone so brightly to me that i could not resist or refuse hir.  the problem now is that there is no art i can make, no method of display, no reanimation or imagination that won't fall depressingly short of Hir in life or spirit.  s/he now lies wrapped in a tea-towel embroidered with the day of my birth, another gift from mum, awaiting my plans.  whatever i decide, i think it's important that before s/he ends up forgotten and dusty with my own remains that s/he be respectfully re-interred.  

11 comments:

  1. I have been a collector for the past 40 years. I have a great respect for the earth and it's findings. I am glad to hear about others feeling the same way. I do believe you will find a way to respect the bones in a creative way.

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    1. you must have quite the collection!! can you photograph it and share so we can ogle it??

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  2. it seems to me...whatever you decide to do....if it is done with respect, honoring and/or celebration, it can't be considered a failure. beautiful thoughtful things here.

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    1. thanks for that reminder, c. intent is everything!

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  3. Thanks for reminding me about the morels. They are so inconspicuous I have to get on my hands and knees to find them. I know others who can spot them from a mile a way but last year was my first real hunt and it took me a moment to develop the eye. And bones bones bones. They are designed for adornment. so many beautiful lines and curves. Let's wear them and use them as buttons and handles for knives.

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    1. let's go on a morel and bone hunt together? it is like you have to shift your vision and see with a different set of eyes. maybe we'll find faeries too.

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  4. I never thought about collecting bones, this is a new concept for me and quite frankly on the moment I can not see the fascination. Keeping my mind open, though...

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    1. resist! resist!! there are enough bones floating around the internetz!! so nice to see you here though :D

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  5. I honour each feather stick, shell, stone & bone that I find & then pass them on to friends in need of spirit lifting or in gratitude back to the spirit of place but here in Australia all native animal remains & many of our sea creatures are illegal to collect or trade, this is to discourage the native animals being killed for their feather, fur, bones & shells.

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    1. oh yes the politics of this are all big and thorny, i didn't even get into that with this post. but such a worthy topic!!

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  6. what a find, and I'm thinking: you found hir, so your choice to take hir home and then think some more on what to do with hir; s/he'll probably tell your hirself one day.

    If it were up to me, I'ld wear human bones as well; I believe there is such a tradition with Tibetan monks: a body is lain where the vultures and other creatures eat the flesh and whatever else is edible, the bones are blown clean by the elements, what remains is shaped into beads and the bead necklaces are worn by the monks

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