Bone Woman: Conscious Eldering
Who Is Bone Woman?
The things that women reclaim are often their own voice, their own values, their imagination, their clairvoyance,
their stories, their ancient memories.
If we go for the deeper, and the darker, and the less well known we will touch the Bones.
Dr Clarissa Pinkola Estes
...the powerful darkened feminine teaches us what we need to know, gives us the gift we need most - and lets us go.
There is an energetic presence that is encountered at Life's challenging threshold moments. It can be felt when old values, beliefs and habits start fracturing.
For a reset to begin, there is a call to sacrifice and let go of these patterns.
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Transitional thresholds offer opportunities for renewal. I call them portals of potential.
Peri-menopause is one of the major transformational portals of potential within a womens cyclic life.
During my many years of counselling and mentoring women, I have found that around the 42nd year - the 6th Septennial - many women report a big shift in their lives. A questioning of their relationships, purpose and identity in the world is activated.
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This voice of authority that emerges from deep within the psyche expresses through our conscience and no longer tolerates a life of mediocre habits. It challenges the exploitation of the resources of the Earth through our thinking, feeling (emotions), and our actions. There is a Call to become fully Conscious and Responsible.
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I call this energetic presence BONE WOMAN. She strips you back to your metaphoric bones and challenges all that is not in alignment with the best values of being a human.
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Elder women over the aeons of time have been consulted for their knowledge and understanding through lives fully lived. And like the shamanas of the Hollow Bone, elder women through middle age hold the values of the human community, for the continuity of Life to be respected and nurtured.
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There is a process of metaphoric dismemberment for the modern woman as she feels the call to shed values that she has partaken in and feels the call to move away from the mundane and the banal as the search for meaning and renewal of purpose is activated.
Perimenopause offers a gateway, an opportunity to reinvent oneself by re-evaluating ones beliefs, ideologies, and habits, but first Bone Woman must be met and the shedding needs to happen. In order to gain the Crown of Eldership that leads to a deeper and more enriched connection/communion with the Earth, one must be ready to strip right back to the Bones of what is truly essential. ​
The Biographical Life Review process which is featured on this website: 'What's in the Harvest Basket?', has been created to assist and support women to integrate their story in readiness for transformation, reinvention and conscious eldership.
Image: 'endarkened feminine',
Hearthground altar.
Dr Clarissa Pinkola Estes, author of 'Women who run with the Wolves' says in her 'How to be an Elder' series that “It is never too late, never ever too late, never ever ever too late to become conscious right up to the day we die”.
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In traditional shamanic cultures there is the concept of the Hollow Bone, where the practitioner raises their consciousness through meeting their own shadows, dealing with their ego and emotions and taking responsibility for themselves. This clearing away allows a freer movement of energy to flow through them and, in so doing, they connect to the greater Oneness of the universe to bring through healing and service for their communities.