What is the Closing of the Bones Ceremony?

Closing of the Bones is a deeply healing ceremony that honors the mother through her passage of birth and into her motherhood journey. A sacred, peaceful space is created to honor the mother and process all the emotions that come from childbirth and the motherhood journey.

The ceremony is a cross cultural rite of passage ceremony with origins in Latin America, Russia, Morocco and so many more countries. Rebozos (Mexican cloths) are used to close the woman up physically, spiritually and emotionally. A rite of passage is, “ A ceremony or event marking an important stage in someone's life”, usually a rite of passage has three significant steps. The first being separation, or ending / leaving the familiar. Pregnancy would signify the separation period, as the woman is separating from her old self, and giving up her body as her own. The second step is transition, or a time of testing. Birth would signify the transition stage, as the woman is starting to go from maiden to mother and is in between the two. The last stage is integration or beginning. The postpartum period would signify the integration stage, where a woman has fully made the transition from woman to mother. However, the rite of passage is still not complete until she is fully nurtured, acknowledged and honored that she is not the same woman as she once was. Not only is the ceremony body work, but it is deeply energetic work, allowing you to process deep emotions and heal your energy. .

Most traditional, indigenous cultures are taught the importance of community and caring for the mother as she enters her new role, with the goal of nourishment and healing. Understanding the new mothers vulnerability after the rite of passage is essential to her well-being and transition from maiden to mother. Innate postpartum traditions have 5 components to help aid in a mothers healing. These are rest, warmth, nutrition, bodywork and community, all of which seem to be something that the western culture lacks contributing to today’s, “bounce back” culture, unresolved birth trauma, postpartum anxiety/depression and pelvic floor dysfunction.

Who is the ceremony designed for and why?

Closing of the bones is designed for postpartum mothers and far beyond. During pregnancy and birth a woman's physical and energetic body open and expand, there for it is a physiological need to close her body back up. When we think of the body expanding physically, we can think of an increase in blood volume, the hormone relaxin to allow connective tissue to relax and make ligaments more elastic, diastases recti ( separation of abdominal muscles), and the pelvis opening to make room for the baby. It is important to close the body back up, otherwise the mother could suffer from pelvic instability. Closing the body back up helps to realign the bones and muscles, guiding the bones back into place, helps the pelvic organs shift and the uterus to shrink back down and stimulates blood flow.

When the woman’s energetic field opens up during birth, a lot of emotions can come to surface. This can be different for every woman, but some examples might be, memories of previous physical or sexual abuse, fears of what type of mother she will be, how romantic relationships might change, coming to terms of how she was parented as a child, coming into new roles within her family and society and getting to know ourselves on a deeper level than we ever have before. In Mayan Culture it is said that during labor the Mother’s spirit travels in the universe to find and collect her baby’s soul and return and birth together. It is said that during the bone closing ceremony the spirit is called back to the body and the ritual encourages a new parent to close energetically. When we close the energetic field, it allows the mother to find closure in her birth story, and be called back home into her body, with more strength and confidence than before, as she is a newly nurtured woman.

Something most people don’t recognize is how structural and emotionally important the pelvis is. It is made up of muscles, ligaments, tendons and fascia that all come together and help stabilize the body and help it move. The pelvis is the location of the sacral chakra, known as “Svadhisthana”, which is responsible for balancing emotion. This is due to the fact that our hip muscles activate when the fight or flight response kicks-in. These muscles can be stuck in the flight or fight response and freeze up, holding on to this trauma and emotion. When we hold on to this trauma and tell our stories and pass down beliefs and feelings to generations, this is how generational trauma can happen, as it’s stored in the pelvis. So you potentially could be holding on to trauma, that’s not even yours, that needs to be released and healed.

Closing of the Bones can also be extremely healing when someone has experienced a miscarriage, abortion, hysterectomy, or fertility troubles. It also can be a great way to honor the end of a breastfeeding journey, the 1 year postpartum milestone or even perimenopause. However, a woman can have Closing of the Bones performed during any significant life transition or whenever she feels called to.

What to expect?

The ceremony itself can be designed and customized to whatever you feel you need. First, I will set up the sacred space of your choosing with intention. This may include candles, healing crystals, incense or essential oils, flowers, relaxing music and anything that you want to add, that represents, or has meaning, to your birth passage into motherhood.

Once the space is set up, I will often have you tell your birth story and we will discuss any unresolved emotions or any trauma you may have from your experience, as well as how you are transitioning into motherhood whether its transitioning to your first baby, or your 5th. We will discuss what intentions you have with the ceremony and what you would like to accomplish and address. I like to do this either over a cup of hot tea, or a warm nourishing meal. Once we have established our intentions, I will perform a light, oiled fully body massage, focusing most of the time on the abdomen. The intention of the massage is to help relax you and assist the abdominal muscles back into their original place. From here, I will then start the wrapping of the rebozos. The first is the head, then shoulders, chest, pelvis legs and feet. With each rebozo, a sifting massage will happen helping rock the organs back into place and release any physical tension, emotional trauma and/or stagnant energy that may be lingering. After the rocking, the rebozos are then crossed and tucked into place. I will spend as much time on each area as I sense is appropriate and needed. Once the entire body is complete, a blanket is then placed over you. You then will be allowed to stay wrapped as long as you would like. Once unwrapped, over a cup of hot tea, we will discuss your experience.