Witchcraft Wednesday - Bones

So in my own craft I use some....unusual, I guess you could say, ingredients. Some are just things I can get my hands on through various circumstances and others are household items that I think many in the craft don't think to use but due to my time as a closeted witch I had to get a bit creative. And now I'd like to share these things with everyone :D

WARNING! The following photo will be of bones. So far my small collection mostly includes chicken bones from rotisserie chickens, some cow and pig rib bones, and various bones from roadkill such as squirrels, raccoons, rabbits and birds that my roommate and I collected from the roadside and took care of. No skulls, as those are for other things, but it is small various bones and other things. If you are squeamish about bones or otherwise don't enjoy looking at such things please turn back now, this is your one and only warning.

Bones! Lots and lots of bones. Like I said above no skulls as I'm keeping those for other things, and some of the bigger cow and pig bones are elsewhere, but I have several jars like this full of small animal bones. The picture is just the chicken bones, because I keep them separated by general species.

Bones as a whole have their own connotations, mostly dealing with death. There is a type of divination that uses bones as well, so they can be useful for that if you've got the right types.

Each kind of bone has its own association too. Vertebra, skulls, rib bones, leg bones, you name it. I like using chicken wing bones to represent freedom and flight because while domestic chickens can't fly wild ones certainly do and wing bones are wing bones.

Even the type of animal matters. Chickens, for example, are often associated with people who have no courage. Makes their bones useful for spells to counter that and give yourself courage or curse someone to have none. Pig bones for a curse of gluttony, rabbit bones to help make you faster at your work, things like that.

As always, these are simply my personal opinions on the uses of bones. This post is meant more as a way to help kickstart ideas for other practitioners to make their own associations and uses for such materials.

Chicken bones and rib bones in particular are easiest to get your hands on if you're closeted. Just use the bones to make stock and most won't question you straining out the bones afterwards which should by then be mostly clean of organic stuff that'll rot and smell and the rest can be fixed by running them under some water and making sure they get scrubbed down and dry out before you seal them up in a jar :)