Bone Singer

The edge folk, living in both this and the next world. Chanting over the last breaths of life at the side of a tribal members death bed. Preparing the body for the mortuary platforms for the crows and ravens to peck the bones clean and finally with ritual, placing and arrange the bones in the chambered womb-tombs. They cared for the dead and sang the stories of the bones of the ancestors, their chants echoing in deep bellied womb-tombs. They were both feared and respected, and so lived on the edge of their society and this physical existence.

Today the Bone Singers teach us of the inspiration of aloneness, of being different from the 'norm', of facing our mortality and with death and the dieing. Here we find our true vocation and dedication, for the Bone Singer spends many hours with the bones of the dead ensure that their song lives on and echo from deep with this sacred land, deep with the belly of mother earth. They also teach us of the realities of other world beyond our physical realm of here and now.

The Bone Singers Drum is a Neolithic Style Pot Drum made of Red deer hide stretched over a clay pot.

Full bellied tomb sits on the edge of a field, green shoots echoing the season of re-birthing, the greening of our land. Offerings made and we sink low to the ground and humbly enter this sacred womb-tomb, this temple to the dead, the ancestors of this land. Darkness fills our lungs and we see with the touch of our hand, sink on cold, moist stone. The brilliance of the darkness allows our eyes to stare into the stone of the next world, shifting, moving, and a chamber long forgotten. Apprentice with fully attuned intuition burns the ancient scent of amber, as resin smoke fills and hangs in the air, spirits  stirring and dance on its caress of the chambered tomb. As my existence is pushed beyond the boundaries of my nemeton, the sound of rattle shifts our minds, open, flying free, the posture of a young man at the chamber entrance, deep and rich with honour and knowledge of death, of his duty of care to the ancestors. He is the Bone Singer, he who dwells on the edge of existence, he alone who enters the tomb, arranges bones of the dead and sings and keeps their stories alive. This is his realm; this is his existence in this world and the next.