Many years ago I followed a shamanic training, studying the traditions and tools that it offered. I was curious and totally involved in what it had to share with me. It gave me new tools to explore and much of it confirmed what I already knew and loved and gave me the clarity and confirmation of  experiences that I had already received through my life, from a very early age. My Grandmother always used to say ‘I was different’ and maybe I was because I was so much a dreamer, so much a nature spirit, loving my animals and some of the things that they were all not so interested in, or maybe it was because my Grandmother did not know what was going on in the shadows of the family home!  A wound so deep they could not even contemplate its existence, and I for one was not able to speak of it!
Who knows how and why that ‘difference’ was being created for sure?
But during my shamanic training I began to understand the need to create my own ‘hollow bone’ partly because of my own wounding but also in order to do the work that I felt was necessary.
It so happened that along side my shamanic training I took on the teachings of another group. One called ‘Cellular Shift’. Now two running side by side was not an easy task, especially as they were not in the country I lived in! However it felt so necessary to do them both. In one of was learning the traditions of the shamanic world and in the other I was being with my own story, my own heart and my own life’s journey.
They were mingling together and becoming one. What I gained in one training I used in another, what I experienced in one, I was able to use to support me in the other. I knew that for me one way would not work without the other. My heart was part of my shamanic world and when danced with in the deep muscle of my body, those tools I was gathering came alive, began to speak to me, began to find their own way in the world of poetry and presence, spirit and ego, soul and the ever-expanding rituals within the natural world.

If we are stepping along the shamanic path, we will have come across the wisdom of becoming like a ‘hollow bone’
The Shamanic path can sometimes be complex and can also attract very wounded beings and life stories. Some may see the path as a way to further dissociate from the body and live in the world of the spiritual, some may find it to be a materialistic wonderland of rattles, drums and objects and of course some of this is a very important part of what we do. But it is not all it is, for we as human indigenous beings on this planet carry with us a life time of stories that challenge us and make us who we are.
My belief is that the only way we can truly become that ‘hollow bone’ is to combine our own personal development work with our shamanic practice.

Becoming the ‘hollow bone’ demands that we address our own issues with life. That we learn to embrace the possibility of an open heart, thus we embrace pain as our healer.
We embrace challenge as a route to true growth, we allow our tears to wash away what is old and no longer serves. We accept the need to be vulnerable as well as powerful
so we can look the other in the eye and say ‘I see your wounded heart’ without judgement, criticism or analyzing, when we can literally look and see – there is a great  teacher in our midst – the one of a ‘open heart!’
When we can be with the truth of what really matters we can accept
spirit into our lives, to move through us, knowing what is ego and what is not.

Our masculine brings us to the place of wanting change and transformation, it takes us on journeys across lands, to meet with our teachers and friends, it takes us through stations and airports, putting us in the right place at the right moment. It takes us to our desired working place and puts in front of us the tools we need. It can then hold the space for the soul to dance through us in safety and with clarity for the journey ahead, it holds a space of safety for the more feminine soul parts to sing and dance and speak poetry and song, always from the heart with the support of our spirit allies and guides.

Calling in to us our spirit allies becomes a prayer that we know in our own heart, not a mechanical way of ‘doing something the right way’ or a way that others have told us to do.
Nature will teach us if we are willing to look into her eyes and receive those teachings.
When we can create our own ‘hollow bone’ we make space for that soul energy to emerge, to move with spirit with nothing ‘getting in the way’ of our free dance.

 “We are called to become hollow bones for our people, and anyone else we can help. We are not supposed to seek power for our personal use and honor. What we bones really become is the pipeline that connects Wakan Tanka, the helpers and the community together.” Frank Fools Crow

We live more complex lives, unlike our ancestors when life was very much about survival and simplicity, which is still seen in the native and indigenous lands.
We have more wounds to heal, there are more complications in relationships and all the hurt and sorrow that goes with them. Competition, envy, the need to even make a living and pay our bills, puts us in a vulnerable place. There is a lot of work to be done on many levels, but now we have more tools available to us in the therapeutic world than ever before. Taking deep journeys with these tools, not flitting through hundreds of different ones, but sticking with the one’s we know to challenge us and get results from, can help us to create our own hollow bone.

We are challenged to work more deeply, to deal with our own stories and to learn to help others from a place of deep wisdom, connectedness and soul. A place of heart, of wisdom and of compassion for our fellow-man.
To become a ‘hollow bone’ these days we need to embrace change, we need to know when the time is right to step away from ego and know the difference, we need to teach and guide from a place of heart. In order to truly invite spirit in we need to do our own soul work and listen, listen to what’s needed from us, listen to all we are hearing. We can only lead if we are willing to follow, for leadership now is not about saying what needs doing, it is about following the needs in front of us.

Hollowing out our own bone is not as easy as it may sound. It can take a life time of work, and it never ends until the day we die. But we can take courage and step onto that path if we truly desire it, making sure we have the support necessary, both from our human guides and teachers, as well as our spirit guides and helpers.

When the true tests emerge….how will we choose to face them?