barberwitch:

Yes! There are tons of ways to use bones, and chicken bones in your practice, but it’ll depend on what works for you 🙂

One, bones are all made up of earth, you can use them for any grounding magic you need.

They are from dead animals and can act as a connection to the deceased and the underworld.

You can use them for divination by either throwing them and interpreting how they lay, or mix them with other items and scatter on a diagram of meanings (like chicken bone lands next to the star, or the key etc).

Another form of divination is carving symbols, runes, ogham or sigils in the bones and tossing them into a fire. You wait until there are cracks, then read them that way (you get to decide what it means if a symbol doesn’t crack, if it does, or how many etc)

Chicken bones can be used as protective charms, especially if placed outside on the property or near doorways. There is a tradition of keeping black chickens because they scratch up hexes and curses cast over houses and people.

Look up lore on the cocatrice! See f anything calls to you (especially a fun hex around “turning to stone”)

There’s a podcast called “The Wigglian Way” and I remember listening to an episode that used chicken bones to represent ancestors in a ritual. You place a chicken bone(s) on the ground (symbolizing the deceased) and place a stone over it with a goal in mind that you might want ancestral help with) and then pour wine for the blood that connects you, and milk for spiritual nourishment (I think?) then each week you add another stone until the task is complete or the goal is met! And this could be done with any ancestral spirit.

You could use it in baneful magic. Write something on the bone and hide it near the targets home. Think “I’ve got a bone to pick with you.”

Protection from spirits if you hang them like a ghastly windchime.

The list goes on and on, but just know that bones are of the dead, so they have heavy connotations of relating to the dead and their world.

Oh, and if you have a spell that calls for bone, or healing spells, a bone is a great “diet taglock” not necessarily a direct connection to the person, but playing on the fact that we are all bone and earth and fire.

I’m sure there are a ton of other ways to incorporate them/use them, but that’s what I’ve got off the top of my head.

🦇Cheers, Barberwitch

Oh! And check out last weeks witch tip about ancestors!