Not all bones are dead. Well, what else would they be? Alive? Not quite, but we’re getting there.
The Unihipili ritual talks about selecting bones/carcasses and using those that are willing to work with us. While it is also a very good way to also bolster/empower a spirit willing to work with you, there’s something mentioned in those posts that isn’t talked about much, since it’s outside the scope of that ritual - the bones where the spirit is as “present” in.
Dead bones. Not just bones, but this could apply to antlers, horns, shells, etc… Dead bones are those bones where the spirit isn’t felt in them anymore. New or old, but newer are more likely to hold obvious linkings. Dead bones are where you can no longer sense that the animal (humans are animals, too) isn’t clearly present within or has an obvious link to the remaining spirit to those bones.
I have to mouse/rat skulls I got from my son when they were examining owl pellets. One is dead, one is not.
Both are (immediately) useful for different reasons. With the non-dead skull (left), there is an active link and in this case, the spirit is ready to interact. This would be a use-case for the Unihipili ritual, where the spirit and I would both benefit from the other, over time.
The skull on the right is dead. The link is so faint that it will be easy to sever the link and then use the skull for an appropriate house for a spirit or two, a link (like a portal, gate) to a defined group or energy type, or ground up and used in place of human bone powder for rituals.
Soon, I will be using the right one as a housing for something, not sure which yet. I have to books that want a skull for a spirit house and as a place for spirits to come for divination purposes. If you have open-ish clairs or a means of communication, you don’t need a skull for this, but I could see it helping for the ambience of ritual.
Over the years, I’ve mentioned releasing spirits from bones that were still attached to them, but didn’t want to help me with my work intended with that bone. A magpie skull comes to mind. The magpie didn’t care that I was using the skull, but didn’t want any part in what I was going to do with it. Fair enough. So, how do I clear that out?
First, the process of selecting a non-dead bone for Unihipili is similar to clearing a bone of an entity still attached. Place your hand over it, feeling for any sort of link, a sense of “Life”, or energy attached to the bone. It doesn’t really take much effort, as this is a passive part of the operation and you’re using your intuition/clairs to sense if it’s dead or not.
If you’re looking to cleanse the bone, there are several ways to do it. You can ask an entity to do it for you, but I would encourage you to practice a few things before resorting to that.
First, I would sense where the connection is and, using your Will, move it to the end of the bone, wherever that is and feels right. You have a few options at this point. You can push the energy out of the bone, thereby removing the link to it. You can do a cord cutting on the cord connecting the entity to the bone. You can also dissolve the connection, if you’re into that. You can push energy into the bone to push the connection, linkages out.
Afterwards, regardless of method, with or without entity help, you should smoke cleanse the bone. This is less about purification, as it is removing the remaining energetic traces. The incense would be the active agent here and you would charge the incense with the task of removing and carrying off the remaining energy. The intent and pushing that intent into the incense is what will turn it from a (maybe) nice smelling burnable thingy into a genuine ritual tool to be consumed with a purpose.
I could continue, but it’s getting late. Gotta start shutting the brain down a bit so I’m not up thinking all night long.