Closing Ceremony
An integration ritual that honours a transition from one phase of life into another through traditional care, herbal tending, and embodied restoration.
This ceremony involves the Mexican tradition “closing of bones” with rebozo and is combined with Ayurvedic abhyanga massage (with an adaptation of using a water dispersible massage oil to protect the delicate rebozos), herbal care, and somatic tools for integration.
What is Rebozo?
A rebozo is a long woven garment, similar to a shawl or scarf, worn mostly by women in Mexico. It can be worn in various ways, usually folded or wrapped around the head and/or upper body to shade from the sun, provide warmth and as an accessory to an outfit. Most notably, it is used to support birthing people throughout their labour to provide a variety of comfort measures and to do a closing of bones ceremony in the postpartum period. Rebozos are also so used to carry babies.
What is Closing of Bones?
Closing of Bones is a beautiful ritual rooted in Traditional Mexican Medicine and birth work that can be done to bring a sense of containment, closure, and structure to the mind, body, and spirit after a profound transition.
It tends to the physical body as well as the energy field. It can bring closure to your previous phase of life after a lifechanging event such as childbirth, pregnancy loss, abortion, or even a break up.
For postpartum, it is a time for birth giver to receive nourishment, be witnessed, and to process and release anything that is being held in the body. This practice also follows Traditional Chinese Medicine principles where warmth is brought to the body. Read more about mother roasting here!
Who is it Recommended For?
It is most well known to be of great healing to new mothers in the postpartum period but it can be done for people of all sexes/genders and is done after passing through a big transition to bring closure. It can also be very grounding and soothing for neurodivergent people (ADHD and autism) and hypermobile people who like to have sensory feedback on the body. It can be very healing for trauma as well, although it may not be a good fit if you are uncomfortable in enclosed spaces.
This ceremony can be very supportive with c-section too, since the energetic process of the birth is disrupted during the procedure, and the closing ceremony brings a sense of restructuring, containment, and completion. It also helps the body physically, by providing gentle compression to reorganize the organs in the womb area and the pelvis.
For postpartum, it is recommended to do it within the first 4 weeks (7-10 days postpartum at the earliest), as long as everything is all cleared medically. It can be repeated 2 or 3 times, one week apart. If you miss this initial window in the golden month, it can still be done months or years later whenever you are ready to process your birth experience.
Please arrange for someone to care for the baby in the other room or to take them for a walk and we can time it for in between feedings and can pause in between parts to feed the baby if needed.
Components of the Ceremony
The ceremony takes place in the birth giver/recipient’s home and takes around 3 hours.
It contains the following components:
- Lighting of palo santo or incense and drinking herbal tea
- Checking in, chatting, setting intentions
- Maintaining warmth of the body to help with postpartum healing
- Ayurvedic abhyanga warm oil massage
- Herbal full-body bath in tub (pouring warm herb infused water with loving intentions over each body part)
- or alternatively: moxibustion, foot bath, sitz bath, or pelvic steaming session if you are not medically cleared for a full-body bath or would prefer an alternative
- Closing of the bones with rebozo
- Laying down on your back and being wrapped up or swaddled tightly in rebozos
- A cocoon-like experience, where you emerge reborn as your new vibrant self
Available in Vancouver, North Vancouver, West Vancouver, Burnaby, New Westminster and other cities across Greater Vancouver on a case-by-case basis.
Contact me to enquire about booking a Closing Ceremony for yourself or a loved one.
