Broken bones: spiritual meaning and emotional causes

What a broken bone is

A broken bone, or fracture, is a crack or break in a bone. Most happen after a fall, a sports injury or a road accident. Some come from repeated strain, as in a stress fracture of the foot or shin, and some from bones weakened by osteoporosis, when a minor fall is enough. Wrists, arms, hips, ankles and the collarbone break most often.

A fracture usually causes sudden pain, swelling, bruising and difficulty using the limb. The area may look out of shape, and some people hear a snap or a grinding sound. An X-ray confirms it. Treatment keeps the broken ends in line while the bone knits: a cast, splint, sling or boot, and sometimes an operation with plates, screws or pins. Painkillers help, and physiotherapy restores strength and movement afterwards. Most bones heal in six to twelve weeks, longer in older people and in smokers.

The emotional meaning of a broken bone

Spiritually, bones stand for structure: the laws, principles and rules of the world you live in, and the support you stand on. A fracture is read as a sign that a deep inner conflict has reached the point where something gives.

A conflict with authority

The conflict often turns on authority. You may be in revolt against a rule, a boss, a parent or a system, and want to cut yourself off from it. You feel limited, as if you were in a prison you want to break out of. Behind this there can be the sense that you must keep proving your worth, again and again. More widely, bones are linked to how you value yourself: whether you feel respected, or whether you hide behind a hard, controlled image so you do not have to touch what you feel.

Too much resistance, too little patience

When you resist hard and are impatient with yourself and with others, the strain has to go somewhere. Seen symbolically, the break says that you cannot carry on in this way and that a change is needed. It also stops you. The question is what in your life is already "broken", and what you have been resisting so strongly that the body had to halt you so you would look at it.

Guilt after an accident

If the bone broke in an accident, ask what guilt you carry about the situation it happened in. Why be so hard on yourself? The question is offered gently. An accident is an accident, and no one deserves an injury.

A break with the past

Bones also mean support and stability. A fracture can point to a separation that is asking to happen. It may be a relationship, at home or at work. It may be an ideology, a habit or a way of thinking that no longer fits you. Letting the past go with some flexibility spares you needless stress and lets you move to the next stage of your life.

Rigid standards

Ask whether the standards you hold for yourself, or that you take from society, push you towards perfection until you become rigid. Ask too whether you have put most of your attention on the physical side of life, on doing and performing, at the expense of your inner life.

Where the break is

Where the fracture happens adds to its meaning. Look at what that part of the body does for you, and which area of your life it serves: the part of the skeleton that gives way points to the area where the conflict sits. A broken skull, for example, is linked in French to se casser la tête, "breaking your head" over a problem: a situation you keep racking your brains over that seems to have no way out, until you feel like banging your head against the wall.

Left side or right side?

In this approach, the right side of the body carries the active "masculine" principle and the left side the receptive "feminine" one, in men and women alike. See the guide to the left and right sides of the body.

• A break on the right may ask about action, decisions, work and authority, and about your relationship with the men in your life, a father or partner.
• A break on the left may ask about feelings you find hard to say or to receive, and about your relationship with the women in your life, a mother, daughter or partner.

A gentler way to hold it

The aim is not to blame yourself for a fracture. Bones break from falls, accidents and weakness, and they need proper medical care. The time it takes to heal can also be time to listen.

• Name what bothers you. Write down the situation or the rule you have been pushing against.
• Say what you feel. Care for yourself enough to put your frustration or your need into words, with the person concerned if you can.
• Ease your standards. Ask where you could accept "good enough" instead of perfect.
• Let something go. Choose one old habit or idea that no longer suits you and loosen your hold on it.
• Ask for help. While the bone heals, let others support you, and talk through the decisions in front of you.
• Take back your direction. As inner freedom returns, you can decide for yourself where your life goes next.