Power of a Sacred Sweat

As I battled Lyme disease I became aware of the healing power of a good sweat. Not only did science point to certain diseases struggling to survive the high temperatures we succumb ourselves to through sauna's and sweat lodges, but the sweat has been used by ancient cultures for thousands of years because it works. The act of sweating out illness is a purification process like none others and while it attends to a physical process, what also lies deep within our cells and tissues, are also our memories and emotions.

Here on the land at Mariposa Mandala, we have built a sacred sweat house just for this type of healing. Going back to the Finnish standards of wood heated stone sauna stoves, bringing the elements into the space to do their magic, we have a stone that holds over 120 lbs of lava rock, a chamber for heating them with wood from the land, fire and the water poured over or in the cold plunge just outside the door. I have been in many sweats over the years, but the spiritual and physical healing power of an elemental sweat is like none other.

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Glowing at night, with the silhouette of the trees in the background, this is the door to our sacred Heart Lodge. The fire is started with song and intentions for healing. The bath is run, cold water filling the clawfoot tub, as the moon rises over the hills, shining through the trees. There is stillness, as the traffic we still hear from nearby roads, dies down and the hoot of the owl sounds from somewhere deeper in the forest. This is our communion. The fire catches and the wood from the land herself, begins to burn as the smell of cedar permeates the room. This is where I have re-discovered my sweet animal body over and over again. Where I have let go of what I never knew I was holding, and let it roll off of me, wash off of me. My breath deepening and my muscles relaxing. Why I was holding that tension, isn't even clear, when the sweat is done.

We let the heat build, lay our bodies across the benches and let the healing come. Setting intentions and saying prayers, the fire licks at the fire box, the stones sizzle under the splashes of water imbued with cedar or eucalyptus and our lungs expand and our pores release. Let down. Let down. Let down.

This is another form of remembering, when the fire, water, earth, wood and air make it into your cells like they haven't in so long. Along with the walking in the woods and taking in good food, the sweat lands high on the list of practices one must incorporate to find true vitality and peace in the body again. Hear the flicker of the fire and feel your body emote through the tears of sweat that run down your surface. You are made of water.