A History of Bathing & Sacred Waters
“Water: voice of grief,
Cry of love,
In the flowing tear.
Water: vehicle and idiom
Of all the inner voyaging
That keeps us alive.
Blessed be water,
Our first mother.”
- John O’Donohue. To Bless the Space Between Us
The regular ritual of submerging into warm waters after a hard day on the land has a tall tale to share. This seemingly simple act, for some a part of daily life, for others an anchoring ritual, has been a lost and found part of human history. From it’s obvious necessity of cleanliness to religion and folk tales, bathing is central to our social, personal, spiritual and collective culture.
Not even so far as a hundred years ago the houses of our elders didn’t have running water to bathe in each day. Pails of water would be filled, heated and emptied into a metal bath for families to wash in, often taking place on Saturday evenings before the Sunday’s day of prayer and rest.
Further down the ancestral line, looking back to ancient times, bathing was seen as a sacred and ritualist act with oils, balms and herbs prepared to cleanse not just one's body but also one's spirit. One of the first baths discovered (in the recent 1920’s) was in the Great Bath of Mohenjo in Pakistan. Built by the people of the Indus Valley Civilisation, between 3000 and 1000 BC, the Great Bath has two stairs leading down to a great pool of water, surrounded by the fine brickwork of the Citadel. This pool was used as a sacred space for people to bathe in, the waters purifying and renewing its guests.
Closer to home we have the roman bathing pools of Bath, once known as Aquae Sulis, an English town named after its vessel-like purpose. The pools of Bath are now unused but can still be seen today, telling stories of a time when bathing was of a social purpose not just one for cleanliness, ritual or relaxation.
European woodlands are filled with springs and wells, stories of love and loss cast deep into their ancient waters. The most known to Warrior’s homelands being Tobernalt Holy Well in Carraroe, St Oran's Well in Galway and the Chalice Well of Glastonbury, they echo of times long gone and many visitors speak of their healing currents. These sites, along with sacred rivers and ocean coves, are still visited today, bathers ritually cleansing themselves, offering earthly gifts and guardianship as an exchange.
In distant lands across the earth other watery portals hold passed down lore and deities, gods and goddesses whose beings invoke the qualities of water - emotion, transformation, peace, power, mystery and birth, death and renewal. Aphrodite; born from the waters of Crete, Selkie; the Scottish sea women, river spirits Celtic Li Ban and Hindu-Vedic Ganga, Freya; Germanic goddess of rain, fertility and life, and African Ezili; goddess of water and love. Let us not forget of devious mermaids and nightmarish myths of Krakens. Tricksters and monsters lurking in the obsidious depths. Captivating tales best sung in sea shanties or saved for twilight stories.
Back to our modern bathrooms, sacred sites of our own. Perhaps decorated with shells, sweet smelling soaps and candles that flicker on iridescent tiles. The ritual of bathing became a private act, carved into our days to aid forgetfulness of the tides of modern life - screens, phones, chores and lists.
Bathing in many ways takes us back to the most primal of places, the womb. Beyond washing our bodies, this act soaks away our troubles and thoughts, plant allies, oils and milks nourish our bodies back to health, supporting us with sleep and muscle renewal. For us, especially women, the lull of the moon often calls for this ancient act of care.
Add our beauty care into your bathing rituals, our favourites are our herbal hair rinses and clay face masks.
