I remember taking baths on a weekly basis during my freshman year in college. On Friday nights when most dorm residents were out partying, I would clean out the only bathtub on our floor, then fill the tub and soak away the stress of being in a strange new place far from home. Now that I am in my own home, with access to a theoretically cleaner tub, I just don’t take baths any more. A book I came across recently is making me reconsider my preference for quick showers. It is called Spiritual Bathing: Healing Rituals and Traditions from Around the World.  My daughter scorns bath taking as “soaking in your own filth,” but bathing for hygiene is not what the book authors, Rosita Arvigo and Nada Epstein have in mind.

They say “from baptisms to Mayan baths to waterfalls, tubs, and saunas, spiritual bathing is a deeply healing, connecting, and soul-fulfilling practice. We know that it feels wonderful to soak in a warm bath or swim in the sea, that it is blissful to meditate upon the sound of river water rushing over rocks, or that the sight of sunlit drops bursting from a waterfall is magnificent. But how often do we think of these experiences as spiritual? Yet in ancient times the spiritual essence of water evoked a sense of wonder, reminding people that they were threads in the divine web of life.”

Like many people, I struggle with an over-scheduled life. Often I don’t even take the time to remember that I need to feel connected in what Jerome Berryman reminds us are the four great relationships: God, self, other people, and nature. Arvigo and Epstein say that mindful bathing can help me connect in those ways. “Spiritual bathing strengthens our tenuous connection with the natural world and its reflection of the divine. Baths not only ease our passage through the stresses of daily life; they also separate the extraordinary from the mundane, transport us to a holier place and mark rites of passage. Spiritual bathing can open the door to inner guidance, uplift the soul and foster a more reverent, peaceful state of mind. “

Lady Bridget (OK, she seems to be a practitioner of Wicca, but I draw from all traditions) says, “There are many times when taking a ritual or spiritual bath is important or appropriate:

· Your first night in your new home

· The night before you start a new job, or promotion

· To get rid of angry feelings

· After you have been sick, to help purify and cleanse the spirit.

 · When you need to rest · When you feel tempted to do something questionable*

· When you feel tired, depressed, or alone”

*Next time I feel like having a late-night snack, I plan to take a long soak in the tub instead.