My daughter has been going through a transition lately. She recently broke up with someone and came to the realization that she just needs some “me” time… time to get to know herself and "do her" for a while.She’s been meeting up with friends, working on her music and art, and generally doing things she loves.. such a great example of how to get through the breaking of emotional ties with someone. She and her brother went to the river yesterday, and when she came home she said, “You know, there’s something about immersing yourself in the river that completely changes things. It’s like an aura and chakra cleansing all at once”. This made me think about the spiritual effects of water in different cultures, particularly where it pertains to religious practices.
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Christianity has a cleansing of sorts, called a baptism. One is either baptized at birth or at some point in time during his/her life to signify rebirth as a spiritual creature in “Christ”. Christianity gets this from Judaism, but Judaism does it differently.
A “mikveh” (the Hebrew word that was changed to the Greek “baptizo”) is a ritual immersion in water, much like many Christian sects do (some don’t immerse- they simply sprinkle water over the head to symbolize immersion). But, the mikveh isn’t just performed as a conversion step. Mikveh is performed whenever someone feels the need for it. Many Orthodox Jewish sects and some Conservative ones make mikveh a requirement for women each month after their menstrual cycle has ended. Mikvehs are performed by both men and women just before a major step in their lives such as a bar/bat mitzvah, weddings, etc… and some folks do it just because they feel a need for a spiritual cleansing.
Many Pagans and Witches will perform a ritual immersion of sorts prior to a New or Full Moon as a spiritual cleansing/preparation for ritual by taking a bath filled with salts, oils, etc… some will actually go to a river or the ocean and immerse as a spiritual cleansing.
Regular bathing is known to keep us physically clean and healthy. Given that water is not only a conductor of electricity, but also behaves closely to electricity; and, that our bodies are made up of 60% water and every organ in the body creates electricity, it makes perfect sense that a ritual immersion might be something we've instinctively known would give us a “reset” on both a spiritual and physical level.
How about you? Do you incorporate a ritual reset via immersion into your practices? If not, why not give it a try? I’d love to hear about your rituals and results.
