Feeling the Heat
Invitation to an Equinox Sauna Ritual at the Wild Shed
For more details about the Equinox sauna ritual, held at the beautiful Wild Shed space in Bruton, read to the bottom of this post, or CLICK HERE.
The first time I entered a sweatlodge, crawling on my knees into this dark womb, I felt my body exhale and soften as I found my place to sit on the cool soil. I felt at home here. Close to earth, bare skinned and in the embrace of the darkness. My body remembering this ancient way of ceremony, of tending fire and rock, shedding sweat and tears and sharing songs.
It also felt like such sweet relief - to be in a communal space of ritual purification where we come together to meet ourselves and our edges, expanding our capacity as humans to feel it all and recognise our courage, resilience and togetherness. We need these spaces more than ever, as a place to gather in community and attend to the sacred fire, and as a training ground for being with intensity and discomfort.
With each round in the Inípi sweatlodge the heat of the glowing rocks swells and the body starts to adapt to the heat, as it experiences hormesis - beneficial stress: a small, controlled dose of difficulty that strengthens the organism. A whole range of physiological responses occur as the heat dilates the blood vessels and the heart rate rises. Circulation quickens, muscles soften, fascia unwinds, sweat pours, carrying electrolytes and metabolic waste to the surface and the immune system stirs.
Meanwhile the discerning mind can be insisting the heat is ‘too much’ and you need to get out! As the intensity builds, you meet your edges and are asked to surrender control and connect with something greater than yourself. For me, it is the elements I turn to - the fire at the heart of all creation, the earth that holds us all, the breath that keeps flowing and the waters pumping through my heart and body with this constant rhythm, and the sweat pouring from my skin offering release.
The experience is deeply elemental and alchemical. The lodge is place of death and rebirth, which we emerge from changed in some way. In meeting the discomfort with breath and presence, something recalibrates as the body remembers it knows how to regulate, and the stress transforms into resilience.
In a culture obsessed with comfort, staying with discomfort offers something quietly radical. It reveals the way heat and discomfort is not the enemy; avoidance is. When we practice meeting voluntary intensity, we are better equipped to meet involuntary intensity such as grief, rage, chaos, uncertainty. In this way, the lodge becomes a rehearsal for life as we build our emotional, physical and spiritual capacity to bear witness and feel what is unfolding, without turning away.
In the communal space we also co-regulate and witness one another’s courage, deepening our trust in and compassion towards one another. Our nervous systems were shaped around firelight and song, and it is here we remember more of what makes us human. As our resistance softens, the body remembers that it knows how to endure and that fire does not only consume - it purifies and regenerates.
An integral part of what ensures a lodge is a safe and held space to feel discomfort is the ritual that surrounds it. Within the container of ritual we have our intention that helps us commit to the process, the elements to support and inspire our transformation, and the weaving of spirit through prayers and songs that invoke our connection with something greater than ourselves that is also present within us. This ineffable force of creation moves through us and reminds us we are more than our body, our feelings, our thoughts. There is a current within us that is indestructible and timeless, that we can always tap into.
The Inípi sweatlodge is one form of a purification ritual involving heat, but this practice of ceremony is found across cultures from the Mesoamerican Temazcal to the Russian Banya, fire-walking ceremonies and the more familiar Finish sauna. For the past two years I have been regularly sweating in saunas as a spiritual practice and to receive the physical benefits that support my overall wellbeing. The sauna has become a temple for me - a place I feel deeply present, connected and a space for embodied prayer. A few rounds in the sauna and cold plunge and I feel renewed, fortified and clear-headed.
I have experienced some beautiful and powerful sauna rituals involving birch whisking, guided visualisations, body scrubs, chanting and breathwork and felt so inspired by the potential for ritual in this sacred space. I have been dreaming into elemental rituals that can support the cleansing and rebirth process of the sauna and experimenting with plant allies, songs and breathing techniques that enhance the effects of purification. I am delighted to share I will be offering my first sauna ritual this Spring Equinox, and I hope some of you wonderful folk here are able to join me!
Equinox Sauna Ritual at the Wild Shed
Ahead of the Spring Equinox, I will be offering a New Moon ritual sauna at the gorgeous Wild Shed in Bruton, Somerset.
I was so excited when the Wild Shed launched in my local town of Bruton last year. The space has been lovingly curated to offer a community hub, for people to gather together to connect in a more meaningful way, and it is a gorgeous sauna that smells so good!
Together we will gather round the fire, soften into song, and enter the warmth of the sauna to cleanse, release, and renew. With elemental ritual, sensory herbs, breath and movement, we will honour what is ending, welcome what is awakening, and listen for the quiet stirrings of the season within us.
When: Thursday 19th March, 6:15 - 8:15pm
Where: Wild Shed, Dropping Lane, Bruton, BA10 0ED
Contribution: £ 50 pounds
Reserve your place HERE.
