Cleansing and protection baths

Spiritual baths are one of the oldest strata of magickal practice on this planet. From time
immemorial sacred baths have been believed to clean far more than just the body, and the purity
of water used in conjunction with certain herbs, minerals, and oils can yield very potent results.
We see evidence of sacred baths mentioned as far back as the Sumerian hymn to nanna, and see
its practice reflected everywhere today from the Christian baptism to the health spa. All over the
world are places of power dedicated to magickal bathing: varnassi’s ghats on the ganga river,
haiti’s waterfall of saut d’eau and the bathing pool in king arhur’s courtyard at Glastonbury.

While some western practitioners seem to skip bathing and purification in favor of more energy-
based practices, such as the banishings and shields, the magickal bath is an important way to
ground your magick onto the physical plane, achieving more tangible results. There is no better
way to cleanse yourself of negative influences, and I recommend that ritual bathing always be a
part of whatever plan of defense you employ against troubling forces.

The first consideration when putting together a bath ritual is the water itself. Traditionally, you
would use water from a natural sourse such as a spring, lake, or water collected during rainstorms.
If you live near a sacred spring or river, that is ideal as a source of water, but the general idea is
that the more natural the source of the water the better. That said. I will admit that most of the
time I end up using tap water and suspect most of my clients do so as well. It is far better to use
tap water than not to take the bath at all!

After you are settled on the water to be used, you need to know what you are adding to the bath.
Formulas typically call for three or more ingredients, usually odd numbers. These ingredients can
be mineral, herbal, or zoological , and what they symbolize defines the nature of the bath. There
are traditional bathing formulas for everything from drawing money and love, to influencing those
around you, to repelling jinxes and negativity. It is this last category that we are concerned with
here, and the following are three examples of simple formulas that we can use. (please note thst
these formulas are only recommended for use by adults, and everyone should be careful with
sensitive areas of the skin.)

Protection
A good protection bath includes salt, ammonia, and vinegar. The salt and vinegar can be equal
parts of about a half a cup or so, but the ammonia should only be a teaspoon diluted in at least
four gallons of water, as it is toxic and can be harmful if inhaled. Ammonia is considered such a
strong cleaner that if more is use it will not only remove negative influences, but positive and
neutral ones as well.