Happy Thursday, everyone, I hope we are all staying warm and safe in this weather. I don’t mean to imply that I’m in the same extreme weather circumstances as a lot of Americans right now. I mean, the high today is going to be 63 Fahrenheit and it’ll be partly cloudy. But, the sentiment is sincere.
Now today, we are going to talk about ritual baths. It is hibernation season for those of us in the Northern hemisphere after all, and nothing sounds as good to me as spending some time soaking in a very hot tub surrounded by aromatic herbs like a beautiful potato.
A ritual or ceremonial bath can be as simple or as elaborate as you would like it to be, depending on exactly what it is that you’re trying to get out of it.
So for a simple, indulgent, self-care sort of bath, the ritual can just be lighting a few scented candles, turning down the lights, pouring some gentle oils into the water, and maybe placing a water-safe crystal in the water with you, like maybe an amethyst or a rose quartz.
When I say to use oils, please, for the love of the gods, make sure that it will not irritate your skin. Just because it says essential oil on the bottle doesn’t mean it’ll be safe on your skin, especially in and around your vaginal area. Like, cinnamon oil is lovely for dressing candles, but it will give you a scorching UTI if you dump it in your bath water.
Now for a more intentional bath, you’ll want to start adding herbs to your water, and you’ll also want to maybe consider the moon phase as well to align with your desired outcome. You can even draw a sigil for your intention, which you can paint onto your own body with some kind of skin-safe oil with relevant magical properties.
As an example, if you’re having a lot of emotional and spiritual stress or oppression and you’re feeling like there’s a lot of stagnant, undesirable energy hanging over you, I recommend some cedar for courage, rosemary for healing, hex-breaking, and personal power, rose petals for peace, lavender , tobacco, and clove for purification.
Obviously, you don’t want to just whip a handful of loose herbs into the bathwater unless you just really enjoy backing up your plumbing. So I suggest putting your herbs into some cheesecloth or a muslin bag, or if you’re on a budget or just don’t want to make a run to the store, you can absolutely use a cotton sock. Tie up the open end and drop it in the tub like a teabag and let it steep.
And speaking of tea, you may recall that we talked in the past about inexpensive sources for different herbs, and I mentioned that herbal teas are cheap and easy to find and they have a lot of applications for spellwork. So drop a few bags of nettle tea in the water as well, for protection, purification and healing while you’re at it.
Dress, carve, and light your candles. Get into the bath, and just soak. Envision your end goals, really see the end result that you want to achieve from this bath. Whisper a mantra or a spell, over and over again until you really internalize the words. Whatever the intention of your bath is, do the research, gather your ingredients, and carve out some time for your bath.
Now not every home has a bathtub. And it’s also not always practical to take up the bathroom for an hour or so when you share your home with other people. So in those circumstances, I recommend the ritual shower. The preparation is similar, you’re going to figure out what you need for your spell and gather those items together, you’ll write your spell, mantra, your sigil, and you’re going to figure out when is the most opportune time for the work.
But instead of putting the herbs in the bathwater, I suggest steeping all your herbs together in a good size bowl or jar for a good half hour or so, and you can also drop a water-safe crystal in with them, and then strain the herbs out and just keep that water. That is what you’re going to use in the shower. Light your dressed and carved candles, run your shower water, and then carefully wash yourself with the herbal elixir that you’ve made. Pour it over your skin, pour it over your hair. Speak your spell, do your vision work, make it nice.
You can also do these ritual water ceremonies in natural bodies of water, if you’re fortunate enough to live near a pond, lake, river, or sea. And of course this is an activity that will be best enjoyed during the warmer months. But make sure, as always, that none of your spell ingredients are harmful to the wildlife that lives in that body of water, of course, but using a natural body of water for your spell work is a great way to invoke the spirits of that body of water to assist with your intention.
And if that is something that you decide to do, leave an offering when you go. Some rose petals, a few sprigs of fresh rosemary, or if you’re going to a lake specifically, you can toss a spoon full of brewer’s yeast or good quality corn meal to feed the fish there. Make sure if you do that, you don’t do it overly often. It’s a treat, and it won’t harm the habitat, but be sparing and judicious in your use of it.
Water spirits love the attention, so if you’re respectful and you approach them with deference, you’re likely to have a good result when invoking them for your work. Remember, remember, to write down everything. I say it all the time, but it is my favorite piece of advice for witches. If you don’t write down what you did, you’re not going to be able to replicate it, or to make specific changes for next time. You have to have a recipe before you can start making adjustments according to your taste.
When it comes to magick, the best thing you can be is bold and experimental. Be willing to fail, and that’s how you’re going to see the best results. Trial and error are the cornerstone of becoming a more confident witch. The more willing you are to stretch beyond what you find in spell books and what you read online, the more you’re going to find yourself creating powerful, original magick.
And now, let’s go through a couple different ritual bath salt recipes that we can make at home and customize to our preferences and our desired outcomes. Now, the salt recipe I use is not some proprietary blend, in fact it’s just a recipe I’ve adapted from Martha Stewart. But it’s a good base recipe and it feels good on the skin and it’s perfectly customizable.
The base recipe is as follows:
In a large bowl, mix to combine: 6 parts coarse sea salt; 3 parts Epsom salts, to soothe tired muscles and reduce inflammation; and 1 part baking soda, to soften the water and alleviate skin irritation. Add a few drops of essential oils and combine. If you’re interested in making them pretty for giving as gifts, or if you’re interested in color correspondences, you can also add a few drops of food coloring until you achieve the desired shade. Obviously, this last step isn’t necessary, but it can also just be helpful if you’ve made a couple different bath salt mixtures and you don’t want to mix them up. This base recipe can be scaled up or down to make as much or as little bath salt as you’d like and it really is a nice gift.
And of course as a reminder, the full written transcript of this episode is available on the website, middleagedwitch.com in case you’re interested in making your own ritual bath blends. But as far as which oils to add for best results, I have to admit here that it’s a little bit of a balancing act. Because some of the best herbs and essential oils for the job smell like hell. I mean, look, if you want the absolute best, most potent purification bath of your life, you’ll want garlic and thyme oil but if you use them, you’re gonna reek.
So the essential oils I’m going to recommend here are going to prioritize smelling nice in addition to working well in a ritual capacity. So to kick us off, let’s talk about the oils we can add to our salt blend for purification. Lavender and jasmine are two right off the bat that I’m going to recommend. First, they work well for this purpose, and secondly, they smell so good. So I would front load those two oils. Several drops of each. Along with that, I would also add a few drops of olive oil and a couple drops of frankincense oil.
And I’ll be straight with you, lavender and jasmine are going to come up a lot as we go through all these recipes because they are really versatile plant allies for witches, they’ve got a lot of different correspondences, and they are very pleasant smelling.
For a meditative bath, a bath to open the mind and spirit up to communication and messages from the other side of the veil, I would suggest lilac, sandalwood, juniper, rose, and just the barest amount of sage oil. And of course, I would also toss a fat bit of amethyst in the jar with the bath salt.
And then let’s talk about a luck bath blend. I would include any of the following: palm, coconut, or dragon’s blood oil. Just a few drops, and then also I’d be sure to add peppermint or spearmint, orange oil, and patchouli. And please remember, we don’t have to include everything on the list, we can use what we have and omit what we don’t have. Be experimental with this process, mix things together until they smell right and feel right.
For a lust bath blend, here comes that jasmine back again, along with vanilla, black pepper oil, just a teensy eensy bit, and violet.
For manifestation, hello again to lavender, patchouli, rosemary oil, rose oil, and in this jar, along with the bath salts, I’m going to throw in a bit of citrine as well in particular for manifesting abundance.
And finally for healing I would begin with eucalyptus oil, a little goes a very long way so please be stingy with it, although it will blast your sinuses wide open, so that’s nice if you’re congested. And I’m gonna include lavender in this one as well, it’s such a powerful ally for encouraging the body to rest and rejuvenate, and I’d add a couple drops of feverfew oil, heather, and witch hazel.
So that’s just some of the ritual bath salt blends I’ve used and enjoyed. There are so many ways to personalize your blends, and you can definitely add herbs to the salts rather than just the oils, but again, I’m just trying to protect your plumbing. Although the salts are admittedly prettier when they’ve got specks of herbs in them. But it’s your call.
Ritual baths are such a wonderful addition to our personal practices, they’re a powerful expression of self care, they’re a beautiful way to connect and work with the element of water and to avail ourselves of its strength and potency. And I’d love everyone to enjoy a nice bath. It’s one of my very favorite ways to express my witchcraft.
So have a lovely weekend, enjoy the full moon in Leo next Thursday, and thank you for joining me. My name is Eli Ro, and this has been the Middle-Aged Witch podcast.
