This has references to religious or spiritual practices. They are unorthodox and eclectic, but heartfelt. Don’t read if you feel that that might offend you.
We opened the sweat up to everyone again this Sunday starting at noon. While we waited for people to show up, we continued construction and preparation. I trimmed the donated carpet to fit the odd shaped floor under the ramada. It looks very good and will keep the prickers, dust down. The problem of the sand tracking on bare feet will be mitigated.
The people who run the other ferro cement sweat to the far southwest, about a ½ hour from central Tucson, but an hour from my place, came by. Another group arrived as well. Around sundown a new friend and her young daughter showed up.
We sat around conversing and the nature of the place began to sell itself to them. We continued to do rounds and then sit in the ambiance of the peace of this beautiful desert, switching from chair to chair to take in a variety of different views. We caught up with a returning snowbird and each other. We have felt some displacement since losing our old sweat home of 40 years. The day began to wane, when part of the gathering took off for a feasting gathering in town at a local temple/restaurant run by the Hari Krishna folks.
Those people from the southwest are into a more Hindu spirituality and we have some commonality in our spiritual practices. The sweat is a place to respect all and share. This day was coincidentally the main day for Diwali, the Indian Festival of Lights. We decided to do a puja ceremony incorporating the sweat, Genesh, Lakshmi and Saraswati. It is a good new beginning, for the sweat and our personal lives, during the coming year. Unlike most of the more traditional Hindu, we see no disrespect with being in our natural state of attire. It is an enhancement. We began puja establishing relationship with the deities and giving respect. Then, I put on music for a kind of Japa yoga, a 21 minute dance starting with a slow rate, mostly stretching, and progressively into a more frenzied pace, all free form. In the twilight, we danced barefoot all over in naked abandon in the vortex circle and in the vicinity of the sweat, getting the energies of our bodies and spirit to flow. It felt perfect. The weather has been wonderful; there had been a fantastic sunset. While clouds lingered, the first bright star came alive in the deep blue sky, which descended to the silhouette of the mountains and saguaro, outlined by the glow like the color of orange in a soda as light shines through.
DF then lit five large candles on candelabra inside the sweat and I stoked the fire. We sat in this candelight, singing and chanting, harmonizing in Sanskrit and Hopi and playing a couple of plastic five and ten gallon water bottles for drums. The moister poured down our nude bodies. It felt wonderful as copal scented the room. Sometimes we would stand and dance to the rhythms, the ebb and flow. When it seemed to have been enough time, it naturally felt like time to close. The Milky Way had come out, we discovered as we stepped out into the now wonderful night air, with its calm. We adjourned, until later.
This time dressed, DF and I drove the hour to a remote spot in Avra Valley to participate in another Diwali Celebration. It is a kind of a rave. Many people were camped out there. We met all of the others. There was dancing to bands covering Grateful Dead and reggae music. There is a pond out there which reflects all of the lights strewn throughout the mesquite bosque. There was a pair of large firepits. A young man shot flames high into the air from a torch fueled by gases and reflected flames seemed to dance across the water on ripples.
At one point, we enjoyed taking a canoe out on the pond. We discussed canuding, but there was no safe place for clothing on the beach.
Indian food was served. The chia tea was particularly good. We ventured down a tunnel through the trees to a large alter. There sat several popular deities decorated in homage. If only we people could get along and accept each other as well as all of these different deities who shared the same alter.
After this long day, late at night, we made the long drive through the Tucson Mountains to Tortolita, confident that blessings will be ours.
This was the third time to fire up the sweat. The first time was a consecration. We started the first fire using some of the traditions of the southwest. The fire was reverently started by rubbing a seep willow stick into a saguaro rib, until hot ash could start the fire in a fire pit. Transferred into flames, we took it inside the sweat to light the firebox. As we continued, we experimented with various vents to hone the efficiency of the sauna’s mechanics.
That evening, we had played didgeridoo, and drums. The rounded corners of the hard ferro cement walls create a slight reverberation, like inside a shower. The vibrations and pitch of sound are enchanting, particularly that of the didgeridoo. The music is impromptu and free form. We never know what will come from us, but it is always as though a gift of inspiration. After, I stated intentions for the new sweat from these beginnings, a rattle and traditional Native American songs were sung by the man trained for such sacred prayer. Prayers were expressed by one of us with troubles. It was a good start for an eclectic spiritual temple. There is more to a sauna than health benefits, just as there are more than health benefits from the practice of naturism.
What spiritual connection that comes next to the sweat is perfect and with little prediction. It can be given to the individual. It can be done in silence and meditation, with convection with others, or in shared calling out to the divine. It may be an expression of thanks later in this month. It is sacred and community, health and wellbeing.
