Inipi and Temazcal: Understanding the Sweat Lodge Ritual

In the temazcal — from the Nahuatl word for “house of heat,” or sweat lodge — the four natural elements are present. The earth is where we symbolically enter the maternal womb. Fire is used to heat the ceremonial stones, known as abuelitas (grandmothers). The air is always present around us, and when the bouquet of aromatic herbs is shaken. Finally, the water is what transports energy and memories throughout our body.

So, did you know that entering our

Mother Earth´s womb during the sweat lodge ceremony is the same as entering into the darkness of the womb of creation? And that this is also a way of healing our own birth?

It all starts with the water, the element where life began.

Water has the ability to copy and memorize information, when speaking, praying in front of it, or chanting to it. Science has discovered that water changes its vibrational frequency enormously.

During a sweat lodge we are receiving the prayers of the chants of the temazcalero. We are imbued in the moist and darkness of an earthy womb, releasing all that no longer serves us in order to be born again.

When the ceremony finishes, we have the opportunity to remember that we are birthing ourselves again with the new information shared by the water poured in the abuelitas — the stones carrying the memory of the earth’s creation.

Can we correlate this rebirthing experience with self healing?

Yes, by healing our own memories of our own birth we can first recognize, then acknowledge and finally release the low vibration memories of our cells, allowing the process of self healing to occur.

Perhaps we can be humble enough to recognize and be grateful for the wisdom of our ancestors and the ancestral natural ways. Aho!