A bath ritual is more than just a hot soak and lighting a few candles. Rituals or ceremonies allow us to elevate an everyday experience, like that of washing our physical bodies into so much more. Through intention and care we are able to craft an experience that can elevate our vibration, cleanse us of negativity, soothe the body, and take care of the soul. Create your own ritual bath by selecting several of the options here. Maybe you need to release a roadblock, or clear out some stagnation; maybe you need to relieve stress, or even call in abundance.
Photo by Lindsay SchroederWhere to start:
Let’s get your ingredients together! Check out this list of items and what they call in, what they release, and select what works best for your intention and needs.
Pink Himalayan sea salt
PHSS is one of my favorite additions to a ritual bath. There are 84 minerals and elements in this magic salt that help to reduce the acidic levels in the body, balance your pH, and re-mineralize. Put at least two full cups into the water to make sure that the salt content is high enough to push those minerals into the body. The salt also soothes irritated skin and leaves you feeling soft and youthful.
Epsom salt
Soaking in salt water also helps to reinvigorate the body and can trigger your own self-healing powers. Epsom is another great option, usually including a fragrance Epsom salt brings in the healing power of magnesium and sulfate, to soothe soar muscles, and calm headaches. Depending on the fragrance you will gain added benefits. Lavender to calm and help with sleep, Eucalyptus to invigorate and cleanse the sinuses, Peppermint to cool and soothe, and many more.
Essential oils
A few drops of an essential oil will help create sacred space by bringing in a powerful scent while having added benefits. Here are some of my go to essential oils for a ritual bath. Select one of mix and match to find your favorite combo.
Bergamot – helps with mood balancing and skin healing
Clove – relives pain, reduces inflammation
Eucalyptus – decongests, pain reliever, mental clarity, and mood booster
Lavender – calms, helps with sleep, calms skin irritation, relieve swelling and soothe achey muscles
Lemon – reduces stress and anxiety, and elevates the mood with it’s clean scent (it’s anti-microbial too)
Oregano – reduces redness (commonly used with rosacea and psoriasis) and helps with menstrual cramps
Peppermint – helps to calm headaches, and is great to help with cold and flu prevention
Rosemary – detoxifies and cleanses
These are just a few but feel free to add a few drops of your favorite essential oil.
Oils
I also really enjoy adding a soothing oil into my ritual baths to soften the skin and add radiance to my complexion.
Coconut oil – the solution for most things, adding coconut oil to your ritual bath will soothe the skin and leave you feeling baby soft
Jojoba oil – another great soothing agent, jojoba will leave the skin hydrated and radiant
Rose hip oil – one of my favorites really helps to brighten my complexion, soften the skin, and lets the fragrance of my chosen essential oil shine.
These are just a few but feel free to add a few drops of any of your favorite oils.
Crystals to amp up the vibrational potency of your bath
Put a few crystals into the water of the bath (make sure to remove them before you pull the plug). You can also set them around the edges of the bath if you want to use a crystal that shouldn’t be submerged in water or have a larger one and don’t want it to take up space. Here is a list of some of some crystals and the energy they bring:
Citrine – great prosperity and abundance stone
Amethyst – works with your intuition and third eye, helps to open you up to your intuitive powers
Rose Quartz – the love stone, brings in love, passion, and heals the heart
Clear Quartz – the great amplifier, this stone helps to add oomp to any other crystals and helps to cleanse the energy of negativity
Black Tourmaline – soaks up negativity and helps to ground and protect
Moonstone – the lady stone, this stone helps with fertility, connection to your divine feminine, and connection the the moon
Carnelian – this stone works with your second chakra and calls in your creativity
Blue Lace Agate – one of my favorite throat chakra stones, calms, soothes, and helps you speak your truth and nurture the throat chakra
Chrysoprase – this stone opens the heart, calls in positivity, joy, and happiness
Hematite – grounds us to the earth, helps call balance and stability, this stone really helps bring you back to center
Smokey Quartz – this stone helps with anxiety and the feelings of being overwhelmed, it helps you gain perspective and focus on the task at hand, aiding in getting through stress with ease and grace
Fluorite – release fear, doubt, anxiety, and stress with the healing power of Fluorite
These are just a few of the many many crystals out there. Feel free to add whatever stones call to you into or near your ritual bath. If your stones feels soft, flakes, or is porous (kyanite for instance) set these types of stones on a dish near the bath instead of in the water so they don’t disintegrate or loose their sheen.
Baking soda
Baking soda is a great addition to your ritual bath if you need to let some stuff go or need some sacred protection! Are you holding onto stress from work? Does a fight with a friend or partner keep playing in your head? Did you just move into a new place on your own and are in need of some soothing protection? Do you feel sticky and icky from a weekend with too many people? Do you need to let go all that does not serve you so you can level up?
If you said yes to any of these, pop some baking soda into your bath. When you drain the water out, make sure that you envision all that negativity or stickiness going down the drain. Say to yourself “I release all that does not serve me,” and picture it all going down the drain, down to the center of the earth to be transmuted.
Incense
Add a stick of incense to the bath area to invoke sacred space. Find an incense with a fragrance that speaks to you and intoxicates you to relax and melt into the bath. I love Nag Champa and amber.
Candles
I’m sure you have your favorite scented candle, add that. But also keep in mind that the color of candle (or candle container) brings in a specific energy.
White – peace, purity, cleansing, and elimination of negative vibrations
Purple – connection with spirit, opening the third eye, and intuition
Blue – inspiration and communication
Green – luck, abundance, success, prosperity
Pink – self love, self forgiveness, harmony, love
Red – passion, love, lust, relationships, sex, vitality
Black – protection, absorption of negativity
Orange – creativity, relationships, connection, attraction, and invigoration
Silver – feminine energy, lunar energy, or goddess energy
Gold – masculine energy or solar energy, and fortune
Flowers and herbs
Adding flowers or herbs to the bath is a wonderful way to bring power, intention, and of course fragrance into your ritual space. Now, as beautiful as it is to sprinkle rose petals into the bath and take a soak with them floating around you, be mindful of the draining issue. I recommend adding dried flowers and herbs to a cheese cloth bag. (You can buy cheesecloth bags in bulk from Uline or in smaller quantities from Etsy) This way you get the power of these amazing plants and flowers without the clean up. You can also boil herbs and dried flowers and strain out the material and add the water into your bath. A great trick is to brew a “tea” in a pot of in your French press and then pour your “tea” water into the bath. Here are some awesome additions and what they call in.
Roses – for love, relationship, self love, and self forgiveness
Lavender – for calm, soothing, and trusting yourself
Calendula petals – for gratitude, serenity
Chamomile flowers – for purification, protection
Red clover blossoms – for attraction of money, abundance, and calls in breakthroughs
Sage – for cleansing, clearing, and releasing
Rosemary –for cleansing, peace of mind, spiritual purification
Eucalyptus leaves – for stimulating and brings clarity to your visions
Basil – for soothing temper, protection, and call in love
Create your ritual
Now that you have several options for what to bring into your ritual bath, select your ingredients and let’s cleanse the space. First and foremost, you always want to clear out any low vibes or negativity in the physical space of your bathroom. Start by sage-ing or Palo Santo-ing the bathroom itself. I also recommend sage-ing all your tools, materials, ingredients and of course yourself!
What are sage and Palo Santo?
Sage-ing is a very old ritual, where one lights the dried leaves of a sage plant and wafts the smoke around to cleanse a space and elevate vibrations. Many cultures practice this tradition but Native American sage burning is one of the most common references. This practice is not just spiritual; research has proven that burning sage also removes bacteria in the air. This practice is often referred to as smudging.
Palo Santo is wood from a tree that grows in South America. You light the wood and roast it until smoldering. You waft this smoke to cleanse and clear space as well. Palo Santo has a sweet scent and the fragrance dissipates quicker than that of sage. This is one of my favorite recommendations for apartment living or if you live in a space with sensitive smoke detectors.
What you will need to “clear the space”
A piece of Palo Santo or a bundle of dried sage also known as a smudge stick, a container that is fire proof (an abalone shell is widely used as the fire proof container), and a lighter.
Open the windows and doors to your bathroom and collect the items/tools for your ritual bath together. Light your smudge stick or piece of Palo Santo, hold the flame over the top of the bundle or stick until it is roasting and when the flame is removed smoke emanates.
Once your smudge stick or Palo Santo stick is smoldering walk the smoke from one end of the room, in a circle, all around the room ending where you started. You want to take care to get up to the corners of the space, walking the smoke around to all edges of the room. You opened the doors and windows so that the stagnation and low vibrations have a way to exit.
Often a feather or wafting tool is used to spread the smoke around over items, people, and into corners. Make sure that you allow the smoke over each of your ritual bath items, and specifically into the bath itself, from corner to corner and all over your bathroom.
Then make sure that you let the smoke billow around your physical body and energetic body. Focus the smoke from the feet, all the way up to your head, both in front of you as well as behind you.
Next, make sure the toilet is closed! Just a little tip to keep abundance in your space. A lifted toilet seat is an energy suck for money and prosperity so let’s close that before we create our sacred space.
You’ve cleansed your space, your ingredients, and yourself, you are ready to create your ritual. Start drawing your water. Turn the lights down, turn on some soothing music or set up a guided meditation I love Insight Timer for guided meditations.
Light your candles and call in their intention. If you were to light a white candle, you might say: “With the lighting of this white candle, I call in peace. I ask that my energy is purified, cleansed, and that all the negativity I have been carrying around form the day, week, month, year, and life is released and transmuted.”
Light your incense and call in your intention. For instance, if you light Nag Champa, you might say: “With the lighting of this incense, I call in inspiration and connection to my highest self.”
Place your crystals into the water or next to the bath and set the intention. If you have a rose quartz, amethyst, and clear quartz, you might say: “With these crystals in call in the intention to heal my heart, open up to love and passion. I ask that my third eye awaken and increase my connection to my intuitive abilities. I call in the elevating power of the clear quartz to amplify my intentions.”
Drop in your “tea” water, your cheese cloth bag, or flower petals. If you add dried calendula and dried chamomile: “With the power of these flowers I call in the intention of gratitude, may I be thankful for all that I have and all that I am. May I soak in this bath and call both peace and serenity to me. I ask for purification of my energy body and protection against negativity.
Add your salt, baking soda, essential oils, other oils. If you add Pink Himalayan Sea Salt, baking soda, bergamot, and rose hip oil: “With this sacred salt I cleanse my body, my energy, my aura, and my soul. I ask that I soothe my bones as well as my soul. I ask that my body soaks up the healing properties of this sacred salt. I release all that does not serve me and cleanse myself of any stagnation. I call balance to my inner world. I call radiance to my skin and my soul.”
Ritual baths all over the world are known for their rebirthing abilities. Use your ritual to rebirth yourself. Let go of what is no longer serving you. Leave guilt, shame, anxiety, stress, and confusion in the water to be sent down the drain. Detox your mind, body, and soul. Call in that which you wish to be re-birthed with. Ask for clarity, vision, intuition, and set the intention for your life with your ritual bath.
May your soak serve your highest and greatest good. May the healing power of each of your ingredients elevate your vibration and help you manifest the life of your dreams. Emerge from your ritual bath with a radiant body and an invigorated soul.
Want a customized Ritual Bath made just for you? Want to learn more about the many kinds of Ritual baths, lunar baths, intention baths, manifestation baths, etc? Contact Lindsay of Our & Are by emailing ourandare@gmail.com.
