"Healing" Column as it appeared in The Monadnock Shopper News on May 21,
2008
SPRING CLEANING AND THE TEMEZCAL
by Skye Stephenson
Now that spring seems to have finally arrived to this part of the world, we all know that it is's spring cleaning time - time to get out
and fix up the yard, tidy up the house, and stretch out our body once again after the long winter. While you engage in all these important
activities to clean your physical body and space, let me ask you if you are spending time also doing deep cleaning at an energetic level. For
indeed the subtle energies that surround our physical body (and even our living spaces) can get heavy with accumulated debris that should be
cleaned out.
There are many ways to clean these energies and today I want to share with you one of my favorites, which is to have a temezcal
(an indigenous Mexhica steam bath). Next month I'll suggest some other, simpler, ways that you can do your own energy cleaning.
A temezcal is similar to the sweat lodges that the Lakota and other indigenous groups in what is now the United States do. It differs, however,
in that a temezcal is a permanent stone structure specially built for the sole purpose of holding ritual steam baths.
During a recent trip I organized to Mexico, we had a group temezcal that was led by a woman named Susana. Before entering the
temezcal, we gathered on a grassy knoll nearby to salute the four directions, and thank the sun and the earth. We then passed smoking copal -
that sticky resin used throughout Mesoamerica as incense - around our bodied from head to foot to begin the cleaning process. A conch shell
was blown and we headed off to the temezcal, to enter into its total darkness and heat.
Once inside, we huddled close together, knees touching knees, shoulders touching shoulders. And the first door of the temezcal
began. For you see, the temezcal ceremony is made up of four doors (like the four cardinal directions). A good temezcal guide moves the group
through each door with careful skill and timing. Susana explained to us that the first door represented our childhood and identity, the second
door stood for our youth and dreams, the third door was middle age and our connection with the world, and the fourth door represented old age
and wisdom. At each door, there was music we sang together, herbs that refreshed us, and words we shared in the dark - words that seemed to
spring from deep wells within us.
At the second door, one woman from our group - Pattie - began to sob as she told us about her son who has passed away several years
ago. At the third door, several other woman joined Pattie in shedding tears, each with their own story. When the fourth door arrived, I beheld
my own face as an old woman. At first I recoiled from the image, all our culture teaching us of the beauty of youth. But it somehow lodged
within me in a comforting way, a signpost to my probable future.
Coming out of the temezcal was not easy for any of us. Susana told us it is like coming out of our mother's womb when we are
birthed. Luckily, there was a pool of beautiful clear cool water to jump into. And floating in that buoyant liquid, I did feel in many ways
as if I was cleaned and refreshed and starting anew - like a deep soul spring cleaning.