There are times when the energy of life gets dense and heavy for us and things become difficult to deal with as they arise. In some Amazonian cultures, they would call this bitterness. Bitterness can increase in your energy from various things like dealing with difficult situations, making hard decisions, having sickness in the body, or participating in any ceremonial activities that may induce the purging, or removing, of old energies.
This bitterness is normal is a part of a natural cycle of life going constantly from sweet to bitter, to sweet and back to bitter again; an eternal balancing act. In order to remove this heaviness, this bitterness, from us, we have to provide something to replace it: sweetness!
Enter plant technology. Land plants have been around for a long time, about 500 million years, and they have been evolving ever since. There is so much we can learn from plants. At some point, some of these plants generated something entirely new to the Earth: sweetness. It began as a way to lure certain insects to come close and take the plants pollen with it when it leaves, a way to reproduce for the plant. After all, the plant cannot move enough to pollinate its neighbors. It needs the help of another part of nature so it can continue to evolve and thrive.
When we speak of incorporating sweetness into our life and our body through sweet bath, the goal is to tap into this energy. We are using the plants to help us the same way the plant used the bees to help them. We offer our intention to the plant and the Earth, that we may draw upon this sweetness to aid us in our continued evolution.
The Plants
When using plants for a sweet bath, the best ones to use are fresh and organic. You could use dry plant materials, but fresh is much better. In the drying process some of the sweetness is lost, so do yourself a favor and find fresh plant matter.
The core plant in any sweet bath will be basil. The intense sweet smell you find in a fresh bundle of basil is haunting, which is what we are looking for. With only basil you can make an incredible sweet bath, however, with some other sweet plants to accompany the basil we can make a bath that is absolutely bursting with sweetness.
Our Recipe
Use this recipe as a guideline when making your own sweet bath. The proportions of plants and water and time can all be changed a little and will still create a great sweet bath. This is simply how we do it and we have found it works great.
Whats Needed:
- Large stockpot
- Strainer
- 1 bundle Basil
- 1 bundle Spearmint
- 1/2 bundle Rosemary
Steps
- Fill the stock pot with 4 quarts of water, all the plant matter, and place on the stove under high heat.
- When water begins to boil, add lid and reduce heat to simmer and set timer for 20 minutes.
- After 20 minutes, remove from heat and allow to cool for 1 hour.
- After it has cooled to room temperature, strain the plant matter from the liquid.
- Pour sweet bath into jars or bottles and store in the fridge.
- Enjoy!
Notes
The sweet bath will stay good in the fridge for about a week. To prolong the life of the sweet bath you could add some alcohol such as vodka at a rate of 1 cup per 4 quarts of sweet bath. This will allow the bath to stay fresh outside the fridge for up to a week, or inside the fridge for several weeks.
Boiling the plant matter for too long will cause some of the sweetness and some of the volatile phytochemicals to be lost. Boiling for 20 minutes and allowing to cool for an hour will ensure a good extraction and that nothing is lost unnecessarily. If the plant material is dissolving and falling apart when you strain, you have boiled too long.
If you are adding other plants that require cooking longer, such as vines and barks, begin with those plants first and add the basil, rosemary and spearmint at the end, 20 minutes before you are done.
How to Use
To use the sweet bath, begin by taking a shower as you normally would. When you are finished showering, dry off normally. You can then apply the sweet bath all over your body. Make sure to apply it everywhere, while also remembering why you are doing it and placing your intention there. The plants work on their own, but your intention activates them to work more precisely and thoroughly. We will cover more on intention in a later post.
Allow the sweet bath to air dry on your skin. It is important to allow at least a few minutes for the bath to air dry and absorb into the skin before you dry yourself.
We hope you enjoyed this post and found something useful in it.
God bless you, God guard you, God protect you
Always
