Healing Through a Ritual Bath

There is a healthy balance between nurturing your mental health and using witchcraft. Ritual baths are a huge part of this, as bathing carries restorative properties that can positively impact your physical, mental, and emotional health. It helps create an environment of solitude that inspires reflection, healing, and growth.

Before drawing your bath, it’s important to assess what intentions you plan to bring and the impact you want to make on your mind and body.

First, collect all of the elements that you wish to bring into the bath with you. You can collect these throughout the day or all at once. Pick what calls out to you. It can be herbs that you’ve procured for other rituals or spell jars, cloves and cinnamon sticks from your pantry, or flowers picked from your garden or a bouquet on your table. You can also add bath salts, bath bombs, and bubbles. It can be anything that you feel a connection with, as long as it’s safe to enter the bath with you.

Next, you must prepare your space. I recommend cleaning your bathtub before drawing your bath as a way to clear out any negative memories or past energies that may not be wanted. You want to create a space that is safe, clean, and intentional. Then, set up any items you may want outside of the tub, such as candles, crystals, plants, journals, a drink, music, and so on. Make it an environment that you feel comfortable and relaxed in.

When running your bath, this is the time to light any candles, start your music, and begin to pour your materials into the water. When adding each item, make sure to thank them for their healing and loving properties and then stir everything in a figure-eight motion until well mixed. Before stepping into the tub, take some time to feel gratitude for yourself and your body. Give thanks to every part of your body for providing human life and guiding you forward. You can target individual parts of your body and move up, thanking each one for what it can provide (for example: “I thank my legs for all the places they’ve taken me”), or do an overarching thanks that targets your body as a collective. Gratitude for yourself is necessary before entering the bath.

Then, when ready to enter the tub and lower yourself to soak in the water, decide what type of experience you’d like and reestablish your intentions and wants. This is the time for you to take the ritual into a path that best fits you. There is no wrong way to go about it. You can journal, meditate, practice mindfulness, read, listen to music, etc.. I suggest staying in the bath for about an hour, or until the water starts to lose warmth. However, please remember to check in with yourself. If you ever begin to feel too hot and grow ill, please pull yourself out of the water and splash cold water on your face or neck.

Once you’ve finished, remove all of the elements you’ve added to the bathtub that cannot go down the drain. Then, begin to drain the water, but stay where you are within the tub until the water is completely gone. The water will take away everything that you needed to release and leave you with a sense of relief, clarity, and calmness.

Before exiting the bathroom, please make sure to snuff out any lit candles.

Lastly, acknowledge how your body feels after the bath. Spend some time massaging moisturizer into your skin and continue any other self-care routines you regularly do post-bathe. Then, create space to care for yourself and practice self-love through positive affirmations.

The point of a ritual bath is to focus on your emotional needs and to release what is no longer needed in your life. It's a time for deep reflection and purposeful thinking. Ritual baths are especially helpful if currently facing loss, heartbreak, depression, stress, anxiety, or any other theme that makes you feel incomplete. Please practice this ritual safely and mindfully.