Temazcal Ceremony

Heyy Steemers I want to tell you about an amazing experience I had a few days ago.
I was lucky enought to be in Ayampe, Ecuador on the new moon and was invited to participate in a Temazcal ceremony.

Temazcal is a healing ceremony that originated in the southern Mexico/Central American region, but has been adapted and has spread and is now practiced all over the Americas.

It is basically a sweat lodge that takes place in a large tent with a shallow pit in the middle where scorching hot volcanic rocks are placed. The tent represents the womb and the rocks represent the 4 elements; Earth, Wind, Fire and Water. After the ceremony when you leave the tent your are 'reborn'.

The holy fire where the rocks are heated

First everyone snorts tobacco mixed with water to clear their resperatority system and then at the tent entrance you say a prayer and leave behind anything you want to get rid of eg bad memories, bad habbits or you can just say thank you for your life and everything good.

The sweat lodge

Once eveyone is inside the tent 7 stones are brought in, the entrance is sealed and the sherman first dabs incense on the rocks to create an aroma and then a prayer is said to give thanks the element that they represent then he pours water of the rocks which creates an intense heat and you immediately start sweating.

It's pitch black dark in the tent except for the growing red stones. After pouring water on the stones the sherman starts banging his drums and everyone starts singing and chanting. Its stars geting really and difficult to breath, your sweating like crazy out, you can't see anything and the drums and singing are getting louder and louder it really is a surreal experience.

After about 20 minutes the door opens and cool air flushes in. The next group of stones is brought in, the tent is sealed again and the process starts again only its hotter this time because there are more rocks.

The process is repeated 4 times, each time represents an element that you pray and give thanks to. By the end there are 28 stone in the pit and the heat is almost unbearable.

I felt great after it was finished, incredibly light and full of energy. I was still sweating afterwards so i walked down to the beach and went for a swim in the middle of the night which was another amazing experience.

As usual in South America I was the first person to arrive. Me waiting by the fire