New Year’s Spiritual Baths
At the Vodun temple palace where I live, traditional New Year’s rituals include taking seven spiritual baths to release the past year and to call in the blessings of the new. These baths are set up on the temple palace grounds in front of the main shrines and are open to the greater community here, so one doesn't need to be an initiate to partake. Rather, the community is invited and encouraged to prepare for the incoming year by taking these baths either on New Year’s Eve or New Year’s Day. So if you decide to visit, I recommend arriving in December and staying through mid-January so you can participate in these ceremonies with us.
The New Year’s spiritual bath sequence is as follows:
🌿The first is for purification and washes off accumulated psychic debris:
🌿The second is a bath for protection against witchcraft and evil eye, breaks spells and returns to sender ill intentions:
🌿The third is a bath prepared with plants favored and blessed by Vodun Sakpata to ward off illness:
🌿The fourth is a bath for drawing in abundance and is blessed by Vodun Dan (Damballah) and Ayida Weddo:
🌿The fifth bath is for prosperity (spiritual and material wealth) and is blessed by Vodun Lissa:
🌿The sixth bath is a bain de chance (bath for good luck and fortune) taken in front of the principle temple and blessed by Vodun Agbé:
🌿The seventh and final bath is a bain de richesse also blessed by Vodun Agbé:
Though these baths are prepared with local plants and ingredients, there are modified variations you can do in your own home incorporating plant medicine found in your region. I hope these baths inspire you in your own releasing, grieving and renewal practices for walking into the new Gregorian calendar year empowered, rested, spiritually nourished and refreshed.
Wishing you and yours a prosperous year of solidarity in action, filled with abundance of courageous love and good health. May we continue to uplift one another through our collective struggles toward ultimate, inevitable liberation. May you experience equanimity through any challenge or turmoil. And may your benevolent ancestors continue to guide and protect you along your way.
