Why Complicate Sauna?

People I will refer to as the ancestors of Sweat gave us all something very special.

My question is, why have we made it so complicated? It is very easy to understand; you either have it right or you don’t.

When the builder balances the construction with the elements, fire, earth, or stone, water, and fresh air. The experience is repeatable and remains consistent, no matter where the elements have been combined into this experience. I consider it spiritual, but at least it is unique and wonderful.

I can enjoy the experience of ancestral sweat no matter if I am looking out the window to the City skyline from a penthouse in an electric heated Sauna or a Native American sweat lodge. I can be, that is, if the four elements are combined to create the ancestral sweat. Otherwise, it's just a hot place with bad air.

Air

The air is fresh from the clean air outside, is brought inside, away from the stale air vented through heated stones where it rises, and in time, balanced heat is achieved, and it is ready. The bather never takes a breath that is not hot and fresh until the door is opened.

Fire

The fire may come from any form of heat, blazing wood, or electricity, but it must be sufficient to meet the requirements of the other elements by way of volume.

Stones

Heated by fire, the stones heat the air as it journeys to the faces of the people. They provide the transformation of the water into steam. The fire quickly reheats the stones for more steam.

Water

Water is both cold outside for plunging naked to cool by immersion. The same water is thrown on the stones to create Loyly. Loyly is a special steam that combines all four elements into one; it bathes you from top to bottom in them. It is a righteous thing of nature discovered by man and given by the gods. You will smell the brimstone of Earth, feel the heat of fire, breathe the air mixed with steam, and your sweat will mix with the condensation as you become cleansed inside and out.

That's it, it’s just that simple, you can call it by a hundred names, but you will know it when you quit trying to make it what it’s not and enjoy it for what it is.

And when you do see it, you cannot unsee it, and when you do, welcome.