2023-12-21
Under the heading of things to do nude with your friends, here’s a Holiday Tale.
As I’ve shared from time to time, we have been a part of a community sweat/sauna that has existed for something like 40 years. The land was sold a few years back, we ended up with a 501c3 and a bank account. After a few years of struggling to find a new location, I moved to a new home in more central Tucson, with the best conditions that I could find and we built a new sweat on my property.
We have a tribe, or an extended family of sorts, in our hearts. We have been having weekly “sweats” occasional fundraisers, work parties, a Thanksgiving gathering, and then last week, a Solstice Yule ceremony.
Around 20 or 30 members came around during the evening, happy to see old friends.
It starts with 16 to 18 people with confused expressions on their faces, being given a nail, a piece of wood, a 3×5 card and a pencil. Around sundown, they all strip into proper sauna attire. DF smudges them, as they entered the sweat, one at a time.
I am waiting inside, next to the ambiance of a candelabrum, my notes are in hand, rolled up like a scroll. I greet each, as they choose their places among the double rows of redwood benches. I had tied red ribbons to decorate the top of my usual Russian felt sauna cap. Before long, job well done, DF enters, finding her own spot on one of the benches, which are now filled cheek to cheek.
I introduce myself as, “I’m Jon and I’ll be your facilitator tonight… Also, by the power vested in me, by no one in particular, the high priest.” I introduce DF as, “your high priestess.” It gets a few chuckles.
I explain, faking a solemn serious concern, “I don’t know if you have noticed, but the days have been getting shorter. If this trajectory continues, the sun may disappear altogether! For hundreds of thousands of years, people all over the world have been gathering during these times and chanting and whooping and hollering, praying for the sun to return…Obviously this has been working.” There are more chuckles.