I have mentioned, in the past, about my love for ritual. It helps keep me focused. It helps remind me of my path.

Recently, I was watching the documentary Purity. It is about the Orthodox Jewish women’s miqvah. (It is also about the distancing of women and men during menstrual cycles because of impurity issues but that’s a whole different topic for me and not appropriate at this time.) What I liked about the miqvah that was portrayed were the ritualistic activities that took place around the bathing.

The women cleaned their bodies completely. They took off all makeup, all nail polishes, combed their hair, etc. They took a bath before entering the miqvah to be be clean.

The miqvah signifies that a woman is once again able to touch her husband intimately and the evening of the miqvah is usually set aside for an intimate evening between the husband and wife.

I recently had drawings on my body that had been placed on me with great care, much joy, and much thought into color and placement. When it came time to remove the drawings, I decided to do so in a ritualistic bathing.

I used a specific bathing gel. I set up candles. I was very deliberate in my actions.

I felt the immersion was a sort of continuation of the time spent on the drawings. It was another part of that event.

When I emerged from the bath, clean, drawing free, it was a sort of rebirth, post drawing. It gave me pause. It made me think about the things that are important to me. It made me think about why the drawings were put on my body and why they were allowed to be washed off.

The bathing offered me clarity.

The bathing offered me rebirth.