I've changed one of the items on my "50 things before 50" list from "Draw a picture" to "have a pirts experience." I had to change it, because I had an experience during 3x3 2011 Katskiļi that I just have to share.
Pirts means "sauna." For Latvians, it's not just getting in a hot room and lying there until you can't stand it anymore. At its highest expression, there is a culture, there is ritual, there is spiritual transformation.
The regular weekly pirts that the Viksnins farm relatives have is also quite transformative, cleansing like you would not believe, and during one of those experiences I realized that I looked just like these ladies from Nītaure. (I always wondered who I had inherited my hair genes from, because it didn't look like either of my parents'. There I was in the sauna with my father's cousins who had the same kind of hair that I did!) Afterwards, I walked back to the main house and looked up at more stars than I had ever seen before, as I hoped the big rooster wouldn't try to jump on me.
I had had one of these highest expressions of pirts before in Madona, while also at a 3x3 camp. A few of us were offered a chance to partake. We were super-heated, massaged, covered with honey and cream, and after the pēršana (slapping and energy re-arrangement) with birch branches and grasses, brought to a lake where we immersed ourselves. Yes, it all happened completely nude, including the walking from the pirts to the lake, passing by some fishermen dudes who must see that every day! Afterwards, I was more relaxed than I had ever been.
So! Līga Reitere is a master at pirtsniecība (running the sauna experience), selecting the best herbs, tree branches and grasses to make the pirts slotas ("brooms" for slapping the client, moving the steam heat around the sauna, transferring the energy around the client). I have now experienced a taste of the ultimate pirts experience with one of the best! Thanks to Juris Bļodnieks for letting her use his pirts with some of the 3x3 campers.
First, she had us lie down in the hot pirts to get used to the heat and to start opening our pores. She said: "Stay in there while you really like it." rather than "Stay in there until you can't stand it anymore." Little did she know that I am a hard-core heat seeker, used to the 160 degree rooms at SpaWorld! This was more like 130. Then, we sat on a bench outside until we were ready to go back in.
This time she started working with the slotas (branches/grasses), moving the steam down onto our bodies, compressing our feet, knees, hips, and shoulders in turn. Each of us has our own rhythms, she said, that she would intuit while working with us. Mine was several short movements, followed by a longer one. She worked over our fronts and our backs.
Afterwards, we went outside again for a few minutes, then returned inside the pirts house where we laid down on a couch and were covered with leaves and some of the pirts slotas, and our towels. Then she worked the movements over us again, concluding with a song that seemed to be channeled specifically for us. Mine was about going through the woods, coming upon different symbolic things, having to perform an action before going further. Hard to explain, but it was very meaningful. I really felt a gathering and release of energy. This was at the end of a very full week, running the camp, and I didn't realize how much energy I was holding!
Afterwards, I felt relaxed, but extremely focused. Others said that their time was like an altered state, and couldn't remember the song she had sung for them. Līga was masterful at telling us what she was doing at every point of the experience, and leading us through it. If I'm ever in Ventspils, I am definitely going to try to schedule a follow-up pirts! I think at home she would include scrubs and creams, and more targeted herbs; the sessions can last up to 3 hours.
If you're looking for a place to have a similar experience, check out this link about pirts in Latvia.
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