Ilman impi, a spirit of air, was walking among the clouds carrying a basket full of wool. She let some of the wool drop and descend to the waters below her. From there the wind guided the wool all the way across the vast water and finally set it ashore where trees grew and everything was green.

Mielikki, the goddess of forest, picked up the wool from the water and set it into a beautiful cradle made of maple wood. She had attached the cradle to a branch of a blooming spruce with a golden chain. So she cradled her favourite child until it grew up to be Ohto, the bear.

Ohto swore to never hurt anyone and to always repress his anger by clawing and biting to trees and rocks, never to do so to a human being. This oath Ohto gave by the river of Tuonela and so Mielikki granted Ohto his teeth, which she fashioned out of pine.

But Ohto didn’t keep his promise, and did hurt someone and so broke his oath. Hence it was considered acceptable to hunt down a bear, even though a ritualistic burial was to be held in it’s honour, for the bear was, after all, descendant of the sky.

You’ve probably heard about how the Finns love and respect their sauna, a hot room where one can sweat off bad spirits. If so, you might have also heard that the sauna has been around for Finns for a long, long time and it has served as an important part of everyone’s life. You might also know that many healing traits and properties have always been associated with the sauna, and it has been so since, well, for as long as we’ve had saunas.

There were two haltias, spirits, associated with the sauna, Auteretar/Anterettoin, she was the feminine spirit of sauna who guarded wounds from the heat and kept them from getting infected. The spirit of the steam of sauna was in turn Auterinen, referred to as having been “made” by Auteretar, which could mean that he might have been Auteretar’s son. It’s only natural that a place such as the sauna, which was used not only for cleaning oneself but for healing the sick and wounded and also served as a common place for childbirth, had it’s own guarding spirits.

There was a fear of wounds getting infected by the hot air, but the pagan Finn didn’t know of a better place for healing than the sauna, which was to them a place of holiness of a kind, where the spirits were closer than elsewhere. This feeling could very well be explained scientifically; the warmth of the sauna affects the body and causes one to feel dizzy, which was usually one of the “symptoms” of the state of “being in one’s spirits” = olla haltioissa (a state the shamans would strive to reach when trying to connect with the higher powers.) The heated stones used to warm the sauna have been debated to be the remnants of pagan sacrificial stones and the act of throwing water on the rocks to symbolise sacrificing to the natural deities. This to me seems unlikely, but I wouldn’t go straight to debunking the idea either. Therefore, whether or not the Finnish sauna is indeed a relic of pagan sacrificial grounds will remain unsolved.

The ritualistic healing in a sauna was usually conducted under the cover of night. Some researchers have said that this was because the affect of day-time was considered to weaken the power of the ritualistic healing, but this is not entirely true; during the daytime Finns would’ve turned to Päivätär for assistance in healing rather than to the spirits of the sauna. There must have been variations to the healing rituals that took place in the sauna, but I will now take you through one of those variations, step by step, so you too can try and properly heal in the sauna. (I would, however, advise to go to a hospital or at least to a doctor in cases where skin has discoloured or ones guts are spilling out.)

1. The hinges of the sauna’s door are oiled. This further increases the stealth mode the nighttime is already granting.
   
   
2. The shaman/healer steps into the sauna with their patient and chants the following:
   
   Terve löyly, terve lämmin, terve tervehtijällenki!
   (Greetings steam, greetings warmth, greetings to the greeter as well!)
   
   
3. After the patient has been laid down, the healer takes their medicinal herbs and tools from their pouch so that they are easily accessible.
   
   
4. The healer sticks an arrow to the floor of the sauna as a sign of being well prepared for the following healing and even against the bad spirits who might try and stop the spells from working and therefore from healing the patient.
   
   
5. The healer sweeps the floor, ceiling and benches of the sauna with their bath wisk, vihta, this is done in order to properly cleanse the sauna before starting the healing itself. The vihtahas to be a special one, its branches gathered from unnamed meadows or otherwise secret places. It’s also good to strand in some healing herbs and plants.
   
   
6. Now it’s time for the healer to “go into one’s spirits”, mennä haltioihin. This is done by reciting the words of steam, löylyn sanat.
   
   
   Löyly poika Auterinen
   Auterettaren tekemä
   Hiki wanhan Wäinämöisen
   Herran hengestä hyvästä
   (Steam, son Auterinen / made by Auteretar / sweat of old Wäinämöinen / of lord’s good spirit)
   
   
   
7. The purpose of this is for the patient to also have trust in the healer, so it is endorsed that the healer greatly praises their own power, väki, and so makes the patient more trusting that they shall be healed. (Note: the healer can also recite different words, for example the words of water or of the bath wisk.)
   
   
8. After these words of encouragement, the healer says a prayer to AuteretarandAuterinen and requests for their help in the following healing process.
   
   
9. Here comes the hardest part. The healer must now figure out the source of the sickness and conjure it out of the patient.
   

The ancient Finns were not wrong in their belief that the sauna held immense healing abilities, in the modern times it has been proven that bathing in the sauna indeed reduces the risk of cardiovascular diseases and hence is good for one’s health. It’s also easy to imagine how wonderful and magical the sauna felt during the cold winters, warm and protective, like a mother’s embrace.

Question of the week

which of the following statements is false?

a) vulgar language was not used in sauna since it could upset the spirits
b) it was believed that Wäinämöinen’s sweat had healing abilities
c) the sauna was used for sacrificial rituals as well as healing

answer:hereortweet me!

Help make mythologiafennica better!

Good evening fellow friends of mythos!

As you might’ve noticed, I’m reviving this dear blog of mine and I was hoping you might help me with making it the best it can be. So following are a few thigs I’d like your opinions on:

The length of the posts – should I keep my posts short and simple, or go more in detail with longer texts? Short posts I might be able to provide few times a week, but if I’m doing longer texts it will only be one post per week.

The subjects – do you prefer general information or would you like to also hear my opinions on some matters?

Spells?– since quite a few of the people in this community are witches, would you like me to share old spells, in Finnish and freely translated to English? Would that be useful to you?

Other mediums outside of writing – should I make videos? I’ve been thinking about the possibility of videos but I’m not yet certain if that’s something I’d really be able to do well enough. Live Q&A’s might be fun?

Anything else? – is there something else you might have in mind that you’d like me to take into consideration whilst working on the revival of mythologiafennica? Feedback? I’d very much appreciate your opinions!

Thank you already and I hope you’re as excited as I am for what the future holds!

- Jona