For me, one of the highlights of this trip to Bali is the purification ritual we do in the fresh spring waters of Pura Mengening (pure water) Temple. This temple has been used for purification by the Balinese since the 11th century.
For starters, the setting is spectacular.
We left our hotel early and drove for about 45 minutes. After we crossed the threshold into the temple, we reached the top of a long flight of stone stairs that led deep into the valley that holds the biggest healing pools.
One of the first things we came across was this sign.
Our guide, Surya, explained that there are specific pools designated for rituals related to particular aspects of life, from birth to death. There are spigots used to bless a new dagger and another for the blessing of three-month-old babies. Others are designated for cremations or for beauty. The purification pools, the ones we were going to enter, cleanse emotional, mental, and spiritual blockages.
The black sign we were looking at was a directory, indicating which pools to use for each purpose.
Surya let us know that we were doing our purification ritual on an auspicious day in the Balinese calendar: Tumpek Wayang. It’s a day that’s especially significant for puppeteers, sacred mask carvers, and other performers. Among his many diverse talents, Surya is a dancer and a carver of masks.
As we descended the steps, a steady trickle of Balinese families arrived to partake of the healing waters. Surya said many had traveled long distances to purify here today.
And now we were going to join them.
As we walked around the lush grounds, Surya explained what we were seeing.
The source of the holy water is a spring under this giant banyan tree.
We paused before heading down a second flight of steps leading deeper into the valley. Surya asked us to think about what we wanted to purify. “You might each have your own ideas of what you want to tear apart, purify, or get rid of. What’s your intention? Contemplate that before you go into the waters.”
I knew my intention. I’d just been telling Joanie over breakfast that I’m at a crossroads in my life. I’ve just turned 69 years old and know I need to transition into the next phase of my life, yet I can’t envision a different future. I sense a portal ahead of me, yet I don’t know how to find it or where it will lead. To fully discover my third act, I know I need to let go of aspects of who I’ve been, yet I’m holding on to the way things are with all my might. I’m scared and unsettled. Sleep is challenging. My anxiety is spiking. I needed this ritual.
I grew quiet and began to find a place to invite the sacred into my heart, into my being.
Silently, I walked down the steps to the pools.
Before immersing ourselves in the sacred waters, we had to swap out the sarongs and temple scarves we’d worn to enter the temple for a special orange sarong used for bathing, provided by the temple. We’d been instructed to wear a bathing suit under our clothing, so we put our clothes and belongings in lockers.
An attendant helped us put on the special sarongs we were going to bathe in. This is Kayci getting ready for our ritual bathing.
Once we’d all donned our orange sarongs, Surya had us gather at an altar near one of the pools. He prayed first, then led us through a blessing ritual to prepare us to enter the waters.
Surya told us what to do as we faced each spigot: anoint the top of our heads three times, our faces three times, then our bodies three times. After that, we could fully immerse ourselves if we wanted to. He had us once again focus on our intention and what we wanted to let go of, release, or cleanse.
I closed my eyes.
At that moment, I stopped being the writing teacher and leader of the group; I was just a soul struggling with questions about the next phase of my human life. I needed this ritual.
This wasn’t about being a tourist observing a foreign culture. We were about to have a direct experience.
It was time to enter the waters.
This was our group entering the first of two pools. (Turn up your sound to hear the rushing water.) I’m the one handing Surya my glasses.
This was the second pool.
This is me preparing to go through purification in the second pool.
This is me completely immersed.
I held my breath and pressed my hands against the hard rock. I grabbed a few quick breaths out of the corner of my mouth as the water cascaded over me. I prayed, “Help me find the portal. Help me let go of what no longer serves me, who I no longer am. Help me see a pathway to the person I am becoming. Help me find the way. ” And then there were no words, just the rushing water and my heart ready to receive.
This is me emerging.
No thunderbolt struck me. But I had stated my intention. Asked the universe to guide me. Opened my heart to the best of my ability. Surrendered and asked for help. I felt a quiet sense of awe in the holiness of the moment.
And when I looked at everyone in our group as they, too, emerged, I could sense a softness, a vulnerability, an openness that hadn’t been there before.
Here we are, all having passed through this transformative ritual.
Surya led us through a second ceremony to close the ritual. Our purification was complete.
We laid our dripping orange wrappings onto a heaping pile of wet sarongs, retrieved our belongings, and slowly made our way up the long flights of stone steps to our cars.
There was a lot of tenderness and love between us on our way up those stairs.
After lunch, we spent the afternoon with one of the Balinese traditional healers we are seeing on our journey.
It was a rich, vulnerable, heart-opening day.
As I write this post, it’s the next morning. My students are spread out around our writing room, digesting their experiences on the page.
After we wrote, we shared our pieces. I closed class with meditation and a song, and talked about the importance of staying in the moment when there’s a lot going on (our tour days have been very full). And right at that moment, we heard a clatter on the roof. We all looked up and a monkey was stealing an offering from the statues outside the windows of our writing room. Everyone jumped up, ran over, and started taking pictures.
How could we resist? Take a look: