SOUL HOUSE: The core

We started building our soul house by the core: the bathroom. The place for purification and soul renewal. I found this words by Thomas Moore on the web:

"The Greeks highlighted the theological dimensions of a bathroom in several stories of goddesses taking a bath. Artemis, the spirit of the pristine forest, takes a bath surrounded by a shield of wood nymphs. Hera goes to a spring to renew her virginity in a bath. But the most prominent goddess of the bathroom is Aphrodite. Sacred statues show her disrobing, removing her jewellery, drying off, and either sinking down in or rising up out of the water. They even had a name for the ritual of getting up out of water, something most of us do routinely after a bath: anadyomene, as much a sacred gesture as one of the Buddha's mudras.

Aphrodite is the spirit of beauty, body, sensuality and sexuality, love, pleasure, and adornment. It is her spirit, and not necessarily some egotistical urge, that moves us to spend time rubbing oils into the skin, brushing our hair, fussing over shampoos and soaps, and spending long periods in the tub or shower. These acts are genuine rituals in the spirituality of Aphrodite/Venus. They are holy actions, of extreme importance to the soul, making life pleasurable. When you take a bath, you soak your soul as well as your body.

Some identify spirituality with disregard for the simple pleasure of Venus. Maybe that is because Venus is a goddess or spirit of the deep soul rather than the sublime spirit. I might go so far as to say that good bathing might tame our tendencies toward violence. There is an ancient tradition that Venus calms the excited and warlike urges of Mars.

Just as a church might have a holy tabernacle and a Jewish temple sacred scrolls, so Aphrodite has her own spiritual implements: soaps, cosmetics, oils, fragrances, sponges, and towels. The tub is like a baptismal font, a good moisturiser, a kind of blessed oil. In Aphrodite's realm a luxurious towel may be as precious as a holy book.

Art also shows Venus holding a mirror. A mirror can be handy for passing narcissism, but it is also an instrument of Venus. Gazing at your face, your hair and your body, you are practising a Venusian form of yoga. In her 'church', taking time to care for your skin and your hair, not being frugal but rather extravagant, is a virtuous thing to do. To bring the Venusian spirit into your life, a way to increase the soul in your environment, you might look for a particularly beautiful and suitably ornate or stylistic mirror for your bathroom. Maybe more than one.

The simple act of disrobing is a Venusian gesture. It is probably difficult for most modern people to appreciate this shift in focus from shame to appreciation and from purity to sensuality. But to remain only in the religion of reserve and bodilessness is to deprive spirituality of its physicality, leaving it abstract and severe. Take away any degree of moralistic concern that has been forced on you, and see how the simple act of disrobing stirs your feelings.

I truly believe that the cultural decision in the West, centuries ago, to dissociate from all Venusian values in favour of an unnecessarily spartan spirituality was a devastating development for the spiritual lives of millions. It falsely separated body from spirit, thereby allowing no place for the soul.

I have said nothing about shaving or the toilet. These are too rich to include in a mere survey of the bathroom and each requires an essay of its own. But taken together they represent an important aspect of a soulful ecology. For a bathroom is a chamber of dreams. It could teach you, among other things, that spirituality is complete only when the body is fully present and engaged.

A good bathroom is a humanising thing, a gift of the gods and a spiritual necessity."

Thomas Moore was a Catholic monk. He is author of many books, including Care of the Soul and Dark Nights of the Soul.

P.S: engage yourself in plumbing matters... and travel through the pipes of desire.