Wellness at the Forefront: Smoke Sauna Sisterhood
Smoke Sauna Sisterhood
When buzz around a documentary titled “Smoke Sauna Sisterhood” floated into our awareness, we made immediate plans to attend opening night at the Hot Docs Cinema in Toronto. At Core Essence we always look across the spectrum of art, design, music and film for inspiration. We gather our ideas from less expected places.
The Director, Anna Hints, followed a group of women who returned each season to a lakeside sauna in the Estonian woods. The film invites viewers into ‘the sacred, safe space of smoke sauna, where women come together and share their utmost secrets and heal through communion.’ (Anna Hints, 2023)
From the opening scene, a blackened screen coupled with the sound of women chanting traditional sauna songs, the film created a portal that moved the audience from the darkened theatre into the intimate setting of a traditional Estonian Smoke Sauna.
The film was captured slowly, over five years in the Voro region of South-Eastern Estonia. Early vignettes showed the quiet high freeze of winter, and the springtime melt when the frozen lakes thawed. In the summer, the women rested bare bodied upon the earth amidst wildflowers, and harvested bouquets of botanicals that they tied into sauna whisks (vihta). In the fall, meat was strung from the ceiling and cured for winter feasts, juxtaposed beautifully against the flesh of the women also being cured, so to speak, from the heat, smoke and salt.
In a CBC interview, Hints explains how she was initiated into the living tradition of Estonian sauna keepers by her grandmother at eleven years old. Sauna, she says, is a liminal space, a healing place, and a place to connect with ancestors.
Smoke Sauna Sisterhood
The Estonian Smoke Sauna
The cultural heritage of the Estonian Smoke Sauna (Suitsusaun) joined the UNESCO list of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2014. This North-Eastern European practice dates back to at least 2,000 BC.
Dug into the earth, or crafted from wood, these chimneyless structures contained a wood-burning fire covered with stones. In the old days, the heat was sealed inside the structure with a curtain of animal skins. These curtains were then opened to release the smoke just prior to entering. The hot stones were like ancient batteries, retaining thermal energy for extended warmth. Water was ceremoniously splashed over the hot rocks, releasing steam that humidified the air, and was also understood to carry mystical messages from ancestors.
Since the heated smoke effectively rendered the interiors sterile, women chose to give birth there, the dead were washed and prepared for burial there, and nourishment in winter months came from the smoked meats that were cured there.
Smoke Saunas were important structures that ensured both shelter and survival in harsh climates. They also brought the community together in ways that ensured wellbeing, intergenerational knowledge transfer and sacred space for celebration.
Estonian Smoke Sauna discovered by Wayne Nesbitt
Centuries Old Estonian Smoke Sauna Discovered in Canada
Cultural traditions move as people move.
We became interested in the Estonian Smoke Sauna tradition after reading about a remarkable discovery of a centuries old Estonian Smoke Sauna right here in Canada! Wayne Nesbitt found the abandoned sauna on old family land in North-Western Ontario. Originally built by his Estonian grandfather, Wayne is now in the process of relocating and restoring this important piece of cultural heritage to a new site in the Rocky Mountains.
Smoke Sauna Sisterhood
An Experience of the Elements
To participate in a Smoke Sauna is to form a visceral, tangible connection to the elements of Earth, Water, Fire, Air and Space. Sacred space is created by a harmonious balance of all of these elements. It is through this lens that we closely examined the film.
EARTH
The element of earth is evident in the architectural design of these small, wooden buildings, with bare earth floors, low ceilings and wooden benches. Spaces to rest outside harness the textures of the natural environment. Seasonal botanicals are harvested and used as brushes to enhance vigorous forms of massage; the scent of this foliage also deepens the connection between humans and the ecosystem. Salts are used to exfoliate skin, and also to prepare the meat. The grounded quality of the sauna reaffirms that the sauna should be an accessible place, a center of community care, and a place for meaningful celebrations.
WATER
Water is an intermediary element between earth and fire, and stream is created when the extremes of these two elements meet. Steam humidifies the air allowing for greater ease and depth of breath. Steam and smoke are also seen to carry spiritual messages between worlds. Access to a variety of forms of cool water (ice, snow, lake, bucket, ladle, shower) to wash away physical and emotional toxins after the sauna is essential to bring about a sense of thermal balance.
FIRE
Gathering around the fire is something humans have done for millennia. It connects us to our past. The glowing embers of the fire form a central visual focus point which can aid meditative practice. The heat provides a certain hardship that, when endured, can transform both body and mind.
AIR + SPACE
Sound Therapy (vocalization, drumming, mantra) can help foster deep connections with others and offer pathways into a relaxed state of being. Circulation inside the sauna can be experienced in many different ways: through whisking branches, waving towels or relocating one’s body to experience various levels of heat.
Healing Power of Sauna
Humans across the world have used various forms of thermal therapy for thousands of years. As sauna lovers ourselves, we closely follow the developments of how the health benefits of these traditional practices are confirmed by science.
World-renowned longevity expert Dr. Peter Attia, recommends a sauna protocol of at least four 20-minute sessions per week in a sauna of at least 80 degrees Celsius. This recommendation is backed by scientific evidence; for example, in a study from Eastern Finland, regular use of sauna was shown to be a significant protective factor in reducing risk of cardiovascular disease. In addition, Attia mentions the pro-social effects of sauna (detached from electronics and engaged in a healthy activity alongside people you love) as being important for longevity, vitality and overall wellbeing.
The Hydrothermal Spa at Oceanstone Seaside Resort, Nova Scotia
Saunas in Commercial Settings
Whilst the film focuses on the lineage of Estonian Smoke Sauna, there are many different types of saunas available on the market today that are well suited to commercial hospitality projects.
INFRARED SAUNA
These radiate heat from infrared panels, guests experience warmth from the inside out. The mild stress response provides a flood of positive adaptations within the body. Since the heat intensity is less extreme, this type of sauna is highly suitable for a wide range of users, including those with mild health conditions. Sauna purists might critique this experience as one that lacks lineage (for example, you cannot pour water over stones in an infrared sauna) however, it does not require a dedicated sauna master to tend to the fire for 8-10 hours prior to use and can be safely installed indoors.
ELECTRIC SAUNA
Electric saunas omit a fairly dry heat, can be programmed to different temperatures, and are often conveniently controlled via a timer or app. Commonly found in commercial settings, this 20th century innovation has made saunas more accessible to a wider variety of people across the globe. One advantage is that you can still pour water over the stones in an electric sauna, and receive a burst of steam and increased humidity.
Smoke Sauna Sisterhood
Final Thoughts: Smoke Sauna Sisterhood
The New York Times celebrates the way that ‘these raw bodies exhibit an organic kind of beauty, real and uninhibited as they commune with the swirling smoke from burning wood and the clouds of steam produced by moistened rocks’.
The Guardian emphasizes the cathartic healing that the women experience ‘…away from families, phones, the relentless exhausting to-do list of being a woman - something happens. The talk: sharing stories, saying the unsayable, with nothing off limits. In a deep way the experience is cleansing, sweating the pain away’.
We applaud the courage of the subjects and filmmaker in sharing this deeply revered cultural practice with the world. With the growing popularity of sauna culture globally where so much context and lineage can be lost, watching this educates and inspires. Our visits to the sauna will never be the same again.
Written On March 13, 2024
