The Cauldron: A Pagan Forum

I've been looking over the use of khernips in ritual cleansing, both for a ritual space and personally and there seems to be a lot of variations. Hearth flame extinguished in spring water, or tap water, herbs mixed with water, using sea salt, even simply using a purification benediction over the water.

It made me wonder what the Hellenes on here use personally and/or think is most effective/historically accurate.

Also, I'm lucky enough to have a natural spring in my town and was wondering if it would be appropriate to use water from it, straight from the rock?

As I am on my mobile and on my way to bed, I am going to link to my blog where I talk about khernips and my daily use of it. There are those who do it a bit differently (mostly not using salted water for everything but using spring water for some or all of the purification rituals). This works very well for me.

Posts on khernips.

As far as I am aware, using the spring water you mentioned is totally fine, with or without sea salt.

Good luck and I'm looking forward to other reactions!

Nice blog!

Thank you :-) Some come out better than others, I admit, but sometimes the writing bug is a bit lackluster. I do update daily (even if mobile blogger likes to change the dates of posting XD). It's something I love to do.

I've been looking over the use of khernips in ritual cleansing, both for a ritual space and personally and there seems to be a lot of variations. Hearth flame extinguished in spring water, or tap water, herbs mixed with water, using sea salt, even simply using a purification benediction over the water.

It made me wonder what the Hellenes on here use personally and/or think is most effective/historically accurate.

Also, I'm lucky enough to have a natural spring in my town and was wondering if it would be appropriate to use water from it, straight from the rock?

I'm not too sure about the Greek practice, but I'm fairly certain that the Roman was very similar in some regards (there is also purification with black beans, but that's purely Roman).

Using water from a spring was not unheard of, as running water was thought to be sacred; in fact, one of the tasks of the Vestal Virgins was to draw water from a sacred spring.

If you want to use water for a purification of a space, I think sprinkling the area with water via a bunch of laurel or some other sacred plant would be nice.

Salt was also sacred.  I know there's a lot of possibly impure salt out there now, so I really like Himalayan sea salt.  It's very natural, tastes better than your average salt, and it's pink!

Using water from a spring was not unheard of, as running water was thought to be sacred; in fact, one of the tasks of the Vestal Virgins was to draw water from a sacred spring.

...

Salt was also sacred.

 
I live about a twenty minute walk from the shore.  Would seawater be all right to use for ritual purification?

I do, so it's a yes for me.

I second that.

Go for it!

Your blog is extremely helpful.  I really appreciate the time that you have put into it.  Thank you.

Very welcome, and thank you for reading!

I have to second the thing about your blog being very helpful. As I said in a thread I started, I haven't been worshipping any deities due to personal factors. However, I remember struggling a lot with khernips, I wish your blog posts had been around at the time. It would have made so much difference for me. It puts things in such a simple way that isn't overwhelming.

Thank you :-) And yes, I try for bite-sized chucks of information. Starting something new is hard enough as is. Good luck with getting your religious practice going!