<aside> 📖 Read in Finnish in Sauna 2/2015 (Issuu.com)

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When Adam and Eve were expelled from paradise the only thing they carried were sauna whisks. In case you take heed of biblical drawings from medieval Germany. With a stretch of imagination one could consider the whisk as that first ever artefact created by man.

Whisking is a central part of Finnish sauna experience and it comes with a lot of folklore. Partly forgotten, even. In the words of Sauna Society’s Kimmo Raitio: “We’re accustomed to beating ourselves with whisks, sometimes maybe whacking the back of the person next to you”. Systematic understanding and development of whisking as treatment and wellness service has especially been preserved and revived in the Baltics.

A vanguard of nine students has been working on whisking skills and knowledge on the first intensive course of whisking organised by the Finnish Sauna Society. The course is led by Rimas Kavaliauskas from the Lithuanian Bath Academy. In over the last ten years Rimas has developed holistic system of whisking where art, science and intuition come together.

The first professional whiskers are ready this summer to receive clients across the country. The graduates have applicable knowledge of physiology, dendrology and herbology, whisking styles and techiques, psychological factors and safety.

Every whisker has got their own personality and approach that translates into their whisking style. Course coordinator, artist Mari Keski-Korsu calls attention to empathy and ecosystem. “I see whisking as a means to relaxation, healing and engagement. Especially I want to experience how whisking might create empathy, as it is currently one of the major themes in my art. In whisking a person is brought into the sauna to special circumstances where they senses are altered and are they are open. As Rimas puts it: ’touching with a plant, is the most correct and sensitive way to touch someone.’”

Bradley Blalock, a native of Arizona, but soon ready to receive clients in Nuutajärvi expressed similar tendencies: “ I am fascinated by facilitating this experience because of the direct conscious connection with humanity and the plants. It is an artful healing modality uniquely utilizing a therapeutic relationship with plants, the elements, touch, and body-mind awareness. Whisking also very ecological, using little raw plant material in comparison.”

Mika Meskanen