Magical Baths as Self Care Ritual and Personal Empowerment

Magical baths are a tool for personal empowerment - and they’re self-care. There are few forms of magic that I love better than bathing. There’s something so soothing and healing about slipping into warm water, infused with herbs and salts, and allowing the magic to surround me.

Self care is of course about more than bubble baths. It’s about finding a way to nurture yourself and create the space to show up as your full self. A bath on its own doesn’t necessarily do that - but when you add magic? It’s incredible.

The thing that makes bath magic special is that it fully engulfs the body.

How does a magical bath work?

One of my favorite aspects of the magical bath is that you are surrounded - literally immersed - in the magic.

The magic goes out of the ether and into the water, and out of the water and into your skin - and deeper into your unconscious. You are held by your magic, floating in a new liminality that sinks into your skin.

What kinds of intentions do I use most often in magical baths?

As the bath itself will feel very soothing, I often include an intention for soothing and caring for myself. The bath is a great place to play around with self love. And I don’t mean this in a quippy way - almost everyone I know suffers from some form of mental illness, and has a hard time loving themselves. Self love is one of those things that we can build ritual around, and the bath is a perfect space to do it.

Here’s how I draw a magical bath:

Determine my intention for the bath.
Design the bath - including any herbs or bath salts that will help me to connect with that intention.
Pull together all materials and begin drawing the bath. I speak my intention over the water as it runs into the tub.
Immerse myself in the water and relax.

When I speak my intention into the water and over the materials I’m using in the bath, I’m basically awakening them and asking them for help with my intention. Remember: whenever you use materia in your magic, you are in partnership with those things. You are asking them for assistance. So when you choose the herbs, oils, and salts that go in your bath, choose ones that have correspondences that can help you.

Here are some materials I use often:

Epsom Salts: These are different from regular salts, but they are probably my most-used bath ingredient. It has been used traditionally to soothe chronic pain conditions and relieve stress.
Salt: Renowned across magical traditions for its protection, cleansing, and purifying qualities, salt is a natural addition to any bath. Any salt will do - I prefer sea salt.
Lavender: This is a very good plant ally to have, and is fairly common in bath and body products. Lavender is known for its ability to help restore calm and maintain energetic balance when things are swirling around you. Lavender also has Mercurial and Lunar qualities.
Calendula: This yellow flower is a deceptively strong plant ally for helping you to shine bright. It is associated with strength, victory, and thriving.
Rose: This is one of the herbs that is used most often in love magic - whether that is self-love or attracting romantic love. If you can get your hands on rose petals that haven’t been dried yet, they make some of the most aesthetically pleasing baths out there.
Mugwort: This is one of my favorite herbs to promote psychic understanding and balance. Mugwort is a decidedly witchy herb, and makes for a supportive and connective bath.
Angelica Root: This one may be a little more difficult to find, but it is well worth it. Angelica is known particularly for its strong protection and its ability to amplify magical energies.

With even a small list of herbs at your disposal, you can create a beautifully specific magical bath for yourself.

When you have soaked in the bath for as long as you would like to, you’ll need to pull the plug and get back out into the world. I like to unplug the bath while I’m still in the water and imagine that as the water flows down the drain, it is carrying with it all of the stuff that you meant to cleanse off of me. When the water will go to be recycled and treated, all of that energy will be transformed and released.

Depending on your reason for doing the bath, you may want to perform a quick protection ritual after stepping out of the bath. This might look like anointing yourself in a protective oil, or perhaps you want to do a quick shielding visualization. It’s often a good idea to pair cleansing with protection.

Here’s a quick protection visualization that you can use at the end of a bath ritual:

Imagine that there is a light growing from the center of your core. It slowly begins to expand with each breath. Keep going until the light covers your entire body and surrounds you
Now, imagine that a vine with thorns or a rope or a chain is growing out from the bottom of your feet. Visualize this thing wrapping around the light that surrounds your body.
When the vine/rope/chain has you completely wrapped in a cocoon, state an intention of protection and open your eyes.

You can now go about your day.

Magical baths are a central part of my own psychic cleanliness practice as well as my physical self care practice. Many of the herbs that are used in my favorite magical baths also have healing properties. For example calendula is very good for the skin, and epsom salts are very good for sore and tense muscles. Most of all, I love that magical bathing brings me back into my body and helps me feel at one with the magic.