Harri's Trip to Lithuania: Plants & Sauna Culture Training

Back in June, our Founder, Harri, headed to Lithuania to join a Plants and Sauna Culture training week. The experience delves into the use of various plants, whisking techniques and the history and rituals surrounding saunas...

"Last month I went on a trip that I'm still trying to find the words for. We spent 6 days in the green heart of Lithuania to learn about plants and sauna culture. A week that felt like stepping back in time, back into rhythm, back into belonging. 

The retreat was shaped around the elements, each day held a different energy, here's a little deep dive into some of the main days that we spent there.

Water was the first - the element of flow. We spent the day learning about wild herbalism, getting to know the plants by their scent, texture, and movement. We foraged in the forests and carefully crafted our own sauna whisks. We made teas, body scrubs, tinctures and plant mandalas. That evening we brought it all with us to the sauna. The steam was thick with scent, the lake still and silent outside ready for us to slip into after our sauna. 

Then came fire - transformation. We spent the day at Rimas' private sauna garden which felt like a dream. We moved through smoke saunas, guided by different sauna masters who whisked us with juniper, oak, and birch, taking us on sensory journeys I'll never forget. Then we lay naked on the grass meadows and let the rain fall over us to cool us down. We helped build a traditional sauna from scratch, we drank tea by the fire in a glass tea house looking out over the land. We sat in circle and told stories, laughed, cried. Everything cracked open.

Our last day was Earth. We walked in a quiet pilgrimage through the forests to the ancient village of Kernave. We lit a reconstructed medieval smoke sauna, just as it would have been done hundreds of years ago. We made broth using the fire's heat, picked clovers and nettles to use in ritual and sat around old wooden tables to share food. We sat together in silence in the dark, smoky heat of the sauna and listened to the sounds of water on the stones, of breath, of whisks hitting against the skin, of everything slowing down and coming home. 

This week was a week of remembering:

how important ritual is,

how much the land still wants to teach us,

how community doesn't always need words,

And how powerful it is to be witnessed, to sweat, to cry, to laugh, to rest and to feel. Love to those who shared it, I'm still carrying it in my skin 💛 "

Check out more images and videos from this adventure on our Instagram HERE