Photo credits: Anne Lius-Liimatainen
Heikki K. Lyytinen has written a book “A Tribute to Steam, from World’s Sweating and Spa Cultures to the Mysteries of the Finnish Smoke Sauna Tradition (Linna Publishing 2021). Unfortunately the book is not in English, yet, but while waiting for a translation, here is an excerpt of the text:
I hunker down, almost squatting
under a low lintel.
I step on the benches
to quivering heat.
I let the black organ play
and give in to the enchantment of steam,
to its enhancing enjoyment.
Body awareness awakens and the sweat glands are activated - both small and large ones. Multi-compound sweat is released to the skin as dewdrops. In such a manner the body gets rid of extra heat. When sweating, your body does not overheat. If you don’t sweat at all, your skin might even burn easily. Sweating is varied: men sweat faster than women and young men more than the elderly. Those who use a lot of sauna have their sweat glands working effectively.
Sweating or condensation?
What happens in the body when sweat exudes to the surface? Our sweat acts as a thermostat and thermometer when sweating. The brain measures the temperature of the blood flowing through the brain. If it is too high, a small area in the bottom of the brain, called the hypothalamus, is activated. It sends a message through the nervous system to 2 to 4 million sweat glands around the body. The sweat glands begin to produce sweat that continues through the tubular gland and is released to the skin.
In the sauna, sweating initially occurs without steam. When you “sweat” just in the steam, it’s actually water condensed on the skin and not sweating at all. Then the window panes begin sweating as well. Or the pages of the book, as in the Finnish author and the poet Pentti Saarikoski's poem:
” …I am sitting on a bench
I am reading
a book by Gyula Illyés
I am making a steam
I learn a new thing
even books can sweat…”
A “steam whack” booming from the sauna stove can even block sweat. In the truest sense of the word, the body is hit by steam, where the mind is dazed. Pleasure has turned into pain and charm into momentary suffering. It is told by facial expressions hardly recognizing the bathers. Then the eyes narrow, the eyebrows shrink sharply, the skin flakes and the auricles burn. The body wriggles for a moment like in a purgatory.
Skin in "steam fever"
Sweating in itself requires a few degrees of increase in body temperature. The heat generates a small amount of “steam fever”. The skin temperature rises to about forty degrees Celsius. If the sauna is dry, the hot sweat barely dries when reaching the surface. On the other hand, in fact, hot and dry steam sweats more than moist one. However, the steam moisture is not sweat on the skin.
Especially in a smoke sauna, sweating is also associated with enjoying the aromatic scents of sauna and the sensible, sensory perception of scents. Strong inhalation through the nose strains the odors for easy palpation. It can even be used to identify the type of wood with which the sauna is heated. Breathing through a fresh sauna whisk further enriches the diverse spectrum of scents. The sauna gastronomist is then in his natural element.
The sweating phase is a multi-sensory experience:
At the moment, I'm just listening silence
it is not quite pervasive
the burring line of a pied flycatcher:
tsi-tsi-tsirou-tsimberi-tsi
softly nourishing my sense of hearing
the sauna stove is crackling
the water is bubbling in the pot
sweat is swelling on my skin
tears are dripping
heat wraps in its embrace
my mind is turning inwards
I feel like I exist
my sense of being has captured me
Sweating is a “beneficial form of exercise”
However, the sweating phase is not only a pleasure, but also a complex event. Sweating cleanses the skin, opens its pores cares for the kidneys. It expels harmful substances from the body and flushes bacteria from the skin. We do not yet know the extent to which sweating is required for the substances (toxins) foreign to the body to be removed from the body effectively. However, real cleansing requires fruitful sweating. Sweat trickles half a liter during using a sauna, depending on its duration. This improves well-being both internally and externally.
Sweating promoted by using a sauna is a "beneficial form of exercise" where there is no need to exercise. However, it is no substitute for exercising. The muscles achieve no load there. However, it is an effective physical training for skin, blood vessels and sweat glands.
While the mind is relieved, a person’s weight drops from 200 to 900 grams. However, any weight loss due to dehydration is temporary, as a refreshing drink will soon restore the situation when you cool down.
This is the stage that precedes the sound of the black organ: "When the black organ of the sauna stove sounds, the sorrows of everyday life are forgotten." This is also the stage where we are in external silence to reach inner silence. It also calms our minds.
Into the enchanted steam
The sweating phase in the sauna is followed by steam-making. In the creation of steam, water is drained onto the sauna stove, whereby the heat stored in the stones is transferred as water vapor to the benches. This heat carried by the air is called radiant heat. As a result of draining the water, the sauna temperature on the benches rises instantly. In this case, the heat effect on saunas is mainly due to the increase in the moisture content in the air. Evaporation of water is energy consuming. For this reason, the sauna temperature drops after the steam cycle.
The thunderous sound of the sauna stove tells the experienced bather about the success of the heating and the promising enchantment of steam. The “sound” of steams has its own uniqueness. At first, it hisses, then snarls like an angry cat and finally roars. The organ is open. It is a simultaneous invitation from the sauna stove to the pleasures of steam. Using the words of the Finnish author Ilmari Kianto, “Dear Brother Distiller” Joseph when bathing together with a sheriff who had forgotten prohibition and his official pride, and splashing lukewarm water on the sauna stove in the “nest of the trolls of the deep forest”:'
"The sauna stove squealed, the steam rumbled and then was a sound like a long hiss, which gradually faded away."
Ilmari Kianto, Ryysyrannan Jooseppi
Thousands of tiny droplets of tiny aromatic water disperse embracing heat into the bathroom. It is estimated that one liter of steam water produces more than 1,700 liters of 100-degree steam. Invisible clouds of steam ripple around the dusky room. The nasal cavities seem to burn. Breathing carries smoke aromas to the senses.
Soon the steam rises above your head and casts sweat to the surface of the dripping skin. Sweating starts to culminate. A little more steam. Steam embraces the body. It feels like floating on a cottony steam mattress. The sweetness of steam begins to "taste". Steam-hungry skin becomes satisfied by its stimulant. The genuine Finnish expression "tasty steams" tells of an enjoyable experience that the full body senses on its skin. Time seems to stop as well.
Time is running out covertly
as if in places
in the shade of sauna secrets.
I don't notice it.
The future is somewhere
outside the dusky room.
I live here and now,
the twilight world around me.
At the moment a glowing sauna stove,
is the centre of my pampering world.
It seems to care about me
and the other way round.
And I forget myself in that mood for a moment.
Steams can have their own succession. The creation of steam can begin by pouring water at different places in the sauna stove. This is how you get fierce steam. Later, softer honey steams would follow. When you pour steam water in one place so that the water rumbles on the sauna stove stones and extends to the lower stones, as they loudly resound, the standing and long-acting steams roar. Steam does not just caress. It kisses sensually.
Whisking - the crown jewel of steam-making
Whisking represents a very old sauna tradition when the sauna was not yet a washing facility. A Finnish proverb highlights the essence of whisking while using a sauna: sauna without a whisk is like food without salt. Similarly, Russians tend to say that sauna without a whisk is like wedding without a bride or samovar without a tap. Particularly the smoke sauna, the whisk and the whisking belong together. This is an inseparable trinity. The summer sauna is crowned by aromatic birch whisks. After all, it is the crown jewel of sauna.
The quick shaking of the whisk on top of the sauna stove rocks also gives an extra touch to whisking, scenting the entire bathroom as long as the sauna stove stones are clean. To prevent the leaves from being destroyed by the heat, the leaves can be kept in cool water, especially if whisking is carried out using a frozen whisk. However, fresh whisk in early summer would not endure the heat of the sauna stove.
Maybe some additional steam once or twice and then a moment of whisking again on different parts of the body to your liking and intensity from whispering to whining. It is said that hefty thrusts on bony places strengthen the bone, as a Russian saying goes: “Bones like warmth”.
Caress of after-steam
In the smoke sauna, after-steam in a mild heat is especially enjoyable after washing. The moisture content in the sauna room is then correct. The range of different scents has also become fuller. Already at that point, the particles have almost disappeared. So the after-steam should not be missed. They are the culmination of using a sauna. The gentle caress of dusky steam is then at its best. The after-steam phase and thus using a sauna is completed by a fresh rinse with cool water and a final cooling with soft drinks.
Like born again
Steam-making is over: it’s time for afterthoughts. It has been elevated beyond everyday reality as if heaven and earth had encountered in human existence and life. The feeling is like "hereafter". After all, a smoke sauna is sometimes called a heavenly sauna or a sanctuary for the heaven on earth.
The worries that have remained after using a sauna - the frictions of the mind - have been born in the freedom of steam and the feeling of holiness. You are not chased by rush anymore. The adrenaline surges it causes are long gone. The mind and body are deeply purified. Tensions of the mind have melted into an enjoyable experience. The liberated feeling is feathery and relaxed, the mood is agile and even the limbs are lithe.
Everyday life has become a beauty of human life. Debts seem to have become receivables. Reflection runs sharper than before after a fruitful idleness of the brain in the twilight of a dusky room. There is a feeling of being deeper - a deeper presence with oneself. Seems like a person has gotten to himself. Dark silence has given me the power to identify myself and find my own power. Steam has taken the mind beyond everyday life.
Source:
Lyytinen, Heikki K. 2021 Terve Löyly. Maailman hikoilu- ja kylpykulttuureista savusaunan saloihin, Jyväskylä: Kustannus Linna