Special Event – Sauna Culture Sweat and Spirituality with Kaarina Kailo

This book explores spiritual and sacred practices in Finnish saunas and Native North American sweat lodges through a comparative study. It also sheds light on ancient traditions from Ireland and Galicia, tracing their evolution and shared spiritual features. The book further analyzes gendered rituals, woman-centered lifeways, and cyclical worldviews rooted in rebirth and regeneration. This book shows how these practices reflect a deep, cross-cultural matrix of symbols celebrating Heaven and Earth. It presents the Delaware Sweat Lodge and Big House as prototypes of sacred structures for world renewal and their connections to sauna cultures worldwide.

By defining key concepts from patriarchal, feminist, and Indigenous perspectives, this book challenges modern ecosocial practices. The book's interdisciplinary approach will appeal to students, scholars, and researchers of gender studies, Indigenous studies, cultural studies, religious studies, philosophy, and anthropology interested in a better understanding of how ancient rituals hold ecological significance for addressing today’s planetary crises and social imbalances, revealing like-mindedness across diverse faith traditions. Link to book

Kaarina Kailo, Ph.D., is an Adjunct Professor at Oulu University, Finland, and a writer, scholar, politician, and former professor of women’s studies, as well as a self-made artist who illustrates her books, to make science visible and more aesthetic. She has published hundreds of texts, articles, and books on comparative mythology, mother goddesses in the North, eco-mythology, ecofeminism, spiritual saunas, sweat lodges, Northern women’s culture, the gift imaginary, and the bear religion. She has held women’s studies positions in Canada and Finland and as a senior fellow at the Finnish academy. She is a fellow of the Archeomythological Institute's European branch and focuses on peaceful, egalitarian cultures such as the Danube Civilization and healing traditions, especially in the sauna. More about Kaarina Kailo.

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