Sweat, Sauna

For the alchemists, sweat was akin to dew, a mental connection that recurs in various contexts. The process of "sweating out" something aligns with purification, and the sauna is intimately tied to this concept. Simultaneously, moisture sometimes shares the beneficial qualities of dew. For shamans across the world, the sauna was a crucial tool in their practice. 

"[It] is one of the fundamental techniques for increasing 'mystical heat'; sweating sometimes possesses an undeniable creative value. In several traditions, humanity was created by God after a period of intense sweating." (Shamanism, p. 334.)  

The alchemists envisioned the hot room where a person sweats as part of the opus, specifically imagining the king sweating aqua permanens. Sweating is always the extraction of something.

An intriguing distinction in alchemical imagery between the sauna and the bath is that the king takes the sauna alone, while he bathes in water together with the queen. (See also Dew and Fire.)  

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