Substance and Symbol

The Jewish mikveh, Christian baptism, Muslim wudu or ghusi, sweat lodge of many indigenous American people, and Hindu Kumbh Mela are all ablution practices, offering literal and symbolic washing. While powerful as substance, ablutions are more powerful as symbols.

(By Ninara from Helsinki, Finland - Kumbh Mela 2019, India, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=77379537.)

Ablutions are not merely rites by which one joins a faith tradition. The water symbolizes our common path through birth, life, death, and rebirth. Our bodies are mostly water. We were all immersed in that liquid element when we entered mortality. The real substance to be internalized isn’t the religious rite itself; it’s the birth, death, and rebirth being represented.

When we focus too much on the religious aspect of ablutions, we may see them only as admitting people to exclusive groups with labels such as member, pilgrim, or saint, thus categorizing and dividing the human family. When we focus on the symbolism instead, those same rites demonstrate we are all alike: every mortal a member, every soul a pilgrim, every individual a brother or sister. We all passed through the water at birth. The real substance isn’t about being different from our neighbors, it’s about being one with them.

Never mistake symbols for substance. Mosques, chapels, synagogues, and cathedrals all have substance as places of worship, but their greater power is as symbols of the real temple.

You are the temple. You are the substance. We are all more alike than different.