Our First Water Purification Ceremony Bali - Melukat Ritual

A purification ceremony (Melukat) is a Balinese ceremony for the physical and spiritual cleansing ritual to wash away bad spirits to purify the body and soul. If you have experienced a bad situation recently, have anxiety / worries or have been feeling out of sorts recently, the Melukat ceremony is a recommended ritual to perform. Balinese people do a Melukat ritual around a full moon, after being poorly, or whenever they feel called to do it.

Since we had some huge life changes ahead of us, it seemed the perfect timing to do our first ever Water Purification. And what an experience it was.

We'd had an amazing time exploring Bali for over 1 month, but the trip itself hadn't been the smoothest. My 7yo had fallen off his bike 2 weeks in after getting his foot caught in the spokes of the back wheel (getting a peggy off Dad) on Gili Air. The ankle was pretty gruesome and resulted in a fast visit to a Medical Centre during a Tropical storm (rainy season), flooding, electricity black out. Myself using my phone torch to help staff see whilst they cleaned and bandaged his foot. With us having to get a boat off the Island to visit a hospital on the main island of Lombok for an Xray. It wasn't broken thankfully but severely swollen and Bertie was out of action unable to walk for the rest of the trip and having to avoid all swimming which was very tough for him and us having to carry him everywhere. Next up Si had been poorly a few days prior. But after Berties accident he got very very sick and was bed ridden for 4 days (this was out of character for him) we knew something was wrong and left him to sleep. This meant I was having to do my best to get Bertie around by carrying him and to try and keep those plates spinning. It turned out Si had caught meningitis and was quite seriously ill.

We'd finally got back to Ubud (Bali) after all plans had had to be changed until Si was well enough to get on a boat. Once back in Ubud, the purification ceremony that we'd so been looking forward to to mark then end of the trip and set us on our way to get home to all the planning to make the big move happen. Seemed like just an after thought, as so much had happened. Si wasn't back to even being 60% health but he insisted that we must go. It was something we must do.

It felt like we needed to go.

There are many purification temples across the whole of Bali and many in and around Ubud. Some of the temples are absolute tourist traps and for me, this was just not appealing. Bali itself is insanely busy if you follow to tourist trail. After seeing queues of 100's of tourists lining up for hours to get 'purified', it had tainted, what to me seemed like such a special ceremony. I think Usher was in Bali at the time and had posted about his Melukat ceremony and so the mayhem continued.

Luckily for us, we had met a beautiful Balinese family earlier on in the trip that lived in a quite village outside of Ubud. They had offered to take us to their temple in their village if we wanted to go to our first ceremony and experience it the authentic way. It was an amazing experience for us. Peaceful, quiet, surrounded by Balinese families going about their rituals, the odd respectful tourist. It felt very pure and very special. I can't say for sure that a purification ceremony at one of the main temples wouldn't be a good experience. But there's a process to the Melukat ceremony. There's the giving of your offering to the gods. A high priest blessing of the palms. Giving prayer. We had to focus, concentrate our busy western minds and be guided in a way that I feel would get lost at a touristy place.

Feeling purified after our first water purification ceremony. We will perform a Melukat ritual with the kids on our return visit now we know what to expect.

Melukat ceremony

The Melukat ceremony in Bali is performed on the beach or river, as well as in places of worship. The water purification is believed to be able to purify a person physically and mentally, eliminate negative forces in the body to bring about healing. We connect to source, set intentions, give thanks and by doing the ritual, we get closer to God through them. From my experience of my first ever Melukat Ceremony, It's a chance to let go of a lot. To let yourself let go. To soothe and clean the energy. I can imagine that each ritual would be different to each other in terms of what you take from the experience. But I can assure you that each will be a wonderful experience and it's a must for those on a spiritual journey at any stage in their journey.

If you would like to do a water purification ceremony, please get in touch as I'd love to share more info on the temple we visited.

Posts coming soon: Melukat Etiquette / What happens during a water purification ceremony / making an offering to the Gods / Balinese traditional clothing.