Salvete
Purification is a preliminary to performing any proper ritual, so I begin this string to give it some consideration.
While proposing laws for the religion of an ideal state, Cicero began, "May they approach the gods chastely, may they bring forth piety... (De Legibus II.19)." Later he then explains:
Cicero De Legibus II.x, 24-5: "that is, purity of mind, for everything is included by that. This does not remove the requirement of bodily purity, for in the former case impurity is removed by the sprinkling of water or the passage of a certain number of days, but a mental stain can neither be blotted out by the passage of time nor washed away by any stream. Uprightness is pleasing to the god, but great expenditure is to be avoided?nothing would be less pleasing to a god himself than that the pathway to his favour and to his worship should not be open to all alike."
We can then look at this in its several parts. First is the matter of purification by the sprinkling of water. Festus likewise mentioned that "by custom the new bride was sprinkled with water, so that she might come pure and chaste to her husband... (Fest. 87)." In some instances mention is made that the water to be used in ritual should not come from a pipe, and that it should be running water in order to be regarded pure and clean. This is one reason why the Vestales Virgines had to use only water drawn from a certain spring. In Vergil's Eclogue VIII his enchantress begins, "Bring running water..." Some of the water is sprinkled on the site to purify the space to be used for her ritual. Another portion we may assume was used to purify herself. Cicero's explanation above mentions washing in a stream, and that may be taken in two ways. The stream or running water refers first to the source of the water, but then, too, how it is used. The proper way to conduct a Roman purification by water is to hold the hands over a bowl and have a stream of water poured from a ewer over the hands, rather than by dipping the hands into a bowl of water. Washing of the hands before covering the head for ritual is mentioned in the Actum Fratrum Arvalum. Ovid as well has, "When he has washed his hands clean with fountain water (Fasti 5.435)." The other way though, specifically used by the ugures, is to go to the source of water itself, call out three times to its genius by name, and take up running water into your hands. This water, drawn from a river, is drunk by the augur and allowed to fall from the hands in a stream (Servius Ad Aen. 9.24).
A very different example of a purification by water is afforded in the exceptional case of Juvenal's worshipper of Isis. Similar to Apuleius' Lucius in The Golden Ass, Juvenal's dips her head three times beneath a frigid Tiber in winter. Then naked and on her knees, she returns from the river, crawling across the Campus Martius, to the temple of Isis (Satires 6.522). Her example is alien to the Religio Romana, the practice of a foreign cultus deorum, which serves in its contrast to show the Roman moderate practice of a ritual cleansing of the hands alone. Livy wrote, "For out of all the army, youths were chosen and made to cleanse their bodies and to put on white vestments," before approaching the image of Juno Regina of Veii (A.U.C. V.22.4-5). Roman soldiers out in the field, in the days before soap was discovered, the cleansing of their bodies would not entail what we think today. And there would be no need to assume that they were made to submerge their bodies in a nearby stream, even though Cicero's words might seem to imply it. All that Livy really refers to in a ritual cleansing is the pouring of water over their hands
Another aspect of purification referred to by Cicero is the "passage of a number of days." In preparing for the women's ritual for Ceres, participants were required to abstain from sexual intercourse for nine days, much to the distress of their lovers (Ovid Amores 3.10). Abstinence was also part of the ritual regimen of the flamen Dialis in the very least, and probably among the other flamines as well, at certain times (Ovid Fasti 3.397-8; 5.621-2; 6.226-30; Gellius AN 10.15.30). The other "passage of a number of days" involved fasting. There was a particular day of fasting for Ceres, instituted in 191 BCE (Livy 36.37.4-5). There was also the novendiale sacrum, a fast conducted for nine day for Ceres. In personal practice fast was conducted as part of ritual purification. Most often this only meant the exclusion of certain foods, such as where Seneca gave up onions and meat from his diet, or the many dietary proscriptions of the flamen Dialis. There were several proscriptions placed upon the flamen Dialis and his wife, the flamenica (Gell. 10.15.1-25ff). These were to keep him in a constant state of ritual purity. Whether the same regimen was required of the other flamines at certain times of the year is uncertain, but a couple things do arise elsewhere and may be assumed as commonly accepted purification practices. For example, for some rites it is mentioned that there should be no knots or other bindings in ones garments when performing rituals. The flamen Dialis was also proscribed from wearing any knots or binding, not even so much as a ring unless its band was broken, nor was he to be near any chains. As a sign of purity women often appeared in ritual while barefoot, and in the case of the rite at Lemuria a man also appears barefoot (Ovid Fasti 5.432). The two are related in that donning sandals could also entail bindings on one's feet. The proscription is due to the fact that knots and bindings were used as charms, to hold both good and evil spells, and one is to enter ritual free of such magical influences, and place oneself entirely into the care of the deity approached.
In contrast to what I just wrote on knots in a person's clothing, they do appear on a person's head. Most often we think of these as coronati or garlands as with the decree of the decemvri for a supplicatio made by "men with garlands on their head (Livy 34.55.4)." With the flamines there was the special head wear called an apex. This was a leather cap with its special feature affixed to the top made from a living olive tree, cut and fashioned in a manner similar to a particular sacrifice of an oxen. And this apex was tied on the head with wool fillets drawn beneath the chin and then knotted. There is also mention of woolen fillets wound around the heads of the Fratres Arvales when they performed ritual. In private rites there may be some connection to a bride's special hairstyle of six locks, each tied with fillets, and then brought together. All sacerdotes, we are told, would ask for wool fillets from the Rex Sacorum and the flamines each year at the kalends of
February. These fillets were used as but one means of purification (Ovid Fasti 2.21). These woolen fillets were called februa after a Sabine word, taken from the first priest-king, the Sabine Numa Pompilius (Varro L.L. 6.34; Ovid Fasti 2.22). Winding them around an object an odd number of times, a minimum of three times, was considered to bestow ritual purity on an object, as with the altar so prepared in Vergil's Eclogue VIII, or in the bride's rite of winding wool fillets on her husband's door hinges, and other such household charms as Pliny the Elder mentions.
The most important consideration for individual purification, as Cicero gives, is one's "purity of mind." Chastity, fidelity, and virtue each carries a connotation today of a sexual nature due to the influence of Christianity on Western civilization. But to the ancients each of these virtues have to do with fulfilling one's obligations. As an example, chastity means only to remain faithful in a monogamous relationship to which one has committed himself or herself by a vow. It does not mean sexual abstinence as may be implied by a modern, Christian connotation. Fidelity likewise has to do with fulfilling one's obligation undertaken by oath. For a Roman there is a greater sense of meaning in fidelity that a man should care for the people under him, than that he should be loyal to his superiors. There is no greater obligations for a Roman than those of the ius Manorum, i. e. the duties owed to one's ancestors. In order to be "pure in mind," that is, to be certain one has fulfilled all the obligations owed to the Manes, a sacrifice was made. Two such sacrifices are mentioned. The porca praecidaneum was the sacrifice of a pig that was made, according to Varro, "in case one is not buried, the porca praecidanea must be offered by the heir to Tellus and Ceres; otherwise the family is not pure (Nonnius Marcus 163)." Gellius also recalls the sacrifice of a porca praecidanea made to Ceres "for the sake of expiation before the new crops were gathered, either if any had not cleansed the family in mourning, or otherwise had not seen to this matter as had been necessary (Attic Nights 4.6.8)." Modern historians generally comment that Gellius had confused two different rites, but that is unlikely the case. What he refers to is a purification rite being made in preparation for a another ritual of harvesting. The other purification sacrifice is called by Veranius "the porca praesentanea sacrificed to Ceres for the sake of cleansing the family (Festus 250)." Each of the three references are generally thought to pertain to funerary rites and the purification of a family during the period of morning. Elsewhere though we hear of sacrifices made to the Manes as part of a general purification rite, and I am suggesting that the references made to Varro's and Veranius' explanation of terms is actually concerned with these general purification rites, intended to insure that funerary obligations have been properly met. Such would be a very important concern for an augur since he will be mainly calling upon the Manes during the taking of auspices.
In a period leading up to the rite whereby an augur or an individual acting as an auspex will take the auspices, these then are the concerns for personal purification. The period should be a minimum of three days, no more than nine, in which prayers and vows are offered, care is given to attend one's obligations and see that these are up to date; and that sacrifices are offered to Ceres and the Manes. On the final day comes the washing of the hands, donning fresh vestments, and binding the head by woolen fillets or an appropriate garland. During the rite itself the head will be covered by a woolen toga that in itself fills the final requirement. The period is intended to place the individual into a proper, pious state of mind. Therefore each individual should consider adding other things to their private regimen such as changing their diet during the period by fasting or abstaining from certain food and drink, or activities, but there is no specific regimen that need be adopted. Reviewing the regimen placed on the flamen Dialis will give some suggestions to the kinds of things that could be included in a personal regimen and remain within the tradition of the Religio Romana.
Di deaeque vos semper ament
Moravius Piscinus