April Showers and other Weather Spirits
When I was a child, I was in awe of storms, whether they were rainstorms, snowstorms, or thunderstorms. I remember as a 10 year-old, I innocently went out in the middle of a thunderstorm to feel the electricity in the air (the hairs on my arms were raised with the energy!). I still get chills with thunderstorms!
We may not realize it, but weather is intricately woven into our lives on a daily basis. Have you ever noticed that breaking the ice with other people or simply having a light-hearted chat might involve discussing the recent weather patterns? We might make small talk about our local weather while waiting in line at a store. “Hot enough for ya?” is one comment I used to hear a lot when I was a multiage K-2 teacher living in Raleigh, NC two decades ago. The intense winters and humid summers in New England usually bring some discussion as well. It seems everyone has something to say about the weather!
The conversation about weather usually involves commending and/or complaining about the current weather events. We may not realize it, but weather is all around us all the time. Although the type of weather we encounter varies by geography, we are constantly enveloped in air, humidity, rain, fog, dryness, heat, cold, wind, snow, etc. Even while you’re reading this, you are enveloped in weather. Being so close to us in proximity, it might surprise you to know that the weather spirits can hear us. We don’t seem to think about our language as we talk about these spirits that are right in ear shot. They hear everything said about them - both positive and negative! Our words and our energy that we carry and send out to the collective directly contribute to the conditions of the weather and the patterns that occur for us. So, if they hear us complaining of rain, the rain spirits will not come and we will receive drought instead. This notion might make us think more about how we express our language.
In communities that once relied on shamans, it was imperative that the shaman communicate with the spirits of weather to ensure safety and survival. Tribes, clans and communities in general would need to be kept abreast of weather patterns that might endanger the people in the near future. The shaman would commune with the weather spirits, make offerings to appease them for a gentler presence, and then know where to find shelter so that the people would survive.
Why would the weather spirits be so important in our lives now? In all my work with weather spirits, I have come away with the understanding that they have a really important role to play working with the energy of the spirit of the Earth to help Her keep balanced. They are spirits who have specific “jobs” to carry out.
Looking through our human eyes, weather can be an inconvenience for many. Rain on a wedding day in our culture is not seen as a happy occasion, but in parts of Africa, the spirit of rain is seen as blessing the union with abundance (water is life, after all).
But sometimes the weather events can be dangerous and even fatal to humans and other life forms. Contrary to popular belief, the spirits of weather and the spirit of Earth do not collude to punish humans or any other sentient being. Again, the “job” of the weather spirits always comes down to balance. This may be challenging to understand if one has had a direct experience, for example, with being struck by lightning or having had a house fire start due to a lightning strike. We typically do not see the blessings of most weather events if human life or property is at stake. However, if we are able to see the bigger picture that we are merely a part of the life on Earth, we might understand more clearly that the efforts of the weather spirits are really to create balance. In shamanic cultures, having a direct experience with a weather spirit like lightning that is thought to be an initiation into the spirit world. In fact, if one is struck by lightning and lives, most indigenous cultures automatically recognize that person as a shaman (world-renowned Sandra Ingerman has been struck by lightning three times!). The wood collected from a tree that has been struck by lightning is also viewed as a very sacred object.
From the shamanic point of view, the balance of the Earth is priority. If we do not have a balanced Earth, we cannot ensure the longevity of any species at all. Much like the metaphor of having oxygen at-the-ready for the Earth Mother before all other beings, the weather spirits must work solely for what supports Her - first and foremost. This might be a hard pill for us humans to swallow. Much of our modern thinking is more egocentric than shamanic cultures have been, and so thinking of humans (and especially those we love ) as not top priority is indeed troubling for us. But if we widen our scope of perception to see the grand scheme, we might understand that these weather spirits are working in conjunction with the Earth not just for the short-term but to ensure the survival of all beings for many generations to come - which includes our non-human kin.
Living here on the coast of Maine, I have experienced one of the snowiest winters in years. Our last storm brought 10-12” inches of heavy snow which caused fallen tree limbs and major power outages, which for some, lasted the better part of 24 hours. Without WiFi, I wasn’t able to have phone or Zoom healing sessions (as I rely on WiFi calling for better phone connection), or prepare a class on Google docs, or even do work on my laptop to write this newsletter.
At first, I found myself a bit frustrated at this obstacle keeping me from checking things off my do-to list, but as I began to witness the snow globe around my home, I realized that the weather spirits often work in ways that might go against what we in modern times think we need. The snow spirits seemed to force us humans in this area to rest, to be idle, to sit back and enjoy the quiet day and the forcible “unplugging” that we don’t voluntarily do often enough. I smiled to myself with this reminder and decided to go with the flow rather than fight what I couldn’t control. I decided to be grateful for the things that I did have and that were working. I went outside, fed the birds and cleared off snow around my home and car. I acknowledged and honored the spirit of the snow, the tiny fae-like snowflake spirits, the spirit of the wind and the spirit of the land that I live on.
The weather spirits exist on a spectrum of intensity, from gentle to forceful. We all need the elements of rain, sun, and air. However, we may experience too much of one and not enough of another. We can have not enough sun and experience issues with growing food; too much rain and experience flooding; too much wind and experience a hurricane.
So, the next time you find yourself shaking your fist towards the buckets of rain that usually come in April, you might be reminded that the rain spirits have a particular job they are fulfilling that extends beyond the scope of our human understanding.
