Neolithic Shamanism: Spirit Work in the Norse Tradition - Raven Kaldera 2012

Rain
The Blue World: Water

Raven: One of the first folk divination methods I ever learned was rain divination. I read it in a book of folk customs and tried it the next time I baked cookies. To do it, you wait until a good rainstorm, sprinkle a light coating of flour on a tray, stand under the eaves, ask your question of the Rain spirit, and then run out into the rain with the tray. I generally stayed out long enough to spin around three times and then ran back inside. I then looked at the pattern formed by the raindrops in the flour. I’d blur my eyes and see if any image formed—and sometimes it did. It’s the kind of divination that makes no sense unless you understand that it is the spirit’s help you’re calling on.

Galina: Rain spirits both delight and annoy me. My primary elemental ally is Fire, and I’m afraid the Rain spirits take full advantage of the fact that I have little standing in their world. They are playful and quixotic like that, but not mean-spirited. I suspect part of their readiness to tease me lies in the fact that I really hate to get wet! Still, they are delightful spirits. It’s always been my sense that they actually really like to communicate with humans, which makes them an excellent family of spirits with which to begin one’s explorations of the Blue World if, like me, working with the wisdom of Water comes hard. Rain spirits are also quite benevolent, and their water captured during rainstorms can later be used to cleanse and purify one’s head, person, and even home. They’re chatty and friendly spirits in general, though one should not underestimate their power because of that. They are one of our earliest elemental spirit allies.

Rain is a Water spirit who has learned to fly with the Air spirits . . . or, more specifically, who has been snatched up by them and carried through the air to enrich the Earth or fill the inland streams. Just as some people are not wholly one thing or another but carry within them near-equal characteristics of both, Rain spirits are just a little more Water than Air, enough to list them in the Blue World chapter, but they are close kin with the denizens of the White World, the storm and blizzard and whirlwind, with whom they dance and cavort. Rain spirits are short-lived—they are born again each time out of the ocean or large lakes, but sometimes live only the length of one rainfall and then dissipate when the storm ends.

Rain spirits must be some of the most propitiated spirits in history, taking a place perhaps only after the Sun and Death herself. When Paleolithic hunter-gatherer-herder culture gave way to Neolithic agriculture, an adequate supply of alternating Sun and rain was absolutely necessary. A drought could kill a whole tribe or village, so people all over the world did their rain dances when dryness threatened to do in all the crops. Part of a shaman’s job was to lead the propitiation of the Rain spirits (or in some cases, do it themselves), because calling rain is not about controlling the elements or ordering them about, but asking them as allies and perhaps even coaxing or entertaining them. Any spirit associated with weather is going to be fairly capricious and interested in entertainment. It’s really quite a ridiculous fallacy to suppose that we can ever control, bind, or otherwise own any elemental spirit, no matter what fantasy fiction and certain books on “magick” might tell you. Northern Tradition shamans and shamanic practitioners learn to coax them, propitiate them, develop a relationship with them, and ultimately, hopefully, ally with them. It is a relationship that can seem like it is between equals, but it is actually always between limited humans and immense but generally well-disposed powers.

You must remember when working with the Rain spirits—as opposed to the Storm or Wind spirits—that it is a blessing to get wet. Doing it from underneath a porch or an overhang is an insult. To work with the spirit of a particular rainstorm, go out and stand in the water. Take your clothes off if you’re worried about getting soaked. Like all Water spirits, Rain spirits like to be sung to, but dancing in the rain works just as well. Dance for the spirit and ask if it—and its kin, which is most important, because this one spirit may not last long, but its kin will hear and know—will be your friend and ally. Raven leaves drink out for the Rain spirits, in a cup filled to only a hair’s breadth below the brim, so that the rain can fall into and overflow the cup. Galina routinely goes outside during the rain and pours out offerings, allowing the rain to dance and play in them as they flow.

Exercise: Making a Rain Stone

Using a rain stone is an old folk tradition for bringing rain. This exercise will teach you how to make one. Find a fist-size stone that feels like it has an affinity for Rain spirits. (To find out, go sit in the rain with the stone and sing, and see if the stone gives off a gentle, pleasant “vibration” on a subtle level.) If you find the stone in the ground, wash off the dirt and hold it in your hands. Tell the Stone spirit that you are making it an emissary to the Rain spirit. Then set it in a high place—like the edge of a roof—and leave it there for nine rainstorms, whether light passing showers or heavy downpours. (The stone must actually get fairly wet in order for the rainstorm to count.) If you live in the desert, you will either need to wait a long time to collect your nine rainstorms, or send the stone to the roof of a friend who lives in a wetter climate. During each shower, put out a cup or bowl and gather some rainwater, which should be saved in a bottle or jug. Place the stone in a box painted light blue, and wait until the rain is needed, then take it out and put it in a bowl. Remind it of its duty to call the Rain spirits and intercede for you. Pour the saved rainwater over the stone, put the bowl aside, and wait. If the rain stone does its duty, you will have rain within a day’s cycle. If it can’t, put it back out in the ground and find another rain stone.