RAINDANCE
By Christopher Nyerges
Books by Nyerges, and the schedule of his classes, can be seen at www.SchoolofSelf-Reliance.com
This is a shortened version of this Raindance
story which appeared in the book, “Searching for the Meaning of Life in the City
of Angels” by Victor Woodenturtle, a big book that you can obtain from Amazon.
This is the story of
something that happened almost exactly 40 years ago, during the ending days of
the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics. In recent
discussions I have had about this with friends and associates, I was told that had
I done this today, I would have been harshly criticized for “appropriating”
native culture. I wonder. See if you think that this session I had with the
children was in any way disrespectful or inappropriate.
At 1 p.m., Tuesday,
August 14, 1984, I conducted a "rain-dance" ceremony with
approximately 20 children in the day camp sponsored by the City of Pasadena’s
recreation department. By 5 a.m. the
next morning, the L.A. area was bathed in a heavy and unseasonal rain. Was there any connection between the
rain-dance ceremony and the rain?
I'd told many friends
of the Tuesday rain-dance and I was receiving calls first thing Wednesday
morning. "It's raining!! It's
raining!!" I was excitedly told.
"The children are going to be shocked." I was first shocked, then pleasantly
surprised. This was the middle of
August, after all, when the rainfall nearly always measures zero inches.
Would it have rained
anyway? Or was the rain-dance -- without
my conscious knowledge -- part of a larger drama that was being played
out? Was the rain like the "final
curtain" for the special dispensation of weather for this world-wide
"gathering of the tribes" we call the Olympics?
On Wednesday
afternoon, I called Dr. George Fischbeck, who was a local television
meteorologist. We’d met before, so it
was easy to contact him. During our
telephone conversation, he told me that he noted a storm off the California
coast at 7 p.m. Tuesday. By Tuesday
evening at 11 p.m., he knew that rain would fall, but not where. Due to winds that arose, the rain moved
further west and north than he expected.
Dr. Fischbeck believed
there was no connection between the rain-dance and the rain, discounting the
ability of what he called "prayer" to affect the weather. Still, Fischbeck told me that he recognizes
and respects the sacred nature of the Southwestern Native American dances,
having lived among the New Mexico Native Americans for two years as an
anthropologist.
So, what are the "real causes" of
weather changes? Weather forecasters
don't address this since they only look at the forces as they operate,
without knowing root causes. They factually
speak of cold and warm air masses, and clouds moving eastward as the earth rotates. I have come to the realization that our
thoughts are real forces, and that we do affect the weather (consciously
or ignorantly) with our thoughts, thinking, and emotions.
I reviewed Tuesday's
events in my mind in order to reconstruct what -- if any -- effect the
rain-dance may have actually had.
Tuesday was to be the
last day I'd be working with some of the children, so I had a few special
activities planned. Starting at about
12:30, we began by sampling edible wild plants, and practicing Indian sign
language. Then I introduced the children
to a plant called buffalo gourd which is used for making soap. I demonstrated wetting a few leaves and
vigorously agitating them between my hands.
A thick green froth quickly resulted.
Each child made soap with the buffalo gourd leaves, enjoying this new gift
from nature. After we all cleansed our
hands, we returned to our circle.
I had hinted earlier
that we'd do a rain-dance ceremony. A
few of the children were now asking with voices of eager anticipation,
"When will we do the rain-dance?"
Once all the children were seated and quiet, I told them we'd begin.
I removed my hand-made
clay pipe from its container, filled it with a mixture of tobacco and white
sage, and carefully lit it. Once the
pipe was smoking well, I stood in the center of the circle and blew smoke to the
six directions – the four cardinal points, as well as the sky, and the
earth. I explained to the children that
I was offering respect and thanks in an attitude of humility. The children watched in awe -- they'd never
seen anything like this before.
Next I passed the pipe
around the circle for each child to take a puff. Each child nervously puffed on the pipe. I explained to the children that this sharing
-- this communion -- was a sign of our friendship and unity. A few of the counselors cautiously looked on
and just smiled, reminding the children to not inhale. In retrospect, I could tell they were a bit
uncertain about the fact that I was letting young children smoke a pipe. A few counselors even looked about to make
certain no parents or directors were approaching.
Once we concluded the
pipe-passing, I directed half of the children to dance in an outer circle,
while the other half clapped their hands.
We reversed directions a few times, and then I led them in a simple rain
chant. Finally, we let up a cheer for
rain.
"Is it really
going to rain?" a few children curiously asked me.
"Of course,"
I replied with the innocence of a child.
"It’ll rain within a few days."
I'd not checked any
weather patterns, nor had I planned the rain-dance until that Tuesday
morning.
Though it rained hard
early the following Wednesday morning, there was only a drizzle by the time I
arrived at day camp. Several of the
children who had participated in the rain-dance looked at me quizzically that morning,
and I could tell they wondered if our rain-dance of the previous afternoon had
any connection to the rain. Several of
them came up to me with their questions and comments.
A few yelled out,
"We made rain! We made rain!"
I quickly pointed out that "we" didn't make anything. Rather, our request was answered.
A few children asked
with open, wondering eyes: "It rained from our rain-dance, didn't
it?" "Yes," I told them.
However, I was
surprised at the lack of comments from others, especially since so many other
day campers, counselors, and parents had viewed (or heard of) the rain
dance. The general "ho-hum"
response was an example of rationalizing away "Miracles" to the very
end. A mid-summer rain dance and a
"freak storm" the next day are not your usual occurrences. Though it is impossible to ”prove” such
connections, I felt in my heart that our rain-dance “prayer” was answered.
In an attempt to find
the science in our rain-dance, I identified at least five important
elements.
1. We washed ourselves before the ceremony.
2. We "requested" rain in an attitude
of humility.
3. We shared the pipe of unity and
friendship.
4. We sang, chanted, and danced our rain
ceremony, not "by the book," but with feeling and innocence.
5. The ceremony was conducted by children young
enough to still be uncorrupted by the limitations imposed by adult minds. They had never been told that they couldn't
invoke rain. I believe that their
innocence and lack of prejudice was a key factor in the apparent success of our
rain-dance.
I also reviewed my
personal life to attempt to find clues.
A personal state of humility seems essential; also, one should never
claim that such ability (i.e., to successfully invoke rain) is
"mine," as if the "secret" is some personal power.
In my subsequent
research, I filled a thick file on rain ceremonies from different Indigenous
people of North America. I also gave a
few lectures on the topic, attempting to crystalize what I had discovered. Invoking
the rain is still practiced today by many peoples. Among the North American Indians, Rolling
Thunder occasionally invokes rain by use of a curious method (which involves a
stink bug) described in a biographical work called Rolling Thunder by
Doug Boyd.
Sun Bear, founder of
the Washington-based Bear Tribe, describes rain-making in chapter 17 of his Path
of Power. He writes, "The powers that I feel closest to in
my medicine are my brothers, the Thunder Beings. When you're strong and centered in your
medicine you can tune into the elemental forces. You can lock into their energy and have them
respond to you, and the process is not the mysterious act of a magician.
"I've worked with my brothers, the Thunderers, for a good part of
my life. When a storm is rolling in, I
go out and welcome them. I offer up my
pipe sometimes, and can feel their energy surging into me... When people ask me
how I make rain, I simply tell them that I don't make it. This is the truth. I ask for it.
If it is meant to be, it comes. I
know that it is not good to try to use the elemental forces to bolster your own
sense of power. I only ask that the
Thunderers work with me if it is for the good of Mother Earth, or our relations
upon her."
After discussing many
of these elements of the rain-dance, my mentor said to me, “Here is THE key to
keep in mind: The essential ingredient
in rain-making is personal attitude. It is inaccurate to state that `asking for’
or `praying for’ rain is effective.”
After much discussion,
I could see why it is a blessing that most of us do not know we have such power
over nature's elementals. We are
protected by our ignorance since most of us would be irresistibly tempted to abuse
such a power. The built-in safety factor
is that such "power" in unavailable until one is ready. Certainly, the willful manipulation of
nature would mean the unleashing of dangerous forces by the unprepared
dabbler. Plus, it would seem that there
would be a tremendous karmaic effect to anyone who is improperly tampering with
nature.
After our discussion, REW
pulled out a Tumbleweeds cartoon from the Sunday newspaper. “Why did this cartoon about a rain-dance just
coincidentally appear in the paper, on the first Sunday after our rain-dance?” He handed the paper to me. The cartoon depicted the small medicine man
saying, "But..." as a giant beast-like tribesman sits in a canoe in a
perfectly dry river bed. The medicine
man dances frantically as a helper pounds on the drums. When they fail to produce rain, the giant
picks up the medicine man by the throat.
"Where cloud juice?" he demands.
“Why did this specific
Oracle come in the form of an Alert
and Warning at this precise moment?”
REW asked me. I wasn’t sure. “Through humor,” he told me, “we were given
a hard lesson: Publicize that you
possess power -- whether to make rain, to change weather, or whatever, and
the selfishness of the animal-nature will attempt to use you, control you,
abuse you, and make you an instrument of its bidding. This can manifest through other people, or
from one of your own baser personas.” He
then asked me to interpret the cartoon, based upon this broader perspective.
The cartoon depicts a
captive "rain maker" being coerced by the willful desires of the
Beast (i.e., the animal-nature). The
captive (and ignorant) "rain maker" is forced into untimely activity
solely to provide pleasure for the beast.
Perhaps it was vanity that paved the way to the "rain maker's"
captivity by leading him to believe that he himself was actually able to
"make rain." This would then
pave the way to his captivity, since vanity glamourizes.
“This is a common
pitfall among adepts and their apprentices,” REW further explained. “Once they
experience mastery over nature's elementals, they cannot resist the temptation
to advertise as `magician for hire.’
Even when they do not advertise, others try to exploit them. This pattern, and its results, have been
depicted in numerous television shows, such as "Phoenix," in which
Bennu must hide from those who seek to use him; "Kung Fu," where
Caine is often being sought out to be used in some way; "Superman,"
and many others.
[FOR MORE ON THIS TOPIC, GET THE BOOK "SEARCHING FOR THE MEANING OF LIFE IN THE CITY OF ANGELS" BY WOODENTURTLE FROM AMAZON]
.JPG)
