What is Weather Shamanism?

Weather Shamanism is a spiritual practice rooted in ancient traditions that seeks to build a deep, reciprocal relationship with the forces of nature, particularly the weather. It blends shamanic techniques with ecological awareness, enabling practitioners to understand, influence, and harmonize with the elements--wind, rain, sun, and storms. Far from being an esoteric or mythical pursuit, weather shamanism invites us to rediscover our inherent connection with the Earth and play an active role in its ecological balance. In this blog post, we'll explore the origins of weather shamanism, its principles, practices, and the role it plays in fostering a harmonious relationship between humans and the environment.

 

Origins of Weather Shamanism

Shamanism, as a spiritual practice, predates organized religion and exists in cultures worldwide. The shamans, or spiritual leaders, of these communities served as intermediaries between humans and the spirit world. Many shamanic traditions included working with weather as a vital aspect of maintaining balance within their communities.

• Indigenous Roots: Weather shamanism has been integral to many Indigenous cultures. Tribes across Africa, Asia, the Americas, and Oceania developed rituals to call forth rain during droughts, calm storms, or invoke the wind for agriculture and travel.
• Cultural Interpretations: For example, the Mongolian shamans revered Tenger ("eternal blue sky") as a divine force controlling weather. Similarly, Native American tribes had specific rain dances and ceremonies to honor and petition weather spirits.

These practices were not merely superstitions but profound ecological insights. Early shamans understood that respecting nature's rhythms and cycles was critical for survival.
 

Principles of Weather Shamanism
 

At its core, weather shamanism is built on the principles of interconnection, reciprocity, and reverence for nature.   

1. Interconnection: Practitioners believe humans are not separate from nature but part of a vast, interdependent web of life. The weather is viewed as a dynamic expression of this interconnection. 

2. Reciprocity: Weather shamans emphasize giving back to nature in exchange for its gifts. This might involve offerings, rituals, or simply adopting sustainable practices to honor the Earth.

3. Communication: Weather shamanism teaches that the elements--air, water, fire, and earth--are alive and sentient. Through prayer, meditation, and ritual, practitioners seek to communicate with the spirits of these elements.

4. Balance and Harmony: The ultimate goal is to maintain harmony between human activities and natural systems. Practitioners aim to mediate and heal disruptions caused by ecological imbalance, such as extreme weather events.

Practices in Weather Shamanism
 

Weather shamanism combines ancient techniques with modern spiritual approaches. Here are some common practices:
 

1. Rituals and Ceremonies
 

Rituals play a crucial role in weather shamanism. These might include:   

• Rainmaking Ceremonies: Invoking rainfall through dances, prayers, or offerings.
• Wind Calling: Appealing to the spirits of the wind for favorable breezes.
• Storm Calming: Seeking to pacify storms through chants, drums, or meditative practices.
  

2. Journeying
 

Shamans often undertake journeys into non-ordinary realities to connect with weather spirits. This involves:   

• Entering a trance-like state through drumming or other rhythmic sounds.
• Meeting spirit guides who represent specific weather forces.
• Gaining insight into weather patterns or receiving instructions on how to address imbalances.
  

3. Elemental Offerings
 

Offerings, such as food, flowers, or symbolic objects, are made to honor and thank the elements. For example:  

•  Pouring water into the earth to appease rain spirits.
•  Burning herbs or incense to honor air spirits.
  

4. Meditation and Visualization

Modern practitioners often use meditation or visualization to connect with the elements. For instance:   

• Visualizing rain nourishing parched land.
•  Meditating on the warmth of the sun to foster inner and outer balance.
  

Weather Shamanism in Modern Times
 

In today's world, weather shamanism is experiencing a resurgence as people seek to reconnect with nature and address the pressing challenges of climate change. Here's how it's being practiced and adapted:   

• Ecological Activism: Many weather shamans view their work as a form of ecological activism, aiming to heal the planet's disrupted weather systems.
• Community Rituals: Weather-focused ceremonies are increasingly being held as communal events to raise awareness and foster a collective intention for environmental healing.
• Personal Growth: For individual practitioners, weather shamanism offers a path of spiritual growth by deepening their relationship with nature.
  

Criticisms and Misunderstandings
 

While weather shamanism has deep spiritual and cultural roots, it's not without its critics. Skeptics argue that weather manipulation through spiritual means lacks scientific backing. Others caution against cultural appropriation, urging practitioners to approach the practice with respect for its Indigenous origins.
 

To practice weather shamanism responsibly, it's essential to:  

• Honor and credit the traditions you draw from.
• Avoid oversimplifying or commodifying ancient rituals.
• Use it as a tool for ecological awareness rather than personal gain.
  

The Role of Weather Shamanism in Addressing Climate Change
 

As climate change accelerates and extreme weather events become more frequent, weather shamanism offers a unique perspective. While it's not a substitute for scientific solutions, it can complement them by fostering a spiritual and emotional commitment to healing the planet.   

• Deep Connection: By treating the weather as a living, communicative force, weather shamanism cultivates a sense of responsibility and care.
• Inspiring Action: Rituals and ceremonies can inspire communities to adopt more sustainable lifestyles.
• Cultural Wisdom: Indigenous shamanic traditions often contain invaluable ecological knowledge that can inform modern environmental efforts.
  

Conclusion
 

Weather shamanism is more than an ancient tradition; it is a call to realign with the natural world. By honoring the spirits of the weather, practicing rituals, and fostering a sense of ecological stewardship, practitioners aim to harmonize human life with the elements. In an era of ecological crisis, this ancient practice offers profound lessons on living in balance with the Earth. 

 

Whether you're drawn to its spiritual aspects or see it as a way to deepen your connection with nature, weather shamanism invites us all to respect and nurture the forces that sustain life. In doing so, we not only enrich our own lives but contribute to the healing of the planet. Let us embrace the wisdom of weather shamanism to reconnect with the elements and help create a sustainable, harmonious future.

Weather Shamans of the Himalayas

There can be few more exotic jobs than herding clouds in the Tibetan Himalayas. Shamans in the Amdo region keep watch from the mountain peaks and warn villagers of approaching storms. Their predictions are based on a combination of weather experience and trusted formula such as "when the clouds over Ami Kodtse are like sheep's hair, it will hail in the village."

Nor do the shamans just passively observe conditions; a "weather shaman" or "cloud herder" claims to be able to ward off bad weather. According to their beliefs, the weather is caused by the interaction between humans, spirits and nature. Weather shamans believe that extreme weather conditions are a reflection of a spiritual imbalance -- that our thoughts of fear, guilt, anger, etc. are being reflected by the environment. The shamans intercede with the spirits, who in turn influence the weather. As well as prayers and chants, a slingshot, like those used to herd sheep and yaks in Tibet, may be used to herd the clouds, or they may be driven off by firing arrows.

In his book Mindscaping the Landscape of Tibet, film maker and anthropologist Dan Smyer Yu describes a dawn excursion with a weather shaman in 2010. The mountains were shrouded under a murky white blanket and there seemed to be little chance of filming, but the shaman assured Yu that he could break the fog. The shaman chanted praises to the mountain spirits for a full 15 minutes, at which point the fog lifted and the Himalayan peaks emerged like islands from a sea of cloud. Perhaps the result was coincidence, but the shamans do seem better at gaining the confidence of their audience than most meteorologists.

Thunder Medicine

I love the sound of thunder. It is so powerful and primal. It resonates to my very core. Nothing heightens my senses like the voice of the Thunder Beings. Whenever I hear the rumbling thunder I take a moment to acknowledge and thank these divine beings for the work they do and the blessings they bestow upon the Earth. 

Every spring the Thunder Beings arise in the Sky and adorn themselves in cloud, thunder, lightning, wind, and rain. They are the force behind all weather changes and sustain life on Earth. They travel in the clouds and lightning and speak through the thunder. Their medicine and gift is balance, change, and renewal. The Thunder Beings are a force for both dissolution and re-creation. They are nature's way of breaking down the archetypal patterns of an old cycle in preparation for a new cycle. Divergent polar forces pull apart obsolete patterns, allowing new patterns to form. "In all traditions it is Thunder Beings who govern nature and all life; they are the creators. They sustain balanced life, and destroy imbalance, the cause of suffering."1 

The Thunder Beings bring the storms that nourish and renew the Earth Mother. Thunder Beings create a storm to overcome static tensions, clearing the way for the rainbow of peace and harmony. The greater the obstructions to harmony the more destructive the storm must be in order to clear away those obstructions. Storm represents that moment when the clouds gather, lightning strikes, and the rain bursts forth, a quintessentially creative moment. Storm quickens the emergence and manifestation of life. 

The Thunder Beings proclaim the sacred union of Father Sky and Mother Earth through bolts of lightning. Like thunderbolts, we humans are a bridge that connects Earth and Sky. Like Mother Earth and Father Sky, we are both yin/female and yang/male in nature. Only when yin and yang are in balance within us, are we able to effectively channel usable energy. Achieving balance requires that we release our fears, plow old habits under, and cultivate new growth. By asking the Thunderers to assist us in achieving balance we learn how to tap into their energy and utilize it creatively. We learn how to revitalize ourselves and grow. Mongolian shamans believe that this balance, called tegsh, is the only thing that is truly worth pursuing in this world. When humans lose it, they create imbalance within the web of life. It then requires the unity of all colors, all cultures, working together to bring the web back into balance. 

Within all traditions, we supplicate the Thunder Beings to bestow their enlightenment upon us as the lightning enlightens the earth. Whenever I supplicate the Thunder Beings for assistance, I make an offering of tobacco or cornmeal. I call upon them only when there is a real need. I approach them with humbleness and humility, becoming like a hollow bone through which their life force may flow to be used as needed, then returned to the Earth Mother.

In the Plains shamanic traditions, a person who is visited by a Thunder Being in a dream, a vision, or in person becomes a heyoka or "contrary." Customarily, this heyoka then begins to behave in ways that are contrary to the conventional norms of the dominant culture. The heyoka behaves in such a manner in order to awaken society to innovative and better ways of doing things. Thus, the heyoka becomes the human counterpart of the Thunder Beings, who continually break down the existing order and create a new arrangement from the pieces. 

Thunder Drumming

Because there is such great turmoil in the world today, it would be beneficial if more of us established an intimate relationship with the Thunder Beings. We can relate to them in storms and nature, but primarily we must seek them within. The drum can help us immeasurably in this quest. The drum personifies the creative spirit and energy of the Thunder Beings. The drum, like the Thunder Beings, is a catalyst that unites masculine and feminine energies, generating life force or chi. It quickens us with the vital energy needed to confront the world's dissonant negative energies and transmute them into peaceful, balanced, and harmonious energies. The drum is a safe and powerful vehicle for traversing the inner world, which is a microcosm of the outer world.

I recorded a CD to support the listener in making shamanic journeys to reconnect with the Thunder Beings. Thunder Beings Journey Drumming is available at Amazon. This unique shamanic drumming CD presents four rhythm archetypes from the I Ching for practical journey work. The four archetypal rhythms of the Thunder Beings are the trigrams Thunder, Fire (or Lightning), Wind and Water (or Rain). The four drumming tracks contain the archetypal rhythms of the Thunder Beings: thunder, lightning, wind, and rain. Each track has 15 minutes of uninterrupted solo drumming with callback, providing a means of exploring and developing the inner self. We can journey within to access information and energies that can help awaken us and restore us to wholeness. Entraining to these primordial rhythms, we experience them directly and discover our rhythmic interconnections. Through the integration of these rhythmic patterns, we reconnect to our core, enhancing our sense of empowerment and creative expression. 

Humanity is the nexus that unites Mother Earth and Father Sky. It is our destiny to bring them into accord, to harmonize the cosmic and the terrestrial. It is our fate to stand between Earth and Sky. When we resist our fate, we suffer. When we accept it, we are happy.

References

1. Samudranath, Cities of Lightning, Lightning Bolt Press, 2000.

Thunder Magic

Taoism Five Thunder Drum

Weather Magic is practiced in many cultures around the world, however, Chinese Taoism seems to have the most well documented rituals. The chief purpose of Taoist Thunder Magic is to seek intervention when the weather is detrimental to human survival. For example, droughts and floods are such problems that can endanger the well-being of agrarian communities. Other purposes include protection, exorcism of evil spirits, and healing. Drums, like the "Taoism Five Thunder Drum," are often used for calling rain and performing Thunder rituals. The Chinese character for "thunder" is written on the face of the drum. Read more.

Weather Shamanism

With the growing consensus that global warming is a fact comes the realization that the increasingly violent weather we are experiencing is its chief manifestation. Each storm, each flood, each blizzard seems to break 100-year-old records for both intensity and damage. Reducing emissions of greenhouse gases may be too little, too late. Through a unique blend of anthropological research, shamanic journeys, and personal stories and anecdotes, Nan Moss and David Corbin show how humans and weather have always affected each other, and how it is possible to influence the weather. They present teachings directly from the spirits of weather that show how our thoughts and emotions affect weather energetics. Weather Shamanism is about how we can develop an expanded worldview that honors spiritual realities in order to create a working partnership with the spirits of weather and thereby help to restore well-being and harmony to Earth.