Rain, mood and emotions

the renaissance doctor Paracelsushalfway between science and magic, I saw a parallelism between external physical phenomena and what happened in our organism. He related, for example, lightning to epilepsy. And he was not wrong, since both correspond to electric shocks.

It is true that our moods are not only sometimes influenced by the outside (hot-cold, light-dark), but also there are psychological situations that can be compared with external phenomena. Indeed, when we are happy it is as if the sun were shining inside us, and if we feel depressed, as if it had set.

But the truth is that, although the rain sometimes causes discomfort, it also arouses positive feelings.

Water can make us feel refreshed

The symbolism of rain is related to that of water and presents feminine characteristics. He has the gift of nourishing and also the gift of purifying. That is why within Christianity the first rite is baptism. And it is clear that the rain cleans what it touches.

Although, like all symbols, has a positive or negative double meaning depending on the circumstances. The gentle rain that fertilizes the fields is appreciated and the torrential rain that causes flooding is feared. This ambivalence is seen in various mythologies.

For example Tlaloc, the aztec god of rain, which in the cold season is hard to come by, can cause both beneficial rain and send devastating storms. But even that possibly destructive aspect can be seen as a renewing act. As it happens in the biblical account of Genesis with the flood that symbolizes a new cyclea new creation, and the protective ark that allows that continuity.

Rain, to a greater or lesser extent, always causes a subtle variation in the perception of time and space. It is clear that there is a before and after it has rained. The aroma of the earth, the tones of the landscape, the brightness of the vegetation, the animal life… everything changes after its passage. And there is also a during.

Thus, under a soft rain without wind or cold, it is feasible to admire a garden or nature as if we were in a tropical country.

In those moments, the water, rather than falling from the sky, seems to float in the landscape or to be an inseparable part of it.

A stone acquires a celestial shine and the greenness of the vegetation multiplies, because, as Rafael Sánchez Ferlosio wrote in Alfanhuí: “There were greens that seemed the same and, nevertheless, the water, when wetting them, brought out a hidden shine from them and the revealed different ones. And these were the so-called ‘rainy greens‘, because only in the rain did they make themselves known”. Let us, then, let the rain inspire new paths and be thankful for its magical presence.

The rain is melancholy but also love

The lovers love his presence. She even amuses them when she catches them off guard and they have to run down the street hand in hand.

And nothing more romantic than hugging afterwards in front of the fire in a fireplace or between the sheets of a bed while outside the rain rattles on the roof or caresses the window panes. Many novels and movies use the rain to recreate these situations.

As Woody Allen says: “Anyone who hasn’t been kissed on one of those rainy Parisian afternoons has never been kissed.”

Rain is related to fertility and consequently with erotic love. But it also inspires sometimes melancholia, especially if it happens in autumn or winter. It evokes a kind of nostalgia for what was or for what, although desired, could not be. We read in a poem by JL Borges: “The rain, without a doubt, is something that happens in the past.”

The rain always surprises us

Even when the weather service warns of its imminent arrival. Its drops fall on fields and cities, as so often, but each time seems new and different.

We are familiar with their often unforeseen appearances that we cannot control. But there is always something mysterious in his presence that inspires us with respect.as if it were an immemorial rite to which nature invites us.

Rain is an indirect gift of the sun. For it to rain, the air must first rise and then cool down, so that it can no longer hold the water as vapour. And that ascent would be impossible without solar heat. Every day, a trillion tons of water evaporate from the oceans and another trillion precipitate as rain, snow or dew. That figure is equivalent to one tenth of the total volume of water that winds move through the air.

Therefore, it takes about ten days for the atmosphere to replace its water content. After a year, the layer of water evaporated from the oceans would reach a meter thick if it did not return to them through various channels. Thanks to this process sweet water renews its purity on our planet since the beginning of time.

In a way, evaporation could be compared to the “inhalation” or rising of water from the earth’s surface by the sun; and the rain, to an “exhalation” or descent from the heights of that already purified water.

rain is inspiration

Poets often see in the rain a reason for inspiration. surely because Japan is a particularly rainy country.their language has more than forty words to refer to rain.

Within its poetic modalities, the haiku It is a short poem of only three lines that subtly captures the beauty of an instant. Here are some examples referring to the four seasons:

Spring rain, everything is beautified. (Chiyo Ni)Bunder the summer rain, the path disappeared. (Yosa Buson)Rain last night, covered this morning by leaf litter. (Io Sogi)There is no heaven or earth, only the endlessly falling snow. (Hashin)

The rainwater as a gift

The fact that rain falls from the sky and guarantees the continuity of life has been seen by human beings throughout history as a heavenly gift and in which some divine being must have intervened, for example Indra according to the Vedic texts.

Despite the fact that science describes the physical mechanism of rain, that is, how it appears before us, the very fact of its presence does not stop being something miraculous. As is being able to see or touch the things that surround us, even though we know that neurobiological processes are involved.

The mystery is not exhausted with a merely physical explanation. There are psychological and spiritual aspects that cannot be denied. Within the physical and metaphysical conception of reality that most civilizations have sustained, the human being is located between two poles that are synthetically called Sky and earth.

The first corresponds to spiritual or subtle worldand the second to material or physical world. Natural phenomena and our own body participate on both levels, the dense and subtle. That is why meteorology describes physical processes that at a given moment can be read symbolically or analogically by the initiate, the farmer or the artist.

In this sense, clouds, lightning, rain or rainbows sometimes have the value of being mediators between the physical and the spiritual world. Thus, in texts of the islamic sufis It is said that life in our world was possible because a drop from heaven fell on earth, or that sometimes God sends an angel in every drop of rain.

Inside of the buddhism Rain is considered to be a good omen during and after a ceremony. As is the appearance of a rainbowespecially at the time of the birth or death of a spiritual master.

So the rain is seen as a gift for physical life, but it is also the image of spiritual influences or blessings that reach the human soul.

The story of the monk, the elephants and the rain

The following story about the Buddhist monk Luang Phor Doem (1860-1951) may seem like an oriental tale full of fantasy, but according to various testimonies it really happened in the middle of the last century in Thailand.

The Buddhist monk Luang Phor Doem was well loved and respected in his region. He dedicated himself to giving teachings on the Dharma and helping to build templesand he was also recognized for his effective protection amulets that he distributed among the faithful.

Also had the ability to communicate with wild elephants who lived in the area and whom he always safeguarded. So much so that, when he was already old and had to go to a meeting with other monks, an elephant would mysteriously appear and kneel in front of the entrance door so that Luang Phor Doem could climb on its back.

Upon reaching its destination, the animal would leave it there and get lost in the thicket. But at the end of the ceremony and without anyone apparently notifying him, the elephant would appear again and take him back.

The years passed and the monk, already quite old, became seriously ill. Knowing that soon he would dieannounced his upcoming departure, gathering his monks and also local peasants. At the same time, some elephants began to arrive and peacefully surrounded the monastery. but giving piteous moans as a farewell to who had been his benefactor.

His last words, spoken half an hour before he died, were the following: “I am about to leave this world, if there is anything I can do for you, tell me.” Those summoned there looked at each other and answered that what they needed most was… waterbecause it had not rained for months and the ponds and cisterns were about to dry up.

hearing these words, the monk nodded silently, clasped his hands on his chest and entered into meditation. After half an hour, a crash was heard, the sky flashed with lightning, and heavy rain began to fall.