Rain, Mood And Emotions

The Renaissance physician Paracelsus, halfway between science and magic, saw a parallel between external physical phenomena and what was happening in our body. For example, he related lightning to epilepsy. And he was not wrong, since both correspond to electric shocks.

It is true that our moods are sometimes not only influenced by the outside (cold-heat, light-dark), but there are psychological situations that can be compared to external phenomena. Indeed, when we are happy it is as if the sun shines within us, and if we feel depressed, as if it has hidden.

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

Water can make us feel renewed

The symbolism of rain is related to that of water and has feminine characteristics. It has the gift of nourishing and also 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 any symbol, it 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 floods is feared. This ambivalence is evident in various mythologies.

For example, Tlaloc, the Aztec god of rain, who in the cold season is made to pray, can cause both a benefacting rain and send devastating storms. But even that possible destructive aspect can be seen as a renewing act. As in the biblical account of Genesis with the flood that symbolizes a new cycle, a 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 possible 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, then, as Rafael Sánchez Ferlosio wrote in Alfanhuí: “There were greens that looked the same and, however, the water, when wetting them, brought out a hidden shine from them and the revealed different. And these were the so-called ‘ rain greens ‘, because only in the rain did they make themselves known. ” So let the rain inspire new paths and be grateful for its magical presence.

The rain is melancholy but also love

Lovers love his presence. They are even amused when it catches them off guard and they have to run down the street holding hands.

And nothing is more romantic than hugging after the fire of a fireplace or between the sheets of a bed while outside the rain patters on the roof or caresses the window panes. Many novels and films use the rain to recreate these situations.

As Woody Allen states: “Whoever has not been kissed on one of those rainy Parisian afternoons, has never been kissed.”

Rain is related to fertility and consequently to erotic love. But it also sometimes inspires melancholy, 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 your imminent arrival. Its drops fall on fields and cities, as so often, but each occasion seems new and different.

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

Rain is an indirect gift of the sun. In order for the air to rain, it must first rise and then cool down, so that it can no longer hold water as vapor. And that climb would be impossible without solar heat. Every day, a trillion tons of water evaporate from the oceans and another trillion precipitate in the form of 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 in thickness if it did not return to them through various channels. Thanks to this process, fresh water has renewed its purity on our planet since the beginning of time.

In a way, evaporation could be compared to an “inhalation” or rise 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 the rain as a source of inspiration. Surely because Japan is a particularly rainy country, its language has more than forty words to refer to rain.

Within its poetic modalities, haiku 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)
• In the summer rain, the trail disappeared . (Yosa Buson)
• Rain last night, covered this morning by leaf litter. (Io Sogi)
• There is no heaven or earth, only the snow that falls without end. (Hashin)

Rainwater as a gift

The fact that the rain falls from the sky and guarantees the continuity of life has been seen by the human being 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 is still 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 does not end 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 situated between two poles that are synthetically called Heaven and Earth.

The first corresponds to the spiritual or subtle world, and the second to the material or physical world. Natural phenomena and our own body participate in both levels, the gross and subtle. That is why meteorology describes physical processes that at a given moment can be read in a symbolic or analogical way by the initiate, the peasant or the artist.

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

Within Buddhism, rain is considered a good omen during and after a ceremony. As is the appearance of a rainbow, especially at the time of the birth or death of a spiritual master.

So 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 actually happened in the middle of the last century in Thailand.

The Buddhist monk Luang Phor Doem was much loved and respected in his region. He was dedicated to teaching Dharma and helping to build temples, and was also recognized for his effective protection amulets that he distributed among the faithful.

He also had the ability to communicate with the wild elephants that lived in the area and which he always safeguarded. So much so that, when he was old and had to go to a meeting with other monks, an elephant mysteriously appeared and knelt in front of the entrance door for Luang Phor Doem to climb on his back.

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

Years passed and the monk, already quite old, became seriously ill. Knowing that he was soon to die, he announced his next departure by gathering his monks and also local peasants. At the same time, some elephants began to arrive and surrounded the monastery in a peaceful way but giving pitiful groans as a farewell to the one who had been their 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 looked at each other and replied that what they needed most was… water, since it hadn’t 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, there was a crash, the sky flashed, and a heavy rain began to fall.