To many of us, rain has become a minor inconvenience in our lives. The kids can't play outdoors when it rains, we must carry umbrellas and we like to joke that to make it rain, we need only wash the car. Gardeners take it more seriously, for farmers, it can mean real financial hardship if we don't get enough rain. Throughout history we have had some interesting insights about rain, why it happens or doesn't happen and what we might do to cause it to do such!

      To nearly all our ancestors, it was the gods who controlled the amount of rain we got. Considering too much rain (ie floods) or too little rain (drought) could bring about death, it made sense to have the gods in control. What is more interesting is that tears were frequently connected with these rain gods. Perhaps this stems from the tendencies by ancestral tribes of sacrificing humans (sadly, often children) to the rain gods.

 
    Down in Bolivia there lies a lake called Titicaca, and on the southern shore is an area called Tiahuanaco. Here, is an ancient monument called the Gate of the Sun.  Over the archway, is the Sky God. From his head are rays to symbolize rays of the Sun. He carries a spear thrower in his hand from which he hurls thunderbolts. And from his eyes, are tears that represent the rain..

      Closer to home, the same "tears from the sky" theme can be found in the southeastern United States. It is sometimes called the Southern Cult, its assemblange of emblems, ritual and myth spread religious symbols from Florida to Oklahoma and Wisconsin. The emblems include engraved shells, stone sculpture, carvings, ceramic jars and other items which carry faces with weeping eyes.

      Rain combined with thunder inspire even more awesome myths and stories. Combined, these two events were very often said to punish the wicked at heart. It seemed there were many ways to cause the ire of the gods, lying, incest,  stealing, mistreatment of animals, wasting food or failure to honor an oath, all of these and more inspired the gods to wreck havoc upon the wicked.
 
      Drought , famine and crop destruction are among the favorite vengeance of the gods. To our ancestors, it gave reasons for why these misfortunes occur. In the Old Testament, this punishment was carried out on a grand scale. God got fed up with the way things were and opened up the forces of heaven to rain upon the wicked for forty days and forty nights.

      More recently there is much folklore connected with rain. Most of it centers around predicting when it will rain. There are the joints that ache, leaves that turn over and on the more absurd side, there are, according to believers of folklore, certain phases of the moon that, when they occur, will induce rain. How fascinating that something 140,000 miles away could induce rain!
 
      Most of us are far detached from the consequences of too much or too little rain. The closest many of us come to notice it is on the nightly news, or in the supermarket when prices of vegetables or fruit rise because of bad crop production.. How upset we would be if we did not have alternate sources for the things we love to eat. Our ancestors did not, and we might look back with a little more understanding when we listen to their myths and legends connected with those  tears from the sky.