Blessing The Rain
For a thousand years the Catholic Church held
absolute control over intellectual thought in Europe. This included
killing those who disagreed, despite Old Testament commandments,
and Christ's New Testament mandate to love your neighbor. But
the Pope was God's agent on Earth, so there was no dispute.
From 1347 to 1400, waves of the Black Plague swept through Europe,
killing sinners and faithful equally, which challenged the divine
connection. Martin Luther's 1524 Protestant revolt against corrupt
Church leadership further weakened this control. By 1615, when
Galileo stated that the Earth orbited the sun, the Inquisition
did not burn him at the stake, but kept him under house arrest
for the last 27 years of his life.
Galileo's assertion that the Earth moved was
the beginning of the western scientific revolution. Since the
Church was still powerful, scientific investigation focused exclusively
on physical reality, evolving the philosophy of rational materialism.
Today we live within the bounty of this scientific advancement,
but exclusive focus on the material has meant that science had
little to say about consciousness. Rational materialism claims
that consciousness is simply biochemical activity in the brain.
A century ago, the twin revolution of psychology
and quantum physics disrupted that limited view. Psychology showed
that our experience of the world is affected by hidden patterns
in the personal subconscious, the collective unconscious, and
the supraconscious. Quantum physics showed that the act of observing
shifted the material world. In the last fifty years, we have
learned that the thoughts we hold affect our health and moods.
Recent experiments have shown that consciousness is non-local,
not limited by space or time. Consciousness is a causative force,
shaping the material world.
Spiritual people have always known about the
power of prayer, and now science is catching up. Numerous studies
show the benefit of positive intentions with regard to general
health, and healing after surgery, even if the patient is unaware
of the prayers.
In 1994 Japanese researcher Masaru Emoto started
photographing frozen water crystals as a quantitative way of observing
the power of intentions. He would create snowflakes with water
that had been polluted or subjected to negative intentions, and
the resulting crystals were simple, asymmetrical, and esthetically
ugly. Subjecting the same water to prayers with positive intentions
generated complex, symmetrical, beautiful shapes. Simply attaching
a label to the water container, printed with the intention, had
effect. He found that the two most powerful positive intentions
were gratitude and love.
It's not surprising that water should be a
vehicle for these objective results. The forces involved are
subtle, but the nature of water is also subtle. A water molecule
is slightly polarized by the shape of the electrostatic charges
of the three atoms involved. This polarization is important to
how water works in the world. As water freezes, the polarization
creates the hexagonal structure and detailed branching of the
resulting snowflake.
As the Standing Rock people reminded us, water
is life. Without it we are toast. Planets located around a sun
at a distance where liquid water can exist are rare. Over 60%
of the human body is water; the brain, heart and lungs contain
even higher percentages. The quality of the water we ingest affects
us.
Which brings me to the phenomenon of rain.
After growing up in San Diego, I love rainfall. Each time it
rains, I feel deep gratitude for the return of water, and have
made it a practice to honor the rain. We have a covered deck,
and I sit outside, giving thanks (gratitude) to the rain on each
in breath, and blessing it (love) on each out breath. These powerful
intentions charge the water, and energize it as it nourishes life
wherever it flows.
In these days where the problems of the world
are everywhere we look, I search for ways that I can be effective
in creating the world I want rather than fighting against issues
I oppose. Bringing gratitude and love into my awareness on a
breath by breath basis feels powerful and relevant. The practice
of charging the rainwater amplifies that energy and extends it
into the world. I invite you to add your blessing to the rain,
expanding gratitude and love throughout our reality.