Calling on the Rain - - Yemaya / Pt.2

I came up with a recipe for the Rain Rice soon after writing the Pt.1 of this post. I decided to name it after my daughter, since she inspired me to make it -- Chana Blue Rain Rice. I colored it blue with laundry bluing, mixed it with Lavender and several other "smooth-type" healing/love herbs. It calls to mind the scent right before a good rain. I think it will be good for wrapping up and tying in little bundles to wear around the neck. I also have taken the herb combo and made Chana Blue Crystal Salts for bathing, laundry or breathing in the work in steam (from a bowl w/ hot water). Cameras and I don't get along too well, but I would like to post pictures. The color blue came out so nice, looks like the ocean. I will attempt to strike up a truce tomorrow and take some pics.

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Calling on the rain -- Yemaya

My daughter frequently calls the rain. I am not quite sure which emotional state or feelings provoke when she calls the rain, but from what I can see and what she has told me, it appears to be a time when she is feeling a little sad, melancholy maybe?... but I cannot see it on the outside. I can only guess, but it feels as if she need a cooling visit from her 'friend' Yemaya.

Looking up anything about some type of Rain Rice recipes. Wanted to make her some for her to keep in her little bag. I got 'lost' and found a couple of interesting web pages that mentions the calling of rain.

This page on Sacred Texts has a copy of the book "Taboo, Magic, Spirits: A Study of Primitive Elements in Roman Religion" by the author Eli Edward Burriss. I have not heard of it before, but it seems to be the typical arrogant rigid caucasian male view anthropological book, commonly disseminated as academic fact in early 20th and 19th centuries. These types of texts are so ironic to read because of the authors assuredness in their superior intelligence. Despite the obvious assumptions made by the author, there are some interesting descriptions of past communities rain-making that I was not familiar with. I had a somewhat hard time focusing on what I read, so I only skimmed it, but this part struck me:

When Marcus Aurelius was leading his forces against the Quadi in 174 A.D., a drought settled upon their country. According to one account, some Christians who happened to be serving under the Roman standards prayed for rain, and forthwith the heavens overflowed. 16 The pagan account of this rainstorm says that an Egyptian magician procured it from Hermes. 17 We do not have to go to antiquity, however, for evidence of supernatural rain-making. Frazer records 18 a case of rain-making by immersing the statue of a saint in water. He writes: "Beside the old priory of Commagny, a mile or two to the southwest of Moulins-Engilbert, there is a spring of St. Gervais, whither the inhabitants go in procession to obtain rain or fine weather according to the needs of the crops. In times of great drought they throw into the basin of the fountain an ancient stone image of the saint that stands in a sort of niche from which the fountain flows."

It seems the saint in question may have been Saint Honoré and I came across this page about a hydrotherapy station named for him. I will have to look into the Egyptian magic portion of this recount later.

What all this has to do with Rain Rice? Don't rightly know yet... another one of my typically unexpected 2 hour trips down the rabbit hole I suppose. Hope there's something revealing to glean from it.

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