A Horror In The Making

It’s occurred nearly each winter lately in lots of locations throughout the globe. The rain doesn’t are available adequate portions, to the purpose of a drought. Naturally, consultants warn of the attainable results of the dry climate and urge us to do every thing we are able to to avoid wasting water as a result of “now we have no water to waste.”

To suppose that in historical past, and in a sure sense to today, many consider that one means may change the state of affairs: the rain dance, or rainmaking ritual. It appeared in various cultures and has fairly a couple of points that appear to have come out of a horror film, associated primarily (however not solely) to the encounter these dances have with spirits, generally even malicious ones. So it’s no marvel we included them in our scary dances part.

What Is A Rain Dance?

Within the outdated days, when the sky remained empty of clouds, and the bottom was dry, many tried to show to the “increased powers” for assist. The reason being that humanity, because the starting of time, wants rain to exist. An absence of rain poses an existential menace to agriculture, animals, and life itself. Numerous cultures have developed rituals designed to summon rain, which have names like “rain dances” or “Rainmaking.” The aim of this climate modification ritual, as you possibly can inform, is to invoke rain.

Rain dances are usually not solely a method of summoning rain, which is crucial for sustaining crops and agriculture. They’re a gathering level between the bodily and non secular worlds or between the residing and the useless. The idea underlying the rain dance is that people can affect nature and the elements that delay rain or might alternatively deliver rain, whether or not ghosts, ancestors, or others. In different phrases, this isn’t a purely symbolic or ceremonial motion however one which has been believed for years to have the ability to intervene in nature.

All through historical past, the rain dance has normally been carried out throughout troublesome occasions, crises, collective despair, and even loss of life. Drought has been related to starvation, illness, and loss of life for years in numerous components of the world right this moment. Rain dancing generally got here into the image as a final resort, a lifeline earlier than a colossal disaster. The contributors gave their all in these dances, generally to the purpose of exhaustion, getting into a state of trance and ecstasy.

How To Do A Rain Dance?

It is very important observe that in several cultures which have had and nonetheless have the rain dance (which occurs primarily in African, Japanese European, and Third World international locations), there could also be a distinct “choreography” for the rain dances.

Among the many parts you could find in these dances, in lots of circumstances, are round actions, jumps that simulate the motion of raindrops, noises that imitate thunder, musical devices which might be presupposed to awaken the related gods, and so forth.

Contributors within the dance might put on distinctive decorations, comparable to feathers that symbolize the wind, turquoise stones or different blue objects that symbolize rain, and, after all, masks that resemble the spirits or gods.

There Are Totally different Variations Of Rainmaking Worldwide

In lots of circumstances, the primary time period that involves thoughts within the present context is the Indian rain dance, which might be essentially the most well-known. Rain dances in North America (particularly within the southwestern a part of the US) had been beforehand carried out by Native American tribes, who noticed drought as an existential menace. A few of them nonetheless follow them right this moment.

Among the most original rain dances, some are even scary, are:

The Hopi Snake Dance

There have been weird variations of the Indian rain dance, such because the “Snake Dance.”: This isn’t the tremendous horny dance of Salma Hayek in “From Nightfall Until Daybreak,” which incorporates a snake, however the one of many Hopi Indian tribe. Throughout the nine-day ceremony, which happened each two years, the dancers caught dwell snakes, which they’d collected from numerous close by areas. They maintain them of their mouths with out with the ability to contact them with their palms.

The emphasis was on sticking the enamel within the physique’s middle in order that its head and physique may transfer in several instructions. One of many tribesmen will get the function of “busy” the snake with the assistance of a feather so it could not assault the priest holding it. On the finish of the snake dance, the snake is allowed to fall to the bottom, they usually throw cornmeal on it. They had been respectfully carried out of the villages to convey the information of the ceremony and the will for rain to the rain god.

African Rain Dance

In Africa, all through historical past, the facility to deliver rain has normally been attributed to kings and rulers. In some African societies, kings who did not summon Rainmakers may be accused of being hell-bent and even executed.

Among the many Lobo tribe of South Africa, for instance, the rain queen (“Queen Modjadji”) was believed to have particular powers, together with the power to regulate clouds and rain. She was often called a mystical and historic determine who introduced rain to her allies however drought to her enemies. She may even summon malevolent spirits to punish those that disobeyed her.

Meet The Woman Cat

In Thailand and Cambodia, numerous rituals are carried out to deliver rain throughout droughts. Maybe essentially the most weird ritual is the “‘Procession of Woman Cat” (initially, “Hae Nang Maew),” through which a cat is carried in a procession via the village streets whereas native villagers sprinkle water on the cat. The idea is that rain will fall on the land and folks in the identical means that water drops on the cat.

Rainmaking In China

In historic China, Wu shamans carried out rain dance rituals throughout drought. Shamans, who served previously as intermediaries between people and the spirits of nature that management, amongst different issues, rainfall and floods, would carry out a very grueling dance inside a hoop of fireside. Unsurprisingly, the intensive dance induced them to sweat in business portions. Past the ritual being bodily harmful, many believed that failure to bop may end result within the spirits punishing the Shaman.

The Tiban Dance

Probably the most excessive examples of an uncommon rain dance is a dance referred to as “Tiban,” which happens yearly in some areas of Indonesia. Throughout the “dance,” contributors beat one another 5 occasions within the middle of the physique (not under the belt or above the neck) with a whip manufactured from twisted palm leaves.

The result’s columnar scars and a few bleeding, within the perception that the blood is an providing to the gods. The crushed dancers keep smiles and pleasure all through the ceremony.

The Scary Sides Of The Rain Dancing

The concern dimension of rain dancing is principally associated to the encounter it presents with the world of the useless, in keeping with a number of traditions. Some believed the rain contained the souls of the useless, who returned via it to go to the earth. Nevertheless, as you may have most likely realized from horror films, opening the gates between the worlds and the encounter between the residing and the useless will be harmful.

One of many primary fears is that the rain dance will summon hidden, even malicious, entities that aren’t essentially associated to rain. Due to this fact, the priority is that they may use it to invade the world of the residing. On this context, you possibly can see the rituals as a type of “double-edged sword”: on the one hand, they permit the spirits to hunt assist in an important matter, however then again, they might allow harmful spirits to penetrate the world.

One other concern is for the well being of the folks collaborating within the ritual. The concern is that the spirits might “take over” the contributors or use their our bodies to speak. All these expressions we all know from horror films, comparable to dropping consciousness, dropping physique management, and talking in unknown languages, might come into play right here, no less than in keeping with horror mythology. Some traditions describe circumstances of dancers who entered a deep trance in the course of the ritual and couldn’t recuperate.

With or with out this, among the rituals concerned a substantial diploma of hazard for the contributors: from bodily exhaustion as a result of effort of the extended dance to the usage of numerous substances in the course of the ceremony, which trigger hallucinations and different sensory experiences. There was a concern that contributors within the ceremony and even witnesses to it could take part in acts of a ritual nature as a end result, a few of which had been even harmful.

Can Man Intrude With Nature?

To today, we see claims – actual or conspiratorial – that man disrupts the climate on the earth due to actions comparable to cloud seeding, a few of which haven’t but been confirmed compelling sufficient for this important function. This facet additionally exists to a sure extent across the rain dance all through historical past as a result of we attempt to affect the forces of nature and the pure order. In some traditions, tales have emerged about individuals who carried out the dance incorrectly or for the improper causes and paid for it. For that reason, some cultures have restricted the dance to solely extremely revered people or those that have undergone particular coaching, comparable to non secular monks.

One can argue that the chance that people can intrude with the cycles of nature is a supply of concern, because it undermines the present order and disrupts the fragile steadiness in nature. In a way, the concern and terror related to the rain dance replicate humanity’s concern of uncontrollable forces of nature and the likelihood that beneath the floor of rational actuality lie historic and harmful forces you possibly can wake via rituals and dances. The rain dance reminds us of the gaping chasm between fashionable tradition and the darkish and primal forces that also simmer beneath the floor of the civilized world.