Rain rituals

 

As I visited this forum I got a lot of knowlegde and suprised how ancient people are in a culturel interaction.My question is about rain rituel.In Turkish mythology there is a stone defined and it is said to be used for making wheather rain.Shamans and rulers believed to have that kind of  stones and can make wheather rain.I wonder if we are sharing the same myths that kind of with other asian nations or do we share the same rituel with native indians of north america?Because it is said that they used to dance for rain?And is there a relation between shamanism and rain rituel?If there is a relation between them why?

Originally posted by visitor   As I visited this forum I got a lot of knowlegde and suprised how ancient people are in a culturel interaction.My question is about rain rituel.In Turkish mythology there is a stone defined and it is said to be used for making wheather rain.Shamans and rulers believed to have that kind of  stones and can make wheather rain.I wonder if we are sharing the same myths that kind of with other asian nations or do we share the same rituel with native indians of north america?Because it is said that they used to dance for rain?And is there a relation between shamanism and rain rituel?If there is a relation between them why?

Its a relation between shamanism, by the case of Turks -where also shamanist before Islam and used the Half moon and star as holy before Islam (recent found G�k T�r�k coins in Uzbekistan shows that).

Turks still do some shamanist rituels like hangin something on three's to wish something, the blue thing like an eye that every tourist buy in Turkey ("nazar boncuk") has something todo with shamanism, like youve said rain rituels, etc etc. 

Originally posted by visitor As I visited this forum I got a lot of knowlegde and suprised how ancient people are in a culturel interaction.My question is about rain rituel.In Turkish mythology there is a stone defined and it is said to be used for making wheather rain.Shamans and rulers believed to have that kind of  stones and can make wheather rain.I wonder if we are sharing the same myths that kind of with other asian nations or do we share the same rituel with native indians of north america?Because it is said that they used to dance for rain?And is there a relation between shamanism and rain rituel?If there is a relation between them why?

In Bulgaria there is this rain ritual, Peperuda, about which I wroteseveral posts  on this thread http://www.allempires.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=31330&PID=668216#668216  . The ritual is Slavic pagan pre-Christian one, /later became partially absorbed by Christianity/, and in some variation of it a clay doll is made, and buried as a part of the ritual, and it's supposed to bring rain.

As for a connection with Shamanism, I have to check on that, but it would make sense. People in traditional societies and agricultural economy, living on the edge of survival were extremely dependent on weather, and hence would devise ways to try to influence it in some way. By definition all rituals that aim at changing something by means of rituals of some kind are using "magic"; even praying in Christianity and lighting candles in Orthodox Christianity /candle is a sacrifice/ fall in this category. A shaman is a person who is believed to know the magic rituals that would allow his/her to change things in nature of in human activity. Therefore, rain rituals can be seen as shamanism.

In the Slavic one I related the rain ritual is done not by a a shaman though, but by a young  girl that fits certain requirements, and women and other people in the village are also participating in some way. Also it has been known in time of drought the Orthodox priest of the village to say a prayer for rain, followed by the whole village - which is basically using Christianity in lieu of Shamanism.


Edited by Don Quixote - 16-May-2012 at 15:12

I think that it's a common reaction to the same problem - no rain, no food, no life; people want to live, so they come up with things to make them feel more in control of life. All argicultural cultures everywhere are bound to experience the same problems and to try to solve it in a similar way.

Yeah, weather magic was a part of Turkic and Mongolian shamanism. They called the weather-making stone a yada stone. And those who knew how to use them were called yadachis. In the Secret History of the Mongols one of Genghis Khan's enemies uses weather magic to whip up a snowstorm. If you can find a copy, there's a book about the subject called "Weather Magic in Inner Asia" by Adam Molnar. 

 


Edited by Snafu - 28-May-2012 at 12:48

Modern Turks known it as "yada taşı" (yada stone)

According to Dastan(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dastan) of Migration ("Göç Destanı");

Han(King) of the Uyghurs wants to marry with Chinese princess. However Chinese side wants "Kutlu Dağ"(name of a stone) as a gift. Han accepts this offer. Chinese people come to the Uyghur land and prepare a great fire near the stone. Stone is crack and get into small pieces. After that Chinese people start to take away all piece. When the last piece left the land of uyghur, Uyghur lands start to be desert and winds begin to say "migrate, migrate". Then Uyghurs have to leave thier homeland.

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I also found some interesting information in forums. Rain rituals were used as a gun tool against Ottoman by Russian