Calling the Rain
I have had a worry in the back of my mind now for several weeks. You see, I am out walking and hiking as much as I am able. About 3 weeks ago I was following a path along the river to a small dock where I often like to sit and look out to the water. I could see the water level was low as I walked along the bank at one spot on this trail. I did not realize how low, until I got to the dock, which had no water under it at all. Now, I might expect this to be possible in July or August, at the hottest and driest point of the year, but this is early spring. The snow had just melted. I mentioned my concern to my mother on the phone and she said it was okay. The snow probably hadn’t melted in the north yet and the river had not reached full saturation. It was then that I reminded her that unlike most rivers, ours runs south to north, meaning it had reached its saturation point already.
No one was saying anything in the news about drought; they were all too preoccupied with the pandemic. This troubled me, because a drought could be just as dangerous for an agricultural community as a pandemic. Finally about 4 days ago the drought started making the news. They closed all the campgrounds and hiking trails across the south of the province because there was too much risk of wildfires being sparked. So now I am forced to walk in the city instead of hiking in the provincial parks, right in time for the long weekend. Thanks! Luckily, I just purchased a wonderful book that I highly recommend. It is called The City is a Labyrinth: A Walking Guide for Urban Animists by Sarah Kate Istra Winter. When it first arrived I was surprised how tiny it was and wasn’t sure if I had made a mistake in ordering it, but my fears were immediately squashed the moment I began to read. Winters is well-researched and packs a lot into such a small pocket-sized volume that is perfect for taking when walking about in the city. She is hellenic in approach, but she mentions heathenry briefly and suggests modifications to what she does for heathens in some places.
This post is not a book recommendation post however, this post is about drought and about calling the rain. Now there is not a lot preserved in Scandinavian sources about rituals for calling rain in a drought, if anything at all. We know Freyr is the god associated with agriculture, sunshine, rain, and fertility. If there are any lesser spirits associated specifically with rain I am unaware of them, and feel free to let me know on Facebook or Instagram. I would love to hear your input if you can add anything. Of course there probably were rituals of this nature and some may have even developed into localized traditions associated with saints after the christianization of Scandinavia. I am at a disadvantage in finding them as I only read English well, and French, Old Norse, Old English, and Norwegian poorly.
What a friend of mine stumbled across was a Slavic ritual to call the rain. The ritual focuses around a male spirit called German, who is associated with rain and hail. A group of girls or young women make a doll to represent German. He can be made of rags, or fired clay, or dried fruit but should be made with distinct genitalia and the figure should be 20-50cm long. They then carry this doll to the bank of the river. Two of the girls place him in a tiny coffin and adorn him in flowers and begin to lament. The other girls then ask what they are doing. They respond by saying, “We are crying for German; because of the drought German has died so that the rain may fall.” Then, depending on regional tradition, they either bury him on the riverbank or float the coffin out on the river. If they bury him then they will then dig him up after 3, 9, or 40 days and throw him in the water. Also, if too much rain comes they can dig him up to make it stop. This ritual often would be performed after Dodola, which is a type of rain dance or rain procession where a young girl dresses in a grass skirt to embody Dodola, the Slavic goddess of rain. People shower her with water and sing songs, dance, and give her gifts as she makes her way, dancing through the town. The German ritual can also be a stand-alone ritual. German dies so that nature may regenerate with the falling rain. He can be seen as a spirit of vegetation and the natural cycle of death and rebirth. His distinct genitalia represent fertility. German later became associated with St. Germanus, who was thought to protect against hail.
Now I don’t know about you but it seems like the ritual involving German very easily could be a heathen ritual. An effigy who affects rain could easily be a representation of Freyr, especially with the pronounced genitalia. An argument could be made for Baldur as well, with the death a rebirth element, or even Thor (although in the case of drought perhaps we don’t want to call thunderstorms, as lightning could start wildfires.) I wonder if German was originally considered a deity or more of a localized spirit, like a wight. However, there is some evidence that the idea of such a doll to bring about the rain was widespread. In Romania there is a similar ritual called Caloian, in which two clay dolls represent the Father of the Sun and the Mother of the Rain. These dolls are also buried for 3 days then set adrift on the river. (The numbers 3 and 9 in these rituals also feel very heathen.) In Tunisia a clay head is made and carried in a procession around the village by girls singing, “Oumouk tango, oh women, ask god to rain.”
In addition to German and Dodola, Slavic folk traditions hold another reference to rain deities in the form of Rod. He was seen as a sort of hearth deity who was associated with the female ancestors. (Interestingly, in Nordic traditions the Disir could potentially be associated with rain. The root word “dis” to this day is associated with mist in Danish, Swedish, and Norwegian.)
There are a number of Greek traditions that have to do with calling rain. Many include elements of procession, dancing, phallic symbols, and sprinkling water. Most notably there is the tradition of Kalogeros. This modern tradition centers around Kalogeros, the Monk, but he does not act like a monk. The tradition seems more Dionysian in nature. He wears a sack and animal hides and carries a sceptre with a phallic shape. A young boy climbs the water tower and opens the tap to wet the earth. Then a farmer with a tractor ploughs a symbolic field. The ground must be wet and muddy where the cart of the Kalogeros is placed. Kalogeros parades through the town for 6 hours visiting homes and accepting food, drink, and gifts, and being sprinkled by grain. He swings his phallic staff to mix the earth, water, and grain and wishing abundant rain and plentiful harvest for each household. Where he finds muddy puddles he dips his scepter in it and smears the celebrants with the mud. At last the Kalogeros and the celebrants return to the ceremonial field where the ground is good and muddy. They put on a play of the ground being ploughed by the king’s cart. All actors and celebrants recite, “May the water-melons grow as big as the Queen’s breasts, may the maize grow as long as the King’s prick” The ground is ceremonially ploughed and grain sown. Another man dressed up as an old woman known as Babo plays a lyre shaped like a phallus. Once this is done Kalogeros is fed by the celebrants before being carried to the mud and dunked in it 3 times. This represents his death. Then he is washed clean with water, representing his resurrection and the celebrants recite, “so it will rain during the summer.”
The Greek tradition brings to mind for me the St. Eric’s Day processions in Sweden where an effigy of St. Eric was taken by wagon across the landscape to ensure the land’s fertility. This would take place around St Eric’s Day (May 18th), and included processions from a cathedral to Old Uppsala where they would petition for a good harvest. (Similar rites occurred at Disthing, as well as at Larsmäss (August 10th). It is believed that St Eric was originally Freyr, and indeed similar accounts of worship of Freyr idols exist in the Icelandic sagas. And Freyr worship occurred similarly in Scandinavia, although sometimes the names Frodi or Ing were used in the place of Freyr. We have the image of Freyr dead in his mound or Frodi dead in his wagon, a part of the cycle of death and rebirth that echoes both the Greek and Slavic traditions. But death is not the end. There is the promise of springtime and renewal and then summer harvest. (Again, we find echoes of Baldur as well if you wish to go that route. With Hel needing all living things to lament his death for him to be reborn.) It is the sacrificial death, and that is what brings about fertility. The cult of Freyr was full of sacrificial elements and it was believed horse sacrifice as well as human sacrifice occurred to Freyr at Uppsala in pre-christian times. Similarly, the Slavic traditions involving German and Romanian traditions of Caloian may have been a replacement for earlier traditions of human sacrifice.
The take-away, I suppose, is that in order to call rain during a drought a sacrifice must be made. Elements that seem to be important in a ritual of this nature are the element of water, a doll or effigy, phallic imagery, and some sort of symbolic death and rebirth. There are some very interesting elements in the ritual for German which are worth taking a look at. I think the materials used to create the doll are interesting, as well as the location of the burial. If you make a doll of rags, or clay, or dried fruit and then bury it next to a river then the water will slowly seep in and saturate the doll, making it appear fuller when it is later dug up again. In a way the water is reviving the figure and that seems like a very powerful image for a ritual where the purpose is just that. Of particular interest is the doll made of dried fruit (literally vegetation) as a representation of a spirit associated with vegetation and fertility. Mourning the doll is also interesting because tears could symbolize rain, adding another water element. Another interesting feature is the genitalia. It is stated very clearly that the genitalia should be pronounced on the figure. And as such there is no doubt about the effigy’s connection with fertility. Whether the figure is German, or Kalageros, or Oumouk Tango, or Freyr the connotation is the same. The rain ends the drought and restores fertility to the land, ensuring a good harvest.
Hopefully this is helpful to you if you are experiencing drought in your region as a way to build up a heathen ritual that could call the rain. The elements are all here if you want to piece them together and make them your own, and that is really where this is going. The traditions of your hearth and tribe need to make sense to you. It won’t do any good for me to tell you how to do anything because you must find what is meaningful in your own practice.
Further Reading:
“Caloian” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caloian
The City is a Labyrinth: A Walking Guide for Urban Animists by Sarah Kate Istra Winter
“Dodola” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dodola
Freyr’s Offspring: Rulers and Religion in Ancient Svea Society by Olof Sundqvist
“German (mythology)” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_(mythology)
Gods and Myths of Northern Europe by Hilda Roderick Ellis Davidson
““Let it Rain”, or “Rain, Conceive”: Rituals of Magical Rain-Making in Modern and Ancient Greece” by Evy Johanne Haland https://www.academia.edu/10238612/_Let_it_rain_or_rain_conceive_Rituals_of_magical_rain_making_in_Ancient_Greece_a_comparative_approach_In_Roca_Z_et_al_eds_European_Landscapes_and_Lifestyles_The_Mediterranean_and_Beyond_Lisboa_Edi%C3%A7%C3%B5es_Universit%C3%A1rias_Lus%C3%B3fonas_2007_285_304
“Omek Tannou” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Omek_Tannou
“Rituals of Magical Rain-Making in Modern and Ancient Greece, A Comparative Approach” by Evy Johanne Haland http://en.arch.uoa.gr/fileadmin/arch.uoa.gr/uploads/images/evy_johanne_haland/cosmos_17-2_haland.pdf
“Rod, Slavic God of Rain and Fertility” by K. Kris Hirst https://www.thoughtco.com/rod-slavic-god-4781776
“The Thraco-Dacian Origin of the Paparuda/Dodola Rain-Making Ritual” by Mihai Dragnea https://www.researchgate.net/publication/280977102_The_Thraco-Dacian_Origin_of_the_PaparudaDodola_Rain-Making_Ritual_Brukenthalia_Acta_Musei_No_4_2014
Image Source:
Rällinge Statuette, Sweden (dated to the Viking Age). Believed to represent Freyr.
