Druid Journal

I dream of rain
I dream of gardens in the desert sand
I wake in vain
I dream of love as time runs through my hand
(Sting, Desert Rose)

I’m delighted to present another guest post from a local practitioner of weather witchcraft, Esmerelda. –Jeff

Most people think of deserts as inherently dry places.  And they are, most of the time.  But their ecosystems critically hinge on the rains coming at very specific times, and in very specific ways.  Adam, from over at Adam’s Peace, reminded me of this after my last guest post here (Interview with a Weather Witch II) down in the comments section.

Here is his comment, repeated in full:

“I know that Arizona is a desert… but it is a wet one during key times of the year, and it needs that moisture.
From late July until late August/early September, we get a seasonal series of storms that come from the Gulf of California… very hot and very wet weather that create dramatic thunderstorms and historically have filled our dry river beds to almost the point of flooding in less than an hour.

The cacti in the area depend on these seasonal torrents, and the mighty saguaro, which is only found in this one desert (most of Arizona, and parts of California and northern Mexico) literally needs a good flash flood in order to spread its seeds. While the rain is inconvenient to us humans, the loss of these rains has been deadly to the local environment.

Over the last decade, though, these seasonal storms have been disappearing. Part of it is the artificial high pressure zone created by all of the buildings in Phoenix, creating an island of persistent heat… but rainfall all over the Sonoran Desert has been dropping at a steady rate… People think that deserts are supposed to be dead, or something.

So, if I could make a request… Some time next summer, give us a good one. The more lightning and the faster the rain falls, the better.” » Read the rest of this entry «

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This is the second half of my interview with Esmerelda, a local practitioner of weather witchcraft. You can read the first half here, along with the very lively discussion in the comments. I want to thank everyone who’s contributed their thoughts; there has been a lot of great conversation about the ethics of weather working, its plausibility, and whether it’s actually dangerous. Esmerelda addresses these issues more in depth in this half of the interview.

When did you first think you might have this talent? What finally convinced you that it was real?

I have always been convinced that the weather forecasters didn’t know what they were talking about–after all, in my experience, they are rarely right more than a third of the time. It turns out this is not a common assessment of their competence…

But I didn’t figure out what I could do until the summer of 2006. I was very skeptical; after all, it was just a coincidence that the parched Midwest got rained on right after I was deeply saddened to see the fields of dead corn as we drove there. After much soul-searching, I was open-minded enough to conduct some little tests. I spent that September trying things out, and they worked better than I could have possibly imagined.

Here’s one thing I did: School was going to start in a few days, and I found out that there was going to be an outdoor assembly. But, because of a budget shortfall, the school had not rented a tent. They could have held it inside, but it really would not have been the same, as there would not be enough room for the parents who needed to attend. And it was Pouring! And the forecast called for it to continue pouring for the rest of the week! Six straight days of rain. I tried to change it, but didn’t really know how. So, the night before, I sat and relaxed and pleaded and prayed to the powers that be to bring sunshine to the children for their beautiful assembly. By 7am, the rain had stopped. The clouds slowly but surely started to clear, so that it was sunny at 11am, just in time for the 11:30 assembly. All of the parents were quite surprised, because they were so sure that it was going to keep raining for the rest of the week. It was thrilling!

» Read the rest of this entry «

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