These days we talk about how our thoughts affect everything from prosperity to losing weight, but have you thought about how your thoughts affect the weather? I know some of us consider weather control to be the purview of the Divine or shamans, but I’m convinced we all play a role. I didn’t quite understand this connection until I had several experiences many years ago that taught me how profound this connection can be.

I was visiting Colorado’s Mesa Verde, which was once the home of the Pueblo people for over 700 years. I had not yet arrived at any of the cliff dwellings. I was simply driving across the mesa, when I suddenly was overwhelmed in sorrow. Those of you who are empathic know what I’m talking about. It is as though the emotion comes out of nowhere. As I opened my mind to the source of this sorrow, I could feel and see scenes of a great war that had taken place across this vast stretch of flat land. For whatever reason, the pain and loss of that war still lingered in the land. And I cried the unshed tears.

The moment the tears began falling from my eyes, it began to rain. The harder I cried, the harder the rain fell. I wept for hours, until I finally pitched my tent in a campground to rest because I was emotionally exhausted. The moment I crawled into the tent and my tears stopped, and so did the rain.

Just weeks after my journey to the mesa, I had a similar experience at home. I felt the pain of people in my life and gave in to experiencing the deep sorrow that longed to be acknowledged in compassion. As my eyes gave way to tears, the clouds gave way to rain. Again, it rained as long as I cried and when I was finished a rainbow graced the sky, testament to the light and love I was feeling when the purification was complete.

As if to put punctuation in my heart and mind on this profound relationship we have with the Mother, I had another experience with the rain and the Mother Bowl we use for our women’s ceremonies in the Sacred Feminine. I was cleaning out the bowl and getting her ready for ceremony, when I wondered if there might be a connection between all of the unusual winter rain we had been receiving in Sedona that year and the fact that I had just moved to that area with the bowl and its ceremonies. The Sedona area had been in a draught for many years, and after relocating the bowl to the area, the local creek filled to the brim.

When it was time for women gathered at my house, we started indoors with a talking circle and when we were ready for the water ceremony, we put on our coats and wraps to go outside with the bowl and the moon. As the last woman stepped over the threshold onto the patio, it began to pour down rain. The drenching rain then turned into hail as we completed our rites. We dashed inside for cover and as the last woman crossed the threshold into the house, the rain stopped sharply. It did not taper off. It stopped suddenly.

I laughed out loud at the answer I had received to my question. Indeed, our thoughts and our prayers have a direct relationship on the weather, and not just rain. I live in Colorado now and I was recently educated by one of the foresters in the area that the mountains here need heavy snow in order to protect our beloved pine trees from the devastation of the pine beetle and the summer fires. Snow pack melts more slowly into the soil, giving the trees enough moisture over time to protect them from beetle infestation and fire. However, when there is little snow or rain instead of snow, the soil becomes dry too fast, making the trees vulnerable. You can see acres of trees that have been destroyed in the Rocky Mountains.

When I still myself to pray for the snow that our trees need, I can feel huge resistance to my prayer. It is human resistance. It seems a lot of people in this area want it to be sunny and dry year-round. This is understandable. Snow and ice make driving dangerous and causes our heating bills to go up. And for some, it’s just not as pleasant as the sunshine. But there is a price Mother Earth and we are paying for our indulgence. We are losing our trees.

Of course, there are many weather influencers, and we have control over one of them—ourselves. We have influence over our thoughts and desires, which indeed affect the weather we experience and the backlashes that are created when our desires and thoughts are not in alignment with all of nature’s needs.

If we are true to the Sacred Feminine, as we think about and pray for the weather we want, we will also take into consideration the needs of our Mother Earth. We will allow ourselves to being in loving peace with whatever weather is presenting itself, because all weather is an expression of life in the Divine. In the Sacred Feminine, we hold all weather with respect and love. We hold a greater intention that the weather express what is in the highest good for the overall well-being of the earth and ourselves.

I invite you to begin exploring your relationship with the weather in your area by tuning in to your feelings about the weather as it shifts and changes throughout the year. Discover ever more deeply what it means to live with and in the natural cycles. Invite yourself to uncover the profound relationship that exists between you, the Mother and the weather.