My dear friends,

To follow current events and concerns, we have just studied five cases - three dream analyses and two case studies - that dealt with ecology, the health of our planet earth and climate events. We were able to see that there is a correlation between the inner and outer world: the processes of psychic life seem to have a decisive effect on the concrete events of life on earth.

To my delight, a comment on my French blog supported this viewpoint.

Before I begin my study today, I would therefore like to thank Catherine for her valuable observations about the rainmakers and the weathermakers. Catherine brought us the remarkable testimony that a Sufi spiritual master wrote about 950 years ago:

"Sheikh Ali Farmadhi (who died in 1078) already stressed the importance of what the Sufis believe, so he wrote:

- The "invisible world" interpenetrates ordinary reality at all times and in different places. What we regard as inexplicable is actually due to this intervention. People do not recognise the participation of this "world" in ours because they believe they know the real cause of the events.

In fact, they don't know it.

It is only when they manage to keep in mind the possibility that another dimension sometimes affects ordinary experiences, that this dimension can become accessible to them.

We have evolved and we finally accept to perceive what was strange to us, to understand that Everything IS already; this Everything is waiting for our mind to use it because it is attributed to us, consecrated to us."

I thank Catherine for her clear and very welcome contribution.

The last five articles have given us examples of advice and solutions to help us achieve this indispensable balance between the outside world and the world inside.

To the women who sought advice from the dreams, the dream advised them to maintain loving relationships,

to respect the different aspects of unconscious life, to honour and nurture natural spontaneous instinctive forces, whether manifested through the senses or through the spirit, to welcome feelings and intuitions, to trust the mysterious forces that rule the earth, instead of taking for granted that it is the conscious that dominates and directs.

Others, men, did not seek assistance from dreams, but chose a mystical attitude of inner relationship with the divine force. The old rainmaker Chinese went into meditation in order to empty his mind and retune himself to the universal force, the tao. General Patton, on the verge of military defeat, not zen at all, addressed God in a hell of a row, in a prayer that was original to say the least, and very cheeky: he asked the God of Armies to make the rain stop, which did not seem to upset the Creator, since the general was granted a sun beyond his expectations.

Still others, men and women, absorbed themselves in processions, in prayers, told their rosary and all these manifestations of piety undoubtedly helped to establish the desired balance in the environment, made the rain or the good weather return.

Ah well, very well.

Very good.

Yes, and then...

... what do I do now, in my neck of the woods, to help the earth, to balance the external forces around me with the internal forces within me?

And I think of my readers.

Do they do, can they even do anything to change themselves internally, and consequently change the environment?

Tricky questions!

Questions that are starting to annoy me a bit!

Yes, my dear blog friends, I am thinking of you, of your daily life, of all your burdens and constraints: rushing to work, taking care of the children and the spouse, working around the house; and despite these multiple and overwhelming activities, despite the tiredness, would you still have time to take care of your partner, and to make love?

And how do you manage in this exhausting period of pandemic and uncertainties, how do you manage to retreat to calm and "to be in tune with the Tao"... difficult, right?

You can always, like Patton, not zen, bawl out the Lord, it might calm your nerves, despite what people think. But then again...

... And after that ?

Enough is enough, the irritation increases, the anger boils over and, not zen at all, maybe you cry out, and so do I with you:

"- But I've had enough! I don't give a damn about the tao! I don't care about stammering prayers, even in the underground, where I can barely stand on my legs because of the exhaustion, or even sitting in my car stuck in the traffic jams. And afterwards, once at home, at the end of the day, I couldn't care less about meditating when I have to take care of the family and I can't take it anymore! And what am I going to do to harmonize stuff and whatnot? But what the hell do I care ?"

My dear blog friends, if these protests are yours, how I understand you! If not, please read my article anyway, which might teach you something. The messages of dreams are so surprising...

I think of you with all my heart and a dream came to my mind that I had interpreted a long time ago. I found it so simple, so beautiful, so comforting that I have already put it on my blog. Here it is again today, in a slightly different presentation. This dream is in fact for everyone, for those who seek to center themselves as well as for those who don't.

It is Loretta who received this dream. Christ appeared to her several times in her dreams.

And she aspires to experience this inner illumination again, this communion with the divine, or in other words, to become one with the Tao.

She received a dream that marked her and she confided it to me. Here it is:

Dream

I'm at my mother's house, sitting in her kitchen. The priest, Father André Marie, enters. I go to the bathroom. When I come back, he's not there anymore. I ask my mother:

- Did you offer him a coffee?

- I'm sorry, she says, I didn't think about it.

Silly story, prosaic dream. What does it mean?

Who are these different characters? Loretta explains:

My mother has been dead for several years. She was a devoted woman who did everything for her 7 children. She always had a lot of work to take care of her family and her house. She didn't show her affection with tender gestures, but everything she did she did with all of her heart.

Loretta immediately recognizes her own maternal side, which puts all her heart into taking care of her family.

The kitchen

In the home, it is the place par excellence where the mother shows her love by preparing lovely tasty dishes for her children with all the work involved. A kitchen is a warm and welcoming place, says Loretta, and it's a pleasure to gather there.

At that moment

the priest, Father André Marie, enters.

Let's analyse this symbol:

- What is a priest?

Loretta explains to me:

- He is a man who helps in the spiritual life, he guides towards God.

- And Father André Marie, can you tell me what he's like?

- He lives in everyday life, he knows me well, he always tells me that I push myself too hard, that I feel too guilty, that my efforts towards perfection and my desire for fulfilment don't necessarily lead me to God. He tells me that I am fine the way I am, that God loves me the way I am, with my imperfections.

I take up this description and ask:

- Loretta, tell me, someone who helps you in your spiritual life, who knows you well, who tells you that God loves you just the way you are, who does this remind you of outside or inside of you?

- On the outside, of Father André Marie of course...

Inside of me? Who would that be? Inside of me?

Loretta seeks, reflects and continues her monologue:

- In me, ... someone, who knows me? ... who tells me that God loves me as I am ...? But... couldn't it be... God?

God is the meaning that Loretta suggests for the image of the priest.

- Well, I said, we have a first hypothesis of interpretation. We will check it out.

I take up all the associations of the dreamer and ask:

- For you, does God live in everyday life?

- Yes, the dreamer answers, he is always present in my thoughts.

- Does he tell you that you push yourself too hard?

- Well, from time to time, like Father André Marie, something gives me the feeling that I make things too complicated to please God.

- To God, are you fine the way you are?

- Who is the one who won't reproach me, if not God?

We have carried out the checks, so the priest André Marie is indeed a representation of the Divine Force.

This is not the first time we have seen the divine appear in dreams in human form. It is even a common phenomenon. I have given many illustrations of it on my French blog. There is, for example, the dream of the American businessman whom God visits. In that dream, neither the businessman nor anyone else noticed that God was there: only the humble servant saw him, she was the one who announced his presence. (1)

Let's continue our study:

The priest enters the kitchen.

Ah! What does this detail tell us? We learn that it is in the kitchen that God chooses to present Himself. That is to say? The kitchen, Loretta told us, is the place where the mother manifests her love to the family by preparing lovely tasty dishes, it is a warm and welcoming place, it is the heart of the home.

And who does God visit?

Here God presents Himself to the devoted mother. It is to the maternal Loretta in her kitchen, who does nothing to seek God: but she shows her love to others by peeling potatoes, baking cakes, doing the dishes, and repeating these little tasks every day, with love and patience.

Thus the divine comes to accompany those who serve others with love and devotion, in the humble daily reality. The dream invites the dreamer to become aware of this.

But Loretta has only one idea in mind: to be impeccable, without fault, she only thinks of going to the bathroom to purify herself, to present herself pure before God.

The dreamer then explains to me that she practices several rituals to prepare herself, to harmonise with the divine forces and to come into contact with them. To do this, she surrounds herself with candles, practises visualisations, concentrating on the image of the face of the Virgin or of Christ.

And after that, this is what she finds out in the kitchen:

When I come back, Father André Marie is no longer there.

So, when she feels pure, she comes back to spend some time with the priest, to meet God, ... he is no longer there, ... he is gone.

So the divine had come to see her without worrying about her purity. As the priest André Marie said to Loretta: "God loves you as you are, with your impurities".

Loretta then asked her mother:

- Did you offer him a coffee?

- Sorry, I didn't think about it.

Now let's see what is ...

A coffee

- It's something you offer someone as a greeting, Loretta tells me.

- And what's it like?

- It's good, it's warm, it makes you feel good.

- Is there anything else you can tell me?

- No, ... I don't know.

What happens in the dream?

Neither Loretta nor her mother offered the priest a coffee. Neither of them welcomed the divine when he presented himself in the kitchen.

Yes, this is the meaning of the image. The dreamer said it right away: "Coffee is a way of greeting someone".

And the divine who appeared in the kitchen didn't get any coffee...

What a great spiritual lesson this little, seemingly silly dream gives us!

What does it teach us?

The fashionable purification rituals, the high aspirations to enter into a altered state of consciousness, in contact with the divine, or with "ascended" Masters, to empty oneself through meditations, to make efforts of concentration, breathing exercises, as proposed by many current approaches which are meant to be therapeutic, that, according to the dream, does not necessarily lead to a contact with the divine.

No, to get there, it's easy, too easy, very simple, too simple, too silly: as Loretta said, God, alias the priest André Marie, lives in everyday life, he accompanies us here below, every day, in our banal life, in this earthly mediocrity, from which we aspire to escape, to try to reach the magnificence of the divine celestial spheres.

However when the divine manifests itself in us within our everyday life, without brilliance, without miracle, without synchronicity, without anything sensational, without vibrations in the body, without trembling, without visualisations, without dazzling images, without Kundalini rising, without ecstasy, ... we forget to welcome Him where he appears.

When he comes to tell us :

"I love you as you are in your darkness and your modest little simple life, with your mistakes, your inadequacies, your weaknesses, that's where I am with you", we don't even offer him a coffee.

And yet!

What good news, my dear blog friends!

The dream has given us a lesson in the "kitchen tao", so to speak.

Now, what awaits us?

With perseverance we will struggle in our daily lives, busy with a thousand small dreary things; with dedication we will have to deal with the thousand little hassles of everyday life, working patiently, with a smile, welcoming the other with warmth, and there ...

Yes, there, even if we can't believe it, even if we want something else, yes, there, we will know that we are in our right place, we will know that the divine is there too, there he accompanies us and loves us as we are.

The altered states of consciousness? The spiritual awakening? The Tao? Emptying oneself? Following a discipline to meditate? Taking special positions? Doing Lotus Flower Mudra with your fingers? Breathing exercises? Some OM? Trying in some way to harmonise conscious and unconscious to save the planet?

No, the dream doesn't talk about it.

What it offers us is to be aware that our everyday life is sacred: God presents Himself discreetly at every moment in our humble experiences, even if our ego finds no gratification in it. Thus by welcoming the divine, by letting Him take His place in our small, inglorious daily life, our inner earth is cared for and our outer earth blossoms.

The Angelus by French painter Millet.
The Angelus is the prayer to which the bells call, in the morning, at noon and at the end of the day.

Next time, I will tell you the real story of a little boy who met God right in the middle of an everyday life incident.

Christiane

Translated by Marianne

French blog:

(1) the dream of the American businessman:

http://christiane-riedel.blogspirit.com/archive/2008/03/30/il-est-un-reve-etrange-et-debonnaire.html

Its interpretation:

http://christiane-riedel.blogspirit.com/archive/2008/04/22/il-est-un-reve-etrange-et-debonnaire-interpretation.html

Illustrations

I would like to thank the artists whose works allowed me to illustrate my blog.

The proposal: painting by contemporary Scottish artist Jack Vettriano.
http://tillart.co.uk/
https://www.jackvettriano.com/

Gandalf: arwen.undomiel.com

Procession: http://www.surinenglish.com/lifestyle/201803/16/passion-holy-week-andalucia-20180316093204-v.html

Mindfulness meditation: https://www.yogajournalfrance.fr/meditation-de-pleine-conscience-quid-pourquoi-pour-qui/

Overwhelming task:http://express.fr/actualite/societe/la-charge-mentale-le-syndrome-des-femmes-epuisees-d-avoir-a-penser-a-tout_1906874.html

Christ Face: "The transfiguration" of the contemporary French artist Arcabas (Jean-Marie Pirot), one of the greatest artists of contemporary sacred art, internationally recognised. http://www.arcabas.com/oeuvres/index.php

Kitchen: https://www.cuisineaz.com/diaporamas/cuisiner-en-famille-1306/interne/1.aspx

Meditation: espaceducalme.canalblog.com

The Priest André Marie: self-portrait of the painter Arcabas (Jean-Marie Pirot), who died in 2018. https://www.placegrenet.fr/2018/08/23/peintre-arcabas-decede-91-ans/203987

Radiant Christ: http://eucharistiemisericor.free.fr/index.php?page=misericorde_divine

The Angelus, painted from 1857 to 1859 by the French artist Millet (1814-1875), famous for his pastoral paintings. https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/L'Angélus

This article was published on the French blog on 10 December 2019: http://christiane-riedel.blogspirit.com/archive/2019/12/10/et-moi-je-fais-quoi-3144790.html

Dear blog friends,

For several weeks now I have taken you on a study of three dreams whose subject turned out to be one of the major topical subjects: ecology. Indeed, these three dreams correspond exactly to the definition of ecology, which seeks to "create a better balance between man and his natural environment as well as the protection of the latter". (1)

In these three dreams, if they were understood correctly, the unconscious would show that there is a link between the love life of young women and the quality of life on the earth around them.

These three dreams then led us each time to ask ourselves the questions:

Could there be a connection between the outer world and the inner world?

Could the quality of our earthly environment outside be related to the quality of our inner, instinctive life, which the alchemists called “our inner earth”, whose other name is the unconscious?

Could our outer Earth be ill because our inner earth is mistreated?

Would it be then that by taking care of one's inner Earth, one's instinctive and spiritual Nature, one would also take care of Nature, the concrete and material Earth outside?

This question may have seemed bizarre, unrealistic, unbearable, even foolish or ridiculous to you.

And yet, other people, far more eminent than me, have already asked this question and given the answer more than a hundred years ago.

Who then?

Well, to tell you, I am going to take you today to other latitudes, and I am going to tell you an absolutely true story. I will take you to China and you will discover the absolutely unbelievable story of the rainmaker.

But first I have to introduce you to Richard Wilhelm, a friend of Jung's.

Richard Wilhelm is a German Lutheran missionary who went to China at the end of the 19th century to evangelise.

Like the Jesuits in the 17th century, he noted the deep spirituality that animated the Chinese. His aim was not to found a new church in China, but to be a witness to the love of Christ. He declared that this was how the Universal Spiritual Church would spread, without political conflict, and that the Chinese civilisation was, in his opinion, an authentic form of this Church.

The German pastor then founded a school to develop cultural dialogue between China and the Christian West.

The school quickly became very well known among the German and Chinese authorities.

The school was located in the city of Tsing Tao, Qingdao in Chinese, a port in northern China, where the Germans had built an important naval base as a settlement base.

The city had received the political status of a German colonial concession.

This means that the Chinese government granted the Germans the right to participate in the management of the city, to sit on the city council and to supervise it. This status also protected the city and guaranteed its inhabitants immunity in the case of conflict.

Besides this school, let us also note, for the anecdote, that the Germans in 1903 opened a brewery in Tsing Tao for their needs; Tsing Tao beer became the most famous Chinese beer.

But the work of the German pastor did not stop with the creation of his school. Life led him to an exceptional activity which, over the course of time, has had an immense international influence, an influence which continues to grow even today.

Here is how:

In 1912 revolts multiplied in China and led to the overthrow of the Manchu dynasty. The senior officials of the fallen regime were exposed to the greatest danger and sought refuge in foreign concessions, such as the German Tsing Tao concession where Richard Wilhelm resided.

Wilhelm's reputation attracted many dignitaries: the Minister of Education and his deputy minister took refuge in the German concession.

An exceptional cooperation took place between the Deputy Minister of Education and Richard Wilhelm.

The Deputy Minister of Education, Lao Naï Suan, was a wise man, an authentic scholar, whose wife was a direct descendant of Confucius. He saw in Richard Wilhelm the one to whom he could entrust the treasures of Chinese civilization in turmoil.

These treasures came in two forms:

The philosophy of Confucius

The wise man therefore entrusted Richard Wilhelm with the task of preserving the work and philosophy of Confucius. Thus, thanks to the cooperation of these two eminent men, a library was created, dedicated to the work and philosophy of Confucius.

The I Ching

Above all, the Chinese sage entrusted the German pastor with the treasure of Chinese civilisation, the oracular book that is more than four thousand years old: the I Ching.

For two years he worked with Wilhelm to translate the I Ching into German. The venerable Chinese master of thought thus initiated Wilhelm into the secret teaching of the "Book of Changes" and entrusted him with the task of passing it on to Westerners so that the book could come alive again and spread in a new land.

With the teaching completed and the work finished, Wilhelm, who had retired, was recalled to Germany while Master Lao Naï Souan passed away.

In 1920 Wilhelm entrusted his translation of the I Ching to his friend Carl Gustav Jung. Jung made this masterpiece known to the West.

And Jung, speaking of this book, later wrote:

"I am taking this risk because I am now in my eighth decade and I am no longer impressed by the changing opinions of men: the thoughts of the old masters are more valuable to me than the philosophical prejudices of the Western mind."

It would take another half-century for a great inspired scholar, Etienne Perrot, to translate the I Ching into French in 1970.

Since then, many more translations have been published.

But let us return to this remarkable man, Richard Wilhelm. In Jung's eulogy of his friend, he said that he had received more from him than from anyone else. Would anyone dare to accuse Jung or Richard Wilhelm of talking nonsense?

Well, well, well!

It was Richard Wilhelm who told Jung the absolutely unbelievable story of the rainmaker! He was an objective witness of these facts. And it was precisely Jung who made this event known to the West.

So now here is the story of the rainmaker.

"The province where Richard Wilhelm was staying was affected by severe drought. For months not a single drop of water fell and the situation became catastrophic.

The Catholics held processions, the Protestants sent up prayers, and the Chinese burned incense sticks and fired guns to scare off the demons of the drought. Finally, the Chinese decided to go to a neighbouring province to look for an old man, who was said to be a "rainmaker".

When the old man arrived with the delegates in the parched province, he asked for a small house to be provided for him. He shut himself up there for three days.

On the fourth day, clouds gathered at a time of the year when no snow was to be expected and ... there was a heavy snowfall, unusually heavy.

There were so many rumours about this extraordinary rainmaker that Wilhelm wanted to find out for sure and went to see the rainmaker. He asked him how he had done it.

As a true European, Wilhelm told him:

"They call you the rainmaker, can you tell me how you made snow? "

The Chinese replied :

"- I didn't make the snow, I'm not responsible for it."

"- But what did you do during the three days?"

"- Oh, that, I can explain to you. It is simple. I come from a country where things are as they should be. Here things are not in order; they are not as they should be according to the Heavenly Order, so the whole country is outside the Tao. (When I arrived in this country here, I was no longer in Tao (2)) nor was I in the natural order of things, because I was in a country that was not in order, so all I had to do was wait three days, until I found myself in Tao, and then, naturally, the Tao made the snow." "

What is the Tao? How can we talk about it in a few words? I am not a specialist, so you will forgive me for my inadequacies.

Tao is the divine principle at the origin of all things, it is the way, the path. To be in Tao is to be in harmony with the divine principle, with nature.

In the Taoist conception, there is a continuity between nature and man, between the world of spirit, of life, of the psyche (3) and that of matter, in which spirit and life manifest themselves and take concrete form. To place oneself in this continuity, in this solidarity between nature and man, is the path of wisdom which makes it possible to influence the phenomenal world. The inner world, the unconscious and the outer world, the world of the conscious are linked and are one.

For scholars this is called the "Unus Mundus". And isn't this precisely what we have learned from the dreams we have just seen?

Does this story leave you in doubt, does it seem far away and questionable? It is an old story that dates back more than 100 years, in a country at the antipodes of ours... A story of a rainmaker... A story where man can influence the weather...

Wait !... Now you will see ...

It's not only the old Chinese who influenced the weather ... Listen:

Here is the same story, but this time very close to us. It happened in Italy 30 years ago, in 1989.

"In a small parish in the south of Italy, in May 1989, we were on the eve of a big festival that would attract all the surrounding area. It was a pilgrimage to venerate two martyrs who regularly protected the vineyards of the region from accidents.

Mass was to be said in the open air, a procession was to be held, and triumphal arches filled the streets that were decked out. But the weather was execrable and the barometer was dropping dangerously.

Yet the good priest did not get confused.

In the evening, a parishioner remarked:

"- Priest, I think the devil has gotten involved and our party is in jeopardy.

- It is possible, replied the priest, but the good Lord could also get involved. Come on, good evening and prepare your vocal cords so that they can vibrate in the ears of the crowd. "

The next morning, the sun was there! Unbelievable!

Mass on the big public square and in the evening, more than 2000 people participated in the procession!

When everything was over, the same parishioner came to see the priest and commented:

"- All the same, Mr. Priest, you have prophesied well, the good God has also joined in.

And the parish priest answered:

- I told you so. I had promised my martyrs to have a faith that moves mountains. When I finished my breviary last night, it was midnight and still raining.

So I got down on my knees and said a Rosary.

Afterwards, it rained less. I said a second rosary, I went to the window, it wasn't raining any more, but still clouds.

So I continued.

With each Rosary, it seemed to me that the Blessed Virgin was sweeping the firmament.

Around half past three, the sky was blue and in the morning, a beautiful sun! You know the rest!"

Perhaps you know that I am of Protestant origin and that my grandfather was a pastor? Protestants do not make any room for Mary in their devotion. And yet, as a Protestant, I surrender to this story, where the same reality is expressed: when the soul comes into harmony with the Force of all things, whatever name is given to it, then the outer world and the inner world come into harmony and harmony reigns on earth.

Have you found a more certain way to save the planet?

Christiane

Translated by Marianne

Notes

(1) https://dictionnaire.lerobert.com/definition/ecologie

(2) I have added this explanation for more clarity.

(3) Let's not forget that the word psyche means "soul" and not intellect.

Bibliography

The story of the rainmaker was recounted by Étienne Perrot in the notebooks published by the publishing house "Fontaine de Pierre": extract from notebook 22, 1983.

The story of the Italian weather-maker : (French) https://www.etoilenotredame.org/actualites/le-rosaire

Illustrations

I would like to thank the artists and photographers whose works allowed me to illustrate my blog.

- "The Hours of the Day" by Czech artist Alfons Mucha, 1860-1939: These two paintings are part of a quadriptych representing "Morning Awakening", "Brightness of the Day" and here "Evening Dreaming" and "Night Rest". http://www.muchafoundation.org/

- Richard Wilhelm: https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Wilhelm#/media/File:Bundesarchiv_Bild_137-020287,_Tsingtau,_Deutsche_Schule.jpg

- Concessions in China (Map of China in 1910): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concessions_in_China

- Confucius: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0174595/?ref_=nmbio_bio_nm

- I Ching translated by Richard Wilhelm and Étienne Perrot: https://www.cgjung.net/publications/yiking/yiking_1.htm

- Meditating monk: https://pt.aliexpress.com/item/32411330652.html

- Floral Yin and Yang with rose: https://ru.dreamstime.com/

- Colored version of the Flammarion Engraving (1888) by Heikenwaelder Hugo, Austria: https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=680837

- Pope John Paul II praying: https://www.pinterest.com.mx/pin/554153929125195846/

This article was published on the French blog on 21 November 2019:

http://christiane-riedel.blogspirit.com/archive/2019/11/21/sauver-la-terre-et-faire-la-pluie-et-le-beau-temps-3143949.html