The teaching of the rainmaker

1

When you go  

May I not come? 

Can you spare me?

2

The day has come

I see you anxiously packing 

Your spear and your gun

And your pepper spray.

You must be on your way

Traveling toward nonviolence.

It is your journey.

It is a long journey

And you may lose your way

You may have to use your spear

You may have to use your gun

You may have to use your pepper spray

As for me

I follow the teaching of the rainmaker

3

One tree

One dirty sock

One small garden

One well

One view

One life

One dream

One house of salt.

4

I used to 

Look out 

And watch the wind

Coming straight down and across the water

Like a snake 

Sometimes the water grew calm

But I never knew when the snake would descend

That was before I met the rainmaker

5

Where you go 

Wherever you go

Just know

That I have but this one dream

That keeps me centered

One tree

One dirty sock

One well

One view

One life

One dream

One house of salt.

6

What are we anyway?

What would we do with a lasting peace

If we are not at peace with ourselves?

Who would we be if peace reigned

If we are not at peace with ourselves?

Like my father

I follow the teaching of the rainmaker

Nothing else has worked

But I wish you luck anyway

7

You have been gone a long time now

Every day I watch for your return

8

I wish you would come back

But come back without your spear

Whether it is bloody or not

Come back without guns 

Whether they killed our not

Come back without your dream of war

9

I will wait patiently

Under my one tree

With one dirty sock

One well

One view

One life 

One dream

I follow the teaching of the rainmaker

……..

Footnote:

“Hansueli Etter’s article, ‘The Rainmaker of Kiauchow,’ from which the title of this issue is taken, is an interpretation of the most famous story of synchronicity in the Jungian tradition—the Rainmaker. Etter, who for more than 10 years maintained a close and collegial relationship with von Franz, and whose life was deeply touched and shaped by her wisdom, places synchronicity squarely at the heart of Jung’s opus. Referencing Robert Johnson’s claim that ‘C. G. Jung once said that the story of the Rainmaker illuminates his own approach to psychology, or his own personal view of life, more completely and appropriately than anything else that had been said about it up until then,’ Etter emphasizes how understanding synchronicity is essential to understanding Jung: ‘If one has understood the story of the Rainmaker, one has understood Jung’s psychological school of thought.’ ”  https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00332925.2023.2210993