You may have seen faces, fantastic landscapes and all sorts of wonderful images. If you gaze at any random shape, you may begin to see pictures. For example, many people claim to see a face in the shadows of Mars or in the patterns of the moon’s surface. Without realising it, you may have been doing Cloud Reading Divination.
You are seeing these pictures because your intuition is at work and trying to create order out of randomness. What you see is your subconscious mind at work. And if we can ‘see’ the subconscious mind, we can use it to access it as a reflection of the workings of the inner self. Psychologists use a similar technique when they ask their patients to look at a Rorschach Ink Blot and interpret what they see as representations of the patient's hidden needs, hopes, and fears.
In ancient times, the seers went a step further: they believed that the pictures seen in fire embers, clouds, Nature, and even in the entrails of sacrificial animals represented auguries and portents for the future. In the clouds, they would read about the shape of things to come.
PEGASUS CLOUD
Just as a tasseographer looks for shapes in tea leaves to give a reading, we can use clouds for divination. This cloud reminds me of the mythical Greek god Pegasus. If we were interpreting this as a reading for a person, we might understand Pegasus to mean they are rising above a problem or escaping from something that worries them. Or we may feel that it represents their desire to achieve something great – in the myth, the hero Bellerophon tried to use Pegasus to fly to Mount Olympus so that it may represent an Olympian endeavour of some kind in the person’s life. Your intuitive and clairvoyant feelings will influence the interpretation.
UFO CLOUD
This strange cloud formation is sometimes seen over desert areas and, in this case, is caught by the setting sun, making it look like a flying saucer. The psychologist Carl Jung believed that modern man wants to see flying saucers because he yearns for the wholeness of the inner self, symbolised by the circle. In the East, they use symmetrical designs – called mandalas – as a meditation aid to help establish inner equilibrium. When giving a reading to someone, the clouds will symbolise wholeness and completion.
GRIM REAPER CLOUD
Anyone who has interpreted the Tarot cards will know how careful you have to be when death images are revealed in the cards. Similarly, in cloud reading, death images are symbols rather than necessarily portents of real death. We usually interpret death images as the death of the old so that the new can emerge. At the New Year, we have the symbol of Old Father Time, who, just like the Grim Reaper, carries a scythe. The past year is cut down so that the new one can begin. Death images, therefore, can be very positive symbols in a cloud reading.
Elvis Presley may have foreseen his own death when he saw a vision in the clouds during a cross-country road trip in 1964 as he drove back to his Graceland mansion. Elvis saw the face of Stalin in the clouds and understood it to mean that God was displeased with him now that he had achieved fame. The face then turned into the smiling face of Jesus, and in great distress, Elvis cried out, “Oh God! Oh, God!” He believed that it was a portent of his untimely death. The cloud in our picture looks to me like an angel, and in the context of reading, may symbolise a messenger and perhaps a blessing that all will go well.
Definition 'Aeromancy' & More Cloud Facts
- Cloud Reading is called: 'AEOROMANCY'
- Aeromancy divination by observing events in the air or wind. This includes: cloud shapes, weather conditions, and atmospheric phenomena (including comets and meteors.) Medieval divination texts usually spelt 'aerimancy' and were expanded to include almost all phenomena occurring in the air.
- Aeromancy can also sometimes include divination by the wind. For example, the diviner throws sand or dirt in the wind after asking a question. The answer depends on the nature of the dust cloud. Other techniques include throwing a handful of seeds into the air and receiving the answer to a question from the pattern created by the fallen seeds. This is also sometimes known as 'austromancy'.
- The ancients believed that wind was actually the Breath of Life and the breath of their gods and deities. It was divine. Alternatively, some believed that specific types of winds, particularly hot winds, were the work of demons.
External Links
- Cloud Appreciation Society - the guys I worked with at the BBC
- Cloud Shapes Meanings - Met Office Definitions
- Weather Omens and Superstitions
