When the Soul feels drought, how do we pray for rain?

My father once shared a story….that speaks of humans consciously stepping into their role as a portal - a bridge between realms, even if just for the span of a prayer…

As a young boy, he witnessed a few times the unfolding of Salat al-Istisqa, a sacred prayer for rain. During times of drought, the community would gather to perform this prayer. Once it concluded inside the mosque, the men would step outside barefoot and bare-headed, their hands open to the sky in humility and surrender. As one, they would walk through the cobblestone alleys of the old gated town, reciting heartfelt supplications for rain. 

The ritual called for being both rooted to the earth and reaching to the heavens, reflecting our very human nature. Our bodies are made of clay - minerals, water and breath - and feel hunger, gravity and the seasons - all the pulls of the earth. Yet our consciousness is expansive, unbound, forever reaching out toward the infinite, dreaming, imagining, creating, praying and receiving insights - all the whispers of the heavens.  We are not just ‘in between,’ we are the channel through which these two currents flow into one another. 

Just as the body feels thirst, so too does the soul. We know the cracks of inner drought - when spirit feels brittle, when intuition seems far, when mercy feels withheld. In Salat al-Istisqa, the community learns again how to pray not only for rain but for renewal. Rain descends when the heart unclenches, when we become porous enough to receive. In this way, this ritual prayer for rain highlights a key principle that lies at the centre of many spiritual traditions: As above, so below, and as without, so within. 

This ritual emphasises the power of intention, connection and integration. In those moments, the collective intention and the openness of the participants becomes the driving force that opens them up as channels between realms. Their coming together in surrender, supplication and renewal affirms a central truth - the principle of oneness: oneness of the Source of all that is, and the oneness of all that is.