Clouds of Inspiration

Clouds can stir the imagination. These puffs of air laced with water crystals take on mysterious colors and shapes. it’s no wonder clouds have been given mythological and folkloric qualities by many cultures.

In the Bible clouds are symbols of God’s presence and guidance. The people were inspired to lift their eyes to heaven and walk in faith.

In ancient Greek myth, clouds were seen as a group of young nymphs called Nephelai. These cloud spirits, depicted as beautiful and transparent, spent their days collecting water from the rivers in cloudy pitchers, then floating up to the heavens to pour water down from the sky, nourishing the earth and feeding the streams. Nephelai sailed through the sky in billowing white robes, looking like swans.

Hindu tradition reflects the belief that elephants brought the rain, and that clouds themselves were the celestial relatives of the white elephants that roamed the earth. An elephant’s body was thought to be representative of a cloud, and they would use their trunks to shower the earth with rain.

Native Americans also created myths and folklore around clouds. Some saw clouds as the clothing of the gods of heaven. A god spreading arms would cause the clouds to move across the sky.

Even today, cloud myths endure, often associated with honoring the dead. The Pueblo, an agricultural people, believe that the dead become the Cloud People and send them rain, thereby nourishing their land.

There’s no doubt about it- There’s just something about clouds that is utterly magical. And it’s not just you and I that have that feeling. It’s a universal phenomenon throughout history.