Thunder Beings
Reading Black Elk Speaks this past week, I came across his use of the image of "Thunder Beings." These are the mythical beings of the West where the thunderstorms come from. They are the ones who come riding east with great flashes of lightning, rumbles of thunder, and downpours of rain. As I was reading I thought to myself, "I never noticed any Thunder Beings in my lifetime.

But I caught myself quickly. It was Labor Day Weekend, 1966. It was an event that has stuck with me as powerfully 41 years later as it did that night. The Thunder Beings had rode through town and moved on south and east out of the West Branch Valley. But there, beyond the Bald Eagle Mountain they continued to light up the summer sky.

We always called it "heat lighting" since it always seemed to be hot when we saw it. There was never thunder with it. We knew that it was really the light from distant storms, too far away to hear. But their presence was real. There they were, clouds miles and miles away reaching several miles into the sky. The lightning in the clouds kept illuminating the structure and folds and billows of the clouds. It went on for a couple of hours as the storms slowly made their way to the south and east.

It was my last night at home. Early the next morning we would pack the car and I would head off in the direction of that lightning to college. I would be leaving The Valley and heading beyond that southern mountain boundary that had been a reassuring part of my horizon for 18 years. I was scared to death. I knew everything - and I knew nothing.

I stood in awe of that light show for a couple of hours. I had already said goodbye to a couple of my best friends so I stood alone in my backyard. These 41 years later I don't remember the exact thoughts that went through my head. They were probably of my parents, both dead for several years. I probably thought a little about what it means to be a Christian instead of a Jew, having only been a Christian for a little over two years. I probably stood there and thought how awesome God really is- and how quiet I have to become when I watch His world at work.

I was as ready as I would ever be to move on. I would never return to The Valley to live permanently. A life I never even considered was waiting. The Thunder Beings, as I might describe it now, were leading the way that I was heading.

In digging into a little bit of mythology, for many Native American tribes the Thunder Beings were, like so much of the natural world, ambiguous. Too much of anything, even a good thing is not a good things. Thunder Beings are cleansing and life giving. They bring water from the West that will help the crops, animals, and people. They are a source of healing for the dry spiritual times and places. They share the power of The Sky. The lightning can show the way. I also found that in Chinese mythology, the Thunder Beings stand for enlightenment.

But there is always the caution. Too much rain, especially in western dry washes and gullies, can bring flash floods. Lightning is dangerous and can start devastating fires. Take too much medicine and it can kill you. Wisdom is needed. To walk wisely is to know that there are dangers as well as benefits. You can even die from too much water in your system- or from floods.

Those are all excellent descriptions for what happened that September evening in a land far away and a time long ago. It was a beginning, a start of a different life. The Thunder Beings were showing the way- and urging me to be cautious. It was a reminder that I should never forget my roots back there in the Susquehanna Valley for that is where I was raised and nourished. It has been a vivid vision for 41 years now. I now can say that I saw the Thunder Beings- and they were right.