Dream symbols · Weather · The Self

Rainbow

The sign after. A rainbow only exists with rain and sun at once and from one particular position, which is why the tradition reads it as reconciliation rather than as good fortune: two conditions that were opposed producing something visible together. It arrives after the weather rather than instead of it.

Where the reading comes from

The covenant after the flood is the best known version and carries exactly this structure, a promise that appears only once the water has gone down. The bridge between worlds reading is independent and just as old, appearing in Norse and Japanese material without contact.

Versions of the dream

After a storm

The reconciliation form, and the most common one.

Unreachable

A rainbow being walked toward and not arrived at is read closer to longing than to promise.