Jul 13, 2026 · 38 min · 13 segments
In this sixth episode of *The Cunning Farmer*, Todd Elliott and I tromp-on through Chapter 6 (Agrarian Weather Magik) of his pivotal book, *The Cunning…
Todd ElliottGuest
Daniel Firth GriffithHost
Well, I think that one of the most important things things in farming, aspects of farming, one of the most difficult aspects of farming is the weather, as we've been discussing.

And I think societies that have made their living through farming, which is practically every human society, or even hunter gatherers were concerned with the weather as well.

So the office of the rainmaker was a very important office in practically every human society and every society has come up with some form of weather magic.

And I think there's a psychological, almost a psychological need to feel like you can influence something which seems to be so far out of your control.

You know, looking at nature from an animist perspective, if the forces of nature are intelligent and personalities, then one can make deals with them.

And so my jumping off point into weather magic is to find out who we're dealing with in terms of who's making the weather, what spiritual intelligences we're dealing with.

beyond behind the winds behind the clouds behind the weather as a phenomena and and try to go directly to them and talk to them um and pretty much every culture has come up with their own their own method of this that fits into their own personal their own cosmology i explore a couple here in this chapter um so So the chapter starts out with a quote from Empedocles, which I really like, which Empedocles was a 5th century pre-Socratic philosopher whose works are found only in fragmentary form, and he talks about... how he can teach his students how to produce rain and influence the weather.

So right there in 5th century BC, the Greek philosophers and shamans were trying to influence the weather.

But then I jump into a tornado season, which is always exciting here in Kentucky.

Well, I think that one of the most important things things in farming, aspects of farming, one of the most difficult aspects of farming is the weather, as we've been discussing.

And I think societies that have made their living through farming, which is practically every human society, or even hunter gatherers were concerned with the weather as well.

So the office of the rainmaker was a very important office in practically every human society and every society has come up with some form of weather magic.

And I think there's a psychological, almost a psychological need to feel like you can influence something which seems to be so far out of your control.

You know, looking at nature from an animist perspective, if the forces of nature are intelligent and personalities, then one can make deals with them.

And so my jumping off point into weather magic is to find out who we're dealing with in terms of who's making the weather, what spiritual intelligences we're dealing with.

beyond behind the winds behind the clouds behind the weather as a phenomena and and try to go directly to them and talk to them um and pretty much every culture has come up with their own their own method of this that fits into their own personal their own cosmology i explore a couple here in this chapter um so So the chapter starts out with a quote from Empedocles, which I really like, which Empedocles was a 5th century pre-Socratic philosopher whose works are found only in fragmentary form, and he talks about... how he can teach his students how to produce rain and influence the weather.

So right there in 5th century BC, the Greek philosophers and shamans were trying to influence the weather.

But then I jump into a tornado season, which is always exciting here in Kentucky.
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