Rainbow spiritual meaning
The rainbow is a sign of covenant and passage: it invites you to keep faith when the light returns.
- covenant
- passage
- hope
Rainbow at a glance
For you, it invites you to recognize the end of a gray moment, to look up, and to allow yourself a moment of wonder.
Which difficult moment seems, these days, to be letting a little light into your life?
A rainbow comes from rain and sun: it delights without promising anything, and says nothing about what follows.
- Read by
- The Bible · Ancient Greece · Scandinavia
- Family
- Feathers and objects
Case by case
- A double rainbow
- A second, paler arc sometimes doubles the first.
- You see a rainbow
- This arc is read as an encouragement.
What this sign evokes
A rainbow arrives when you no longer expect it: the rain ends, the sun breaks through, and suddenly the whole sky lights up. You stop, you point it out to those around you, you take out your phone. Almost everyone feels the same joy, and that is probably what earns it so many readings.
Cultures have seen in it a link between two worlds, a promise, a bridge. What it evokes today is mostly passage: from a dark time to a clear one. If you saw it at the right moment, look for what, in you, is finally ready to brighten.
What cultures say about it
After the Flood, the rainbow is the sign of the covenant between God and the earth, according to the book of Genesis (9:13). In this account, it recalls a promise made to the living.
Source: Genesis 9:12–17 (Louis Segond French Bible)In ancient Greece, Iris, messenger of the gods, personifies the rainbow. In Greek, her name designates the arc itself: the goddess and the phenomenon are one.
Source: Hesiod, Theogony, 265–266; Liddell-Scott-Jones dictionary, “ἶρις”; Wikipedia (en), “Iris (mythology)”What attention can do
You remember a rainbow because it is rare and vivid: this power of the image explains why people read so much into it.
Depending on the situation
- A double rainbow
- A second, paler arc sometimes doubles the first. Some read a happy insistence in it; attention, for its part, sees a fine chance to stop.
- You see a rainbow
- This arc is read as an encouragement. Take the time to look at it, then note the thought that occupied you just before: that is what gives it its meaning.
One small stepStop for a few moments, without taking a photo, to look at the sky, then note the sensation that stayed with you.
Readings reported from the named cultures: a mirror for reflection, never a prediction or an omen.
Did you notice this sign?
Keep in memory the rainbow you saw, the place, and the sky that day: the free notebook takes care of it.
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How is it calculated?
Rainbow: your questions
What does it mean to see a rainbow?
Spiritual readings see covenant, hope, and the passage from a difficult moment to a clearer time. It is born from the meeting of sun and rain, which explains why it is associated with the return of light. Your thought of the moment most often gives it its meaning.
What does the Bible say about the rainbow?
After the Flood, the rainbow is the sign of the covenant between God and the earth, according to Genesis (chapter 9, verses 12 to 17). That is the biblical reading; other cultures see in it Iris, messenger of the gods, or the Bifröst bridge.
Who is Iris?
In ancient Greece, Iris is the messenger of the gods. She personifies the rainbow, and her name designates the arc itself in Greek. Versana mentions her among other readings, without presenting her as the truest.
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