Now, I plan to be a little more careful about what I wish for.

Early last week, a ceremonial rain dance was conducted at Big Bear Lake and eight other locations around the Southland. Just a few days later, over the weekend, one of the earliest major winter storms in memory blanketed Southern California with rain and snow.

I have a new respect for shamans. These guys are good!

Maybe too good.

It changes my thinking about the terrible drought we've endured for years now. I've often pondered the irony of how we can be parched for water, with our rivers emptied, our lakes ravaged and our forests dying, when right here in our midst are powerful medicine men who possess centuries-old wisdom in the art of rainmaking.

I've often thought, what are these guys doing? Are they waiting for us to ask nicely? Beg, even?

Actually, the ceremony last week was more than a rain dance. It was a Sacred Medicine Wheel Ceremony in which a shaman spoke, sang and danced in Big Bear Lake while associates performed similar rituals at eight surrounding sites, including Mount Wilson, Laguna Beach and the Salton Sea. The sites were located at equidistant intervals, like the spokes of a vast wheel reaching from the desert to the sea, with Big Bear Lake at the center.

The purpose of the ceremony was to help restore health to the Earth in our region, and correct imbalances in nature caused by mankind, explained the shaman, Bennie E. LeBeau Sr.

The 54-year-old healer, from the Eastern Shoshone tribe in Wyoming, said he performed a similar ceremony earlier this year to calm disruptive volcanic energy at Yellowstone National Park.

It worked, the shaman said, and he offered these words to doubters: "If it's not the truth for you, don't believe it,' he said. "I'm not here to force anyone to believe anything.'

After seeing the storm that hit Southern California over the weekend, I have one thing to say:

I do believe in shamans, I do believe in shamans, I do believe in shamans.

Snow fell, and stuck, at absurdly low elevations throughout the Southland. Where it didn't snow, it poured rain. Roads were closed. Flood warnings were issued. Motorists and homeowners were stranded. Caltrans ran out of snowplows.

Experts were shocked by the severity of the early-season storm. "It does happen, but it's very rare,' said Sean Kelly, a San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department dispatcher.

Frankly, after witnessing this freak storm, I think we should proceed cautiously with any more of these Sacred Medicine Wheel Ceremonies.

We've all been hearing, in recent articles, books, even movies, about coming "super storms' and other cataclysmic shifts in weather patterns and geologic forces.

It seems Mother Nature is a little irritable these days. Maybe this isn't the best time to be tapping her on the shoulder. Maybe we should lay low for awhile, try to stay out of sight.

Definitely, now that we've seen what powerful shamans can do, maybe we should ask them nicely beg them, even to take it easy for now.

John Weeks appears here Sunday, Tuesday and Wednesday, and in the U Section on Friday. Contact him at (909) 386-3858 or online at john.weeks@sbsun.com