Why Horses?
Horses live in a socially sophisticated
group, or herd, and as animals of prey, horses depend on their
herd for survival. Over centuries, horses have cultivated a
profound sensitivity to those around them in order to be alert
to danger.
People gather information, gain insight,
and validate their experience through the five senses, sight,
smell, taste, touch, and hearing; while horses use their whole
body to sense and interpret their environment. As humans we
have had the experience of having a "gut" feeling,
which is not necessarily validated by the logic of the five
senses, but refers to an intuitive kind of awareness.
Horses’ ability to survive as prey animals is mainly
accomplished by their masterful ability to intuit, or sense
changes in the stance and arousal levels of other herd members,
an ability they easily transfer to interactions with human
beings. Horses see through the
slightest incongruities of emotion and intention, yet they are
exceedingly patient and forgiving.
“when we draw down the power and
depth of vastness into a single perception, then we are
discovering and evoking magic. By magic we do not mean
unnatural power over the phenomenal world, but rather the
discovery of innate or primordial wisdom of the world as it
is.”
-Chogyam Trungpa
-Chogyam Trungpa
Horses and Symbolism
People have forever been drawn to the
power and beauty and mystery of horses. Archetypally, people
connect horses with transformative and mysterious power; with
extra sensory abilities and with healing. The archetype of the
horse has informed people on many levels as a result of an
intimate relationship we’ve shared with them that has
existed over many thousands of years.
In mythology the horse symbolizes access
to the supernatural, possessing the ability to carry us between
worlds. The Celtic horse goddess,
Epona, is often depicted
riding a horse and carrying a large key symbolic of her access
to other worlds, and of the horse’s ability to carry her
into and out of them. Epona is associated with the mother
goddesses and is connected through the female horse to the
feminine principles: fertility, nourishment, and the earths
abundance including water and healing. Ancient Greek mythology
gives us the story of Pegasus. Pegasus was the winged horse who
would return from his travels back to earth for nourishing
water from the Hippocrene Fountain on Mount Helicon, which had
burst from the ground when his hoof touched it for the first
time. The water of this fountain is said to possess the power
of divine inspiration.
Chiron the Centaur, who was both man and
horse, was a master musician and a mentor of heroes who
believed in the ultimate importance of integrating our
physical, spiritual, and intellectual nature. His teachings
focused on cultivating skills which supported this integration.
Among his students were Jason, Achilles, Hercules, and
Aesclepius, the Greek god of medicine. It is from Chiron that
the healing arts originate, and the philosophy of
"healing"–not only on the physical level, but
as a multi-disciplinary art originate. The metaphor of Chiron
is the "wounded healer", which teaches that
one’s gifts or value comes out of one’s own wounds.
This myth tells us that the journey of healing is the Heroes
Journey.