Part I in a series
Bringing together the wisdom of the Earth found in nature, science, mythology and spirituality
Introduction
Writing about the Celtic Goddess Epona and the way in which she was also venerated in the wider Roman culture, even outside of Romano-Britain (link to my post) showcases the exalted and special place that horses had in spiritual meaning across time and cultures.
Even in the modern world, today, there is something very alluring about the Goddess Epona and her association with horses. There is also something alluring about horses that holds a facination to the modern human. Perhaps it is an echo in collective memory, even though modern society makes no conscious space for this. Horses are seen to represent wildness, beauty, freedom and mystery– even in today’s world so far removed in many ways from that of our ancestors and their use of horses.
A horse can be a way of being transported, not only literally, but figuratively. A journey on and with a horse can be a way of becoming EarthWise, of tapping into the ancient whispers of memory about the divine gift of the horse.
Transformative Travels with My Horse
I have my own deeply personal connection with the horse and in forming a connection to the land. From my earliest memories, I was fascinated by horses. There was no real reason for this, in a family who had no horse connections, in an urban environment where horses were infrequent. But I was obsessed. Even as a very young child. I slept with a child’s book that told horse stories. Indulgent grandparents gave me horse related gifts at Christmas and for my birthday. I remember at the age of three or four listening to a record album of cowboy songs, gazing with rapture at the photograph on the cover of wide open skies, cowboys, and yes, of course, horses.
And when I achieved a childhood dream, of having my very own horse, I was set free into the rolling prairie landscape. With my horse, there were no limits. She was fleet and sure-footed, and we could follow any deer trail into the woods, gallop up any rocky hill to its summit, and together weave the story of the land around us.
A World Without Limits
And it opened up a world without limits. The prairies were open for exploring, dirt roads with few cars were open invitations to a wider horizon. It was a time when I felt the raw power of every season, as my horse and I went riding.
Summer was hot—the wind blowing from the south, pushing a hot breeze into a landscape soon turned brown and parched. By mid-summer, the grasses were dry and dull. Not the rich golden of a crop ready to harvest, but limp, scorched, in the summer heat. Shelter from the heat could be found under the shelter of a thick woods. This was a woods that was not natural, but had been planted by an enterprising settler decades ago. The other traces of the settler were long gone, and why they had not remained on the land, just what the story was, was not known. But the trees were planted in steady parallel lines, with wide paths for riding in between. The woods were there and shaped by the hand of humans, but provided a shelter from the hot wind and sun.
The Spiritual Gift of Horses in Different Cultures and Ages
Horses have fascinated humankind since time immemorial. As this quotation explains, from very early ages, horses were seen as spiritual beings, of impacting life on earth while having a presence in the ether above: “In the early Bronze Age human beings across Europe and Asia were obsessed with horses and the sky. Horses transformed society, generating warrior elites. In mythology horses drew the sun across the sky in daytime, and returned at dawn.”
The horse in the landscape
The Uffington White Horse is a literal horse in the landscape. At the same time it is also a spiritual symbol, where the spiritual gift of the horse is marked into the hills. Exactly what the meaning and siginficance was originally, and whether this has changed over time is not known. There are many theories about what the White Horse has meant through time. This is a subject that this EarthWise blog will explore in a future post.
The horse in North American Plains indigenous culture
It is not only in British and Celtic culture where the horse has special significance and spiritual meaning. The horse has special meaning in different indigenous American cultures. In saying this it is important to remember that there are very many different indigenous American cultures, and what meaning and significance the horse has can and will vary across them. As this quote explains: “Plains tribes embraced the horse as a brother in the spirit and a link to the supernatural realm, and incorporated the horse into ceremonies. “
Thus it is apparent that there is particular reverence for the horse in spirituality across time and space. The horse is viewed as providing a connection between earth and the spirit world.
Conclusion
This post has only scratched the surface of what it means to connect spiritually to horses. It considers how horses can open up an EarthWise journey and connection to the land, and what horses meant across time and space in the spiritual realm. This post is the first in a series considering the spiritual meaning and message in horses. Come along for the ride (pun intended) to learn more in future posts about the spiritual gift offered by horses.