Tag: Animal Spirit Guides

The Animals Beside Us

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It’s said there’s an animal beside us
from the moment we’re born
’til the moment we die.

Why, then, was I so alone
when I walked through the school doors,
and got knocked down by the animals 
in the playground again and again?

Why was I mocked when I showed a bit of spirit – 
running as a horse round the edges of the tarmac
whilst the others played British Bulldogs or Red Rover 
or skidded on the crips the seagulls fought over?

Why was I so alone when I sat in the classroom
writing secret stories about horses in the back of my books
and sketching them running, jumping showjumps, galloping free?

One of the lucky ones I had the chance to loan a pony
and muck out for free rides yet even at the stables
we were saddled by the same rules – boxed in.

I was like the horse on the end of the lungeline,
the box walker going round and round and round…

My white winged mare revealed herself in the form of a tattoo
when I came of age yet it wasn’t until ten years later
she revealed her magic breaking all taboos.

Now I help others to find the animals beside them –
to bring back their bears, eagles, otters, wolves,
to befriend their snakes and cockroaches.

Together we are slowly escaping our boxes,
learning to see through the illusion of separation,
with the animals beside us to understand why we are here.

*A poem based on my relationship with my white winged mare and on helping others to discover their animal spirit guides and power animals on my introduction to shamanism courses and in power animal retrievals.

I am currently offering free power animal retrievals as I progress in my shamanic training HERE.

The Chasing of Rhiannon and the Nature of Horse

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Tonight I’m giving a talk on animal spirit guides for a local group. One of the topics I am covering is what the story of the Chasing of Rhiannon can teach us about the nature of Horse and ways of approaching Horse and the Gods and spirits in general. I’m also sharing it here.

Rhiannon is the medieval Welsh name of the ancient British Horse Goddess Rigantona ‘Great Queen.’ She appears in the The First Branch of The Mabinogion. This is my retelling of the episode of Her first meeting with Pwyll, Prince of Dyfed.

Pwyll goes to sit on Gorsedd Arberth, a sacred mound in Pembrokeshire, where it is said that if you sit there all night you will either get injured or see something wonderful. Pwyll sits the long night through and at dawn, luckily for him, he sees something wonderful – a beautiful woman in a shining golden dress of brocaded silk on a big, tall, pale white horse. 

As she rides away Pwyll says to one of his men, “Quick, go after her!”

He runs and he runs and he runs but he cannot catch her. 

“Quick, get on a horse!” 

He rides and he rides and he rides but he cannot catch her because the faster he rides the further she gets away and finally she disappears over the horizon and is gone.

Pwyll is bitterly disappointed yet, determined to see her again, he sits on the mound a second night. And at dawn she appears again – a beautiful woman in a shining golden dress of brocaded silk on a big, tall, pale white horse. 

As she rides away Pwyll says to his best rider on his fastest horse, “Quick, go after her!’

He rides and he rides and he rides but he cannot catch her because the faster he rides the further she gets away and finally she disappears over the horizon and is gone.

Pwyll is even more disappointed, yet determined to catch her the next time, he sits on the mound a third night. And at dawn she appears again – a beautiful woman in a shining golden dress of brocaded silk on a big, tall, pale white horse.

As she rides away this time Pwyll himself goes after her on his fastest horse. He rides and he rides and he rides but he cannot catch her because the faster he rides the further she gets away. 

Just as she is about to disappear over the horizon, he shouts, “Maiden, for the sake of the man you love, wait for me.” 

She stops, turns. “I will wait gladly,” she says, “it would have been better for the horse if you had asked a while ago.” 

When Pwyll catches up to her, she draws back her veil, reveals her name, “Rhiannon.”

This story might firstly be seen to relate to Horse as a prey animal. If we chase a horse it will always run faster than us, the faster we chase, getting further away. If we stop, speak quietly, it too will stop, turn, be curious, approach, reveal to us its unique nature.

On another level it relates to the elusive nature of the Horse Goddess and to the Gods and spirits in general. Often, if we chase too hard, try too hard, they evade us. If we stop, ask direct questions, They will turn, respond, reveal Their identities and names.

Folkestone White Horse (Wikipedia Commons)

The Old Three Bears

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In a recent journey circle at the Way of the Buzzard Mystery School we journeyed to Bear to ask for advice on overwintering. I was expecting to receive my usual guidance on slowing down and making time for rest. What happened was surprising. 

When I got to the cave Bear was in a torpor. I pulled back his skin, like velcro, and found to my shock that he was mechanical inside. I searched inside his insides, which were like circuit boards and pulled out a box of cornflakes! I then found myself in a cottage with the three bears shouting at them: “You should be eating porridge not cheap cornflakes!” This made me realise they were not real bears. In the basement of the cottage I found three bear pawprints leading into a woodland. There I found the three bears inside each other like Russian Dolls playing a drum. I was told I must play ‘the Bear Drumbeat.’ As they drummed images came from the drum and were made manifest. I was told, this way, I must ‘repopulate the forest.’ 

This got me wondering if the Goldilocks and the Three Bears story has roots in an older myth about the Old Three Bears from the time between when the Romans imported oats to Britain to feed their horses and potentially to make porridge and bears became extinct 1,500 years ago. Could the Three Bears within each other be a triple form of the Celtic Bear God or Goddess, Artaios or Artio? 

Their advice is suggestive of how images of the Otherworld are evoked by a shamanic drumbeat and of the power of durmming and imagination to create more ecologically viable futures to which extinct animals like Bear might return.