My eyes felt on the book ” Horses and the mystical path – The Celtic Way of Expanding The Human Soul” . I read the book, expecting to get some information about that Celtic way and how they worked with horses. I thought that the author would describe how they integrated old Celtic wisdom into their work but did not find it. I read the book with a pen at hand to underline important passages appealing to me. Looking back there were 6 passages when reaching page 86 and after that none. The book has in total 167 pages. I quote them to you as follows: 
If we fail to know the inner self, our spiritual and creative resources remain inaccessible. Meditation, spiritual study, chanting and praying are no substitutes for self-examination…..
…we had to learn to recognize our juvenile fantasies and wishes as they emerged. And emerge they will in this work with horses….the imagination is the key to a vibrant life. Since we can become ill through the mind, we can also become healthy by exercising the imagination….
The chapter ‘the Celtic connection’ delivered the following:
We discovered that it was the ancient Celtic people who gave birth to this psycho-spiritual nature paradigm…..
I have not found why this is the case through the book.
By accepting the equine reaction, a person would commune with the heart of nature while also questioning personal habits and beliefs. Dialoging with horses was also a vehicle for intensifying intimacy with GOD, because the Celts believe that the Infinite One speaks through all creation.
In the chapter ‘Animals awakening the Human Soul ‘ the next good text came up:
The soul is divided into 3 parts: two being like steeds and the third like a charioteer. We declare the steeds good and bad, but we have not described the excellence of the one nor the badness of the other and what that is what must be done…. The mystical path is one of learning to train our two inner horses, particularly the one that is the ‘bad disobeying one that put us in danger’…this work of the soul is tricky but we persevere in it because it holds the deepest possibilities for lasting joy and more fully realizing our individual potential.It leads to the attention of the heart by progressively gathering and accumulating inner wisdom rather than mere techniques. As the soul grows in its capacity to patiently understand, we gain increasing presence, openness and attunement.
From here the way to ANAM CARA is not far because Anam Cara as introduced by John O’Donohue means:
anam cara is a person with whom we can share all the secrets of our lives. Such a friendship cuts across all conventions, allowing us to be fully recognized and accepted. This person, or animal, is literally a friend of our soul, joining us in ways that transcend our everyday perception.
Anam is the Gaelic word for soul and Cara is the word for friend. In Celtic tradition, an Anam Cara is a teacher, companion or spiritual guide. All creation can be our anam cara and it is a great gift to have some in your live. Maybe it is just one person or one animal or plant. If you found one you immediately will know because it feels like coming home and the soul recognizes the connection in the heart.
The book continues with the statement of J. Needleman that
‘ soul is not a static entity but a movement of energy’
and I agree.
Our soul allows us to more openly see the world around us, the contradictions, helps embrace emotional pain….this ever-moving energy of the soul nurtures towards wholeness…If we view our life from the vantage point of the soul, we learn patience with ourselves and others and from this acquire the inner strength to abide psychological pain…as we continue to travel this inward journey we develop the intuitive radar….the ability to know all is well even in the midst of tragedy… our soul absorbs lessons in indirect ways… as if by transfusion.
Affirmative – have been there, done that and experience those words as true.
Some pages further in the book Pelagius letter’s are cited when saying:
Pelagius stressed the sanctity of all GOD’s creations. The beauty of nature is a reflection of GOD’s beauty and he urged people to care for animals and plants for their own sake
Our world is made perfect for us and we have to live in harmony with all that is and with all other living entities, thus also nature in all it’s facets. We need each other – it is the infinite communion in the circle of life.
The next quote from the book is about what a spiritual life means and personally I think a lot of people need this explanation. Spiritual life is not like the church tell us – it is not the way of refusing and banning all what earthly life means from our life – the so called hell. We just need to experience our ‘ hell ‘ to find our heaven.
Very often, the inertia and repugnance which characterize the so called spiritual life of many Christians could perhaps be cured by a simple respect for the concrete realities of everyday life, for nature, for the body, for one’s work, one;s friends, one’s surroundings, etc. A false super-naturalism which imagines that the supernatural is a kind of platonic realm of abstract essence totally apart and opposed to the concrete world of nature, offers no real support to a genuine life of meditation and prayer. Meditation and prayer have no point and no reality unless firmly rooted in life.
End of quotes.
The book further tells about some cases of the work at their horse farm, tells about the different horse breeding’s in different cultures and countries. What made me furious was the admiration of the Iberian horse breeding. That those horses are able to dance in the bullfight because they learned that running from the bull is no option.
But if respect and love for and communion with all life form and all that is has to be the base of the way of the Celts or other indigenous cultures and we has to learn this again, I cannot see how you can throw your anam cara into a bullfight where it can be hurt to death by the bulls horns. Where is the respect and love and communion with all that is while torturing a bull to death for man’s pride and peoples fun? The authors also love the tango when working with horses.
I see in tango only the abuse of power and the old way of men patronizing woman while the woman has to seduce the man. In Tango I do not find love and communion let alone equanimity….but this is my point of view and feeling.
Throughout the whole book the Celtic Cross is cited and I did some creative Adobe craft to make one suiting the loving communion with horses who are our anam cara when being with them, working with them also on our spiritual journey. Horse therapy is a wonderful way of dealing with your demons. But not only horses can do it. All animals as well as natural surroundings can help people with a scattered mind, broken heart and soul loss.
The cross and the circle. The circle of life, the circle of eternity with infinite birth, death and rebirth, the circle of the medicine wheel, the circle of all that is. The cross meaning the 4 directions, the human being on it meaning as above so below, as left so right and as within so without, the heart in the center in the circle – Da Vinci also knew.
Reveling in nature, believing in fairies and other nature spirits and guides. The magic of dusk and the messages of the animals. The shaman way, the way of the Celts and other indigenous cultures.
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