Ride Riding

You can ride on a bicycle, a car, a horse and other domestic animals, or even on a person’s back. Also you can ride on a plane, funfair rides, a sledge a rough water ride in a boat, a hot air balloon or dirigible, a surf board, a snowmobile, a water ski, or on skis. In dreams you can ride on any of these or even on flying animals such a centaur and on current is air.

Each of these has different skill requirements and different meanings. So for a surf board you would need skill in constantly adjusting to the wind and waves, a fine balance between your own sense and awareness of nature. With a horse it needs skill in relating to the horse – of course the dream horse – and its moods, life energy and movements. For other rides see the relevant entries such as Funfair – Airplane – Boat Ship – Flying horse.

Flying on air currents is about feeling the subtle energy currents within you and suing them to attain new awareness, yet link it with everyday life.

 Example: That night I dreamt I was on the hill behind my old “home” in Amersham. A strong wind was blowing, but it was warm, sunny, and peaceful. Spreading my arms I caught the wind in my short coat and rose up like a kite. Higher and higher I went, and I experimented with diving and gliding. Sometimes I lost the airlift and tumbled over and over, but at no point did I feel fear. I twisted and found the lift again. At one point I rose to an enormous height and saw the earth distant below me.

Then I glided down and approached the field to land. It was near where Piggots Orchard council houses backed right onto the open hillside above the two old elm trees. A young girl of about six was playing in the field. As I came in to land she saw me and ran away very frightened. I was gliding in the same direction she was running and called out to her not be frightened. She stopped and I landed. In amazement she looked at me and said, “How did you get to be up there?”

Without realising it we are all riders. For instance, you may think you are your body, but most people are only aware of a tiny part of your body processes. Many people are even frightened of or at odds with their natural body feelings and functions, struggling with their eating or their self-image, or even their sexual appetite. Depending on anti-depressants, alcohol and other tricks to feel okay. But all the time they are carried along by their life processes into changes that many fight – fear of dying of illness. In fact, you are riding a very ancient beast, your body, and many of us fail to learn how to ride it well.

This beast that we ride has a healthy fear of much that goes on in today’s world. Fear is a guardian that protected the ancient beast from uncountable dangers for millions of years. Although it appears like a great and ancient beast – the process of Life – it is full of mystery and magic. It has brought about living beings in incredible variety. It has possibilities we cannot even guess at. Within itself it holds the secrets of creation and destruction, of sleep and waking, of the intricacies of mind and spirit. It has unimaginable power and tenacity. It is beyond us and yet intimately of very core of self. We relate to it, we enliven it, we call it out or imprisonment or deaden it by every act we do.

Life’s age old unconscious processes are still the major part of our being, yet we seldom consciously meet them – except in dreams. As our physical and psychological health depend upon a reasonable co-operation between the spontaneous processes of life and our conscious decisions and actions, the encounter in dreams is vital. As I often point out to those I am advising we are a human face on a long line of beautiful animals. In fact, “You ride an ancient beast.” The ancient beast is your body, and your conscious self is the modern and recent rider of it. Some ‘riders’ do not understand their animal needs – and the fact that we have several levels of brain that are independent of each other proves this. Still active in us are our Reptile Brain, our mammalian Brain, and our Human Brain, and the reptile and mammalian brains are still very active and constitute a large part of our human unconscious. See Brain Levels and Dreams and Levels of Awareness in Sleeping and Waking.

Idioms: Along for the ride; a rough ride; ride something out; let it ride; ride roughshod; take somebody for a ride; riding high.

Useful Questions and Hints:

What is it you ride?

Do you ride well or with difficulty?

If it is difficult what skills do you need to develop?

Are you ridden or riding something or someone else?

Have you learned how to look after the amazing beast you ride?

See Ox Herding – Meeting the Unknown – Integration – meeting oneself – Techniques for Exploring your Dreams