Horse Horses
There is not so much difference between the horse and the dog. They are both domesticated animals, and so represent urges and drives in ourselves we have learned to harness or direct. The big difference is that the horse can carry us and serve us in our labours much more powerfully than a dog.
For myself I feel the horse is the most beautiful and loved herbivore.
The dream horse also depicts or expresses our pleasurable energy and exuberance, the sort of enthusiasm or feelings of well-being that can ‘carry’ one through the day easily; dynamic sexual drive; the physical energy and life processes that ‘carry’ us around. As such it may also link with the life processe. Horses like other animals are quick to respond to love and danger. So they can be panicked and you can feel the effect of this part of you. See Mammal Brain
The energy that carry – or pull – us through growth and ageing, as happens when we dream of a horse drawn carriage or cart. Therefore in old age the unbidden processes which move us toward death may be depicted as the horse in a threatening or helpful role. The horse depicts human instincts that have been harnessed or socialised for generations, but have perhaps been let slide into non-use or crushed. It is also survival drive, sexuality, love, all yearning toward service, toward metamorphosis, all that has powerful energy to move us.
A horse or a man on a horse can sometimes signify a messenger or a message.
In his book Dreams and Dreaming, Norman MacKenzie says the horse ‘… is dynamic power and a means of locomotion; it carries one away like a surge or instinct. It is subject to panics like all instinctive creatures which lack higher consciousness. Also it has to do with sorcery and magic spells, especially the black, night horse, which heralds death.’ In a woman’s dream the horse can sometimes represent her relationship with a man and the power and strength she gets from that, as in the following dream.
Example: As I talked to the pale golden horse it felt more and more as if I was talking to a male companion who was in union with me. As I talked about my mother, she was standing before me in full anger and blaming me for bringing out the witch in her. H.
Example: A rather shadowy man in a building opposite to where I used to live as a teenager was introducing me to a new job. I seemed to understand that I was to do a milk-round. He led a small horse from out of the building. It was to draw a cart. When the horse saw me it ran to me and become very excited and loving, rubbing against me and licking me with a very long tongue. I was both pleased and slightly threatened. Threatened because it was so intense. At one point though we rubbed against each other with a degree of sexual pleasure.
I believe many young girls feel totally as if they are fully connected and loved as the photo illustrates.
But our dream horse can be a wonderful guide and mirror for us.
Example: I love horses too and they are great teachers, for they mirror what goes on inside us. I used to ride horses for many years and when I was not convinced about what I asked the horse to do, it would not consider me as its leader and was more likely to refuse to do what I had asked. Their sensing is perfectly developed. Anna, A few weeks ago I saw a documentation about Buck Brannaman. He says –
“Your horse is a mirror to your soul, and sometimes you may not like what you see. Sometimes, you will.” So says Buck Brannaman, a true American cowboy and sage on horseback who travels the country for nine grueling months a year helping horses with people problems.
Black or dark horse: Unaccepted passions; threat of death. The unknown parts of your tremendous energy arising out of unconscious processes. The dream horse represents the very long history we have had with horses, through peace and terrible wars there are very long associations we have with them. It shares all that with us and so can be realisations emerging from our long past. Or it can represent threatening changes. Riding a black horse can represent the amazing energy used to bring awareness of things that had been unconscious into consciousness.
Blinkered horse: Not allowing oneself to see what is happening around you; anxiety about life, or an attempt to control ones natural anxiety or panics.
Controlling the horse or fear of it: Trying to control, or fear of, feelings of love and sexuality, of our own natural drives and emotions that are powerful enough either to give us motivation in our activities, or drag us along unwillingly.
Dead horse: Serious loss of energy or motivation which could lead to illness or depression; an old and dying set of habits and motivations or way of life.
Falling off horse: Relating badly to ones urges and needs. This could result in tension, breakdown or illness.
Grooming a horse: Taking care of ones basic needs such as food, shelter, sex.
Horse and carriage: The natural processes of life that move us through youth to old age; forces that can move us, either from within or as natural events, but which, if we are relating well to the horse, we can guide in some measure. It can also indicate the inner power which brings thoughts to awareness, things you might be blocking to think about. The horses represent the power which draws the mind.
Horse dragging the dreamer along: Impetuosity of feelings; feelings dragged along by natural urges.
Horse loving you or expressing sexual feelings: The flow of positive and natural sexuality and warmth from within.
Horse race: The events of everyday life, and your relationship with people; everyday competition and where you rate yourself in it; what happens in the race shows how you are relating to opportunity, or how you feel about your accomplishments and being part of the ‘human race’.
Horse running freely: Allowing ones emotions or sexuality free reign; love of life.
Horse unwilling to move or carry: Your inner natural reaction is against the action or direction you are trying to go. Sometimes this is a warning that you should not go in that direction.
Horseshoe: Good luck, receptivity if prongs upwards; bad luck or lack of receptiveness if prongs downwards.
Large horse: Enormous energy.
New born horse: Emerging energy or new motivations.
Old or worn out horse: State of your feelings, perhaps worn out from overwork; may refer to a member of the family.
Riderless horse: Sometimes represents the death of someone, as in the following example.
Example: “I dreamed that I was awakened by the sound of a horse’s hooves in the street. I saw a white horse, with no rider, stopping at midnight in front of our house. I knew it came for my younger sister. I went to the door and opened it to call her, when suddenly I saw her coming down the stairs, all dressed in white. She did not say a word to me, but walked with stately steps down the stairs, through the hall, and out of the door. She mounted the horse and rode away. I woke up crying.” The woman’s sister died a month later.
Riding or leading horse easily: Good relationship with inner drives and emotions; the harmony between instinctive drives and personality.
Running away from a horse or horsemen: Fear of sexuality, which includes responsibility for parenthood and relationship. Fear of ones own strong desires or urges; avoiding the responsibility of directing ones own feelings and desires.
Sick or dying horse: Loss of health, energy, enthusiasm. Have a physical check.
Speaking horse: Realisation of what you are feeling but have not been aware of; expression of levels of feeling or body processes usually unconscious.
Strange or unknown horseman/woman: Message from the unconscious; a new opportunity or event.
Struggling to control the horse: Fighting with ones urges and natural drives; difficulty in controlling ones emotions or sexuality.
The mare: femininity, receptiveness, fertility or a woman.
The stallion: masculinity, power and virility or a man.
This energy wave rises, but in fulfilling itself in genital sex the wave falls again, self-awareness with it. However, if the energy is released, and yet not allowed to spill out in the full sexual release, the energy keeps on rising – flying in fact – lifting awareness with it, until it becomes a vast awareness of life and death. The white horse can have a similar meaning. For instance a woman turning her love of her children into social caring suggests a way of expression that goes beyond personal drives or the instinctive urges toward personal survival. She ‘flies up’ into a wider social context. See: Cayce, Edgar.
In mythology Pegasus was born from the blood when Perseus cut off Medusa’s head. Pegasus then lived roaming freely until Bellerophon caught him with a golden bridle given him by Athena. Bellerophon went through adventures such as the slaying of chimera with the help of Pegasus. But Bellerophon tried to ride Pegasus to Mount Olympus (Heaven) but Zeus caused Pegasus to throw him off and fall back to Earth.
However Pegasus arrived at Mount Olympus where he served Zeus. The symbolic meaning of this is that when the uncontrolled and undirected processes of thought and intellect are stilled a new level of experience or energy is released. This new way of relating to sexuality or life energy can uplift or expand consciousness to the point where we arrive at cosmic consciousness. But the old human personality cannot manage this and falls away as a new being emerges. Chimera, the destructive and illusory view of life arising from a purely sensory view of life is killed in the process. See: cosmic consciousness.
Thrown from horse: It depends on who is thrown from the horse and why. In general though it suggests that the instinctive or spontaneous life force has cast off an attitude that is restraining it, or not dealing with it well. One dreamer who saw a man thrown from a white horse realised that it showed how, “The forces of restraint, moral, sexual, worldly active that I have been imposing on myself have been thrown off.”
Tied up horse: Inhibition; need for release of feelings and allowing freedom of expression to feelings and creativity.
Training a horse: Developing new habits; directing your energies in a socially acceptable way; learning to direct sexual and emotional energy.
Uneasy on ride: being taken for a ride; feeling ones emotions or natural urges are dominating.
White horse: Changing sexual drive into love and wider awareness; a meeting with expanded awareness of yourself.
Wild horse: Undirected energy; sexuality which might not take care of personal or interpersonal needs.
Working horse: The energy or motivation needed to work; how you feel about yourself, that you are only a work-horse, or perhaps treated as such.
The astrological sign of Sagittarius is depicted by the half human half horse. Sagittarius, the Archer, is a ‘Mutable’ ‘Fire’ sign. In it the free, unrestrained activities of Aries which became ‘fixed’ qualities in Leo, now become balanced and harmonised, and work toward high aims. It is represented in the Zodiac as a Centaur-like being, half human, half animal, turning to shoot an arrow at the ‘Scorpion.’ The Sagittarian is said to have high ideals and philosophy, prophetic insight, and the power that overcomes sin and death. |
In this sign the animal nature is ruled and directed by the human spiritual nature. The symbol of Sagittarius – half beast and half man represents this new emergence. The emergence of the human out of the animal, and the different sense that human beings have of themselves. It suggests a new type of human being in fact. If we look at the Zodiac from there on – Capricorn, we have the half goat half man figure – until we arrive at Aquarius, a fully fledged human figure. The human faculty is to transcend, to make that change. To switch across seasons, physiological changes, to actually attain consciousness. This allows us to look at the seasons, to adjust to them in a completely new way than the animal.
Example: ‘As I talked to the pale golden horse it felt more and more as if I were talking to a male companion who was in union with me.’ Alison B.
Alison’s horse is obviously portraying her feelings for a man, but also that motivating and active power in herself. The dream shows how easy and integrated she is with this.
Example: I was driving along Tottenham Court Road with my wife and my youngest son. As we neared Euston Road I saw the magnificent sight of hundreds of horses coming full gallop toward me. I knew it was a great horse race – something like the Grand National. There was every sort of horse – many riderless, all surging in a mass so thick there seemed no space between them. Then we were walking in the Covent Garden area, and it was still a market. I was crying openly at the wonder of what I had seen. Edward.
Edward’s tears are because his dream brought him a glimpse of something much bigger than his own small life. He touched the amazing flow of the energy behind the human race in its infinity of forms. Perhaps just lightly he experienced cosmic consciousness, the state of awareness that transcends ones own limitations of body and mind. But the dream also has elements of the competitive drive we feel as humans, and the struggle to know where we stand in relationship with others and the mass of other people we exist within.
Idioms: Back the wrong horse; from the horse’s mouth; don’t look a gift horse in the mouth; horse sense; you can lead a horse to water; wild horses; workhorse; horsing about; getting on your high horse; eat like a horse; back the wrong horse; beating a dead horse. See: spiritual life in dreams .
Useful Questions and Hints:
What is your relationship with the horse and what does this say about how you relate to your own motivating and energising drives?
Where is the horse taking you, or where are you directing the horse – this gives you clues to your direction in life?
Is the horse decidedly male or female – if so is there a connection with how you are relating to someone or yourself?
See Talking to Inner Self – Summing Up – Techniques for Exploring your Dreams – Martial Art of the Mind
Comments
i recently had a dream where two strong ,muscular brown horses were there. one of them was was trying to break open our house door with it’s hoofs. it banged and banged hard and finally succeded. while this was happening i was trying to tell my husband to see this and do something about it. but he just looked and did not seem to be concerned or bother about it. and in the process the horses entered our house and were roaming freely.
all this we were seeing from a distance . but the horses were beautiful.
please could u interpret this. thankyou.
i dreamt of feeding a white horse in an open pasture. At first i was feeding him orange peels but then he spoke to me and said that he would prefer apples, so i fed him apples. when he was finished he turned around and ran into the open field.
Last night I dreamt of a very weak sick black horse sitting on a couch out in my backyard.At first the horse appeared dead, but I saw his eye flutter and realized it was still alive. On the couch with the horse was a girl I did not recognize about 12 years old. I looked at the horse and realized I had not been feeding it and maybe it was starving. I ran inside and found some apples and carrots but when I came back outside the horse was gone. He had appeared too sick too move so I thought someone had taken the horse.
my dream ad different meaning which i hope you can help i saw 2 white ponies sitting in the middle of the street while a car was going to run them over i went to the middle and u can say i saved them but one a looked at the corner there was a dead pony i put a string to one of them and the other i carried it while it felt nutured and put his head in my shoulder while we walk. but i found out there was another pony a saphire that ran but i couldn’t find it. what does it mean can you help me?
Paola – Please read http://dreamhawk.com/dream-encyclopedia/brain-levels-and-dreams/#mammalbrain and realise that we are a large part animal and so dream about them. Your dream is about realising that you inner animal can be injured by too much commercial influence, but you are giving it love and caring for it.
Tony
I had this dream last night, I was at this millionaires house, he invited me for dinner, and said that mum use to bring me here when I was a kid, he lived rural on a lifestyle block, out of town somewhere. I felt that he was a doctor, anyway he had this maid and old asian lady, who smiled and was really nice, he said she yous to always look after me. His daughter who was very pretty was sitting on this seat and she was taking down all my details, like the type of information you put in those friendship books when you were a kid, lol but she put this information in her little lap top. Anyway we started walking out the drive way and I looked up at this sign and it said Mor Vale the sign was sort of broken, when I looked around as far as the eye could see, my sense and emotion in my dream, was like I was in a very very bautiful place and that it was a very wealthy place, Green as green rolling hills, and beautiful mansions surround, as I was taking this all in we were walking on the side of the road, than I look up and there is this race horse running right towards me, I just stood there and this horse jumps directley over me, as it jumps over me the millionair is calling out the name. then another horse and another horse. Im standing there trying to remember the names and I am trying to make sentences to the names to help me remember…….. this man and I, go to this restaurant and sit at a table near a window and I ask him, who were those horses and what were their names, who do they belong to, he starts giving me different names, names that are different to the ones I remembered in the dream, this dream was clear as clear, and even in the dream I remembered the horses names as clear as clear, but when I asked him what the names were it changed, so than I sort of lost the names…… What does this mean?
Hello Tony..interesting information, thanks.
I had a dream that I was flying (unassisted some how or perhaps in spirit) very low to the ground over a dozen or so chestnut horses and their riders all who had just fallen dead and were lying in long, lush green grass on the road side. All of the horses faces were covered by the grass and they were all in beautiful condition with no apparent injuries. Hope you wouldn’t mind shedding some light on this.
Thanks Lynda
Hey Tony! I had a dream last night where I was on a ranch where a small, sweet stray dog kept being repeatedly kicked and thrown around by a huge, wild brown stallion. The horse (and all other horses in the dream) could talk, and this horse kept brutally taunting the dog as it kicked it around. I felt an overwhelming desire to protect the dog, so I kept rushing to its side to cradle and comfort it, but the horse would only kick it out of my arms and continue to fling it around. Finally, I went and found the biggest, wildest stallion I could find and jumped on it bareback. It bucked and stomped at first, but finally it gave in out of respect for my determination, and helped me chase after the dog’s attackers. The violent stallion had been joined by another horse, but once they saw me on the bigger, older stallion they reluctantly let me save the dog, and I carried it away to safety. Can you please tell me what this might mean?
I had a dream where there was this black horse with a mechanic eye and it just had a very creepy aura about it. The scenery was located in somewhere like Kansas during a tornado. Yet there was one little girl who was unafraid of it and the black horse chased after the little girl. The black horse was then swept away by the winds.
Lanie – You seem to be in the middle of enormous changes in your life – the tornado – and it has uncovered a childhood fear. Although you dealt with the fear and overcame it during childhood, it seems possibly that it has reappeared. But the dream suggests that the winds of change going on in you and around you will banish any old feelings and usher in the new world for you.
It is difficult to put in words the feelings of childhood terror.
Tony
I dreamt about trying to ride big white horse through swamp/forest. I fell off and thought I was unhurt, but as I looked at my hands one off my fingers was gone, well it was only a portion of my ring finger. What was strange was the distal portions of my ring finger was still attached to my body floating there but the proximal portion of ring was gone. I finally managed to put it back on but I was scared that I would get hurt and lose it again
uhm.. I was wondering, I had a dream 2 days ago that a horse was outside my house; it was a dark brown horse. It felt natural to me that a horse would be outside my house in the dream. As I was looking at it outside my house window, it dropped on the ground. Then I took 2 apples (it was half rotten, but thats all I had in the dream) and I went outside to feed the healthy part of the apple to the horse. When I fed the horse, it rose up and it was fine again. What does that mean? Can you help me? (it was also grey and cloudy in the dream)
I had a very vivid dream last night, my partner who I am separated from at the moment and I were driving along in a pick up truck, he was driving. I was looking out the window of the truck and saw this huge beautiful shiny brown horse with black mane and tale, a few people were leading it and walking with it back to the stables I think. A voice then told me that the horse is going to heaven. Then we got to a milk bar, got out the car, started walking to the milk bar along a fence line and a big black bull charged along and jumped at me when I got to the counter of the milk bar, the lady behind the counter said its okay to pat him but I was so so frightened of the bull and ran over behind my partner.
and im a teen girl if that helps, the horse was male 😉
Hi, I had a dream where this brown horse was running around wildely , people tried to tame it but it didnt work.(i cant remember very clearly) and some how i got on the horse and fell over. but then after about 10 mins. i was riding the horse i hadnt tamed it but the horse apeared as my friend. not following every word of my command but kind of following what him self thought was right?. we were riding through a desert not the red sand type like uluru. but burned trees and white sand. and there was a water lake me and my horse was kind of drowning in it. i swam and came up but i saw my horse struggling and nearly drowned and went through a woodpile, and there were crocodiles in it. i again quickly jumped into the watar and saved the horse. I felt a deep connection with this horse like it wasd one of my familey members knwing i could have gotton killed in the water.I jumped and rescued the horse. Can you please tell me what this dream means, thank you.
Good day and Thank you for taking the time to read my note. I had a dream/vision last evening that has left me with the need to search out its meaning. here goes. In the dream I looked up at the night sky…the stars were dancing moving forming new patters. One was of wings…then the other was of a horse…made of stars…i was amazed …then the stars came closer to me I lifted up my right hand and the horses head came closer and closer until he touched my hand. nuzzled and gave me this energy and turned and gallopped back into the heavens. I looked up again and the heavens were back to normal. Yet I remain changed….seeking its meaning….I know its a powerful gift….What is your impression. Thank you
Gypsy – That is a very powerful dream and is as you say a great gift from the great powers that are a part of our lives.
Such messages are very personal and are a part of you that needs to be investigated. So I would suggest you try using http://dreamhawk.com/dream-dictionary/practical-techniques-for-understanding-your-dreams/#TalkingAs and – http://dreamhawk.com/dream-encyclopedia/acting-on-your-dream/#BeingPerson as they can be very helpful.
I had dream where the stars took shape and it took me six months understand it – see http://dreamhawk.com/inner-life/the-prophecy-of-the-star-beings/
Tony
I just had a dream about a horse. This horse was very big and thick, cream or khaki in color. It was running around wildly. But as it ran, it took a wrong turn, fell and split in half. It was still alive and in pain. Some people, mostly men, went to its aid. Other animals also went to its aid, such as rabbits and squirrels. Some rabbits and squirrels also died in the attempt to get close to it. They were run over by cars.
Judy – What a mixture of feelings your dream is. It is difficult to find the word to say it, but I will try.
You have a fine strong constitution – the horse. Unfortunately you may be experiencing mixed feeling arising from within you – your instinctive self. We all have three levels of our brain – the reptilian brain, the mammalian brain as well as the human – see http://dreamhawk.com/dream-encyclopedia/brain-levels-and-dreams/#mammalbrain. Some how it must have got mixed messages from you and so it is split in half – not literally, just it drive to do what you want it to do.
Then all the gentle feelings try to help it but are crushed by the mad whirl of the world we live in. See http://dreamhawk.com/approaches-to-being/meeting-the-worlds-turmoil/ .
As an example of how this works I offer this: When I left my first wife and was living with my present wife, we shared a lovely country cottage in a small hamlet. Although beautiful, the few months I lived there was an emotional hell because I was away from my children, and because of the pain of the divorce. My second wife and I then moved to be nearer my children. We had left some beehives at the previous cottage however, and so six months later we started driving back to collect them. On the way I started experiencing severe stomach pains. The suddenness of this, and the fact I couldn’t think of any physical cause for the pain made me investigate my feelings. As soon as I did this it was obvious that a part of my nature which was usually unconscious, was just like my dog, responding in a conditioned reflexive way. The cottage was a place of torment – why were we going back? More to the point, how could it stop me going back? How could it deter me from facing that pain again? I realised it was an animal part of me crying out not to take it back into that place of hell again. So I talked to it saying that we were only going back for a short time, and we would be out of there soon. As soon as I assure it/myself the pain disappeared and the journey was done easily.
By the way, thank you for being a singer. It is such a great thing to sing your song, as difficult as it may be at times.
Tony