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
Last year I had a dream awhile back about a horse ruing hard and inside of its legs and lower body there was a black dog crying, wailing and bleeding from the work ethic of the horse… and today i had a dream I was aiming to shoot a gun and i accidentally kill a horse. What do you think?
I had a dream last night that has left me emotional and I don’t understand it. I dreamt that I had a pet horse,she was brown and big. She committed suicide by jumping off of a building and landed on a smaller buildings rooftop next to the one she jumped off of. The cops drove me to the scene and when I got to the rooftop I kneeled on the grown crying hysterically saying,”Baby why did you do that? Why did you leave me?” They kept trying to pull me off of her and I wouldn’t budge. I woke up with pain in my chest and still sobbing. I didn’t understand it,I don’t have a horse in real life. Never have and yet since I’ve woken up I’ve been mourning over it. It played out like a movie ,I watched her suicide and everything. Please give me some insight,it’s left me unsettled.
Gia Marie – I think the dream shows that you have chosen to feel a victim of your own decision to “kill the horse inside you”.
Often we do not dare to admit that this is what we are doing to ourselves, because admitting it can give rise to feelings of guilt, which as I have perceived, are difficult to deal with (too).
It is interesting that many of the ways life heals us are avoided by us or are felt as unpleasant.
Also most of us are raised in such a way that we do not learn to take full responsibility for the inner world we create.
Our ideas, thoughts and beliefs are the main builders, and it is a world we then live in. We build an inner world that few people realise they have, and that inner world constantly controls how they relate to and deal with the outer world, the people, animals and events we meet.
See http://dreamhawk.com/inner-life/inner-world/
The good news is that you can decide otherwise; take full responsibility for your state of mind and bring your horse back to Life in your inner world.
So what feelings are connected with your horse – fear, anger, love, wisdom – and in what way did you kill it?
Standing on a roof is a symbol for heightened awareness and so try to explore why your horse did not develop YET the higher possibilities latent in it?
(See “Winged Horse” in this feature.)
Please do continue to explore your dream by being the (dead) horse: http://dreamhawk.com/dream-encyclopedia/acting-on-your-dream/#BeingPerson
Another helpful approach is to carry the dream forward in a more satisfying way.
Flying suggests the desire to rise above things, to attain greater heights, to break free of limiting viewpoints or cultural norms. Freud explained all flying dreams as expressive of sexual desires, intercourse, or life in the womb, which in some cases is true. But flying also represents ambition, abstract thought, and rising above your fears.
So why not give your horse wings and let it fly?
http://dreamhawk.com/dream-encyclopedia/peer-dream-group/#carryforward
I think it will also be helpful to read this article Gia Marie http://dreamhawk.com/dream-encyclopedia/spiritual-life-in-dreams/
Good Luck!
Anna 🙂
Hi there,
For three nights I dream the same dream, I’m standing by my husband infront of something and when I look to the side I see a black horse in a tree on a branch and when I look at it, it looks like its sitting down, every time.
Angelina – Climbing a tree can be a symbol of exploring the upper reaches of your potential or of getting a wider view. Since the horse is not moving anymore, I wonder “what you are waiting for or what you are looking for?”
It could also mean feeling impressed or awed; a challenge. Also some form of contact with forces or influences latent in your being that are ‘higher’ than your present stage of maturity or development.
So try being the horse http://dreamhawk.com/dream-encyclopedia/acting-on-your-dream/#BeingPerson
to explore what it is doing “up there”?
Good Luck!
Anna 🙂
I was wanting to ask you about a dream I had this morning around a quarter to 8 where I saw a beautiful black horse with a white star on it’s forehead wearing a blue halter strutting around inside of an enclosed arena. Between the horse and I was fencing and it was watching me as it proceeded to trot around behind the fence.
As the horse came around a corner to where it would be able to come right up to me it suddenly was shot straight in the head by an unknown individual standing behind me to which it was immediately killed. I was shocked, confused and saddened by the sudden death of the horse.
I have read your descriptions of what some of this symbolizes but would love to have more clarification as to what I should be expecting from this vision.
Dear Mandy – Every image and person in your dreams is an expression of your own life process. As such it is alive and intelligent and is something sent to help you. A dream is like a projection from a movie projector, except that you are the projector.
Everything you see as outside you is coming from you, your emotions, your fears, your beliefs, your joys and explorations and are all you, clothed in the dream images and drama.
The horse in your dream I feel is a symbol of the unconscious mind and the white star on its forehead – the third eye – is your own intuition or inner vision; a subtle sense of the cosmos and your relationship with it.
The “unknown individual” I see as the aspect of you in the past, that decided – consciously or unconsciously – to kill the horse.
Do know that whatever “died” in your inner world, can be brought back to Life as well.
Your dream horse cannot be killed in your inner world, in the sense that “all is lost now”.
All you can experience is being shocked, or saddened or confused about its death. We make the mistake of taking our very real values from our outer life into our inner life of dreams.
A way to bring your intiution back to Life is to explore this dream – and even more dreams 🙂 – for yourself.
So try being or talking as the “unknown individual” and explore for instance why you wrote “unknown individual”, instead of “unknown person”. You can ask yourself for instance if that is about being too competitive and with this choice forgetting about your “place in the Whole of Life”?
See http://dreamhawk.com/dream-encyclopedia/acting-on-your-dream/#BeingPerson
and
http://dreamhawk.com/dream-dictionary/practical-techniques-for-understanding-your-dreams/#TalkingAs
Also worthwhile reading for you is
http://dreamhawk.com/inner-life/using-your-intuition-1/
Anna 🙂
I had a dream of being by wavy waters, at the bottom of some cliff or hill there was A big black horse with white hair inbetween it’s eyes short hair, it also had a long neck and was under neath a tree.
There was a disturbing nuetural blue face with closed eyes non male or female
This big blue face only showed the eyes the nose and the mouth it looked like a statue or something off trip what the ****does this mean plz help
I had a very vivid dream about an old white horse, all worn out, that was kept in a large freezer ( it was still alive but I could see ice all around it as it moved) in order to be taken to a slaughterhouse. Outside, there was another one in line for the freezer. It was black and balky.The owner sold it to the slaughterhouse. i tried to pass by it, and it`s rear leg almost hit me. It doesn`t make any sense to me. I did not think of horses, nor saw any since more than a month. Can you help me figure it out?
I have seen i my dream horses made of cloud in the sky ….. can you tell me its meaing
SYED MINHAJUDDIN – In order to understand this dream, I looked at “clouds” in the dream dictionary:
http://dreamhawk.com/dream-dictionary/cloud-clouds/
Clouds are also the crystal ball of the mind, and in their many shapes and shades depict the intuitions, hopes, fears and wonders of our inner self. So we may ‘see’ things in our dream clouds that are visionary, intuitive or expressive of what we hold within. The clouds may represent or in some way illustrate these inner intuitions and motivations.
Because clouds are so high and often obscure or give a sense of depth to what is even higher, we sometimes use them in dreams to suggest dimensions of experience that are presently either beyond us or only vaguely glimpsed. In such dimensions of our mind we may see beings who live at that level of existence. In a practical way these beings are potentials we have that are not yet manifest in our daily physical life.
Anna 🙂
X -I was standing near a dock that looked out on a bay or cove of quaint houses like you’d find in a waterfront town in New England. I was holding a camera, talking to a woman unknown to me about how much I enjoyed the character of towns like this. I was thinking that I might want to start doing photography, which I currently do not do professionally.
Out of nowhere (but seemed like it came from the direction of the water), a dry, but shiny black stallion gracefully runs onto the dock, calmly stops and stands still to look at me.
I exclaimed in excitement to the other woman about how amazing the situation was and about the beauty of the horse. She said she did not see a horse, even though I was seeing it about 10 feet in front of us. Then I woke up.
Right now I am single and feeling like I’m in need of a new direction, a new project, but haven’t figured out what I might be interested in doing, or what direction to take. I haven’t been in a serious relationship since my marriage.
In 2009, just before I asked for a divorce, I had another, much longer, very vivid dream about a horse, but it was dirty white, hidden away when I found it and began ripping away boards to set it free.
I’m not exactly sure what this latest dream about the black stallion means.
I had a dream, where my pet horse (Prince), was unwell, he was laying down… The dream changed (I think I was woken up), then after going back to sleep I went into another dream which bled Into one about riding, we went around the corner and I remember saying “I wish I brought the camera”, went into a garage (horses not normally kept here in real life) and my horse was dead and shrunk. I couldn’t scream but the lady with me screamed but I couldn’t hear her… I then remember running up my front stairs (horses aren’t kept at my house either) with my horses head in a box…. Crying to brother who ran outside… Then I woke up. This was the most awful nightmare I was shaking…. What could this mean
Marlie – It is helpful to understand that all the symbols – like the horse, the camera, the garage etc. – in your dream are parts of your inner world
and that our outer world is very different from that.
See http://dreamhawk.com/dream-dictionary/what-we-need-to-remember-about-us-3/#Project
and
http://dreamhawk.com/dream-dictionary/what-we-need-to-remember-about-us-3/#Animals
Your dream start with you being aware that your inner horse is ill, which can be a symbol of loss of health, energy and enthusiasm in your life.
Since there is no time in our unconscious mind – it is like everything happens at once there – you are then able to return to the moment in your life where your inner horse was still strong enough to carry you.
What I perceive as wonderfully helpful in your dream, is that the moment you say “I wish I brought the camera”, you are able to experience in your dream what happened to your inner horse, after it got ill; your desire helped you to review that “old film” again.
Often those memories return in the form of a nightmare.
See http://dreamhawk.com/dream-dictionary/nightmare/
and
http://dreamhawk.com/dream-encyclopedia/eight-step-method-to-manage-intense-emotion/
As far as your inner Prince is concerned 🙂
Nothing can die in your dreams and in your inner world, which means, you can bring your inner horse back to life again.
The positive reaction of your unconscious mind towards your wish to have brought the camera shows how well you are capable too of “power dreaming”.
So I trust it will be helpful to use that tool and find a happier outcome with your inner horse.
See http://dreamhawk.com/dream-encyclopedia/secrets-power-dreaming/
Good Luck!
Anna 🙂
I had a dream last night that my boyfriend and i were walking a red/brown horse with no saddle, but had the raines..we walked all the way to the store to buy it the biggest best carrots..what could this mean?
Dreamt of a kudu jumping across a road and immediately after a brown male horse jumping in the opposite side into the wild. Both animals cleared the road and I watched this through a window
Hi Tony,
I had a very rare dream last night, I was walking in a long black tunnel and suddenly I saw a train that was not moving on my right side a bit further down (I could see the situation from far), it had some passengers in and some outside waiting for something very calmly, then there was a little boy that was riding on a very wild horse and the horse started to kill the passengers that were inside and then it ran off… it was very weird because i remember it so well… i think it was a light brown horse. does it mean anything??
thank you,
Nik
I was in an old garden house (where me and my family used to live in summertime before we sold it). There was some kind of party going on in the basement. Suddenly the mare rides out of the basement . She was pregnant and began to give birth. I had to cut her belly to take her baby foal and placenta off. I felt that It’s my responsibility to do this thing on my own. The placenta was huge and bloody. It was a lot of blood everywhere. The foal was healthy and could stand on his feet. Then three man came and brought mare out. her abdominal incision was still open but she was alive.
Silv – You are a woman who is not afraid of your own feelings, and gets on with what you see needs to be done – quite a woman in fact.
The mare is your own powerful natural instinctive feelings often felt as feelings or drives that are not thought out but felt strongly. You were in a relaxed feeling, and from the basement the mare rides out – the basement is the place in you where your instincts emerge from – the unconscious. The unconscious is just a word, but it often means things we are barely aware of and do not notice but are often deeply felt.
You must have been feeling lately or will do soon that there is something brewing inside of you that wants to be born. See http://dreamhawk.com/approaches-to-being/questions-2/#Summing as it will explain things about dreaming that would take a lot of time to write about.
The three (wise?) men who arrived just after the birth were showing you the open place within you that you carried the new and young horse – something that will quickly grow and give a great amount of help. It will provide greater physical energy and strength – for it is the ability you use when your body works.
Tony
I dreamt me and my family were walking through fields to find a fairground. To find 100s of dead red horses in a muddy river I looked around an up in the sky they was red horses flying round in circles without wings. We tried to look for help but there was no one around. All i could see we’re big giant trees in a row. Then the horses started falling from the sky it was horrible.
In complete darkness there was a darker circle, maybe a tunnel, out of which a bay horse suddenly galloped. There did not seem to be any ground or anything else around. I looked on and distinctly thought, “a horse, a horse BUT NO RIDER.” This distinction seemed to be very important, and I woke up and thought I have to find out what it means.
Leanne – Was this a dream or a waking experience, for it has the characteristics of them both. I will try to translate the imagery.
The darkness is your core self, form of nothingness and everything. For everything cannot have form for then it would be something. And the darker circle is the point of creation where the unknown everything takes form. And from this moment of creation a bay horse galloped. There was no ground for it came from the bodiless state where you are on the verge of Everything which has no form and no earthly existence.
The horse is one of the most beautiful of domesticated animals and has worked beside us on farms, in wars and in pleasure. It represents the outflowing of your own natural instincts. No rider suggests that this is a newly created outflowing and you have not yet realised that it is a part of you and you are the rider. We all ride an ancient beast – our body. But you should not feel that you must master the horse, but be in harmony with it and you can go places together – and it will love you and you it.
See http://dreamhawk.com/dream-encyclopedia/brain-levels-and-dreams/#mammalbrain – http://dreamhawk.com/dream-dictionary/core/
Tony