From January 31st 2014 is Chinese New Year, ushering in the Year of the Horse, and it is followed one month later by Losar, the Tibetan New Year.
“When I bestride him, I soar, I am a hawk: he trots the air; the earth sings when he touches it; the basest horn of his hoof is more musical than the pipe of Hermes.” Shakespeare, Henry V
Horses are noble, grounded,
powerful, spirited, and independent. In virtually every culture, they are
symbolic of freedom and passion. But they are land-based animals, so this
freedom and passion is based in this world, defined by action – a very
different feel than last year’s Water Snake energy.
That theme of service is present in some Native American representations of the horse. As a spirit
animal, the horse symbolizes the driving force or passion that carries us
forward in life. But horses are also friends of humans like almost no other
animals (other than perhaps dogs.) They have played a huge part in human
culture all around the world, in the realms of transportation, agriculture, and
sport. This was certainly true in many Native American cultures as well (though
horses weren’t introduced to the Americas until the Spanish brought them in the
1500s, when they greatly changed the Plains Indians lives.) In other words,
horses represent this combination of passion and service. In the best of
circumstances.
In Buddhism, the
horse is a symbol of effort and energy in spiritual practice. In some
teachings, it also represents the prana energy running through the channels of
our body, and particularly the mind-energy as it manifests. This mind-energy is
sometimes called the ‘wind-horse’, and we can ride this wind-horse – we
can tame and direct our mind – in whatever direction we want with effort and
discipline.
The 11th century
Tibetan yogi Milarepa speaks of the taming of this wind-horse in his
“Song of the Galloping Horse of a Yogi”:
In the mountain
hermitage which is my body,
In temple of my breast,
At the summit of the
triangle of my heart,
The horse which is my
mind flies like the wind.
He gallops on the
plains of great bliss.
If he persists, he
will attain the rank of a victorious Buddha.
Going backward, he
cuts the root of samsara.
Going forward he
reaches the high land of Buddhahood.
Astride such a horse,
one attains the highest illumination.
(translation by
Losang P. Lhalungpa)
It was a great year to be with horses, the year of the
horse.