A ride to enlightenment

A Ride to Enlightenment

What is it that we find so wonderfully attractive about horses? Being diverse creatures, I suppose each of us finds what we need when we need it. Discovering different aspects of what horses bring to our lives as we grow and evolve and as our needs and our lives change. Perhaps it�s a recreation, a vocation, a relationship, an identity, a lifestyle, fulfillment of a dream or fantasy, an appreciation of nature�s elegance, stamina and beauty, a method for healing, guidance towards strength and confidence or perhaps a path to an evolution of consciousness and enlightenment. A long association with horses can incorporated each of these aspects at one time or another.

When I create art involving the image and essence of horses there are so many things that I am aware of. I see a diversity of strength, integrity and resilience against a level of fragility and vulnerability. Always grace and beauty, often fierce emotion, independence contrasted with a need for community and companionship and I see a powerful connection with source and presence.

In the piece �Retired� I see the image portraying a restful meditative and internally reflective state of being. The degree of empty space is representative of a quiet mind or a state of presence. I feel that it captures the comfort and ease of a loving and respectful relationship. It embodies the joy of closeness and relaxation surrounded by simplicity with a focus on eternal oneness with being.

In the contrasting image of �Wind Fire� I recognize that fierce emotion that I have so often witnessed in horses. It is an emotion that occupies the moment with great concern perhaps over the whereabouts of a beloved companion. The silence and calm is broken with vocalization and urgency. There is nervous energy and movement and a desire to return to a place of inner peace and well being.

Within the human experience we often become distanced from that connection with source and that ability to be present in our now moments. We reside within our ego minds and wander the illusions of past and future. Horses are always in the present moment and in so many ways can help us to regain our connection and refocus our minds into the reality of now.

The essence and spirit of the horse as I have described it is a metaphor for that to which the universe aspires for us. That evolution of consciousness that frees us from our ego mind, connects us with the �eternal one life� and allows us to reside in a state of inner peace and well being. Horses represent the body and soul of this journey towards enlightenment and that is why we are drawn to them, to help lead us, more correctly perhaps, to carry us along this journey of awakening.