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Riding into Your Mythic Life

Transformational Adventures with the Horse

New World Library

THE POWER OF MYTH FOR YOUR LIFE

Exploring a New Aspect of the Self

THERE'S NOTHING BETTER FOR THE SOUL than a good story. The stories that have been retold over and over hold power over our imaginations. Horses are often present in these stories, carrying a hero or heroine in grand style, galloping across a faraway beach like the Black Stallion and the boy Alec, or rearing like the Lone Ranger and Silver in the landscapes of the American West. Horses lend their qualities of physical power, dramatic movement, and beauty, extending the actions of characters beyond human limitations. In doing so, they enhance the soul-charging power of a good story. The power of those stories also relies on the underlying patterns that call us to attention and teach us about the important fundamentals of life. These are the enduring stories that beg to be given new form, generation after generation — the stories that started around a campfire and were repeated by traveling actors or the tribe's gifted storyteller, who enhanced old stories with song, dance, and drama to help the community face particular challenges. Centuries later such powerful stories took written form in books, then visual form with television and movies.

Jean Houston's pioneering work in human development illuminates the power of story by structuring the human self in four levels. The third level is the mythic/symbolic aspect of the self, which is the realm of story, the level we will focus on. This does not mean that we will ignore the first two levels: the physical/sensory aspect, which has to do with such personal characteristics as the color of our hair and how we perceive the world around us; and the second, psychological/ historical aspect of the self, which has to do with our personality patterns and personal history. Nor will we sidestep the fourth level, which is the spiritual or unitive aspect of the self in which we realize union with all of life. We will find that if we delve deeply into any one of these realms, as in this book, where we will focus on the mythic, we will activate all the others. For example, an intensely physical experience, such as sports competition, can trigger experiences on the other levels of the self: psychological, mythic, and spiritual.

Understanding Houston's concept of the self helps to open our understanding of the potency of the mythic aspect of the self. It is far more than an elaboration of psychological patterns that give insight into our behavior. Rather, when this rich realm is explored, doors open to remarkable, even miraculous, adventures in our own lives. This is the realm where great stories come alive within us. We have our own adventures, tragedies, and comedies. When we have a heightened sense of the power of this mythic realm, we can step forth on our journey with new vigor, traveling farther and deeper than we ever dreamed possible. We can step into the starring role in the play of our own lives, with a cast of thousands supporting us, and know that we are part of everyone else's supporting cast as well.

In the mythic realm, a visual image or story points to less-visible realities in our lives and world. When we explore the mythic aspect of our lives, we find that our psychology is blown open into something much greater, and that we are more than complex mechanisms of flesh and blood at the mercy of our egos, driven to and fro by the melodramas of our emotional lives. We discover an enlarged sense of purpose for our lives, playing the lead role in our own sacred drama. We are put in touch with a higher part of ourselves. Jean Houston describes the higher self this way: "Beyond the surface and literal there seems to lie the self's larger vision and comprehension of itself. This larger vision makes itself known as an entelechy, a higher version of the self, a dynamic purposiveness and full capacity of a person that is contained almost as an autonomous self within the self."

By their very nature, horses are mythic creatures that invite us to step into that higher sense of purpose for our lives, to become better acquainted with our entelechy. Just by being in the horse's presence and making the horse one player in our cast of thousands, we can ride into this potent realm of story and myth. In our imaginations, horses are typically associated with extraordinary beauty, movement, and power. For that reason, our association with them gives us the opportunity to plumb the mythic aspects of ourselves that lie just beneath the surface of consciousness.

Consider the poem "The Myth: Raison d'Être" by Pattiann Rogers:

    Some say there are wild white ponies
    Being washed clean in a clear pool
    Beneath a narrow falls in the middle
    Of the deciduous forest existing
    At the center of the sun.
    Some say the thrashing of those ponies

    Straining against their bridles, the water flying
    From their stamping hooves in fiery pieces
    And streaks rising higher than the sandbar willows

    Along the bank, drops whirling like sparks

    From the manes of their shaking heads,
    And the shouting and splashing of the boys
    Yanked off their feet by the ponies
    As they attempt to wash the great shoulders

    And rumps of those rearing beasts, as they lather
    Their necks and breasts, stroking them,
    Soothing them — all this is the source
    Of the fierce binding and releasing energy
    Existing at the core of the sun.
    The purple jays, mad with the chaos,

    Shrieking in the tops of the planetrees,
    The rough-winged swallows swerving back
    And forth in distress, the struggle of the boys
    To soap the inner haunch, to reach
    Beneath the belly, to dodge the sharp
    Pawing hooves, the wide-eyed screaming
    Of the slipping ponies being maneuvered

    For the final rinse under the splattering falls —
    All the fury of this frightening drama,
    Some believe, is contained and borne steadily
    Across the blue sky strictly by the startling
    Light and combustion of its own commotion.
    But when those ponies stand, finally quiet,

    Their pure white manes and tails braided
    With lilac and rock rose, the boys asleep
    On their backs, when they stand,
    Fragrant and shimmering, their forelocks
    Damp with sweet oil, serene and silent
    In the motionless dark of the deep
    Riverside forest, then everyone can
    Easily see and understand the magnificent
    Silhouette, the restrained power, the adorned,
    Unblemished and abiding beauty
    That is the night.

Imagine taking the images of this poem with you into your day. Think of translating it into your own daily tasks, such as corralling a houseful of young children through a weekend's activities, keeping the attention of a classroom of teenagers, or directing a staff meeting of employees in a growing company. Your own experience with a horse can intensify this poem's vivid imagery even more, and your day's encounters with chaos may become "... the source / Of the fierce binding and releasing energy ..." at the center of your life. When you come to the end of a day, a project, or an effort, perhaps you will rest and reflect, sleep as do the boys, with a kind of redeeming benediction as you refresh yourself with the thought that " ... everyone can/Easily see and understand the magnificent/Silhouette, the restrained power, the adorned,/Unblemished and abiding beauty/That is the night."

Or you might read the mythic tale of Bellerophon's powerful partnership with Pegasus, which gave Bellerophon the ability to win such unusual challenges as the defeat of the horrible Chimera. It is a story with a cautionary warning of the consequences of exploiting power: When he flew too near Mt. Olympus and was tossed back to earth, Bellerophon became crippled for life. When this story is heard with enough accompanying drama, poetry, and beauty, it awakens another part of oneself. If you take that experience into the real-life situation of learning to ride in harmony with a horse, it may evoke your own power for that and other situations. For example, you may step into your work life with a clearer understanding of how to create effective partnerships in the business world based on mastering the complexities of communication with your horse — with a healthy dose of reality-checking for your limitations.

When you allow a story to interact with your own life in this way, you experience a bit of the power of myth, and you become more acquainted with your own mythic life. In the world of psychotherapy, personality patterns are sometimes given the enlightening names of classical gods. For instance, Artemis gives form to the kind of personality that is the virginal woman of nature and the wilds, as opposed to Aphrodite, whose talents lie in her relationships with men. Women Who Run with the Wolves, by Clarissa Pinkola Estés, and other works have beautifully elaborated these archetypal patterns to provide means of gaining insight into the psychological patterns ruling one's life. However, when we understand through working with horses that the mythic realm goes beyond the psychological realm, we find that we are dealing with our connection to larger patterns of reality, to a kind of energetic network that connects all living beings.

Becoming more conscious of this mythic realm allows us to access parts of ourselves that usually lie dormant. This reaches far beyond any mental configurations of one's personality patterns and way of being in the world. However subtle or hidden, the mythic realm is a real aspect of our lives. We can enter into a real and dynamic relationship with a larger life that responds to, and is molded by, our interaction with it. For instance, when we explore the psychological archetype of Athena, we can shed light on personality patterns that lead some to become leaders and caretakers of their communities, as Athena did in the ancient Greek world. A woman with a personality aligned with the archetype of Athena will tend to take leadership positions in which she supports large, overarching programs. Instead of pursuing romantic involvement, she will tend to invest herself as a powerful friend to those making heroic efforts. She will have a broad view for the well-being of the community and farsightedness to perceive its future needs.

We can enter into a more vital relationship with archetypes such as these when we understand that there is a mythic dimension to our own lives. We can enter the mythic realm with an archetype such as Athena as more than an abstract pattern. She can become a vital, mythic companion, offering us opportunities to interact and actually grow with the archetype as we, together with it, take on new evolutionary forms. Athena, who was born from the head of her father and so adopted a masculine style of leadership, may need new chapters of her story for our time, wherein she finds a source for her missed mothering and develops new ways of leadership that embrace that newly awakened feminine aspect of herself.

Perhaps the Statue of Liberty stands as one manifestation for this dynamic of Athena's evolving form. Lady Liberty is an evolved Athena because she has grown with times that needed an inspiring figure to welcome immigrants to our country. Because her story is essentially created in the context of our own mythic story, as we develop more-embracing ways of leadership, we can feel accompanied by more than just our flesh and blood selves. As we explore new forms of leadership that rely on some of our more feminine aspects, men and women alike, we find that we are larger than just our own day-to-day individual lives. We are part of the large imaginal world that is our mythic life.

Myth gives our lives extended avenues of adventure. We acquire frameworks for setting forth with courage into new directions, with a sense of purpose and destiny strengthening us. Horses occupy that land where myth opens the door to our greater lives. When we understand that myth is not just some fictional version of real life, but a dynamic and rich adventure waiting to be lived, then horses can become our steeds for riding into that life. When we become more aware of the potency of the mythic dimension, we find that our former problems, neuroses, or illnesses are transformed. Instead of problems, they become juicy parts of our mythic lives, challenges that make our lives interesting, and frameworks for our life journeys. Our hang-ups, warts, mistakes, and embarrassing secrets are returned to us as a dramatic piece of live theater in which we star and also provide supporting roles for others' starring roles. Instead of being caught in a psychological framework that often lends pathological labels to our eccentricities, we can live our own grand lives in mythic proportions.

We find that the community we live in is made up of more than human beings and creatures of flesh and blood. It is populated by beings who dwell also in the land of myth. We can choose to interact with that wider world that they and we inhabit together. This is the adventure that this book invites you to explore.

Our own adventures are nested within the larger mythic patterns of our times. It is interesting and important to explore new myths emerging now, for we are creators of those myths, whether we realize it or not. Our recent cultural experience has been grounded primarily in the breakup of past myths that gave purpose and meaning to people's lives. For decades, established patterns in church, family, and community — what was once considered right beyond doubt — have been dissolving. The national patriotism appropriate for earlier world wars is now challenged by those who insist on a global patriotism in situations of conflict. Hundreds of thousands of people anchor their spiritual lives in practices based on various religious traditions rather than one true way. In the face of this radical change, others dig into their traditions of the past with fundamentalist passion. Unprecedented violence populates our media in both fictional and factual stories. In the face of crumbling myths, something new is forming, like a phoenix rising from its ashes.

We have critical choices before us that determine the character of the future myth. Because we are so immersed in the process, it is challenging to see the broader mythic patterns emerging. It is easy to be paralyzed to inaction by the overwhelming nature of current affairs, or to rant against the people we consider responsible. Living our mythic lives to their fullest potential in the midst of our times means we must deepen into our own selves for an approach that can harness the necessary passion for something new that we can celebrate, forging dynamic new ways of being that embrace the complexity of our world. That is the moral imperative of a new myth for the future.

When I speculate on the nature of current and future myth, I enjoy exploring how this new myth is being given form by the Internet and email communications. With the massive numbers of emails that connect us with people all over the world relatively easily compared to ten years ago, we are building a more and more tangible network of connection among human communities. I imagine it as a web of strands of light, given energy by our messages to one another, laying down the fundamentals of an underlying pattern that will eventually grow into a significant force in the world as it reaches critical mass. It is an element of the myth that is emerging for our own times, a modern form of the Hindu Indra's net that extended out from the palace of the god on Mount Meru, with jewels at the junction of each strand of the net, each reflecting all the other jewels and demonstrating our infinite mutual relations with one another.

Working with horses is aligned with this same evolutionary trend, building connections between species the way the Internet builds connections of another sort. Horses' mythic role in human life evolves into something new as we embark with them on our own adventures. Horses can usher us into the greater adventure of our lives in any number of ways. For instance, when horses are not emotionally shut down by abuse, they are master teachers of subtle communication, responding to delicate cues from humans that emanate from our emotional states and patterns held from our life experiences. Horses notice these things and respond to them. When we decide to enter into communication with them at this level, they can be remarkable partners in building the web that connects us all.

The mythic aspect of the self is obviously rich with story. In fact this aspect of the self can be liberated by participation in symbolic dramas in which it emerges clothed in mythic form. When allied with our own lives, a good story of mythic proportions becomes a potent vehicle for becoming conscious of our highest calling — our entelechy — for discerning our purpose in life, and for connecting us to new levels of energy within and without ourselves. We find that our own stories become manifest in mythic proportions, making our lives larger than we had previously dared dream, with the horse a large-hearted and powerful character in that story.

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Excerpted from Riding into Your Mythic Life by Patricia Broersma. Copyright © 2007 Patricia Broersma. Excerpted by permission of New World Library.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
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