Sasha’s Reviews > The Tao of Equus: A Woman's Journey of Healing and Transformation Through the Way of the Horse > Status Update

Wu wei - “not doing”

Talking about the death and monetary value of her expensive purebred filly before surgery…not feeling much emotion about it, more matter-of-fact “I had medical and mortality insurance on her, so I could use the money for a new horse” or “didn’t want to feed a lame horse for 20 years” if she lived. My experience with Raven was much more agonizing emotionally, & I didn’t have anything near her resources.

Jung’s client’s dream - the bones of a young woman, exposed to daylight, transformed into a black horse that galloped across the desert into the grasslands on the other side. The mare had led the pursuing king on a journey to the lost keys of paradise. The black horse illustrates the characteristics of anima (soul). Befriend her & she becomes an artistic muse. Ignore/overpower her & she inflicts nightmares.

Carl Jung - recognized images of black mares as manifestations of feminine wisdom rising up from the collective unconscious.”

“In the guise of a black horse, the night mare was thought to be the punisher of sinners. She was also the destroyer aspect of the Greek mother goddess Demeter.”

Intro xvii: “Horses relate to the world from a feminine or ‘yin’ perspective…including cooperation over competition, responsiveness over strategy, emotion and intuition over logic, process over goal, and the creative approach to life that these qualities engender.”

xx: “…the mysteries of life, the most potent gifts of existence, quite often arrive on the backs of black horses.”