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| Way of the Horse Oracle by Linda Kohanov |
This lovely card from Linda Kohanov's Way of the Horse Oracle depicts a beautiful black horse prancing in slanting grey light, its hooves kicking up a powder of fine grey dust. Look closely and you will see the horse is looking at her shadow on the ground, dancing with it. All blacks, greys, and silvers in this card. A card without colour, with no sense of place. A card of the shadow.
When pagany tarot-types talk about 'the shadow', they often mean the dark, hidden side to the self, the fears that we don't want to face, the aspects of ourselves that we reject. The shadow can be scary, but, we're told, it ultimately can heal us.
'The shadow is essentially a catchall for what we've suppressed through social conditioning,' writes Kohanov. Black Horse Wisdom is different from the 'potentially malevolent aspects of the shadow.' It is not necessarily the dark side of ourselves, but those aspects that are not socially correct, or politically acceptable, or generally accepted as 'civilized.' Kohanov calls it 'knowledge rejected by the mainstream': instinct, emotion, intuition, sensory and extra-sensory awareness and the human-animal partnership associated with tribal cultures.
So the shadow doesn't have to be the Big Bad that looms in our psyches, seeking to teach or devour. It could also be all these other suppressed but important things. Kohanov quotes from a book by Robert A Johnson, Owning Your Own Shadow: Understanding the Dark Side of the Psyche: 'The ordinary, mundane characteristics are the norm. Anything less than this goes into the shadow. But anything better also goes into the shadow! Some of the pure gold of the personality is relegated to the shadow because it can find no place in that great leveling process that is culture.'
If the Black Horse came to you today and invited you to dance with your shadow, what would you do? What would you find?
I don't think I would want to find out. We all have a dark side and we all have aspects of our personalities that we'd rather not let others know about. I suppose that the shadow could contain uncomfortable experiences from the past that we have tried to repress. At the end of the day though I think we all have to accept our shadows so we can become stronger people and lead happier lives x
ReplyDeleteAnd it could also contain lots of strength and wisdom that we may not have allowed ourselves to access because it was socially or culturally unacceptable. You are absolutely right, accepting the shadow is very important, both its strengths and its weaknesses. :)
DeleteIt's uncanny how many of your selections this week are relevant to my current situation :-/
ReplyDeleteWell, contact me anytime you feel the need for a reading, if you think it would be of use. :)
DeleteOh, that's a real toughie. As a Brit-educated gal, admitting I might have aspects that are better than the mundane is definitely hard - smacks of pride/vanity.
ReplyDeleteVery interesting, thought-provoking post, Carla! I'm loving my (personal) daily readings with this deck, too :)
I haven't even begun to explore Black Horse Wisdom yet. I'm still getting my head around the concept. So I have no idea what better than mundane things lurk in my shadow self. But I would like to find out.
DeleteRight now I'm discovering 'Little Carla', someone who enjoys making her own cookie recipes and eating them instead of working out, and who buys big yellow throw pillows on impulse. She's been in the shadow too long!
Doh, of course she MUST be one of the better than mundane things in my shadow self. Deary me.
DeleteSounds like someone I'd love to meet :)
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