A large, hot, breathy, needy animal in the bed with me – powerful, emotional, childish, grabby.
So close, as if I couldn’t quite see it.
A horse?
Waking up, stretching, catching the tendrils of the dream, I thought of the horse at the farm this past summer, the one who would always break away from the group and rush over at a trot – would be on me, nipping my shoulders, in my face, my ear, so needy.
But thinking further back, I realized horses have appeared a number of times in my dreams. They are beginning to take on their own symbolism – like a running motif in a story they’ve begun to be recognized figures, speaking, along with the cats and other regulars, in a kind of private dictionary of dream symbols.
There was that really vivid one some years ago – an obviously BIG dream – where I was with Claudia, and we decided to look for some old drawings I’d done.
If only I could find those drawings, we said, the way through to the future would all become clear.
We jumped down from the old stone walls, having decided to look for them right away, right now, and went into the house.
People were everywhere – women cooking and talking, gathered in each room.
They were friends, most of them – some of the Montreal gang, but a few Toronto friends as well – busyness everywhere, with the noise of laughter and talking and kitchen sounds rising and bouncing off the walls.
We made our way past everyone, polite nods and waves, and in to the centre of the house – some inner sanctum that posed as a crawl space but was really a kind of lost cave like those ones in the south of France and Spain.
There, in the doorway, at the entrance to the cave, where I was sure I must have stored the drawings, were 3 horses.
They needed to be paid tribute.
They were needy, neglected. There was a whiff of beer.
They needed some kind of acknowledgement before passage would be allowed.
Animal as sacred; sacred as innate nature, as dharma, as animal.
So of course, to pay tribute, to acknowledge and pay respects to the call of the hot, needy, breathy companion of the night, I’ve started a new painting.
Now I just need to pick up some beer…
Weekly Photo Challenge – Depth
follow your nose 
Your painting is beautiful! Many cultures believe we ride the spirit horse into the otherworld on our spirit journeys.
What a lovely image, a spirit horse! Thank you very much for that comment – and for your kind words…the painting is just started – hopefully I won’t wreck it 🙂
Kat
You won’t – it will be beautiful 🙂
This is lovely.
Thank you, Kim!
You are welcome.
Lovely post…:-)
Thanks so much!
You are so lucky that you remember your dreams and have them inspire your artistic expression! Horses are such powerful symbols, generally of strength, freedom, wildness, sensuality……interesting contrast that, for you, they seemed needy.
Ahhhh, but it is not luck, dear friend, that helps me remember dreams – I’ve got quite an elaborate series of practices around working with dreams… Here is this one post I wrote about it – https://followyournose.me/2014/05/01/dream-paraphernalia/
But I have to thank you very much indeed for your observations on the symbolism of horses – your articulation of these associations and the contrast with the needly, childish horse in my dream gave a good jog to my thinking around it.
It is precisely the neediness of the horse in the dream that reminded me I hadn’t made it to my studio for some 4 days or so – my horse wanted to, needed to run free and wild…. 🙂
with gratitude, Kat
I’ve used a dream journal in the past and wrote down any dream fragments I could remember as soon as I woke up. It seemed when I did that, I remembered more…
glad my comment sparked some insight into your dream symbolism.
Yes, the dream journal is the #1 thing to do to increase recall
[…] follow your noseDeep dreams […]
Beautiful website you have created. There is such immediacy in your photos.
Thank you, JoHanna!
I am so pleased you pressed like .. And I was here to notice and follow it straight away.. Oh my…. is it 3 months since I last came by… Lots been happening In Dreamwalkers world… But no excuses… Loved your Dream and photo’s of Horses always hold a special place for me… Your art is wonderful.. 🙂