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28 of 28 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A great help on the path, January 28, 2005
This review is from: Horses and the Mystical Path: The Celtic Way of Expanding the Human Soul (Hardcover)
Magic is, and perhaps has always been, sprinkled around the spirited nature of horses. Recently there's been an explosion of books concerning healings, whisperings, and metaphysical interactions with our equine relations. Horses and the Mystical Path : The Celtic Way of Expanding the Human Soul is distinguished through the McCormicks' insistence upon grounding experience that is at the edge of belief into living tradition, inclusive spirituality, and time-honored psychology. After reading their books and spending a week at their ranch, my longing for making the next step on the path has been more than met.
I'd been deeply moved by my experiences with horses, particularly riding dressage and being taught in the classical manner, but I felt rather inarticulate about it and thus limited in being able to go much further in deepening these experiences with horses and broadening their applications into other parts of my life. I sampled the extensive field of literature related to horses, read closely the ones that seemed nearest to my interests, and in doing so found the McCormicks' work in the center of my target. While I enjoy comfort food, I wanted something more gritty than the chicken-soup variety, something with the numinous edge that would take me further than personal story, something that built upon dressage technique, something that furthered the knowing of the soul dimension in experiences with horses. And this is just what Horses and the Mystical Path offers. The "wisdom pilgrimage" is often a lonely path, oft' beset with doubt; the McCormicks provide much-needed companionship.
Their book contains many lessons; and more significantly, it gives help for a person in finding the one that fits. The most important teaching, from or through the McCormicks to me, right now, is to stop trying too hard. Horses and the Mystical Path is infused with the ancestors' voices; and, even more, it incarnates the Celtic way which also incorporates a Christian and a Sufi spirituality. For not only are these sources cited (for example, Pelagius, Eriugena, Ibn' Arabi, and Meister Eckhart), they are also present in the stories that the McCormicks tell of their work with horses and humans.
This blending of spirit and practice can be illustrated with two of many cases. The Celtic tradition indicated in their subtitle is apparent early and throughout the book: "The horse becomes not only a soothing friend but a provocative adversary-what Celtic shamans call an anam cara, or "soul friend," in Gaelic." This principle is richly illustrated in their practice through the story of Carlin who gets very frightened when her arrogance pushes her horse to run off with her. When riding the same horse later, Carlin had an episode which she called "`the most awesome experience of my life!'" The McCormicks conclude: "Carlin had been pushed into the eternal zone beyond our human control. And in that dramatic moment of confrontation, she had surrendered to both the horse and the Divine." In addition to the mare, the McCormicks had also played the part of the anam cara by insisting that Carlin stay with the same horse even after the frightening experience and in spite of her demand to ride a different horse.
A second case of the merging of the "word" with the body is demonstrated in the teaching of contemplative prayer which constantly complements the McCormicks' work with horses and people. They quote Thomas Merton, "Meditation has no point and no reality unless it is firmly rooted in life." One powerful illustration of their application of this teaching concerns their part in the mare Alicia's recovery from abusive treatment. Led by Adele, one of them sat with the agitated horse for hours every day for about six weeks, spending much of that time in meditative prayer. They walked the talk. From this experience and from this horse, the McCormicks received communion in a texture woven in the book and too elaborate to trace here.
Disciplined hard work and applied classical training in horsemanship as well as in psychology and in religion are essential, but they're not enough for the next step on the path. To work too hard alone is to block one's access to the power from mystical teachers. Why go alone when such companions are waiting? And, too, why not ride on in union with these spirit beings!
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16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Explore the unique relationship between horses and humans, July 5, 2005
This review is from: Horses and the Mystical Path: The Celtic Way of Expanding the Human Soul (Hardcover)
Imagine a politically torn nation in which a rancher must rescue his beloved horses from the threat of approaching war. As he and his family prepare to flee in their trucks, he speaks heart-to-heart with his twenty-five year old stallion, begging the animal to follow the vehicles. The stallion goes to the herd, appears to communicate with its members, and they all seem to understand the dire situation. For three days they run, with little food or water, following the trucks. The trek is arduous, crossing high mountains to reach refuge in another country. They all arrive safely. With his task completed, the ageing stallion modestly accepts praise from the rancher, lies down and dies.
This story of communication between horse and human is true, and along with many others, forms the heart of the book, Horses and the Mystical Path. These stories come from the authors' many years of developing and operating programs that combine psychotherapy with the healing power of horses to help emotionally disturbed people.
The unique relationship between horses and humans goes back many thousands of years. The authors came to understand this relationship as a divine-like connection and found explanations in a number of spiritual traditions. Most significantly, they discovered ancient Celtic tradition highly revered this connection. In the book, the authors outline the history of Celtic horsemanship, then explore mysticism at length, drawing from the era of the early Celtic church's so-called "golden age of saints" (ca. 5th - 9th cent. C.E.). While they do touch on the much longer history of the Celts' spiritual tradition, they curiously do not explore its pre-Christian animist beliefs that heavily influenced the early Celtic church and saints, or mention its divine horsewoman, Epona.
Without a doubt, though, the stories of the horses are the best part of this book. They demonstrate the profound depth horses can reach in their relationships with humans, both in the conscious, daily world and in the unconscious, mysterious world of the soul. Many of the stories will bring tears to the reader's eyes. With inspiration and wisdom, Horses and the Mystical Path shows how these animals can teach the human to turn away from the cocoon-like self and find a greater perspective of the world all around.
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32 of 38 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Instead of reading this, spend an afternoon with a real horse!, March 1, 2006
This review is from: Horses and the Mystical Path: The Celtic Way of Expanding the Human Soul (Hardcover)
I'm an avid reader, but never felt compelled to leave a review before now.
I'm sorry to say the writing in this book is dreadful. It reads like a high-school term paper: name-dropping resources, strung together in an attempt to support... something. I'm not quite sure it gets any deeper than 'horses are neat'. There is no clear meaning to be harvested. No point to the rambling. And the language is forced: steeped in self-help-isms. "Paradigm" is used way too much.
As a companion of horses, and as a spiritual seeker, I find more meaning in an afternoon mucking a stall than in the pages of this book. Still, I forced myself to read it all, in the belief that with this much manure, there must be a pony in there somewhere. There wasn't.
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