Symbolism 8 – The Horse
Rider and Horse
The wisdom teachings explain that man did not evolve from the animal. Through the descent of the spirit, the soul was born. The soul builds up the personality to realize its intentions directing the personality as its vehicle. Then, the body is formed by the personality. We are the soul imbued with the Divine. We entered the body with a specific purpose and intention.
The personality is also compared to an animal. We use the personality and the body like a rider uses his horse. The soul “sits” on the personality like on a horse. If the rider has no experience with horses and with riding, he may pull too hard on the reins or drive the horse with whip and feet. The more we kick a horse, the more it waits for a moment to throw us off. If the rider has more experience in handling horses and the horse is well trained, it will respond to gentle touches from the rider.
It is important that we deal lovingly with our personality, because if the personality cooperates with the soul, the soul can direct the personality as it needs to. However, if the personality is in control and thus decides our actions, it is like putting the horse behind the cart instead of in front. It is not the horse that must decide the rider's journey, but the rider who must decide the path. An untamed horse is also no good for riding. If the horse does not cooperate with the rider, he is limited by the animal and is stuck in it.
This condition is represented by the symbol of a centaur. Its front part is a human being, and the back part is a horse. The rear part determines the fate of the front part. Man is stuck in the animal body because the animal often overpowers him and the result is he sinks into matter. In astrology, the symbol of Sagittarius was originally a centaur holding a bow and arrow. Later it changed into a horse on which a man rides with bow and arrow in his hand. And today, only the arrow with the indicated bow is presented in the symbol of Sagittarius.
In these transformations of the symbol man's evolution is indicated. The beastly man transforms himself into a man that mounts the beast and later only a bow and an arrow are visible. In the first stage it is semi-beast, semi-man. In the second stage, beast and man are separated.
And in the third stage, man is completely focused on his goal, so that the rest is no longer important. These three stages represent the worldly aspect, the human aspect and the divine aspect.
Beings Composed of Human and Animal
In many mythologies of the world there are beings composed of human and animal, where the upper or front part is human, and the lower or back part is animal. They are symbols of stages of consciousness. In humanity, there are beastly humans and more evolved humans, and there are humans with divine intentions. When we behave very animal-like, we are an animal-human living in the lower centres. We are human beings when we behave humanly and are concerned about our fellow human beings. If we continue to ascend, we become a human being with divine intentions, a divine person in human form. People who live their purpose fully and act in accordance with the Plan are the divine humans. They are born to fulfil the intentions of the divine Plan.
In Indian temples, we also find representations of beings with human bodies and the heads of animals - gods with the head of an elephant (Ganesha), a lion (Narasimha), a monkey (Hanuman), a horse (Hayagriva), etc. They represent humanised and ennobled emotions that serve higher purposes in creation.
Fire and Life Force
In the symbolism of the Vedic scriptures, the horse embodies various sublime aspects of wisdom. Often the horse represents the objects of the senses and a life of satisfying the senses. But it also represents the fire aspect in creation and the life energy as well as the permeation and contraction of light. Thus, the ray of the sun and the lines of force through which light travels are called the horse. The Vedas describe in a mystical way that the sun travels with a chariot drawn by a horse, which becomes visible as seven horses. The sun chariot has only one wheel, which never wears out and all worlds hang around him. The seven horses move this one wheel, which contains seven other wheels.
This image should be meditated upon as it forms the basis of all initiations. It symbolises the all-permeating light, which details into seven rays and colours. All worlds are formed around this one light, which is the true manifestation behind every form. It is the spiritual fire, and the ancient seers compared it to a white horse. Through their observation of nature, they saw in the horse the symbol of the abundance of fire and of life force. It does not lie down but takes rest standing. It seldom sleeps unless it is sick because it has no ups and downs in its energy currents.
The more we preserve our life force and do not lose time and energy in unimportant things, the closer we are to the horse, to the life force. This force expresses itself as electric fire, solar fire, and frictional fire. The three fire signs of the zodiac contain this knowledge and they are worshipped as the Path of Fire and the Horse. Aries embodies the head of the horse; Leo represents the body and Sagittarius represents the tail. Aries gives us the presence of the electric fire or the spirit aspect; therefore, in Aries the Sun is exalted. Aries rules the upper part of the head with the eyebrows. Once the head is enlightened, the whole system is enlightened. Leo represents the body of the horse and the solar fire or soul. And Sagittarius is understood as the tail. This sign represents the spiritual fire that comes down into matter as the frictional fire.
In the Rig Veda it is often said that the worshippers are asking for the horse. The horse is called “Ashva” in Sanskrit. The Indologists thought that the ancient Indians were farmers and therefore sought horses and cows. But without knowing the etymological key called Nirukta, we cannot penetrate the mysteries. The “cow” stands for the divine Word that is milked. The word “Ashva” means horse, but also “not Shva”. Shva means past or future. That which is not past and not future is the present. Ashva is the awareness that focuses on the present.
Ashva and Hayagriva
The science of being in the present is called “Ashva Vidya”, the science of the horse or of life. Every Master of Wisdom first teaches this science to the serious students. When we are in the present, we can permeate the past and the future simultaneously, because the present is the culmination of both. This permeation is a quality of fire and of life and it is an expansion of consciousness. By living more and more in the present, our consciousness can expand. The seers were able to see the energy of Ashva manifested in a tree and called it “Ashvattha”. It is the Ficus religiosa (sacred fig tree). Lord Krishna describes this tree in the 15th chapter of the Bhagavad Gita. The energy of this ficus helps in stimulating the fire. Many people meditate under the Ashvattha tree to receive the stimulation of fire. They soak the root of the tree in water and drink the water. As a spiritual practice, they live on the water or the leaves and fruits of this tree.
In the zodiac of 27 constellations, the first subdivision is called “Ashwini” - the horse's head - and the constellation in Sagittarius is called the tail - “Uttarashada”. For our system, Ashwini corresponds to the Ascendant, i.e. it is the nature of the energies present at our birth when the Sun is just rising in the East. This morning sunray is called “the point of the horse's head”. This horse's head has to be awakened; we are to work with its energy in life. Therefore, there is a tradition of meditating on the horse-headed Lord, symbolically called Hayagriva. In Puranic symbolism, Hayagriva is the Lord of Wisdom who gives us the whole tree of wisdom with all its branches. Today, only an exoteric worship of the horsehead remains, as the path has disappeared through tradition.
The occult aspect of this profound symbol is the head of a white horse which carries a brilliant vertical white hue from the eyebrows to the centre of the head.
The meditation on the horsehead consists of meditating upon the brow centre and the light in the head. This meditation expands our consciousness and can reveal to us every science from within.
HA is the sound of the Ajna centre, YA is the sound of the Sahasrara, HAYA - GRIVA. “Haya” is thus the path from the seeming nothingness to the apparent something. This is called the path of Aquarius, the path from the absolute to the manifest. There are two potentialities in this: Is and Is Not. They come down from the supra-cosmic plane as two beautiful horses. One is visible, the other is invisible. The visible contains the invisible. These twin horses are called the Ashwins, Mitra and Varuna. These twin gods represent the two aspects of the One, time and space, sound and light, hydrogen and oxygen. In us, they work as inhalation and exhalation.
Sources used: K.P. Kumar: Hercules. Div. seminar notes. E. Krishnamacharya: Spiritual Astrology. The World Teacher Trust - Dhanishta, Visakhapatnam, India