Way of the Horse - Card 20

LOOKING ONLY AT THE CARD, NOT USING THE COMPANION BOOK

1. Describe the card

The setting looks to be the desert, or a beach. There are patches of grass growing, but it's a mostly sandy area. The sky is soft, warm blue, and the sun is out - a beautiful day.

A brown horse looks as though he's walking and looking for something - he's walking carefully, neck and head stretched out, but lowered, in line with his or her body. There is another horse shape in the clouds above - I'm not sure if this is a spirit-type image, like a guardian to the horse on the earth.

2. Describe the emotional atmosphere of the card. What emotions does the card evoke in me?

Warm, but tentative.

3. What would a physical manifestation (in you) of this card be? (i.e. tingling, gasping, smiling, headache, makes me want to run, etc.)
4. What are the mental characteristics of the card?

I would be enjoying the warmth on my skin, as I have been the past few days, but as I said above: watchful.

5. What are the spiritual characteristics? (if any)

I think the horse could be a guide - or the 'oversoul' of the horse on the earth.

6. What I find most appealing about the card

The horse in the clouds, and the sunny day, the sand.

7. What I find least appealing about the card

The wariness in the horse, that may not even be there. I may be projecting.

I don't know if anyone wants to join in here. I started using this deck a year ago, and then left it to one side, with the others - wanting to work with it, but nobody else seemed interested in a study group, and I was dealing with other things. (The irony: this deck probably came to me at the perfect time to deal with those things - I first heard about it two years ago. I read the author's book, The Tao of Equus, though, and that helped me on some days.)

The card is called Close to Shore, and it's sadness in the card... how appropriate, considering the talk of big life mistakes, time being wasted, that I've been both involved in elsewhere, and feeling, despite only being in my thirties. I can experience some things now, but it wouldn't be the same as had I done them when I was younger. (Sorry to be so vague, but it hurts me to think about it.)

Maybe I should go back to the beginning, and start from there, so that I can read the book all the way through, properly... it seems that the horse in the clouds, might represent the spirit of this horse, as it's going to pass on. That freedom from the body, and that everything passes...



Crossroads
Detachment and Surrender
The Pain and Wisdom of Old Age

An old chestnut mare stands at the edge of a vast ocean that the rest of her herd cannot see. From this height, so close to shore, the grass begins to thin. The mare's bones ache, and her coat is losing its shine, but the view is worth the climb. She can see both worlds now: the herd grazing below and the strange and powerful force surging on the other side. This horse has reached the final crossroads of her life, the place where she will share her hard-won wisdom and surrender to a higher will.