The New Horsepower

By Mari Rubens

“What area of your body is speaking the loudest to you right now?” my facilitator asked. “My sacrum...there is a pulsing golden spiral over my sacrum.” “And what else?” she asked. “Behind my closed eyes, there is a herd of wild horses running, kicking up so much dust with golden sunlight behind it. Now they are gone and there is just one horse. I see his silhouette as he looks off to the distance.” “Are you ready to turn and meet your horse?” she asks. I am standing outside of a round pen and I am nervous, not sure what to expect. I am in the third day of a seven-day equine experiential learning workshop and I can feel the breath of the 18-hand, 2,000-pound black Belgium draft horse on my back. “Yes,” I finally answer. I turn to face my horse, expecting him to be standing just on the other side of the railing. But no, he is on the far side of the pen, his silhouette an exact duplicate of the final horse I had just seen inside my head.

 

I enter the round pen, and the black giant takes his gaze off the far hills and turns it to me. Something in me cracks, tears stream down my face, my head bows, and my hands come into a prayer position at my forehead. I am humbled by the benevolence of this magnificent black being as much as if a roshi had just blessed me. He reaches me in three strides. His head is massive and he presses it fully against my torso. The star in the middle of his forehead caresses my third eye. His nostrils are against my thighs and I can feel the moist heat of his breath through my jeans. I don’t remember how long we stood like that, the massive head purposefully pressed fully against my chakras. The next thing I knew I was being pulled to the ground, my body simply wanting to lie on the earth at the feet of this medicine horse. My facilitator interjected from outside the round pen. “I know it is really tempting to lie down and I need you to stay on your feet.”

 

So began my journey into equine experiential work and the healing waters of horse energy. Three years later and working as a facilitator myself, I am still humbled by the ability and power of horses to deeply touch our hearts and ground us into the earth’s core energy. Horses have both a mystical and a mythical past. In many legends they were created out of the waters and with that watery past they are masters of reading energy and emotion. Lakotah legend says that horses came to life when lightning struck a whirlpool. It is such a powerful image—the light of the heavens coming down and mating with the vortex-spiraling energy of water being grounded into the earth. Such is the power of the horse and this new horsepower is just beginning to be tapped in service to the healing and transformation of humanity.

 

Horses bring many gifts to the table of healing and growth and all are channeled through their huge heart capacity and desire to show up for us. The Institute of Heart Math has partnered with some curious horse professionals and studies found that it didn’t matter whether the horses knew the person. The horses perceived, in the moment, the coherent or incoherent human heart rate variable (HRV) and began reflecting that human HRV in their own behavior. (HRV are dynamics that are measurable and are particularly sensitive to changes in emotional states, and positive and negative emotions can be observed by changes in the heart-rhythm patterns, which are independent of heart rate.) The horse offers instant biofeedback when it is in a human energy field and it will show us what is hidden within us.

 

As herd animals with a familial hierarchy, horses can model leadership skills and follower skills, challenge our ability to set and maintain boundaries, and demonstrate the power of flowing between the masculine and feminine or the yin/yang qualities on a moment-to-moment basis. As our lives and the world continue to speed up and we spend less time consciously connecting into the earth’s energy, coming to a place of stillness and body/mind awareness while in the presence of horses can offer a megadose experience of being grounded and present in the moment: the new horsepower!

For more information call Mari Rubens, 530-263-7072.

A Brief History of Labyrinths

By Marilynn Jennings

The labyrinth is an ancient spiritual tool used for prayer, meditation, reflection, and contemplation. It is a universal image representing life's path, with its winding walk in toward the center and out again creating a symbolic journey in the form of a walking meditation. The labyrinth is not a maze; there are no tricks to it and no dead ends. It is an archetypal symbol of wholeness and combines the imagery of the circle and the spiral into a purposeful path. The circle represents completion, unity, and the changing of seasons. To ancient people the spiral was considered a sacred primal symbol of the Great Mother Goddess and her transformative powers.

The labyrinth is found in various forms in all religious traditions around the world and throughout history. The labyrinth appears in old legends, in ancient art, on floors and walls of churches, cut into turf, and built of low stone walls. References to the labyrinth can be found in Mayan, Celtic, Greek, and American cultures. Labyrinths have been viewed as sacred gateways and are found at the entrance to ancient sites around the world. Some of the earliest forms of labyrinths are found in Greece, dating to 2500 BCE.

The labyrinth has been known to reemerge when the culture is going through turmoil. The current revival of the labyrinth has been a valuable tool for those seeking peace and inner guidance. Its use for meditation, stress relief, guidance, ritual, and celebration has spread to many circles, including churches, hospitals, parks, and retreat and conference centers.

Use of the labyrinth flourished in Europe throughout the 11th and 12th centuries and was associated with pilgrimage routes in search of the holy. For the medieval Christian, walking the labyrinth was seen as a symbolic pilgrimage to Jerusalem. Pilgrims would journey to sites where they would make a prayer-walk of the labyrinth, laid in the cathedral's stone floor, as a symbolic completion of their pilgrimage.

Designs for the labyrinth focus on the number of circuits, which is the number of times the path winds around the center. Seven or eleven circuit labyrinths are common. The classical seven-circuit labyrinth, also known as the Cretan labyrinth, is the oldest style and found in many cultures; it has an egglike shape with seven circuits. It connects the seven chakras and joins the spiritual and physical aspects of the body. The seven-path labyrinth is also associated with the Hopi Indians of North America, who viewed the labyrinth as a symbol for Mother Earth and used it as a medicine wheel. Labyrinths were woven into objects to personify man's connection to his source and were often placed at sacred places in nature to remind him of this union. Walking the labyrinth is recreating this ancient expression of remembrance of the divine in all things.

The Chartres Cathedral labyrinth in France, upon which the Grace Cathedral's labyrinth in San Francisco is modeled, was built in 1201 and is based on sacred geometry. It has 11 concentric paths that wind through four quadrants of a circle, a six-petal rosette in the center, and 112 lunation's around its circumference. An invisible 13-point star radiates from the center of the labyrinth and connects the outer lunation's with the center. Some believed the labyrinth served as a calendar by keeping track of the lunar cycles. The rosette at the center of the labyrinth is associated with the petals of a flower and is symbolic of enlightenment and new life. After medieval times the spiritual uses of the labyrinth were forgotten.

Today, walking the path of the labyrinth is a sacred ritual that can provide insight, courage, and understanding in facing life's challenges. There are three parts or stages to walking the labyrinth: releasing, receiving, and returning. Before one enters the labyrinth, an intention, prayer, or question may be posed. From the entrance to the center is the path of releasing, of letting go, a time to quiet the mind and open the heart. Arrival at the center is a place of prayer, meditation, and receiving guidance. The walk back out from the center is taking back into the world and putting into action what has been received to transform one's life. The labyrinth walk is different each time one walks it. Some people feel a sense of peace while others may find old memories surfacing as they walk. When walked with a community of people, the walk is a shared journey that helps to coalesce and unify visions. The labyrinth invites us on a journey of presence and allows us to experience on many levels the mystery of which we are all a part.

 

Marilynn Jennings has recently returned from a pilgrimage to the Chartres Cathedral in France where she was trained as a Labyrinth Facilitator.  She has built a modified seven circuit Chartres labyrinth at the White Lotus Retreat Center in Chico.

For information about labyrinth walks, you can email her at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or call 345-6087.

After Trauma, Recovery Is Possible

By Gabrielle Pullen

After a trauma or a life-threatening event, it is common to have upsetting memories of what happened, to have trouble sleeping, to feel jumpy, or to lose interest in things. Depending on the severity of each individual experience, these reactions may not go away on their own, or they may even get worse through time.

Imagine someone’s growing up, as we all have, in a society where we are trained to hold the value of human life as sacred. Imagine then feeling a personal calling to defend that country, enlisting because the country was under attack. Imagine being trained to be part of a fine-tuned machine whose goal is to eliminate the perceived threat. Imagine going to war, seeing things no human eyes should ever have to witness firsthand. Imagine the confusion of coming back stateside, of trying to let go of those images and the feelings that must accompany them. Imagine returning home, trying to pick up a normal life.

Now there is a psychospiritual approach to helping our wounded soldiers heal from that very trauma. It was originally developed by Richard Miller, a clinical psychologist who did the preliminary studies with soldiers experiencing combat-related post-traumatic stress dysfunction (PTSD) at Walter Reed Army Hospital Center in Washington, DC.

He coined the term “Integrative Restoration” for his work, or iRest for short. It integrates principles drawn from Buddhism, yoga, and psychotherapy. It incorporates self-care with an emphasis on unconditional acceptance and compassion to foster a safe environment for heartfelt sharing. It offers stress-management skills drawn from Buddhist and yoga principles and the deep, healing, restful relaxation of Yoga Nidra meditation.

The success of the original project in Washington has led to further studies being organized in conjunction with the military to continue to establish the relevancy of the iRest protocol for mental, physical, and spiritual healing. Thanks to Richard Miller’s work, iRest is now an offering at Walter Reed Army Hospital Center. But that’s not the end of the story.

This grassroots movement has gained the attention throughout North America of other sites, where it is being recognized as an up-and-coming treatment for all kinds of trauma. It is being used to train people for stress resiliency all over the country. On the California coast near Sebastopol, it’s being used among the homeless. In Chicago, it’s being used to help inner-city kids develop the resolve to escape the drug culture of the street. In Florida, it’s being used with battered women and as a means of dealing with chronic pain.

Locally, on May 30 in Nevada City, a workshop will be offered for women, or men, who have experienced abuse. It’s a start in regaining the self-esteem that is obliterated by years of submission to the behavior of others. Having personally experienced this kind of devastation, I can attest to the difficulty of recovery. I am happy to share that I feel privileged to offer my successful experience of returning from the brink of such despair. I am 15 years out of my third and final experience with physical abuse. I am about to celebrate 10 years in a healthy relationship.

Having also had the privilege of training to be a teacher of iRest, I have channeled my 20 years of experience with meditation into this vehicle for successful change. I will also be offering a second series of six classes for veterans in June. Teaching the first series was a profound experience for me. These guys have shared things with me I cannot begin to comprehend. Yet, the beauty of it is that they have the right to speak because they have been there. If I can help them release even one-tenth of the emotions they hold constantly in check, imagine how powerful their voices will be.

Call instructor Gabrielle Pullen directly at 530-263-3323 or visit www.focusmindandbody.com for more information.