: Shadowfax, of you I am the most curious. I don't know if you are familiar with the idea of the Nagual or the Totem, but I am absolutely fascinated that you have chosen a horse as your namesake!

Greetings

Shadowfax was the fastest of the horses of the day and came from a line of horses that would bear only kings. Shadowfax himself was probably the last of that line, and also the greatest, as to him was given the task of bearing Gandalf. Tolkien in one of his letters writes that Shadowfax was the equine equivalent of an Elf. He was given the honor of being permitted to pass into the West with Gandalf and maybe he dwelss there still. Shadowfax was a free horse, who would hear the summons of Gandalf, but at other times roam where it pleased him.

I have always felt there is some sort of inter-relatedness between animals and humans, and not just in the darwinian sense. If you believed in reincarnation, you might say that the soul of an animal could be re-born as a human. I don't beleive in reincarnation, at least not in this simple sense, but believe this principle is the statement of a more complex underlying idea which also involves a spiritual relatedness between people and animals.

I have always felt, many animals have lost out through human domination, in the same way that I have felt that the destruction of trees (unless they are put to good use) is wrong, and this made Tolkien's idea of placing Ents to guard the trees and offset this balance so appealing. I thus decided to be either an Ent or an animal. In fact, in my local Tolkien society, I am, and have long been an Ent.

My admiration of, and visits to, the White Horse which I described in an earlier posting also motivated my choice. Althogh Tolkien never mentions it explicitly, he must have known this landmark too, and it may have inspired his choice in creating his Shadowfax a white horse.

Shadowfax

P.S. I don't know the Nagual or the Totem you speak of. Please explain these to me.