: : I asked before, but the question was buried in a barage of posts on magic. Pardon my American Ignorance, but what is this landmark called the White Horse?

: I did read your question the first time you asked, and I did answer, but anyway, here it is again:

You know, there were several posts one day that when I clicked on them the server couldn't find them, and I believe one or two were yours. I thought of sending a message, but there were so many other messages from you that day that I thought perhaps there was trouble with uploading them so you had simply duplicated them. Apparently not. Sigh* I noticed that one post of mine got listed twice. Nothing's perfect, I guess, but it would be frustrating if I spent a while on a message and then it didn't show.

: The White Horse is the outline of a huge running horse (over 100 yards from head to tail) cut into the side of a hill. It was made in prehistoric times by removing the turf so exposing the white chalkstone below. The likeness to a real horse is striking. There are several such horses in the Berkshire/Wiltshire area, and there are also similar works in other parts of the UK. The White Horse I am thinking of is located on the Ridgeway (an ancient road, now in use as a nature trail) to the west of Didcot. Judging by the vast effort necessary to create such works of art with the primitive implements of the time, the achievement is stupendous.

Wowwwww!!!

: : Traditionally the Nagual is your Animial Spirit Guide

: So how do you find out who or what your Nagual is. Does it come to you in a personal revelation, or is one given to you by your elders.

It is not GIVEN to you by anyone. There are some people more open to "the spiritual dimension" or whatever you wish to call it who will see it, as I saw my teacher's and he saw mine. In times past, sometimes people would visit the tribal shaman or journey to see an oracle for identification. In ancient China, where the Southern Shaolin school patterned various martial arts form after animals, it was the Master who looked to see which form you should learn, which form FIT you. But identification is not the same a giving. Sometimes, if you are particularly introspective, you will see it in yourself, the such and such an animal has always been with you, that you identify with it in a major way. I remember girls I knew in elementary school who were into horses in a major way. I don't mean they imagined owning and riding (that's actually quite common among pre-pubescent girls) but I mean they would invest a lot of time in imagining they themselves were horses. I'd say that's a strong sign. If you dream vividly, what animal do you recall being? Have you flown? Swam? Galloped? Hunted? It's harder, because you don't have a mirror to look into while dreaming, but you can get clues. Do you have an affinity for a certain animal? I know someone with an obsession for collecting feathers from Red Tail Hawks, for example, and buys everything she ever sees with a hawk motif, and is even preferential for birds in general. But the most common thing is the various renditions of the vision quest. I don't have time to go into that, and perhaps it's too off track and involved for this particular board. You can post me at the above e-mail address if you like. A simplified version would be to take a few days off, go somewhere quiet, preferably a natural setting, but not necessarily, prepare some kind of fasting procedure, and take care that you are not interrupted. If symbols help you, then burn sage, since it is considered by many to be sacred, and smoke flows upwards to the heavens as do your prayers. Then you sit and wait and sit and wait until your Nagual find you. Some people are more attached to the physical realm than others, and though there is nothing wrong with that, it does take a little more bang for them to move into the spiritual realm. I doubt the simplified version will work for someone profoundly unimaginative, but it won't hurt them either, so for the curious it's worth a try. Email me if you want more than that.

Hoping I'm not boring you to tears!

Galadriel

: : I seldom buy into anything hook line and sinker, but as usual, I think there is some truth behind this.

: : Let me tell you about some weird experiences. Although I now study my Tai Chi directly under the chinese Grand Master, when I began six years ago, my first teacher was one of his students. My teacher was from Mexico, raised Catholic, but his whole family converted to Evangelical Christianity when he was in his twenties. It always astounds me the way people so easily combine elements of different religions -- it's so much more common than the conservative believer realizes. The amount of Mexican syncretism between Catholicism and Paganism is very, very high. Even after his conversion to a protestant sect, my teacher retained many of his Nativisitic influences, including belief in the Nagual.

: : I had played around with the idea privately, but it wasn't until I met this man that I began to take it dead seriously. You see, you never tell anyone your Nagual because it gives them power over you. (Makes sense -- if you understand a person's core, you do in fact have information which can help you manipulate them.) He was absolutely floored one day when I looked at him and I said, "You know, some times I look at you and it's like I see something else. Tiger. You're a tiger. I don't mean than in a flirtatious sense, I mean that somehow that animal is what I see when I look at you, especially when you do your Tai Chi, or when you are sparring." I had correctly guessed. Months later, when I was training at the Kung Fu school, and he was working me out hard to the point of frustration, certain mannerisms surfaced, and he started chuckling, and walked up to me and whispered the name of an animal in my ear. He also guessed correctly.

: : 10 years ago I might have told you what that animal was, but at this point I'm superstitious enough to keep it to myself.

:
: Posibly this sort of thing may have existed in prehistoric Europe too, and heraldic animalry and mascots be some vague memory of it.

: The survival of guardian angels and patron saints into Catholicism may have its roots in this tradition, but such trains of thought have never had any special meaning to me.