I was exhausted, but I felt happy because I sensed that some kind of transformation was about to take place. I had no idea that night would be the night that I would meet my warhorse. As soon as I closed my eyes, I fell asleep. It wasn't the light, restful sleep that leads into deep sleep. Instead, it was a deep sleep that put my consciousness someplace else. I found myself in a dream. I was walking across this high mountain valley. The grass was deep green and lush. There was an occasional wild flower. The sun was beating down on me, and everything looked extremely bright. Even with intense sunlight, the air felt cool and refreshing. My heart was alive with the sheer joy and beauty that I was experiencing. Across the valley there were groves of aspen trees. I could see and hear their leaves quivering in the wind. I was drawn to one aspen grove, and I didn't know why. I walked closer, and realized that it was denser than the other groves. The trees were taller and stronger. I felt as though I was investigating something dangerous, but my curiosity was stronger than my sense of danger. Once I was in the middle of this dense grove, I sensed the presence of something watching me. I slowly turned, trying to catch a glimpse of what it was. Each time I thought I saw it, it was gone. Suddenly, the wind started to blow hard on my face. I didn't turn away from this strong wind. For some reason, I felt I needed to go into it. I thrust myself forward. A large black and white stallion appeared before me. The horse's energy felt as if I was meeting an experienced warrior. On an energetic level he felt powerful, wise and dangerous. Like a well-trained warrior who had learned from the experience of combat.
He walked slowly toward me, nodded his large head, and looked me squarely in the eyes. I could feel his breath on my chest. The stallion walked around me, slowly, as though he was judging me.
I began to see myself through his eyes. This seemed strange. In the next moment, I had felt that just as I was seeing him, he was seeing me. I was the horse, and the horse was me. Suddenly, he stopped circling me. There was a serious, but playful look on his face. As I moved to touch his face, he reared up. His hooves hit the ground like thunder. The stallion drew his front hooves back, pawing and digging into the ground, as though he wanted to communicate something to me. His pawing created a path. Suddenly, he walked close enough to me to put his head on my chest. Just as suddenly, he turned and sauntered away. Though I had trouble seeing him clearly through the black and white of the aspens, I began to follow the path that had been created. This path broke through the trees and across the valley. The next time I saw him, he was standing across the valley and staring at me. It was as though I was staring at myself. Hearing something behind me, I turned. When I looked back to the valley, this magnificent animal was gone.
I thought I had awakened the next morning. When I got out of bed, my legs, from my knees to my feet, were horse's hooves. As I walked across the floor, I heard the clumping from my hooves. I started to laugh because I realized the new boots that I had recently bought would no longer work on my feet. I dressed myself to get ready for my day, and I left, not with shoes, but with hooves. For some reason, I was not alarmed that my feet were now hooves. The rest of the dream seemed to follow a typical day for me, and no one seemed to notice that I had hooves instead of feet. I was impressed with the tracks that I made in the ground, and the way my hooves crushed the carpet. I went to one of my colleagues to tell him what had happened to me, and to see if he could help. He seemed genuinely curious about my predicament, but he told me he wasn't a shaman so he couldn't help me. This made me laugh because it seemed to reinforce my opinion of this man and his reluctance to get involved. I found myself looking down at my hooves. I felt alarmed because I saw a large amount of wear on them from walking around on pavement and concrete. I didn't know if I should find a shaman to help me or if I needed to find a good farrier to shoe my hooves. As I worried, I was transported to a mountain path for just a moment, and my hooves were renewed. I was then transported back to my daily routine. The sound of my hooves now seemed softer. As I walked through the rest of my daily activities, the noise of my hooves seemed to disappear. When I looked down again, my feet were there.
When I awoke the next morning, I felt tired as though I had been on a good hike. Through this tiredness, I felt revived and somehow transformed. As I pulled the covers off the bed to stand up, I stared at my feet to make sure they weren't hooves. This was the first shape-shifting dream that I had had in a long time. Something had happened to me in that dream. The next day, I kept having images in my head of the strong, powerful war horse I had met the night before.
Transformation and Shape-shifting
To discuss the identification I have with this dream, first I must explore the concept of shape-shifting. In mythology, there are countless examples of how different gods and people have been changed into other forms: animals, strange mutated beings, and the purest of elements such as wind, water, fire, and earth. In my dream, I became part horse and part human. At times, I couldn't distinguish whether I was primarily horse or human. The concept of shape-shifting involves the connection to supernatural ritual, metaphysics, and a metaphor for the transformation of healing that can also take place through the therapeutic process. Shape-shifting is also an identifiable concept that is in the collective unconscious of mankind. I would consider shape-shifting an archetypal building block that shows up in the personal realms of the psyche in dreams, transpersonal experiences, and in transformation of the ego structure.
Since the beginning of time, people have used images to construct and define realities, their perceptions of realities and supernatural phenomena. Shape-shifting is prevalent in many myths, stories, and religious narrations in all cultures. Moses and the burning bush, for example, seem to reflect God's presence in an altered form. The immaculate conception has been linked to many cultural stories of tribal beginnings and the creation of life, as well as to godly/spiritual beings who have shape-shifted to human form. In the mythical story of King Arthur and Camelot, Merlin the Wizard transformed King Arthur's father into another warlord who was his rival, in order to satisfy his lust for his rival's wife. King Arthur was conceived from this shape-shifting deception. In Greek and Roman mythology, shape-shifting is very common. Some characters, such as Medusa and the centaurs, are half-animal and half-human, and seem to represent the supernatural and/or animal power and strength combined with the human qualities of spirit, intelligence, and emotion. Human reconstruction of reality, perceptions of reality and the unexplainable may help to transform the unknown into the known.
In Celtic culture and history, there is compelling proof for psychological shape-shifting. The Celt's use of shape-shifting does not surprise me at all. For example, the Celtic culture did not distinguish between spirit and matter: the people were connected to the Land, and the Land and the Land's well being were connected to the people. If spirit and matter were intertwined in all living beings, and inanimate objects were seen as containing spirits, I assume that shape-shifting would also be an acceptable means of communicating and reflecting that belief system. Anthropologists have found physical evidence of ritual offerings to the earth, water, and the sun: prized possessions like jewelry, armor masks and chariots as well as trees and plants were offered to nature as spiritual homage.
The Use of Metaphorical Shape-shifting in Therapy
I see a practical use for the concept of shape-shifting as a metaphor for the psychological restructuring of the ego and the purification of a person's being. In my experience as a therapist, I have found that using a therapeutic technique that I call "metaphorical shape-shifting" can be extremely beneficial. Metaphorical shape-shifting is a therapeutic technique that combines transpersonal psychology, shamanism and art therapy. When this technique is used the client has the opportunity to do a form of guided visualization that lets him or her shape-shift into his or her past, present, and future self. The revelations of these selves are to be seen as gifts that will help facilitate the healing process. Most people who have done therapeutic work on themselves, come to a place where they start to recognize unconscious material that is becoming conscious. In this awakening process, a transformation takes place. The person's transformation may take the form of increased selfesteem, better interpersonal functioning, and a new drive and healthy desire to succeed. These shifts in the structure of the person's ego and psyche give way to new perceptions of reality, and seem to parallel the shape-shifting experiences described in cultural stories and mythology.
This metaphor of transformation can often appear in therapeutic work when a client's psyche gives foreshadowing hints of the possible transformation. The hints, expressed as imagery, are often found in the person's dreams, visions, or artwork. When I am working with a client who had a shape-shifting dream or vision, I explore the imagery with that client to provoke a personal meaning for that imagery. My purpose is to expand the client's metaphorical journey of meaning and application to his or her life. From our investigation of the multiplicity of meanings for the experience, the client is able to see all the possible paths of transformation for his or her being. I would describe this process as similar to creating a good piece of artwork. This process takes patience, attention, and discipline, elements essential to all good therapeutic work. This work is not just about the therapeutic process, it is also about the purification of a person's heart and soul.
When I had my dream about my war horse, I experienced my own personal sense of shape-shifting. I've looked at this dream from many angles, but one of the things I keep coming back to is the sense of transformation that took place when I was part horse and part human. I keep using this sense of transformation as a metaphor, and asking myself the question, "What do I need to transform in my life?". The image of the war horse represented my personal power and my potential as a human being. In my becoming this horse, I saw my own power and potential through the power of the horse. The qualities this horse had were stamina, strength, purpose, the ability to teach, a sense of humor, and a connection to the earth. There was a moment in my dream in when I could hardly see the path amongst the aspen trees. This moment represented my feelings of being so busy and inundated with responsibilities that it was hard to see my path clearly. My sense of exhaustion came out in this dream when I noticed my hooves (my feet in the dream) were wearing down. To rejuvenate myself in the dream, I had only to find my path back to the mountains. This symbolized a message to myself that I need to do more things that rejuvenate my sense of being. The metaphor of the path reinforced my intuition that I am on the right trail in my life as a whole.
The idea of shape-shifting is not limited to mythology or story-telling. To me, shape-shifting is a metaphor for restructuring belief systems and ego functions, as well as transmuting toxic traumas into positive growth. These transformations in the human psyche are what I would call true Shape-shifting.
James Schultz is a Mental Health Counselor and Art Therapist who is in private practice. Blending Art and Wisdom Traditions with Modern Psychology. Call for appointments or workshop information at (206) 533-9556 or (425) 741-8230.
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