Why Story Telling is better than Telling Stories

Years ago, I first read a book called ‘Black Elk Speaks’ by John G Neihardt.  I was very much into all things Native American and I found the book in the library.  I read it once and I read it twice and I read it three times.  I’ve read it many times since.  My sister bought me a copy for my birthday in 1992.  That version is well read too.  It’s possibly the greatest spiritual book ever written.  I was reading it before I found myself willingly engulfed in spirituality.  Maybe that was where it all started. I just didn’t know it!

On Tuesday I attended a ‘Creature Connections Workshop’ at the Little Horse Yard in Horton Kirby.  I posted the following post to a group on Facebook Yesterday about that experience.

‘I had the most amazing experience with horses a couple of days ago. I was drawn to a field with three horses in (I had permission to be there).

I went in about 15-20m and sat down. The horses, mares, watched me at first, but then went back to eating. The smaller one was more interested than the other two. 20-30 minutes later the tall horse came over to about a metre, sniffed and moved away. About 5 minutes later the other two came over, the mid-sized horse sniffed me and stood a couple of metres away.

The little one (still seemed pretty big when sat down!) came very close and sniffed, licked, nuzzled, nudged, yep, and slobbered a little bit. I had to move once to avoid getting stood on, but it was a very gentle situation, no fear involved at all. Really natural.

After about 20 minutes both horses moved away and I left the field. According to the facilitators that was quite rare. Occasionally the horses come and lay down, but generally just ignore people.

It took me a while to work out what it meant, when I did make the realisation there was relief in the air.

The message, as I believed it, was simply, have patience, everything you have been planning is on its way, be patient.

I’ve journeyed on it and got nothing more.

It was, however, an amazing and wonderful experience. Helpful too, I’ve been running on faith for a while now.

Love this life.’

Now that on its own was enough, but the experience didn’t stop there.  I’ve been feeling a little angsty the last couple of days and despite my best efforts I was struggling to leave those thoughts behind.

When I posted the above message, the thoughts just vanished, disappeared into thin air, instantly.  It was like a weight had been lifted and my whole being changed!!!!

Double whammy, but that was not all.  Very quickly people engaged with the post, that was cool too, but one lady who replied to my post included the following sentence in her posting.

‘Horses have such a magical presence and being accepted with the herd is an honour.’ 

That added a little more to the experience.

Then another lady posted, the message of horse spirit is ‘trust… knowing they are by your side supporting you but trusting that the path you are on will lead you to greater freedom where you will feel you are running free’

WOW,

So, the message from horse, also giving acceptance and trust, is now huge.

Patience, you are accepted and trusted, as is your message and all you have been working for is coming!

Powerful!

I have spent the whole of my life battling a massive lack of self-confidence.  I manage it pretty well these days, however, it’s always sitting there, nagging away.

So, the message from horse, also giving acceptance is now huge.

Patience, you are accepted and trusted, as is your message and all you have been working for is coming!

Powerful!

And that takes me back to Black Elk, one of the points he makes repeatedly is that when ever he had visions, they were inconsequential unless he shared them with the people.  He would organise massive ceremonies and get the whole village involved. 

When I told the story it became far more powerful than the experience itself.

Story Telling is better than Telling Stories…

P.S. I began reading ‘365 Days of Walking the Red Road’ today and there was a quote from Black Elk.  No such thing as coincidence.

Simon Pollard Countryman and Modern Day Pagan.