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princeether
August 5th, 2008, 07:01 PM
Does anyone have any info/ideas on the significance of a White Horse?

I was travelling home from London on Sunday, and I was driving past a villiage, of which I have forgotten the name, but it was near Castle Cary, and there is a huge White Horse carved and painted into the hillside. There are several of these across the UK, so not so strange for me to see one I hear you say, but it was so beautiful and old, I had forgotten we had these beautiful landmarks in England.

Anyhoo, when I arrived home to my villiage, I began feeling extremely depressesed, we have had such terrible weather here recently, particularly while I was away in London, that when I arrived home and went to see my Garden, I found it in the most frightful condition, my Moonlilly's and Morning Glories all bloomless, My Red Sunflowers, Marigolds and Livingstone daisies all torn and battered by the elements to name just a few of the casualties. It is really devastating.

So since then I have felt very ill mentally, so I decided to take my dog Merlin for a walk today to a place called Bats Castle, which is an old Iron Age fort (100bc I think), It is high up on the Moors and very beautiful so I thought it would cheer me up. It didn't though, I could just feel the harshness of the lives of the people who had settled there, I felt like it was a sad place and even the 360 degree panoramic view looked wild and cruel. The Sea was rough and grey and cold winds and rain soon beat down on me. I felt like I wanted to pass there and then and be part of the elements and the soil. I wished I could swap lives with a beautiful Oak tree I sat with. I layed down on the heather and stared up into the rain, hoping it would just wash me away, down into the soil.

It didn't, so I got up and walked home. I didn't want to go home but there was nowhere else to go, I picked up some river stones on the way home from the river Avill and they felt cold and dead.

When I got back, I ignored my garden completely, as I have since Sunday, it is too damaged and I think beyond repair. I even feel as though I have lost connection with the guardian of my garden. I feel like she has left me, and now all the elementals have gone too. It's so sad. I can't even look at my family let alone speak to them. They all think I took drugs when I was in London, now I am suffering so, but it's not true...I actually went to see some doctors and visit a friend before she leaves for NY, the last proper friend I have here in UK.

So, after the walk I got into bed and fell asleep. When I woke up I was staring into the clouds outside, it was dusk and the sky was like a deep purple, and 1 cloud went past that was a perfect White Horse, It was really strange because it almost looked as if it were moving and alive, binking and breathing and the like, anyway it didn't register that I have seen this image twice now since Sunday untill just now and I don't know if it means something or not, but I don't have a witch here in the flesh to ask and I am not up to figuring it out so if you feel you know anything about what this White Horse means or what it heralds, I would be well interested to hear.

Peace be with you.

Cake-eating_Moth
August 5th, 2008, 07:11 PM
http://www.doghause.com/superstitions4.asp

Go down to the entry "horses" and you'll see some interesting superstitions.

To actually see a white horse, if you were superstitious, could garner a coincidental or not so coincidental turn of events (anotherwards, a warning of bad luck)

As the entry says, I'm sure white horses have some significance in the mechanics of early London/UK, considering travel and farming. Images are expected to have been placed somewhere to respect them.

To see a white horse in the clouds is more subconscious - imagine, such as in a dream. In dreams, white horses symbolize the exact opposite of what 'seeing' a white horse symbolizes (again, that's if you're superstitious).

princeether
August 5th, 2008, 07:39 PM
http://www.doghause.com/superstitions4.asp

Go down to the entry "horses" and you'll see some interesting superstitions.

To actually see a white horse, if you were superstitious, could garner a coincidental or not so coincidental turn of events (anotherwards, a warning of bad luck)

As the entry says, I'm sure white horses have some significance in the mechanics of early London/UK, considering travel and farming. Images are expected to have been placed somewhere to respect them.

To see a white horse in the clouds is more subconscious - imagine, such as in a dream. In dreams, white horses symbolize the exact opposite of what 'seeing' a white horse symbolizes (again, that's if you're superstitious).

Thanks for this Link...it is interesting. Especially the part regarding Odin. I think his horse was the eight legged Sleipnir, the foal of Loki the mare and Svadilfari the stallion. Odin is a god of war and death, but also the god of poetry and wisdom, and Sleipnir was supposedly the fastest horse on earth, and could take odin over water, through the air and to the land of the dead.

Anyway, it still isn't clear to me, what it means, I didn't see a living white horse, like you said it was almost like a dream I suppose, and I don't have a fixed traditional interpretation to refer to, so I can't work out if it is heralding danger or bad luck (my instinct tells me this is so) or the opposite.

David19
August 9th, 2008, 09:08 PM
Thanks for this Link...it is interesting. Especially the part regarding Odin. I think his horse was the eight legged Sleipnir, the foal of Loki the mare and Svadilfari the stallion. Odin is a god of war and death, but also the god of poetry and wisdom, and Sleipnir was supposedly the fastest horse on earth, and could take odin over water, through the air and to the land of the dead.

Anyway, it still isn't clear to me, what it means, I didn't see a living white horse, like you said it was almost like a dream I suppose, and I don't have a fixed traditional interpretation to refer to, so I can't work out if it is heralding danger or bad luck (my instinct tells me this is so) or the opposite.

I'm sorry that I can't help you, but I hope you find what you're looking for :).

Incendia
August 24th, 2008, 02:44 AM
The White Horse.
The standard of the Saxons, and therefore impressed on hop pockets and bags as the ensign of Kent. On Uffington Hill, Berks, there is formed in the chalk an enormous white horse, supposed to have been cut there after the battle in which Ethelred and Alfred defeated the Danes (871). This rude ensign is about 374 feet long, and 1,000 feet above the sea-level. It may be seen twelve miles off.
The galloping white horse.

The device of the house of Hanover.
The rampant white horse.

The device of the house of Savoy, descended from the Saxons.

http://www.infoplease.com/dictionary/brewers/horse.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uffington_White_Horse