by Lynn Mann
‘Well, they’re wise and they’re kind and they’re everything to us, you know, with us being Horse-Bonded and all,’ Marvel said, laughing.
The tension broke and Vickery laughed along with us. She punched Marvel playfully and said, ‘I mean the horses you sensed before Aleks went off again, as you very well know.’
Holly took pity on her. ‘There’s a herd somewhere not too far from here. They’ve sensed us and we appear to have taken their interest.’
‘Are they anything to do with Flame?’ Vickery asked.
‘No, they aren’t her original herd and they haven’t had contact with it either, she’s checked,’ I said.
‘So why the interest in us? Wild horses usually stay clear of humans,’ Vickery said.
‘They know what we’ve helped some of our horses to do,’ I said, Aware of the horses’ continued interest in us all. I returned it. As I had already noted, they weren’t like our horses. I remembered back to when Infinity and I had first bonded and she told me that bonding with a human changed the essence of a horse. I could see what she meant; whereas I could easily sense our horses’ personalities, the wild horses’ minds were far less easy to distinguish as being separate from one another. If I concentrated, I could make them out individually, but only just. But something was changing. As I tried to separate the horses’ essences from one another in my mind, they slowly began to relate to themselves more as individuals.
The observed is always affected by the observer, Infinity advised me.
I recoiled from the horses’ minds as I understood.
You do no harm. They require your help and they will need to adjust in order to be able to receive it, Infinity reassured me.
I looked at my friends, all of whom except Vickery and Aleks – who was still staring into the fire – were nodding thoughtfully.
‘Errr, guys? You’re going to need to fill me in on whatever it is that you’re all sensing, I’m in the dark here,’ said Vickery.
‘The horses want our help to achieve perfect balance and release everything that they will then have no further need of, just like our horses have,’ said Sonja. She rubbed her hands together and looked around at the rest of us with a mischievous glint in her eye. ‘Life in the vortex is just about to get even more interesting.’
Fourteen
Collective
I leaned back against a tree trunk and watched our horses grazing in the moonlight. I was wrapped in my blanket against the cool night air, upon which wafted smoke from our gently crackling campfire. I could hear Marvel’s muffled snores and the sound of horses’ teeth grinding the rough grass, but beyond the limits of our herd, all was still and quiet. I’d given up trying to sleep. I’d gone through my usual pre-sleep routine – catching up with Justin, trying to reach Katonia and then a final check in with Infinity and Flame to make sure they were content – but the sleep that usually came easily to me had stayed just out of reach. Eventually, I’d admitted defeat.
I was relieved to see Nexus eating hungrily. With Aleks asleep, she could rest from her vigil over his mind and look to her own needs. I sent a gentle flow of light towards her, which she accepted gratefully. I increased its strength. I greatly admired the level of support she was giving her Bond-Partner but I was saddened by what it was costing her. I’d seen other horses suffer in the same way in the past, although I noted that she didn’t see herself as suffering, in fact she placed no judgment on her situation at all. She and Aleks had agreed to incarnate together with the aim of working to overcome a pattern which he had carried with him through lifetime after lifetime – that of needing to control his external circumstances in the belief that it would make him feel safe and happy. He had incarnated over and over in The Old, a culture that had only reinforced his belief. This was his first time incarnating in The New and, determined to clear the pattern which had plagued him, his soul had made an agreement with another, who would incarnate as a horse in order to try to help him. Nexus knew that she had ensured Aleks’s best chance of success by keeping him with our group and she was focused on seeing her agreement through with him. That was all. I increased my flow of light to her to full strength, all the time ready to decrease or withdraw it if she found it too much. She didn’t.
Infinity’s nurturing energy joined mine, quickly followed by the loving warmth that was Flame. Oak added his gentle strength, which was followed by the quiet assurance of Serene, Verve’s positivity, Bright’s optimism and the patient understanding that was Broad. Together, we loved Nexus into the night.
I jerked upright, wondering if I had dozed off and dreamt that a wild horse’s mind touched mine. I looked around me in the moonlight and saw that Nexus slept soundly nearby, Infinity and Serene grazed, Flame lay at my feet, resting but awake and Broad, Verve and Oak stood over Nexus. All of us still directed our love to Nexus, all was just as it had been seconds before. Except that a wild horse now observed us through my mind. As the rest of the wild herd gradually added their interest, I noticed that they were far more easily distinguishable from one another than the last time I had been Aware of them; the change that I had set in motion when I had tried to separate them had continued to influence their idea of themselves.
I was Aware that the support our horses gave to Nexus was familiar to the wild horses and they barely noticed it. They were focused on what it was that had caught their attention as they ceased grazing to rest – the light that I was sending to Nexus. This was a new phenomenon to them and had drawn their essences to me like wasps to a ripe strawberry.
I noticed a purity about the wild horses’ essences due to their lack of exposure to humans but they lacked the lightness that Infinity, Oak, Bright, Broad and Serene possessed since achieving perfect balance and clearing everything that had previously weighed them down.
It was as if a score of arrows hit the same target simultaneously as the whole of the wild herd’s attention focused on my thoughts about what our horses had achieved. I felt their hunger to do the same. I thought about the sunrise and I pictured myself and my friends leaving our camp with our horses and riding to meet the wild horses. We would help them.
I was being shaken, gently, by my arm. ‘Am,’ said Rowena. ‘Am, come on, breakfast is ready.’
I rubbed my eyes and then opened them, blearily. I sat up and winced at the ache in my back. ‘Take my hand,’ Rowena said and pulled me to my feet. ‘Nexus looks a lot better this morning, well done, we should have thought of doing that for her before.’
I looked over to where Nexus grazed in the early morning sunlight and was relieved to see that she did, indeed, look better. Her body looked fuller and her coat had recovered some of its shine. ‘Aleks?’ I said.
‘Same as normal. He’s eating without too much argument this morning though, Marvel’s seeing to him,’ she replied.
‘We need to leave our stuff here and ride out to meet the wild horses this morning,’ I said. ‘It won’t wait, witness for yourself.’
Rowena scanned my mind, nodded and said, ‘good job we’ve a hearty breakfast waiting for us, isn’t it!’
An hour later, we were on our way to find the wild herd. I let Fitt know what we were about and that we would be returning to camp, so not to follow on, and she was happy to stay where she was for the day. She had been having a lot of success hunting with her bow and arrows and had been eating well, so a day spent resting would do her good, I pointed out to her. She agreed but I was Aware of her desire to track down one of the wild cats we had described seeing and that had so far managed to avoid her; I suspected that she would rest far less than her body needed.
Aleks insisted on coming with us, even though Vickery had volunteered, selflessly, to stay in camp with him. We would all have preferred for Nexus to have the chance to rest for the day, but Aleks had reacted with terror at the suggestion of being left behind, convinced that Nexus would be too vulnerable to predators with only one other horse and two people to protect her, so along with us they came.
Flam
e took up her usual place alongside Infinity and me. I pondered on how the wild horses felt so different from how she had felt when I had first been Aware of her, even though she had at that point been wild. She had been an easily identifiable entity in her own right, since her injuries, terror and sudden separation from her herd had thrust her into a very acute awareness of herself as an individual. Having now encountered the collective consciousness of a wild herd, I appreciated even more fully the trauma that Flame had endured by having been separated from her own herd so brutally on top of having been attacked. And I also realised just how much our bonded horses had given up of their natural way of being, in order to be all that they were to us.
It was a choice we made gladly. We have benefitted much in return, Infinity told me.
You may have done, you and the others who have achieved perfect balance with our help, but what about all of the horses who have gone before you? And all of those who are here now, whose Bond-Partners will never push themselves far enough to help their horses achieve what you have?
That which benefits one of us benefits us all. That which benefits more of us benefits us all to a greater extent. It is impossible to be otherwise. You know this.
Of course, because we are all one. Ohhhhhhhh! You don’t just mean in the greater sense, do you? You mean in the sense that the horses know that they’re all one. Why didn’t I realise that before? When one of you achieves perfect balance, the rest of you are all moved a little bit closer to it by association. When more of you achieve it, the rest are moved closer still and if lots of you achieve it, the other horses can’t help but be pulled along in your wake since they’re not separate from you!! And that goes for all of you, those incarnate now and those who have incarnated in the past, because you’re all one!!
The same is true for humans. As more of you evolve the rest cannot help but advance. The collective consciousness operates at the level of the species as well as at the level of the whole.
So, we can’t fail! As long as we keep doing what we’re doing, helping horses and humans to achieve perfect balance, we’ll eventually reach a point where the remaining members of both species just find it automatically as a result of being one with the rest of us who’ve already found it!
For horses that is true. We already know for what we must strive in order to evolve and we have no barriers to doing so. The number of us required to achieve it before the rest do so by association is therefore relatively low. For humans it is more difficult since the majority have no knowledge of the truth of reality. They do not know what it is that they are missing and so they do not strive towards it. It will take a great many of you becoming Aware before the rest begin to feel that there is more that they should know and a great many more before they are moved to begin to look for it. That is why your kind require more help than we alone can offer.
The Kindred.
When humans allow themselves to be influenced by the Kindred their evolution will be certain.
It was as if a thousand lanterns all burst into flame simultaneously within my mind and I couldn’t contain my excitement. Justin was with me, instantly. He grasped the implications of everything Infinity had helped me to understand and I felt him make a decision.
Justin, they still need you there, I protested weakly.
I’m coming, he replied. The wild horses aren’t encumbered by bonds with humans and they already have a sense of what they need to do from our horses, so they’ll be quick to make the changes needed and that will help all of the others, including those here at The Gathering. I can make a far greater contribution by helping you to help all of the other wild herds that will be heading your way than I can here, not to mention the fact that coming will restore my sanity.
I sighed. Quinta won’t like it.
She’ll understand as soon as she knows what we now know. She has both Noble and Spider advising her now and she’s changing fast, Am, check in with her and you’ll see. She’s adjusted to being Aware as fast as lightning strikes and now we know why – the collective consciousness. You and I have prepared the way for those who follow to find everything easier. I. Am. Coming.
You’re so far behind us now though, Jus.
You won’t be moving far for a while. And I have Gas.
I ran out of arguments that I didn’t even really want to make. Take care, then, we have Fitt looking out for us and our numbers seem to be deterring the wild cats, but you’ll be alone.
Really? You, of all people, are actually going to try to persuade me, of all people, that I’ll be alone?
I chuckled. Okay, I give in. But I’ll be keeping a watch on you as you travel. If you go via Rockwood, let my family know how we’re doing?
There’s a straight path to you, Am, and it goes nowhere near Rockwood. They’ll know you’re okay through Candour and to tell them the rest of it, you’ll just have to keep trying to reach your sister.
Fat chance. She’s one big jumble of hormones and emotions that I can’t find a way through and she can’t concentrate long enough to find a way to let me. Never mind, everything is as it should be.
Absolutely, Justin agreed. I’m leaving in a few hours.
‘Well I’m glad that’s sorted. I for one will be mightily pleased when he gets here,’ Marvel said, riding up beside me.
‘So, you’re not going to even try to pretend that you didn’t just eavesdrop on a private conversation?’ said Rowena.
‘It was hardly private. Am did you know that when you get excited about something, you broadcast it so loudly that it’s almost like being shouted at by Rowena?’ Marvel said.
I laughed. ‘Sorry. So you picked up everything?’
‘Yes.’ Marvel turned around to look at the others and then confirmed, ‘we all did, except for Vic and Aleks, obviously, and Holly’s just filling them in now, although I’m not sure Aleks is even listening.’
Bright cantered up next to us. ‘Well this is all very exciting, isn’t it?’ Sonja said with flushed cheeks.
‘And it’s about to get even more so,’ I said as Infinity whinnied, shrilly.
A dust cloud appeared on the horizon and before long, we could hear the thunder of many hooves pounding the plains. Gradually, a dark, moving mass became visible and as it got closer, I could make out the horses who galloped towards us. The mare who led the way was black. The horses of her herd were a mixture of browns, blacks and greys with one chestnut among them that I could see.
I was Aware of their excitement, their anticipation and their common purpose as they veered off to one side of us, slowing to a canter and then a trot. I felt the intense scrutiny of both the lead mare and the stallion who brought up the rear. They had sensed us from afar, but they had never seen humans before and the sight of humans mounted upon other horses was enough to give them pause to double check that there was nothing that could endanger their herd.
Our horses all whinnied to the wild herd and many of those who now trotted a wide circle around us responded in kind. There were mares, some with young foals alongside them and a few of them pregnant, and there were fillies and colts, but the stallion who still scrutinized us was the only mature male in the herd. As my Awareness wove its way gently through the herd, I gleaned an understanding of its dynamic.
This was a family group. The lead mare was trusted by the others to find grazing and water and to decide when it was time to move on. The stallion kept the herd together by pushing them from behind as they followed the lead mare. He kept other stallions away from his mares and offspring as well as resolving disputes between his herd members. The youngsters of the herd were all his offspring. Two of the colts and a filly were reaching maturity and the time was approaching when he would drive them off to join other herds, rather than risk either of the colts challenging him for his position, or risk inbreeding with the filly. He was open to fillies from other herds joining his family but he would tolerate no mature males. Except ours. He was Aware that Oak, Broad, Bright and Verve showed no interest in the mares
of their own herd, let alone in those of his, in fact they showed little interest in much that was normal for a male horse; they were content to be part of a herd whose composition could change at any time and over which they had no say, and their instincts to breed were muted and ignored. They had no reason to challenge one another let alone to fight. They had sacrificed what it was to be a male horse in order to be with their Bond-Partners.
I looked around at my friends as I felt their anguish. Rowena, Marvel and Sonja felt keenly how much their horses had given up of themselves. I nudged their minds and reminded them of everything we had just learnt from Infinity; our horses had made sacrifices but they had also benefitted from their bonds with us and now their fellow horses would benefit as a result. We needed to concentrate on the situation in front of us. All three nodded and I felt Holly send her love to them all.
The wild horses came to a heaving, snorting halt off to one side of our herd. The stallion placed himself between them and us but there was no hint of aggression from him, only curiosity.
I had an idea and Infinity immediately agreed, followed by the rest of our group who were Aware. Marvel explained what was happening to Aleks and Vickery as they all moved away from the wild herd, leaving me and Infinity on our own. Infinity turned away from the herd and began to walk a circle. There was scuffling and snorting and the odd squeal of protest as the wild herd fanned out to watch us. I resisted the temptation to turn and watch them. Whilst I was turned away from them – the least threatening, physically, that I could be – I broadcast the suggestion that they feel not only what Infinity did with her body, but how she allowed me to influence her body with my own. In sharing her experience of being ridden with her, they would be prepared to accept a rider, they would know that going against their instinct and allowing a potential predator on their backs was safe and they would understand the physical signals that they would be given when they were ridden.
