Horses and the Mystical Path: The Celtic Way of Expanding the Human Soul

by Adele von Rust McCormick, Thomas E. McCormick, Marlena Deborah McCormick

Book Overview

On a trip to Scotland, the psychotherapist family team of Adele, Marlena, and Thomas McCormick -- pioneers in the psychotherapeutic use of horses -- discover that early Celtic mysticism holds important insights into an equestrian-partnered spirituality. Through serendipitous encounters, they learn that the ancient Celtic people befriended the horse to cultivate the human heart and soul, and that horses accompanied the Celts as they spread their spiritual...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1577315561
• ISBN13: 9781577315568
• Release Date: August 2006
• Publisher: New World Library
• Length: 208 Pages
• Weight: 0.52 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.6" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

Yes, the eyes of God are looking back at us.

I read this all too brief book in a leisurely fashion over two months. Every time I entered its pages I soon had the feeling that I was talking with an ancient yet brand new spiritual friend. The mystical visitations by the Scottish shepherd, the Spanish waiter, the Mexican cathedral guide, and the sensitivity and sensible knowing of the authors' prized horses pierce the veil in the most profound mystic traditions, yet ground us with their practicality, their inevitability. Yes, great forces are available to us if we only open ourselves. Good will, the wish to benefit other beings, shines from every page of this book. The authors' refreshing passages about communion are inspiring. The moment I reluctantly finished this book, I handed it to my fifteen year-old son, Eoghan, who was born in Ireland. An hour later he was hooked, too, or I should say befriended. I would like very much to meet these spiritualist authors. I don't know how I can afford it, but I would love to attend one of their equine retreats. Yes, that would be a valuable component to add to my own spiritual practice. For now, I thank them for their visitation, so like an answered prayer! --Robert McDowell, author of the forthcoming Poetry in Your Spiritual Practice.

Writing about the subject doesn't do it justice

When I read this book, I wasn't convinced that the McCormicks' experiences were anything more than interpretations of events that could be analyzed in a number of different ways. The concepts in this book are so exceptional, that I decided to experience them for myself -- so I went to a seminar at Tres Aguilas outside San Antonio, TX to meet the McCormicks and learn from them. It is my conclusion that no matter how detailed and precise a person is in writing a book of this nature, the written word will never come close to the experience of seeing the principles in action. I highly recommend reading this book if you're interested in the spiritual and healing connection between humans and horses. But in order to absorb and learn the material, you must experience it. The seminar was beyond description, and now I feel as if I need to read the book again to really absorb more of the material. On the fourth day of the seminar, we worked with horses that we'd never touched previously. We worked silently in an arena and applied the principles that we'd learned. Within minutes, I was able to communicate silently with one of their horses; and the high spirited, hot blooded mare ran ten feet away from me on a lead line; and she reacted to my thoughts before I even twitched a muscle to react. I repeated the procedure a number of times, and every time she responded. I needed to prove to myself that it wasn't subtle body language on my part, and I was very certain that she was responding to my thoughts. I'm someone who's had very little contact with horses in my adult life and never had a riding lesson. In fact, I'm frightened of horses, so the results for me were quite unexpected. In my wildest dreams, I never thought that I'd have this type of experience; so I have to believe in the principles and practices of the McCormicks. If you're interested in the subject matter, I urge you to read this book; take it to heart; and then experience it for yourself.

A great help on the path

Magic is, and perhaps has always been, sprinkled around the spirited nature of horses. Recently there's been an explosion of books concerning healings, whisperings, and metaphysical interactions with our equine relations. Horses and the Mystical Path : The Celtic Way of Expanding the Human Soul is distinguished through the McCormicks' insistence upon grounding experience that is at the edge of belief into living tradition, inclusive spirituality, and time-honored psychology. After reading their books and spending a week at their ranch, my longing for making the next step on the path has been more than met. I'd been deeply moved by my experiences with horses, particularly riding dressage and being taught in the classical manner, but I felt rather inarticulate about it and thus limited in being able to go much further in deepening these experiences with horses and broadening their applications into other parts of my life. I sampled the extensive field of literature related to horses, read closely the ones that seemed nearest to my interests, and in doing so found the McCormicks' work in the center of my target. While I enjoy comfort food, I wanted something more gritty than the chicken-soup variety, something with the numinous edge that would take me further than personal story, something that built upon dressage technique, something that furthered the knowing of the soul dimension in experiences with horses. And this is just what Horses and the Mystical Path offers. The "wisdom pilgrimage" is often a lonely path, oft' beset with doubt; the McCormicks provide much-needed companionship. Their book contains many lessons; and more significantly, it gives help for a person in finding the one that fits. The most important teaching, from or through the McCormicks to me, right now, is to stop trying too hard. Horses and the Mystical Path is infused with the ancestors' voices; and, even more, it incarnates the Celtic way which also incorporates a Christian and a Sufi spirituality. For not only are these sources cited (for example, Pelagius, Eriugena, Ibn' Arabi, and Meister Eckhart), they are also present in the stories that the McCormicks tell of their work with horses and humans. This blending of spirit and practice can be illustrated with two of many cases. The Celtic tradition indicated in their subtitle is apparent early and throughout the book: "The horse becomes not only a soothing friend but a provocative adversary-what Celtic shamans call an anam cara, or "soul friend," in Gaelic." This principle is richly illustrated in their practice through the story of Carlin who gets very frightened when her arrogance pushes her horse to run off with her. When riding the same horse later, Carlin had an episode which she called "`the most awesome experience of my life!'" The McCormicks conclude: "Carlin had been pushed into the eternal zone beyond our human control. And in that dramatic moment of confrontation, she had surrendered to

Celtic Spirituality on Horseback

In this wise and beautiful book, the authors, Adele, Deborah, and Thomas McCormick, Las Tres Aguilas, weave from the three strands of transpersonal psychology, Celtic spirituality, and spiritual partnering with the wonderful Peruvian horses a fascinating journey into self-healing, reconnecting with nature, including one's own, and exploring the mystical path. They relate their own story as psychotherapists rediscovering first their own roots in Scotland and the rich spirituality of Celtic, with its sense of the goodness of creation and of one's own primal connection with nature, and then discovering the tradition of developing one's spirituality thru partnering with Iberian horses, the ancestors of the Peruvians. Their book is well researched and draws on many sources. It is as rich in Iberian horse lore as it is in holistic Celtic spirituality. Thru narrative and anecdote they tell a moving story of their work at Hacienda Tres Aguilas, northwest of San Antonio in the Texas Hill Country, and of the proud and noble horses, of the people who loved them, and who were loved and healed by them. This book can move you to tears and will reconnect you to a sense of the divine in nature, the imago Dei, and indeed in all of life--the Celtic vision. I had the happy circumstance of visiting the McCormick's at the Hacienda a week after finishing their book. They were most delightful hosts, and I had the joy of spending a couple of hours with kindred spirits and of planning a future retreat there. The Hacienda, guesthouse, tiny chapel, and Bodega are themselves a virtual museum of Spanish, German, and Texas ranch touches. The Hacienda and their beautiful book are rare Texas treasures one should feel priviliged not to miss.

Horses and the Mystical Path - A Book of Revelations !

The McCormick's Horses and the Mystical Path is an inspiring literary account culminating profound ancient psychospiritual wisdom and insights for modern societies and psychotherapies. While steeping the reader within their lives healing and spiritual experiences, astute psychoanalytical observations, and historical references and resources, the McCormick's reveal the deep and intricate connections which exist amongst all peoples and all creatures great and small. The Horse - the magnificent creature of dreams, myths, empowerment, freedom, community, spiritual questing and healing becomes the Companion-Sojourner as the McCormick's crystallize and distill the Celtic Mystical Path within which Life, in Spirit and within Spirit, is for: passionate living and exploration, selfless sharing, loving with an open Heart and Mind, the disciplining of the Self toward the Greater Self, and for always acting out of awareness of our connection to the Great Creator and Creation as a whole. Horses and the Mystical Path is an abundant tapestry of the psychospiritual and energetic threads which bind us all, one to the other and to every other life form existing within the ebb and flow of Earth's, of the Cosmos's, perpetual cycles. Upon the life affirming backs of the McCormick's metaphorical steeds and horses of impassioned flesh and bone, the reader comes closer to the astoundingly simple realization, made complex, that Everything consists of the stuff from which the stars are made. Leah Sellers