The Promise
An Excerpt from
Flying Lead Change: 56 Million Years of Wisdom for Leading and Living
Photo By Susan PortnoyLet’s go back to the beginning, to the place we were before the lost-ness started. To do that, we can retrace our foot-steps back in time, beyond our own personal memory, into the collective ancient memory of our ancestors. In this collective memory has been embedded a promise to us that we are held, seen, and assisted to thrive for generations to come. Here we come to rely on stories that have been passed down for tens of thousands of years.
Original peoples across the continents have counseled through stories. Robin Wall Kimmerer—botanist, professor of plant ecology, and member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation—writes that her people’s stories are not so much commandments or rules, but “rather they are like a compass: they provide an orientation but not a map.” Stories like these are listened to in a different way, not with the ratio-nal mind but the heart.
Perhaps the most poignant and paradoxically timely story for our purposes is the following tale I heard from three different members of the Northern Pueblos of New Mexico (the Puebloans, or Pueblo peoples, are Native Americans of the Southwest and are largely a farming culture). A version of the story was also told to me by my father who heard it from a member of the Apache. I will say that this story belongs not only to the indigenous people of the Southwest, but also to the horses themselves, who have whispered it to me in their way. The story is poignant and relevant because it tells of atender and enduring kinship between horse and humankind and details the critical precipice on which we find ourselves today. In some traditions the story is called “Star Horse” or “The Time of the Great Outwaiting” or “The Return of the Horse.” It is a teaching story, and it offers guidance for finding a path through our challenges. Below is my version, pieced together through the various accounts I have heard. I call it “The Promise.”
This story begins like countless others that have been passed downthroughout the ages: A long time ago . . .
When people first walked this land, the people and the animals lived together in harmony. All the creatures and all living things were friends to the people. The birds, the reptiles, and the four-legged creatures all were friends. Even the insects, rocks, rivers, and trees were friends to the people. All the creatures and all the people would regularly gather in a circle to counsel one another and to celebrate their life on earth.
There was one creature in particular who was the most beloved of the people. This creature was the horse. It was said that horses were born from the sun and the stars, that they were messengers between heaven and earth. They were given to the people as a gift from the Creator, as a promise that the horses would guide and help them. So the people not only loved the horses but revered them. No one tried to train or domesticate a horse. They were sacred partners. In fact, there was no word for horse then. The creature was given a sacred word. A word that cannot be spoken. Back in those days horses were much smaller, not like the horses of today. And the people were small too. You would often see the horses and the humans walking or running together, sharing food, and sharing stories.
The horses were wise companions and the people respected their point of view. Each day the horses and the people would greet one another in that sacred way that all creatures greet one another—with their breath. Mouth to nostril, in intimate connection, one would blow to the other. This greeting with the breath said, “I greet that in you, which is the same in me.” This breath, this life force, is the same in all living beings. It is a salutation of oneness and the recognition that we are all from the same living-ness.
In those days, everyone lived in harmony together and everything worked well together. All things were in balance.
Over time, as the population of the people grew and they needed more resources, their farming and hunting practices fell out of balance. Concerned, the animals asked the horses to counsel their human friends. The horses agreed.
When the circle convened, the horses and the people greeted one another in their customary way—with an exchange of breath, mouth to nostril. “Brothers, sisters . . . greetings to you, our beloved friends,” said the horses. “Greetings, dear friends,” replied the people. “It has come to our attention that your farming and hunting practices have grown out of harmony with the earth and all living things. You are hurting many. You are hurting us. And you are hurting yourselves,” said the horses. The people listened politely. “If you continue, you will cause harm and a great darkness will descend upon us all,” warned the horses.
But the people had grown arrogant in their thinking and they brushed off the warning and continued doing what they were doing, weaving a thread of fear and separation upon the land. As the horses predicted, a time of darkness indeed descended upon the earth. The land retaliated with drought and floods. Disease spread, and there was death and starvation. All the animals fled, including the horses.
No one quite knows where the horses went. Some say they moved further north. Some say they went back to the stars. Yet, one last horse remained. Before he departed to follow the others, he turned back to speak to one person—the only human who was still listening.
Breathing into her face, the horse spoke, “Greetings, dear sister. Our warning has come to be. This land is no longer safe for us, so we are leaving. But know this, dear friend. One day we will return, and when we do, it will begin a new time, a time of the Great Outwaiting where all of creation will sit at a crossroads between darkness and light. All of creation will be suspended and waiting to see which will prevail: dark or light. And humanity will decide. You humans will face a critical decision on behalf of us all—will you continue to live in fear and separation, or chooseto live in love and connection?”
And with that, the last horse turned away and disappeared.
And so began a prophecy. It was told from grandmother to granddaughter to great granddaughter and from grandfather to grandson to great grandson. It was told in the kivas and council circles, and whispered under blankets between children at night. It was told by the horses too, amongst themselves on vast plains and in forests. Everyone anticipated this time when all the creatures would wait to see which force would prevail: love and connection or fear and separation.
Thousands of years passed. Oceans rose; oceans receded. Ice spread; ice receded. And during this time, not a creature would speak to the humans, and the land was hostile, and there was much sadness.
Then one day, as the people gathered shellfish on the beach, they began to see large ships coming over the horizon. The ships anchored and smaller boats carrying large people clad in metal (and large creatures clad in metal, too) came to shore.
At first the people did not recognize the huge, metal creatures. There was so much fear in their eyes from the huge metal bits in their mouths and terrible spurs on their sides. These animals did not look like the small, peaceful animals from before. And the creatures also did not recognize the people at first, for they people were now much taller and had fear in their eyes, too.
But when the first horse stepped off the boat, he paused by one of the people on the beach and his breath fell upon the face of a young woman, which awakened an ancient memory in her.
“Oh, sweet brother, it is you!” she exclaimed. “It is you, our horse family, you have returned!” She and her clan fell to the ground in gratitude and respect because the prophecy had come to fruition. “You are back! Our beloved friends!”
It’s interesting here to note that historically we are told that it was the might of the soldiers and their guns that inspired awe in the native people, but according to this story it was the re-appearance of the horse that signaled the prophetic realization of a sacred story told for thousands of years that evoked so much veneration.
The horses spoke to the people, and it began with the exchange of breath. “Greetings, dear brothers and sisters. We have returned. Thus begins the Time of the Great Outwaiting. What will you choose?”
And the horses, because they were a promise from the heavens, because they were the most beloved of all the creatures, and because they were sacred and came from the sun and the stars, agreed to help the people live in love and connection and to choose wisely. But many people forgot the old ways, the old stories, and their ears and hearts were closed, and thus we are still in that time of waiting. All creation waits, looking upon humanity’s final choice. And the horses are here, helping whomever will listen. They are the promise.
This story describes perfectly our relationship to horses through-out time. Indeed they have partnered with us since the nascence of civilization, helping to till our soils, hunt, and travel across expanses. Yet new research into the history and pre-history of North America would have us reframe not only the history of the horse, but their wisdom and spiritual significance. North American indigenous cosmologies—including that of the Lakota, Diné (Navajo), Black-foot, and Apache—assert that the horse is not merely livestock, but a sacred wisdom companion given to humanity during a specific spiritual event, purposefully for our spiritual aid, to be venerated. In contrast to the Eurocentric yet stubbornly perpetuated myth that horses were introduced to America by the Spanish, this story, like many indigenous horse-acquisition stories aligns more with the real history of the horse.
In fact, the first horses on earth evolved on the North American grasslands 56 million years ago. The fossils of dawn horses, as they are called, show up ubiquitously across the continent. Paleontological page markers, their presence at a dig is like a chapter heading that indicates a remarkable time in earth’s history, an epoch called the Eocene—when modern mammal families came into their own and spread worldwide. Dawn horses were small, often well under three feet high. At that time, we were small too.
Along with the earliest known horse fossil, paleontologists have found here in the same time period the earliest known fossil of a euprimate—a true primate. These fossils were discovered on a raised flat-topped area of land in Wyoming called Polecat Bench. This joint appearance of horses and primates together in the same locale and time frame is not coincidental, writes science journalist Wendy Williams in her account of the history of horses. As their prolific presence prancing across the art of the Ice Age reveals (horses are the most frequently represented animal in that period), long before we domesticated horses, we were close companions. We are an evolutionary pair, a dynamic paleontological duo. “In those early Eocene days, we both enjoyed the same damp, hot, jungle-like environment, which isn’t surprising given that we shared a common ancestor in the probably not-too-distant past,” Williams writes. There is plenty of evidence of this shared ancestor, but the easiest way to grasp the idea is to consider our common skeleton though over time we each stretched in different directions for different reasons. “Today we look dissimilar,” Williams continues, “but there was a time when we could have been mistaken for siblings.”
Horses and humans share tarsals and metatarsals, fibulas and tibias, and almost all the same bones, in what scientists call biological kinship. At some point, humans and horses evolved from the same stem animal. While it’s not clear when this ancestral stem animal existed, some researchers point to over 100 million years ago. Thus, evolution—the great unfolding of life on our planet—is the foundation of the horse-human partnership, Williams writes, and the reason why we are capable of understanding each other so well. But for a very long while, that companionship was interrupted—at least for those prehistoric citizens in North America.
Flying Lead Change: 56 Million Years of Wisdom for Leading and Living
Discover a wealth of knowledge, combining 56 million years of ancient wisdom and cutting-edge neuroscience, by purchasing your copy.
Available for purchase by following the button below.
The Wisdom of Thriving
March 6th - April 24th, 2024
Wednesdays @ 5:00 - 6:30 p.m. MT
In this 8-week online journey, we invite you to seamlessly integrate the principles outlined in the book 'Flying Lead Change: 56 Million Years of Wisdom for Leading and Living' into your personal and leadership journeys.
Guided by the intersection of neuroscience, somatic awareness, and regenerative philosophy, Kelly Wendorf, a master coach and facilitator, leads a distinctive exploration that delves even deeper into the book's core concepts.
Participants engage in a multifaceted experience encompassing reading, classwork, and thoughtfully facilitated discussions. The journey unfolds in the nurturing company of people with a shared mission to enact positive change and personally thrive. This transformative experience includes elements such as journaling, meditation, and a sense of community, among other enriching activities.
Kelly Wendorf's expertise guides us through exploring the key themes presented in 'Flying Lead Change': Presence, Care, Safety, Connection, Peace, Freedom, and Joy.
This unique experience allows an in-depth examination of your personal, community, or professional contributions to our world. What awaits you is not just a shift but a transformation, expanding the ripples of your life's work and nurturing a profound sense of thriving. Join this course and let the wisdom of your journey unfurl its wings.
