It’s the first Wednesday of the month and time for another posting of the Insecure Writer’s Support Group.
The canter and gallop are variations on the fastest gait that can be performed by a horse or other equine. The canter is a controlled three-beat gait, while the gallop is a faster, four-beat variation of the same gait. It is a natural gait possessed by all horses, faster than most horses’ trot, or ambling gaits.
Learn more here.
For a couple of months now, everyone has been obsessed with the darker side of themselves. I even wrote about the shadow last year. Joanna Penn wrote an entire book about it. And back in 2013, Katy Perry had a song, that apparently has some deeper meaning.
Around 370 BC, the Greek philosopher Plato composed The Phaedrus, which includes an allegory of a chariot that has helped me frame the Shadow. Perhaps it will help you, too.
Imagine a Roman chariot drawn by two horses — a white horse and a dark horse. I am the Charioteer, and I am in the race of my life.
The white horse represents my rational self, the one society sees.
My white horse trots delicately along paved roads, aware of the fences and boundaries, never needing to cross them, remaining within the lines drawn by others.
My dark horse is a wild animal, wreathed in smoke and ash and flame.
She gallops across wide open spaces, leaps obstacles, smashes through fences, and avoids the paved and cornered world.
She runs free and will destroy herself, rather than be caged.
If both horses run together in the same direction, I can fly along, whooping in delight at the speed and power. But if they become unbalanced, the chariot begins to wobble.
When my dark horse stumbles, my white horse drives us hard along the highway, never stopping for rest.
But if she dominates for too long, my dark horse rears up and runs out of control, driving us towards the cliff edge.
Writing the Shadow by Joanna Penn
I think this clip from a friend’s horse on Instagram shows this well:
Maybe it has to do with all the writing books or mental health books I’ve been reading, but I’ve started to notice that there’s a restless part of me that’s just not interested in the way I’m living and writing. This restless part of me would rather reach for a psychological thriller than a romantasy when it comes to reading time.
It made me start to wonder what I’m hiding from in my Shadow…
So I went and bought Joanna Penn’s “Writing the Shadow” and found it quite illuminating. As she suggests in her book, I’m not going to share too much. Suffice to say, I’m leaning into some of my strengths to get rid of the excess restlessness. (Including burning wood not just to be efficient when cooking outside, but just to get rid of the heaps of wood left over from pruning trees and those that fell during storms last season – the ash is used in my various gardens. I like fire; I’m fascinated by fire; I’m terrified by fire. There: that’s something from my shadow for you to ponder.)
I suggest you read the posts I linked to for more depth to this topic. Right now, I’m wrestling with my Shadow to figure out what I’ve been stuffing into it without meaning to and get those horses to run unencumbered. And, surprisingly, I’m writing more…
Have you encountered the theory of the shadow in psychology before? What do you think of this as a writer? You can find more author-centred posts here.
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That’s so cool that Joanna Penn wrote a book about the shadows you’ve been thinking about. Good luck figuring out your shadows and restelessness.
Thanks, Natalie.
I like horses; I’m fascinated by horses; I’m terrified by horses ~ I modified your sentence, Ronel. I definitely have shadows, and horses in my dreams instantly alert me that I’m going to have a bad nightmare if I can’t wake up. Bad things happened to me as a child with horses, but I still think they are some of the most beautiful creatures in the world, especially when they are galloping freely. I’ll have to look into Joanna’s book. Have a happy and creative June!
Thanks, Louise. I’m sorry you had a bad experience with horses — they are truly majestic creatures. I felt that way about horses, too, for a while, but as the horse I had a bad experience with was the one that healed me from it, I’m no longer afraid 🙂
I think a lot of people are fascinated by fire in some way. Maybe it goes back to our distant ancestors.
Could be… Or I’m secretly planning to watch the world burn like a villain in one of my books 🙂