Ireland's OWN: Celtic Symbols

The Horse
—by Míchealín Daugherty

he horse was sacred to many Indo-European Goddesses, even filling the archetypal place given to cats in other cultures.

In Celtic culture, horses are one of the prime totemic animals, whose flesh is taboo. Even today, horseflesh cannot be eaten by humans in Ireland.
Horses were linked to the night, the moon, mystery and magick.
Nightmares, a name which is derived from that of the female horse, were thought by the Celts to be brought by a visiting horse Goddess.
In Irish folklore, humans must be captured from atop a white horse at midnight at a faerie fort in order to be saved from the faeries.
The Horse Goddesses Rhiannon and Epona are honoured even today.

Sources include: Personal knowledge; Celtic Magic by DJ Conway; The Celtic Book of the Dead by Caitlin Matthews; Celtic Wisdom by Caitlin and John Matthews; Celtic Cross Stitch by Anne Orr and Lesley Clark; Celtic Folklore, Bellinus Press: Wiltshire; Celtic Designs, Dover Publications: Toronto, Ontario; Celtic Wonder Tales by Ela Young, Illustrated by Maud Gonne; and Celtic Myth and Magick by Edain McCoy.