The Horse Oracle
You come across a pasture in the dark, marked by a wood fence. Above you, the stars are brilliant in the sky, lighting up the iron gate to the pasture entrance. You can’t see anything inside the pasture - the whole world is sleeping, including the animals. But you can’t explain it, somehow you know you must step closer to the gate. There’s more to see that’s important to you right here, right now.
As you approach, a horse spirit rears up from the shadows to greet you in a cloud of smoke, lighting up the ground around you with a wand of blazing fire.
You have found the Horse Oracle, and it has a story to share with you today.
The Horse Oracle says:
Stillness, stuckness, stagnation, restriction, feeling trapped… sound familiar? That is all coming to a close now. Any sense of being penned in, of being tied by a rope you can’t seem to undo, of only being able to go as far as the end of the pasture before getting stopped - that’s all falling away. You are about to experience the freedom of the horse.
Any day now, the way out of your enclosure will be obvious to you. You’ve been pawing the ground, chomping at the bit, gnawing at that post at the far end of the fence trying to get out. But when you see your escape route, it will just suddenly click when you’re not even looking for it: That’s the way out. You’ll race off with the wind in your ears toward a new horizon. You’ll never allow yourself to be corralled again.
In the meantime, tend your inner fire. Stoke your inner flame. The things that light you up, that have you playing and exploring for hours on end, that bring you joy and inspiration - they’re part of your last preparations before you race off into the future. Lightness is required for this next part of your journey. You can’t run with the wind when you still carry everything everyone ever tried to saddle you with, everything you ever took on board whether knowingly or unknowingly, and every heavy thing the world ever tried to make your burden.
The things that make you glow from the inside out are the matches that burn away that which has been keeping you weighed down and tied up. You are moving into a journey of progress, motion, power - in the name of what calls to your heart. You’re galloping into what you’ve been made for all along.
You will want to have your inner torch lit and ready. That way when you will see your exit, you will act on it immediately.
Burn the rope, jump the fence, and run.
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About the Storyteller & the Studio
Bailey Lewis is an award-winning author and interactive storyteller. She is head of Bailey Sends Word, an independent story studio where the mystical meets the everyday. Bailey’s work has been published internationally, awarded in many national contests, and featured in The Wigleaf Top 50. She is a Pushcart Prize nominee, and holds an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of South Carolina.
Over her 20+ years in the industry, Bailey has served as editor-in-chief and on editorial staff for many art publications and presses, from the hyper-local to the internationally acclaimed - starting back as far as the stapled-together copy paper magazines she made for her stuffed animals at the age of six. Most recently, her studio’s storytelling project The Gumball Machine of Great Fortune received a public art grant and ongoing installation at ArtFields Festival 2026.
Visit the Bailey Sends Word Story Studio site for more about Bailey and the work.