Stories and myths are templates for healing. We invoke the winged Pegasus when we ask a child with a disability to to balance on the horse's back with arms akimbo. We mount with Apollo in his chariot of the sun when we ride behind a donkey in a specially adapted cart for the handicapped.

We invoke Silenus when we ask the ass to share its wisdom, compassion and persistence. The half horse, half-man centaur, Chiron, presides over the healing of both humans and animals in any treatment that relies on the human-animal bond. From mighty myth to humble tale, a mythological perspective enriches enormously our perspective on the place of animals in our lives and ours in theirs.

EQuotess

A farmer owned an old mule. One day, the mule fell into the farmer's old well. The farmer heard the mule braying and, after carefully assessing the situation, decided that neither the mule nor the well was worth saving. He called his neighbors to ask for their assistance. He wanted them to help him haul dirt to bury the old mule in the well and put him out of his misery.

Initially, the old mule was terribly distressed at his plight. But as the farmer and his friends continued shovelling dirt onto his back, a thought occurred to him. If every time a shovelful of dirt landed on his back, he shook it off and stood on it, he might save himself. He continued to fight off panic as the dirt landed painfully on his back from above, each time shaking it off and stepping up. It wasn't long before the old mule, battered and exhausted, stepped triumphantly over the wall of the well.

                              SHAKE IT OFF AND STEP UP.

Come to me, Gilgamesh, and be my bridegroom . . . I will harness for you a chariot of lapis lazuli and of gold, with wheels of gold and copper; and you shall have mighty demons of the storm for draft mules.

Ride a cock horse to Banbury Cross

to see a fine lady upon a white horse.

Rings on her fingers and bells on her toes,

And she shall have music wherever she goes.