Unicorn As A Spirit Animal - Messages From Unicorns

The unicorn as a spirit animal enhances our dreams from the imagination to become reality. They can work as guides through tough times. If a unicorn shows itself to you, perhaps in a dream, miracles can truly happen. Unicorns bring joy with them, they bring laughter. Unicorns remind you not to give up on your dreams. The difficult time that you are going through is only temporary and better times are coming on your way.

Transcript

Unicorns have been prancing in our imagination for over a millennia.

We can find unicorns from pop culture in TV and movies,

And there are historical people who have claimed to have seen a unicorn.

One of them was Alexander the Great himself,

Who even said that he had ridden one.

The stories of unicorns are similar to stories told about mermaids and fairies and dragons.

In that sense,

The stories about unicorns,

Or unicorn-like creatures,

Can be found from all over the world,

And they are being told in different cultures.

Unicorns are part of the world of magic.

People have believed in magic since the dawn of time.

There are a couple different versions of how the unicorn came to be.

One of the first unicorn legends comes from ancient Persia.

In this legend,

Unicorn was born from a cloud.

This first born was called Asalam.

Asalam was a light bearer,

Who could drive away darkness with its spiraling horn that shined light.

Asalam was able to spear rocks and create water into a desert,

And grow plants and trees.

He created a beautiful garden,

And then he bred life into a man to live in the garden.

And from that day forward,

The man and the unicorn were bound to one another.

We can find a great deal Abrahamic symbolism from this myth.

The man represents mankind,

The garden is the earth,

And Asalam is God.

Unicorn was a very common symbol within Christianity in the old days as well,

And this is a Persian myth.

We can see that,

Since very early days of Abrahamic religions,

The unicorns have been used as symbols of purity when we think about creatures that we now think as mythical.

A lot of times,

There is a seed of truth behind these myths.

The dragons existed.

Not exactly,

But when we look at the bones of dinosaurs,

It is easy to see that during the time when people did not know about the dinosaurs,

Finding these bones of a giant desert only could mean that dragons were real.

In the medieval legend of the unicorn,

The unicorn story is intertwined with the maiden.

There was a king who lived in a beautiful castle with his daughter.

Princess was a kind and a pretty girl,

And she had a pure heart.

One sunny day,

She decided to go for a walk and pick white flowers.

She heard birds singing and saw that a rainbow colored all the flowers underneath her feet.

When she walked deeper into the woods,

The colors disappeared and the birdsong ceased.

The grass was parched.

Girl got scared when her hair got tangled into the branches.

When the sun set,

The vines began to tangle the girl's gown,

And she was hopelessly lost.

Girl walked in the heart of the forest.

She found herself lying on a clearing,

And then she spotted a beautiful creature.

It shined so bright,

It was magnificent.

It resembled a small horse or a deer,

But with a single spiral horn in the middle of its forehead.

Unicorn itself was beautiful and magnificent,

But the magic of the unicorn lies in its horn,

Which was believed to be able to heal sicknesses and erase poison from drinks.

To get its horns,

Men had hunted unicorns for centuries,

But never managed to capture it.

The radiant white horse trotted towards the princess.

Unicorn recognized another pure soul and kneeled beside her.

Princess,

No longer afraid,

Climbed to the horse's back,

And they galloped through the dark woods into the castle.

When they arrived to the palace,

The king's men had their eyes on the unicorn.

Soldiers grabbed their spears,

Ready to attack.

At last they were able to capture the beast,

They thought,

And they surrounded the unicorn and the princess.

No!

No!

Cried the princess,

Wrapping her arms around the unicorn's neck.

Then the king arrived,

Finding her daughter crying,

Trying to save the unicorn.

Father,

You cannot kill it,

For he saved my life in the woods.

King ordered his men to lower down their weapons and wave them away.

He hugged his daughter and thanked the unicorn for saving her.

When looking to the unicorn's bright blue eyes,

The king realized that this was the most pure and innocent creature in the world.

King ordered that no one should ever hunt the unicorn.

He opened the gate,

And the unicorn was sent free,

And only those with pure hearts were able to see it.

This medieval legend of the unicorn is based on the unicorn's history in the Christian iconography and storytelling.

During the first centuries of Christianity,

As the new religion became more popular in Middle East and Europe,

The story of the unicorn became intertwined with the story of Christ.

Early Christians read it an allegory where unicorn became a symbol of Jesus because of its purity.

In the story,

Unicorn is tamed by an innocent maiden,

The princess.

In Christianity,

Jesus was born from a virgin.

The unicorn's magical horn,

With its power to erase poisons and heal,

Became a symbol of Christ redeeming the sins of mankind.

The hunt of the unicorn symbolizes the passion of Christ.

During Renaissance and medieval periods,

The hunt and captivation of unicorn became a very common symbol with the Davis trees,

Mosaics,

And other religious artifacts,

Like in the Persian story about the unicorn Vesalam.

In Christianity,

There are also stories about the unicorn in the Garden of Eden.

According to one story,

Adam was given the honor to name all animals,

And the first animal he named was the unicorn.

And some stories say that when Adam and Eve were banished from Eden,

The only animal who agreed to accompany them was the unicorn.

Saint Hildegard von Bingen wrote that the innocent unicorn was allowed to turn into paradise once in every century.

There it would drink the sacred waters and eat the whole vegetables and fruits that only grew in that sacred wheel and thus renewed its strength.

Unicorn appears quite a few times in the Bible.

In King James's version of the book of Daniel,

Daniel has a vision of a unicorn-like animal.

And as I was considering,

Behold,

A he-goat came from the west on the face of the whole earth,

And touched not the ground,

And the goat had a notable horn between his eye.

And here are some other mentions of the unicorn in the Bible.

God brought them out of Egypt.

He had,

As it were,

The strength of a unicorn.

Deuteronomy 33,

17.

His glory is like the firstling of his bullock,

And his horns are like the horns of unicorns.

With them he shall push the people together to the ends of the earth.

Psalms 22,

21.

Save me from the lion's mouth,

For two hath heard me from the horns of unicorns.

Psalms 92,

10.

That my horn shall too exult like the horn of the unicorn,

I shall be anointed with fresh oil.

Isaiah 34,

7.

That the unicorn shall come down with them,

And the bullocks with their bulls,

And their land shall be soaked with blood,

And their dust made fat with fatness.

Perhaps not all text in the Old Testament describes the unicorn.

Another animal would be a Babylonian Talmud,

Now extinct.

Talmud was a multicolored desert animal with the one single horn.

Mentions of the unicorns in the Bible date back to the period between 300 and 200 BC.

This was the time when the Semitic scholars in Alexandria,

Egypt,

Took a great task to translate Old Jewish text into Greek.

This text mentioned Re'en,

Which is Hebrew and refers to a large,

Horned beast.

Scholars translated this to Monogeros,

Which is Greek and means one horn.

It is likely that these old interpretations were influenced by the earlier unicorn legends that existed hundreds and perhaps thousands of years before Christ.

Like the unicorn,

Re'en was free and untainable.

It was also graceful and strong,

And had lots of stories and legends connected to it.

The Alexandrians produced a work of text known as Septuagint,

Which served as an early source for the Old Testament.

This work was reproduced several times during the following centuries,

And that is when the unicorn existed in the pages of the Bible.

One of the explanations why unicorns no longer exist is that it did not want to enter Noah's ark,

For it was too independent and wanted to continue its life frolicking in the woods.

Another tale tells that Noah could not take both the lion and the unicorn because these longtime enemies would just keep on fighting,

Endangering everyone else,

And Noah chose the lion.

Some versions of the story say that the unicorn swam beside the ark for 40 days and 40 nights,

But never came on board.

According a Jewish fairy tale,

The Giant of the Flood,

By Aunt Maolbi,

Unicorn did survive.

In this version,

Noah wants to save the unicorn from the destruction,

But he cannot find one.

A giant named Rok,

Who wants Noah to save him as well,

Fetches the unicorn,

But the unicorn is so enormous it cannot fit into the ark,

So the unicorn can swim alongside the ship with the giant on its back.

They swim 40 days and nights until the waters reside and the ark comes to rest at the top of the mountain Ararat.

And from that day onward,

Rok becomes Noah's most loyal servant.

Some purists believe that a spirit animal cannot be a magical animal.

I don't personally agree with that,

And if I had to pick a magical animal to be my spirit animal,

I might pick the unicorn.

When we think about horses and the symbolism of horses,

Horses are connected to loyalty,

Bravery and family,

Speediness,

Strength and beauty.

All of these elements can be associated with the unicorn,

But beside them there are elements like imagination,

Magic,

Purity and enchantment and faith.

The spiritual meaning of the unicorn is rooted in magic,

Myths and legends.

The unicorn reminds us of our essence,

Our purpose and our inner strength.

The unicorn helps you to realize your dreams and your potential,

And bring your dreams to reality.

Unicorns can also work as a guide towards unconditional love,

Like an angel.

The unicorn as a spirit animal enhances our dreams from the imagination to become reality.

They can work as guides through tough times.

If a unicorn shows itself to you,

Perhaps in a dream,

Miracles can truly happen.

Unicorns remind you not to give up on your dreams.

The difficult time that you are going through is only temporary,

And better times are coming on your way.

As a spirit animal,

Unicorn brings certain calmness,

Serenity and self-awareness.

Unicorns can bring a state of wholeness.

The people who like meditating can imagine a unicorn running or walking in nature,

Over the hills,

The seas and the woodlands.

The unicorns create magic around you.

They bring that little bit of magic to every day,

Encouraging joy and happiness,

Finding time to play and remember childhood.

Unicorn as a spirit animal will bring you closer to the world of spirits and angels and other worlds.

Unicorn does not judge.

Unicorn encourages you to let go of the thoughts that drag your mind.

One of the unicorns power is healing,

And it is an excellent totem animal for healers,

Those who wish to heal others,

And those who are in the process of healing.

The loving kindness of a unicorn brings comfort and protection.

The unicorn as a spirit animal represents individuality.

Unicorns are often associated with LGBTQ community for this very reason.

Unicorning encourages you to be who you are,

No matter your accent,

Your orientation,

Your skin color,

Or your background.

Unicorn encourages you to be yourself and to release your inner child and open your heart to the world of enchantment and wonders.

It is not only the world of imagination that is magical.

There is enchantment in your own heart.

Unicorns inspire us to discover our inner magic and our strength.

When did I get to wonder why the heart can't get to the land the greatest people ever did?

Unicorns reached the height of their popularity in the medieval ages,

An era that lasted almost thousand years,

From the fall of Rome to the Renaissance era in the 14th century.

This time period is also referred as the Dark Ages.

During these hopeless times,

An idea of a pure creature that was a sign of good luck was more than welcome.

Medieval times are often seen as a mysterious time period,

Filled with magic and superstitions.

A great deal of religious conflicts and curiosity towards the unknown.

Adventurers began to explore the great unknown.

Travelers went on to create exhibitions to China,

Arabia,

And Africa,

And the New World,

And they returned filled with new stories about strange and unusual creatures and other cultures.

Legends and fables from numerous countries intertwined with local folklore and fairy tales.

During medieval times,

People were fascinated about strange creatures and unknown animals.

The Old Testament mentioned animals in a way that gave them spiritual meanings.

Back in the days,

Christians believed that the God intended the animals to teach humans and be their guides.

We can find the following passage from King James's version of the Bible.

But ask now the beast,

And they shall teach thee,

And the fowls of the air,

And they'll tell thee,

Or speak to the earth,

And it shall teach thee,

And the fishes of the sea shall declare unto thee.

Mysteries were illustrated manuscripts that told about animals,

Both mystical and actual ones.

They weren't meant to be accurate scientific resources.

They reserved moral guides and offered Christian interpretations of the animals.

Around the 3rd century,

A book called Physiologus had a collection of 50 stories that used animals and birds as Christian allegories.

Over time,

More animals were added,

From Hebrew,

Indian,

And other legends.

Book became very popular,

And it was translated into several other languages.

In the 7th century,

A man called Isidore of Seville wrote an encyclopedia called Etymologie,

Which contained more animal folklore and elements taken from earlier works.

Later these two books were combined into a book known as the Book of Beasts,

Or Bestiary.

These books captured the public's imagination.

Most people did not know how to read,

Therefore bestiaries were illustrated with pictures of unicorns,

Rammaids,

And other mysterious creatures.

Aberdeen Bestiary tells us,

Quote,

The monokeros is a monster with a horrible billow,

The body of a horse,

Feet of an elephant,

And a tail very like that of a deer.

A magnificent horn projects from the middle of its forehead,

Four feet in length,

So sharp that whatever it strikes is nearly pierced.

No living monokero has ever come into man's hands,

And while it can be killed,

It cannot be captured.

Some unicorns in bestiaries are based on rhinos,

Others have features from dogs and monkeys.

Some of them have scales and spiky backs.

Often monokeros and the unicorn were portrayed as two different animals.

In bestiaries,

Unicorn is a white horse who is resting its head on maiden's lap,

And they are surrounded by soldiers with their axes and swords.

Some of this was perhaps religious propaganda.

The unicorn represented Christ,

And the soldiers were Jews ready to crucify him.

Some bestiaries offered advice on love and relationships.

In the era of the courtly love,

There was a code of behavior related to courting.

Writers and artists used animals to convey specific meanings and instructions for lovers,

Symbolically drawing attributes associated with different animals.

For example,

Fox symbolized cunning and trickery and owl wisdom.

Troubadours sang about the animals who in reality symbolized the maiden at their suitor.

Unicorn often symbolized a man who lived wild and carefree until they then surrendered themselves to love.

In other tales,

The unicorn pursues the lady,

So he is both the hunter and the hunted.

In these stories,

The lady is naked,

Tied into a tree.

Unicorn seduces the woman and gets killed.

This can symbolize the petite mort,

Or Sauron's little death,

Which refers to orgasm.

During this time period,

A lot of the sexual references were disguised in allegories because of the religious prudence of the time.

In medieval times,

The churches throughout Europe incorporated bestiary images into their structures to incite interiors and gargoyles in the gates and on the walls.

Unicorns were carved into altar furnitures and walls,

Woven into tapestry and painted on glass windows.

Towards the end of Middle Ages,

Other stories featuring animals appeared.

One of the most famous ones was Greek story collection of Aesop's Fables.

These stories often were Christian metaphors,

But they included moral guides and messages to their readers.

In the story The Lion and the Unicorn,

Unicorn even has compassion for his longtime enemy,

The lion.

In the story,

The ailing lion asks if he could borrow the unicorn's horn as a walking stick.

Unicorn agrees and gives his only weapon,

The iron,

And the lion attacks the unicorn.

The moral of the story is that you cannot trust your enemy and always be prepared.

When entering to the Renaissance era,

Bestiary slowly became more scientific,

As the word became more well-known to people.

Now bestiaries offered information about botany,

Geography,

And more detailed,

Realistic descriptions on animals,

And the religious tones and moral codes started to fade away.

Medieval traveler Arsmat Ibn Thaddean wrote about the unicorn in his journal.

He kept wild traveling in Russia.

What could have been the animal he came across?

This is what he writes,

Whenever it sees a rider,

It approaches,

And if the rider has a fast horse,

The horse tries to escape by running fast,

And if the beast overtakes them,

It picks the rider out of the saddle with its horn,

And tosses him in the air and meets him with the point of the horn,

And continues doing so until the rider dies,

But it will not harm or hurt the horse in any way or manner.

Medieval legends say that the only way to capture a unicorn was to take a virgin of noble birth deep into the forest and leave her there and wait.

When the unicorn would arrive to the maiden and raise its head to the girl's lap,

The hunters would appear and capture it.

Because of the story of Eve in the Bible being a seductress and eventually causing the banishment from paradise,

The church regarded all women as vicious and tainted.

A luring power of woman was connected to witchcraft that woman could tame him meant that the woman had bewitched him with her charms.

Once under her spell,

The unicorn was helpless,

And now the hunters could kill it and take possession of its horn.

Unicorn entrapment was also a metaphor that woman could not be trusted.

Following the misogyny of this time period,

During the late medieval period,

The attitudes towards romantic love and relationships changed,

At least in the court.

In southern France,

Poets and troubadours created a concept called amour-courtois,

Also known as courtly love,

Which soon spread to other parts of the world.

A highly structured codes of behaviors were formed in terms of how a male suitor must worship and serve his lady,

A woman who usually was not their wife.

During this time,

Most marriages among nobility were arranged because of political reasons,

And love rarely was a factor to be considered.

Man's erotic passion and love were reserved to another lady of the court who he promised to serve,

Even till death.

These relationships were not supposed to be consummated as the church considered infidelity as a sin.

History and romanticism populated the literature of the time.

Musicians,

Artists,

And poets began to connect courtly love to the story about the maiden and the unicorn.

The maiden represented the virgin,

The meat of the unicorn,

As always included a spiritual level and an idea of a chaste devotion.

The story of a beast being tamed by an innocent maiden was a natural extension to symbolize the courtly love.

Another interesting way to interpretate the story of the unicorn is to see it as a coming of age metaphor.

The beautiful,

Kind,

Innocent teenage girl enters into the woods.

She leaves the safety of her father's home,

Which signifies childhood.

She explores an unknown territory,

The woods,

Which represents the girl herself.

Forest has always represented the mystery,

The great unknown and the dark side of our nature or the shadow of the self,

Like the Jungians like to call it.

Maiden gets lost in the woods,

Her hair and dress get tangled in the branches and weeds,

Which represents the tangles of emotions and desires that draw a young woman into the confusing world of womanhood.

She wakes up in a safe place and sees the unicorn,

A creature which symbolizes purity and goodness.

Unicorn's horn is an obvious phallic symbol.

The maiden is now in the presence of male age,

Who teaches her the mysteries of sexuality.

This interpretation was also very popular in the medieval times.

But the unicorn is the embodiment of goodness as well.

It represents gentleness and wisdom.

He saves the girl from the darkness,

Lays its head to the girl's lap and allows her to pet him.

Unicorn is not a brute,

He frees the girl from her fears and helps her in her transition from childhood into adulthood.

The princess stands against the soldiers,

Her love wins over a cruel action.

When princess saves the unicorn,

Who is ultimately set free,

She accepts herself and the woman who she has become,

And she can be proud of herself and her achievements.

In the medieval times,

People believed that the unicorn horns could purify waters and could cure illnesses,

Such as epilepsy.

The material that the horn was made of was known as alicorn.

Alicorn was sold in apothecary as powder.

People could mix it in their drinks.

Allegedly,

Queen Elizabeth I owned two of them.

The belief to the powder existed all the way to the 15th century,

Until it was found that alicorn was really powdered normal dust.

Suspicion began to raise and people began to question the validity of the product.

If they were paying fortunes?

Scientists began to develop a series of tests which could prove if the unicorn horn was a real deal.

Here is how you can find out if you have genuine alicorn in your possession.

Real unicorn horns begins to sweat when it comes near poison.

Put some unicorn powder and a scorpio under a bowel.

If the scorpion dies,

The horn is real.

Burn some powdered horn.

If the scent is sweet,

It is authentic.

Draw a circle with the top of the horn.

Put a spider into the circle.

If the spider cannot get out of the circle,

The powder is real.

In Europe,

There was a very common belief that unicorns lived in Germany and they were known as Einhornen.

Like we earlier discussed,

It was believed that the unicorns lived in the Black Forest.

Other tales say that they lived in Harz Mountains,

A region in central Germany.

There was a cave called Einhornhöhle,

Which was believed to be unicorn's lair,

In the old days when Germanic people believed in different gods and goddesses and spirits.

Germany was a vast territory,

But unmapped.

Stories were told about wise women,

Shamans and witches,

Hexen,

Who lived in the Steinkröte caves in the Schachfeld area.

People came to seek help from these women,

For they were powerful healers.

Christian missionaries did not agree that these women were wise and called them witches.

They convinced Frankish king to arrest one of these witches.

The king agreed and sent soldiers and a monk to kill the witch.

Group approached the cave where the witch resided when a unicorn emerged from the Black Forest and knelt beside the witch.

She climbed on his back and they galloped away.

Soldier pursued the unicorn,

But they could not catch it.

The monk managed to catch the pair and he tried to drag the witch away from the unicorn's back,

But she waved him away with a magical sign.

When the soldiers finally reached the monk,

They found him dead and lying at the bottom in a hole in the ground.

Unicorn and the witch had disappeared.

In Germany,

Einhorn is also a Christian symbol.

Germany has a long Catholic tradition and many churches are decorated with images of unicorns and there is a branch in German Christian mysticism completely based on the worship of Virgin Mary,

Where she is referred as the mother of the Christ with the nickname Maria Unicornis,

Meaning the mother of the unicorns.

Here in the end I would like to read you a poem and this is from Rainer Maria Rilke and he was an Austrian poet who lived in the 20th century.

The unicorn,

The saintly hermit,

Midway through his prayers,

Stopped suddenly and raised his eyes to witness the unbelievable.

For there before him stood the legendary creature,

Startling white,

That had approached,

Soundlessly pleading with his eyes,

The legs so delicately shaped,

Balanced,

A body wrought of finest ivory.

And as he moved,

His coat shone like reflected moonlight high on his forehead rose the magic horn,

The sign of his uniqueness,

A tower held upright by his alert,

Yet gentle,

Timid gait,

The mouth of softest tints of rose and grey.

When opened,

Slightly revealed his gleam indeed,

Whiter than snow,

The nostrils cured faintly.

He sought to quench his thirst,

To rest and find repose.

His eyes looked far beyond the saint's enclosure,

Reflecting vistas and events long vanished and closed the circle of this ancient mystic legend.