11 February

Donkey Dreaming: A Mystical Connection

by Jon Katz
Donkey Dreaming
Donkey Dreaming

They say that donkeys got the crosses they all carry on their backs the day Jesus was crucified. His donkey, driven away by soldiers and the howling mob, kept returning, upset to see his beloved master dying on the cross. When Jesus was dead, the legend says, his donkey returned, and then left in sorrow when he saw his human dead. He passed under the shadow of the cross and donkey have carried the cross and the burdens of mankind ever since.

Donkeys have always seemed mystical to me, rich in history, rich in literature. Writers have been writing about donkeys for century, and no animal in the world has captured the human imagination more than these loyal and stubborn and loving creatures. Anyone who knows a donkey knows about donkey dreaming, donkeys taking time out – every day, several times a day – to be still, soak up the sun, and, it seems to many, including me, to dream. They stand still, gazing at the horizon, or at the ground, and the world slows down and calms.

You can almost feel them dreaming. What is the nature of their dreams? No human knows, but sometimes, when I stand or sit with the donkeys – I do this when I am upset or frightened or sad sometimes – they slide and drift over to me, they come near me to heal me, I think, and I feel their dreaming. They dream of history, maybe of the myth of the donkey and the cross, they dream of alfalfa and fresh grass stretching to the horizon, they see streams of cool, clear water, and shade trees to nestle under. They dream of the foibles of humans, I believe, passed along from mother to daughter, father to son. Loving humans, cruel humans. They wonder at this strange species they serve, so capable of love, so capable of cruelty. They dream of deserts and hills and crowded bazaars and dirt farms and of the little children every donkey loves to carry on his or her back.

They dream of the hills they love to climb, the gates they open, shelter in the sun and the wind. They dream of one another, and of the countless donkeys who have sacrificed themselves for the endless work of humans.

Another donkey myth says that all donkeys love children, as they see small people as pure and loving and uncorrupted by the greed and anger and cruelty of the species. Dreaming with donkeys is a spiritual experience, it lulls me and gives me peace and perspective. It heals me.

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