The symbolism of the Hare
A hare is symbolically a 'goddess' - a permanently enlightened being.
It has huge bulging eyes indicative of frequent and profound spiritual experience
- especially visions
And two enormous ears giving it close communication with ‘heaven’
acting much like twin horns
The mad March hare indicates intense spirituality often leading to madness
the Fool symbolically.
It is almost manic in its activities, hyperactive
Manilius: To those born under the hare constellation nature all but gives wings
and flight through the air, such will be the vigour ...
which reflect the swiftness of the winds.
The hare is, in many cultures, a symbol associated with the Great Mother.
As a consequence it is aligned with the Moon.
The Hare is also on the spiritual path, a symbol of ‘Night’ - Nyx.
Hares have ‘split lips’ and thus represents 'duality'
- half function and half form
CONSTELLATION
There is a constellation called Lepus the hare
This constellation was Lagos among the Greeks.
Greek lagos or Latin lagus, means hare.
The four bright stars of Lepus were in Arabic astronomy Al Nihal.
Hewitt says that in earliest Egyptian astronomy Lepus was the Boat of Osiris,
the great god of that country, identified with Orion.
‘The problem which perplexed the ancients; why the Mighty-hunter and his Dog
should pursue the most timid of creatures,
is solved when we recognize that Orion was originally a solar type [masculine],
and that the Hare is almost universally a lunar type [feminine]’
NATIVE AMERICANS
Among the Algonquin Indians, the Great Hare is associated with the Great Mother.
CHINESE TRADITION
The hare was the second of the twelve emblems of the Emperor of China,
symbolic of the Yin force in the life of the monarch.
The Chinese considered the hare an animal of prophecy and it was said to live on the moon.
CELTIC TRADITION
In Celtic and other traditions, the Hare is a totem animal of many lunar Goddesses
- Freyja, Selene, and Anumati.
She is associated with both the symbolic Night and the Moon.
This is a 1939 Irish 3 pence coin
THE GREEKS AND HECATE
The lunar goddess Hecate, was associated with hares.
The German equivalent of Hecate, the goddess Harek, was accompanied by hares.
Hecate was a Titan, a daughter of Nyx (Night).
She is described as a ‘mighty and formidable divinity’.
She was often depicted in triple form past, present and future,
a prophetess able to communicate with spirits notice the keys, the torch and the owl.
In origin Hecate was not a Greek goddess. She was adopted from Thrace and Mycenae.
The Carians of Asia Minor had a cult centre for Hecate in Anatolia.
At length she became a goddess with her own Mysteries,
celebrated in Samothrace , Aegina, Argos , Colophon and Athens,
where she had a sanctuary on the acropolis.
Hekate was also one of the Titan-gods who allied themselves with Zeus
and it was Zeus who told her to help Demeter search for Persephone,
guiding her through the night with flaming torches.
She later became Persephone's companion in Hades.
The First Bushman’s Path: "Stories, Songs and Testimonies
of the /Xam of the Northern Cape - The Foolishness of the Little Hare
I know because I am the moon and I return to life when I die
I live and I die and I come back again, living, as a new moon
But you are a hare and you do not know
Your hare eyes are enormous and they are yellow with shining
And they pour out many tears and they roll with foolishness
You are a hare, you will always be a hare
And your hare ears that you keep shut are ears that are foolish
For they do not hear what I say, you do not listen with them
You are therefore a fool and speak foolishly
But I know the truth of what I tell you for I am the moon