The Symbolism of the Bear and the Ursa constellations
Introduction
Why is the Bear such an important symbol
- both in the past and now?
We use bears in everyday expressions such as
"like a bear with a sore head"
- meaning bad tempered and irritable.
Bears are used as a symbol in finance.
A bear market is one experiencing a prolonged price decline.
In contrast, a bull market is when prices are rising.
But from what is essentially negative symbolism
we also find the "teddy bear", which is entirely positive.
The teddy bear was named after President Theodore Roosevelt,
when he refused to shoot a bear that had been captured.
The incident was reported in The Washington Post on
November 16, 1902.
The initial cartoon was of an adult black bear
but later issues of the cartoon made the bear smaller
and more cub like.
Morris Michtom saw the Berryman drawing
and was inspired to create a "teddy bear".
The toys were an immediate success.
But they never looked angry or dangerous.
Even when they were almost bear size.
It seems that Richard Steiff also had the idea for a toy
based on baby bears in 1902,
and the German Steiff family firm produced them.
As such the symbolism does seem to have evolved differently.
For example this is the Coat of Arms of Veliky Novgorod,
the largest city and administrative centre of Novgorod Oblast, Russia.
It is one of the oldest cities in Russia,
being first mentioned in the 9th century.
And this painting shows a Russian bear hunt using dogs,
where the bear is depicted as dangerous and aggressive.
Whereas here we see Fozzie bear, a Muppet puppet
"best known for his ineffective stand-up comedy skills".
Rather than his dourness.
The bear as the dour aggressor
A bear is generally not a benign creature, it is large, strong,
intelligent and resourceful. It has a superb sense of smell
and is a good runner, climber and swimmer.
Whether it is a Kodiak bear in Alaska, which commonly
reaches sizes of 300 to 600 kg (or 660 to 1,320 lb),
and has even been known to exceed a weight of 680 kg (1,500 lb)
or a polar bear (Ursus maritimus)
described as "the largest extant bear species,
as well as the largest extant land carnivore".
An adult male can weigh around 350-700 kg (or 770-1,540 lb)
or a Giant Panda which can weigh up to 160 kg (or 350 lb)
- although this is a cub
or The North American grizzly or grisly bear,
which naturalist George Ord formally classified in 1815
as Ursus horribilis for its character
though NOT the Koala Bear in Australia which, despite its name,
is classified as a marsupial - not a bear.
All are big and strong with ferocious "non-retractable claws",
used for digging, climbing, tearing, and catching prey.
One swing of a large bears' paw can kill a human.
And they would be justified in fighting back, given what humans
have done to their home and how humans have treated bears.
They have been hunted - since prehistoric times
for their meat, fur and "sport"
used for bear-baiting
- The Quaker Member of Parlament Joseph Pease [shown],
via the Cruelty to Animals Act of 1835,
finally succeeded in banning bear baiting
[and dog and cock fighting] in the UK and Empire,
although Bear baiting occurs in Pakistan in this century,
even though it is against the law
forced to dance - used in forms of "entertainment",
such as being made to dance
used in traditional Chinese medicine
- in the illegal trade in bear parts,
including the Asian bile bear market.
The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN)
lists six bear species as vulnerable or endangered.
The poaching and international trade of the threatened populations
are prohibited, but still ongoing.
Indeed every reason for the bear to be symbolically very angry,
and very irritable and very aggressive
- making the "jolly teddy" look a nonsense.
Cuddly bear versus ferocious bear
Thus from what we can deduce so far
the cuddly teddy bear is an anomaly.
Whilst Paddington bear and Poo bear get to meet the Queen and
even offer her marmalade sandwiches and birthday cards.
The Bodleian library has cartoons labelled "A Russian hug
for the young emperor" dating back to the 1800s
and whilst Smokey bear is used to promote campaigns
against careless use of fires in forests.
The Sunday Times in a cartoon dating back to an era
when sabres were used,
characterised the nature of "the bear" as one of danger.
And even more recently as we were entertained
by the shambling good humour of Baloo the bear
in the Disney Jungle book cartoon.
Some cartoonists were pointing out
that trying to be civilised with a bear
with an appetite for entire countries
[and this is Obama in 2014] may not be a sensible strategy.
And equating the antics of Yogi Bear and Boo Boo.
With a fully armoured bear being ridden by an ex KGB agent
may not really be comparing like with like
[and this is President Bush].
And that Br'er bear with his cudgel may be closer
to the symbolism of the sorts of bear we are faced with today.
And that the UK is as guilty as the US in sanitising
the true nature of the bear - Pooh, Paddington and Rupert bear
all offer a form of wise spiritual escapism
from a world all too horrific for most to want to believe.
So, the symbolism of the bear as a benign cuddly creature
is incorrect, and we might be better considering this symbolism
to be that of a "Teddy".
But we may be wrong about the Russian bear too.
To begin with, the bear is not a symbol of Russia
and has never been one, at least officially.
The official symbol of Russia today is a double-headed eagle.
But for at least five centuries those outside Russia
have been using the bear.
Part of the problem may simply have been caused by
unscrupulous merchants promoting "Russian bear grease"
as the best remedy for hair loss.
On the grounds that bears are very hairy.
[and bear's grease was actually pig fat]
Eventually Russians became tired of trying to resist it.
At some point it just became easier to sigh and accept
this misunderstanding, even go with it [this is fake].
But Russia is not a symbolic bear, it is a double headed eagle
- matching, in some respects, the Eagle of the USA.
So after all this we should be left wondering
what the bear actually represents.
It isn't Russia - because Russia is a double headed eagle
It isn't a benign fluffy harmless being
- because that is a fiction created for children
It isn't even a bad tempered irritable aggressive being
- because bears are only this when ill-treated by humans.
And to find out its real meaning we must turn first to the Picts.
The Picts
In many northern countries in ages past,
the bear, like the wolf, was greatly admired.
Like the stag and the wild horse, it was a Totem animal
- a clan animal and can be found in numerous Pictish carvings.
Many ancient stones in Scotland are carved with bears.
And they are remarkably accurately observed
with their strong haunches and massive claws.
These are not cuddly toy bears, but real bears
and admired enough to be worthy of being carved very artistically
in stone.
Bears were not just native to Scotland,
in Cheddar Gorge, near Bristol,
the remains of animal species native to mainland Europe
such as antelopes, brown bears, and wild horses
have been found alongside a human skeleton,
"Cheddar Man", dated to about 7,150 BC.
And why was the bear such an important Totem Group?
The answer lies in the constellations
- Ursa major and Ursa minor - and we will look at this now.
The Ursa Major and Ursa Minor constellations
The Ursa Major constellation lies in the northern sky.
Its name means "the great bear", in Latin. It has 7 main stars.
The Ursa Minor constellation is known as "the small bear"
- it lies near Draco in the northern sky.
It too is formed of 7 large stars, one of which is Polaris.
Ursa Major is known as the "Big dipper", or the Waggon,
or the Wain [meaning a cart] or the Plough
and has a very recognisable "panhandle" pattern.
The stars on the right side of the pan line up with Polaris.
As shown on the flag of Alaska.
Ursa Major is the largest northern constellation in the sky,
and doesn't dip below the horizon.
This Van Gogh painting shows just how big it is.
The constellation is symbolically linked to King Arthur.
Vice Admiral W. H. Smyth [shown here]
wrote in his Speculum Hartwelliauum
[Cycle Of Celestial Objects
Continued At The Hartwell Observatory To 1869].
"King Arthur, the renowned hero of the Mabinogion,
typified the Great Bear; as his name - Arth, bear,
and Uthyr, wonderful, - implies in the Welsh language;
and the constellation, visibly describing a circle
in the North Polar regions of the sky,
may possibly have been the true origin
of the Son of Pendragon's famous Round Table."
The two constellations Ursa Major and Ursa Minor
together point to Polaris - the North Star.
It was thus invaluable as a navigation aid
in the days before compasses,
especially as it is the brightest star in the constellation.
"Because Polaris lies nearly in a direct line
with the Earth's rotational axis "above" the North Pole
- the north celestial pole -
Polaris stands almost motionless in the sky making it easy to find."
A red sandstone carving in St Andrew's Church,
Dacre, Cumbria, shows a bear, chained to a pillar.
It is called the "Dacre bear" and is one of four.
One hypothesis on the meaning of this statue,
which long predates the church,
is that it is the Bear climbing the celestial pole,
- Going up the pole in the outward court
- Climbing further up the pole in the Inward court
- Up through the Stars and the Zodiac
- Until it has reached the "Unmoving mover" at the centre
of the Cosmic Egg which is symbolically Polaris - the North Star
And we came across this idea of ascent up a pole to the "Centre"
in Aleister Crowley's Tarot card for the World
- in his case called "the Universe".
Furthermore, in Sir Philip Pullman's trilogy, His Dark Materials,
Lyra Belacqua befriends Iorek Byrnison: ...a bear.
After Lyra helps him recover his armour, he becomes
very protective of her and joins the expedition to "the North".
As such Sir Phillip's book also draws on the same symbolism,
the Bear can guide you to being "in Pole position".
In the northern branches of the Indo-European languages,
the constellations are known as the "honey eaters"
and our video on the Symbolism
of Bees, Beehives and Honey explains why.
They figuratively climb directly upwards to spiritually ascend
and by doing so reach "the centre"
- the source of spiritual nourishment - honey.
All indicating that Paddington and especially Poo bear
are indeed closer to the symbolism intended.