Totem Bats
BATS!!!
Rebirth
Sacred Bat ... flew to me,
From the darkness of the cave.
Womb-like reflections,
Answers it gave.
Birth, death, rebirth,
Cycles of the whole...
Never-ending,
just eclipsed,
The journey of the soul.
The bat is a mammal, and the only mammal that flies. It is also a very social animal, and if you have a fascination for bats, or if one has crossed your path recently, perhaps you should look at your social habits. Are you too much of a loner? Do you need to work on improving your interaction with others? Are you withdrawn; introverted; too shy? Then the time has come for some inner work to break these old ways.
Steeped in the mystery of Meso-American tribal ritual is the legend of Bat. Akin to the ancient Buddhist belief in reincarnation, in Central America, Bat is the symbol of rebirth. The Bat has for centuries been a treasured medicine of the Aztec, Toltec, Tolucan, and Mayan peoples.
Giant golden-crowned flying fox, Acerodon jubatus
Bat embraces the idea of shamanistic death. The ritual death of the healer is steeped in secrets and highly involved initiation rites. Shaman death is the symbolic death of the initiate to the old ways of life and personal identity. The initiation that brings the right to heal and to be called shaman is necessarily preceeded by ritual death. Most of these rituals are brutally hard on the body, mind, and spirit. In light of today's standards, it can be very difficult to find a person who can take the abuse and come through it with their balance intact.
The basic idea of ancient initiations was to break down all the former notions of "self" that were held by the shaman-to-be. This could entail brutal tests of physical strength and psychic ability, and having every emotional "button" pushed hard. Taunting and spitting on the initiate was common, and taught him or her to endure the duress with humility and fortitude. The final initiation step was to be buried in the earth for one day and to be reborn without former ego in the morning.
This ritual is very similar to the night of fear practiced by natives of Turtle Island. In this ritual, the shaman-to-be is sent to a certain location to dig his or her grave and spend the night in the womb of Mother Earth totally alone, with the mouth of the grave covered by a blanket. Darkness, and the sounds of animals prowling, quickly confront the initiate with his or her fears.
As the darkness of the grave has its place in this ritual, so does the cave of Bat. Hanging upside-down is a symbol for learning to transpose your former self into a newborn being. This is also the position that babies assume when they enter the world through the womb of woman.
If Bat appeared, it symbolizes the need for a ritualistic death of some way of life that no longer suits your new growth pattern. This can mean a time of letting go of old habits, and of assuming the position in life that prepares you for rebirth, or in some cases initiation. In every case, Bat signals rebirth of some part of yourself or the death of old patterns. If you resist your destiny, it can be a long, drawn out, or painful death. The universe is always asking you to grow and become your future. To do so you must die the shaman's death.If bat is coming to you, then you have an extraordinary sense of direction. You can find your way anywhere, and never seem to get lost. You also have the ability to weave through threatening or uncomfortable situations safely. You are quite at home in the dark, and have outstanding eyesight that lets you see clearly in poor light, or even the dark.
It is usually misunderstood, for it is more comfortable to ignore the teachings of bat — which is all about fear. Bat brings up our most hidden fears; those that lurk in the dark corners of our mind and spirit; those that make us break out in a cold sweat. He is telling you that it is time to bring these fears to the light. Nothing is greater torture than hiding such fears for our very refusal to acknowledge and deal with them only magnifies them, gives them even more power over us, and turns them into destructive monsters.
If you follow the teachings of bat, it may seem that things get only worse. They may for a time until you bring each of your fears into the full light of Spirit, tear them apart thoroughly, examine each element of that fear (where it came from and how it is influencing your life) with total honesty, and let it go — out of your mind — out of your heart — out of your spirit. It's time for serious self-examination and self-evaluation.
Always remember the positive power of bat. It is the symbol of the shaman death. This is not actual, physical death, but the death of old fears, old ways that no longer serve you, old belief systems that you have grown beyond, old prisons that have held your very soul captive. The beauty of bat? Once you pass through the darkness into the light.....YOU CAN FLY! You are transformed. You are re-born. You are free.
Bat Totem Visitation
I've been visited by a bat for the last three out of four evenings. No, not in a dream, but FOR REAL inside my home. We live in a brick home that was built in 1912. Bats have been roosting in our attic since before we moved in sixteen years ago. Okay, I'm fine with cohabitation as long as the bats keep to the attic and stay clear of our personal living space. Bats are good for the environment because they help to control the insect population. We have plenty of mosquitos around our yard for them to feast on. "Live and let live" is a good motto. About once or twice a year a bat makes its way into our living space and my husband (my hero) captures it with his butterfly net and releases it to the outdoors. Nevertheless, it has been a bit unsettling to have three of them flying around in such a short period of time. Yesterday I think I discovered how they might be making entry into our living space (specifically into my upstairs home office). We blocked that small passageway and thankfully we had no surprise visitor last night. So I hope that is the end of that for awhile. Naturally, on a spiritual level, I have to wonder what message the bat totem may be trying to convey to me. Last year it was the bees that infiltrated my kitchen, another year it was squirrels nesting inside the porch roof. Gosh, wildlife has to live somewhere I guess. But, critters sure can be unwelcome guests.
The bat totem can trigger change or transformation. Its visit can be a warning that change will soon occur and not to be afraid. Sometimes the bat is a symbol for facing ones fears. It can also indicate a time of an awakening because the bat, a nocturnal mammal, awakens in the dark. Its presence can illuminate dark shadows. It can also be a sign of opportunity.
Bat (a different view)
Genera: Pteropus Collective Term: A cauldron of bats
Description
This is a decidedly nonconformist creature, for as an airborne personality, the bat tends to look down at the conventions of the ground animals. And yet, since it is not a true bird and having not mastered the art of smooth controlled flight, it often appears awkward in social situations. (Hence the term -- acting batty). But as compensation for this social ungainliness, many bat personalities sport a built-in radar, which enables them to intuitively read the motivations of others.
Identifying bat personalities is not difficult. Being nocturnal creatures, they come alive at night and can be spotted in underground clubs or dimly lit bars. They prefer the sanctuary of dark clothing and dark corners, and you'll never see a bat sporting a heavy tan. These are intelligent, spiritual, creative individuals who use their full range of senses (other than their poor eyesight) to carefully navigate their way through life.
Bats have a habit of flitting in and out of social situations, swooping down to interact briefly with others before quickly flying off to resume their bat lives. Unassertive and aloof, they'll take flight at the first hint of a confrontation to seek comfort in their personal spaces that are decorated in unusual but expressive ways. The bat's sixth sense gives it a number of advantages in its work, and its insightful nature enables it to understand others better than it understands itself.
In the romance department, bats are enamored with the idea of love more than they are with its colder realities. Decidedly untraditional, they are prone to flights of extraordinary fantasy -- and it's not the traditional Ken and Barbie type of romance that tickles its fancy either. It's the Bram Stoker kind: dark, moody and gothic.
Bat personalities have an enormous sense of loyalty and if you ever do a favor for a bat, it will never relax until it has paid you back. In fact, in nature, the bat is the only animal (other than man) to demonstrate true altruism when unrelated individuals will unselfishly offer food to a cave-mate without expectation anything in return. This powerful sense of quid pro quo is one of the defining characteristics of the bat personality and anyone should consider themselves lucky to be in a bat's good graces.
Bats have no strong yearning for parenthood, for the kind of ego gratification that comes with having one's own children doesn't appeal to its karmic temperament. They are instead quite content to satisfy their maternal or paternal instincts by adopting or merely baby-sitting. If they do have children, they prove to be perfunctory parents: methodical yet unconventional . Still, bats place great emphasis on ethics and morality and insist that their children be indoctrinated in the values of good citizenship.
In European cultures, bats have long been associated with witchcraft, black magic and darkness. The witches incorporate bat in their brew in Shakespeare's Macbeth Because bats are mammals, yet can fly, this gives them status as liminal beings in many cultural traditions.
The bat is sacred in Tonga and is often considered the physical manifestation of a separable soul.Bats are closely associated withvampires, who are said to be able to shapeshift into bats, fog, or wolves. Bats are also symbols of ghosts, death, and disease. Among some Native Americans, such as the Creek, Cherokee and Apache, the bat is a trickster spirit.
Chinese lore claims the bat is a symbol of longevity and happiness, and is similarly lucky in Poland and geographical Macedoniaand among the Kwakiutl and Arabs.
Pre-Columbian cultures associated animals with gods, and often displayed them in art. The Moche people depicted bats in their ceramics.
In Western culture, the bat is often a symbol of the night and its foreboding nature. The bat is a primary animal associated with fictional characters of the night, both villains, such as Dracula, and heroes, such as Batman. The association of the fear of the night with the animal was treated as a literary challenge by Kenneth Oppel, who created a best-selling series of novels, beginning with Silverwing, which feature bats as the central heroic figures much as anthropomorphized rabbits were the central figures to the classic novel Watership Down.
An old wives' tale has it that bats will entangle themselves in people's hair. One likely source of this belief is that insect-eating bats seeking prey may dive erratically toward people, who attract mosquitoes and gnats, leading the squeamish to believe the bats are trying to get in their hair.
Mesoamerica
In Mesoamerican mythology during the Classic-Contemporary period, bats symbolized the land of the dead, which was considered to be the underworld. They also symbolized destruction and decay. Bats may have symbolized in this way because they fly only at night and dwell in caves during the daytime and are associated with human skulls and bones by classic Maya ceramists. Central Mexicans sometimes depicted bats having snouts that looked like "sacrificial knives and carrying human head" in the Postclassic era. Bat images were engraved onto funerary urns, and were emphasized with large claws and round ears by Zapotecs. They were commonly associated with death The depiction of bats on funeral urns and goods took on some the characteristics of the jaguar, which was, and still is, another entity of the night and the underworld. There have also been instances where bats are portrayed next to other animals portrayed negatively in Mesoamerica, including scorpions and other nocturnal animals such as owls.
A gigantic, life-size, ceramic bat-man has been discovered and dug up from the Templo Mayor. The Templo Mayor is located in the center of the Mexica capital of Tenochtitlan. Known as a god of death, this statue has the clawed feet and hands of a bat, but the body of a man. The statue's human-like eyes bulged out from the bat-like head, making the Zapotec images very realistic and living. In the 1930s, the Kaqchikel Maya were said to have proclaimed the bat was the Devil's provider. Kaqchikel would leave the Devil's underworld home and collect blood from the animals to be used for scrumptious meals to feed the Devil. "In the myths, the beast of prey and the animal that is preyed upon play two significant roles. They represent two aspects of life—the aggressive, killing, conquering, creating aspect of life, and the one that is the matter or, you might say, the subject matter".[99] In the Devil's underworld, dead sinners would work off their sins to get to heaven, indicating the bat, too, was a sinner and worked under the authority of the Devil.
Oaxaca
According to Oaxacan mythology, the bat's nocturnal nature can be traced back to its ancient jealousy of birds' feathers. One day, as the myth goes, the bat felt isolated and undesirable, and told God that he was cold. God, fair and just, turned to birds in the animal kingdom and asked if they would show compassion and donate a feather to the bat to help him keep warm. The birds all agreed and began to pluck one feather from their bodies to give to the bat. With all of these feathers, the bat became even more magnificent-looking than all birds, and was able to spread color to the night sky. During daylight the bat created rainbows that reflected vibrant colors from the sun. With his new beauty and abilities, the bat soon became arrogant and conceited. The birds grew tired of the bat's self-glorification and decided to fly up to heaven and ask God to do something. When the birds told God of the bat's behaviour, He was surprised and decided to take a look Himself. When on earth, God called on the bat to show him what he was doing. The bat began to fly across the light blue sky where, one by one, each feather began to fall out, uncovering the bat's natural, ugly-looking body. When all his feathers were gone, the bat became distressed and ashamed of his appearance. He decided to hide in caves during the day and only come out during the night to search for his long-lost feathers.
East Nigeria
According to a particular East Nigerian tale, the bat developed its nocturnal habits after causing the death of his partner the bush-rat. The bat and the bush-rat would share activities such as rummaging through the grass and trees, hunting, talking and bonding during the day. When at night, the bat and the bush-rat would alternate in cooking duties, cooking what was caught, and eat together. It appeared to be a dedicated partnership, but the bat hated the bush-rat immensely. The bush-rat always found the bat's soup more appetising, so when eating dinner one night, asked the bat why the soup tasted better than his own and also asked how it was made. The bat agreed to show him how to make it the next day, but instead was forming a malicious plan.
Next day as the bat prepared his soup, the bush-rat came, greeting him and asking if he could be shown what was agreed yesterday. Earlier, the bat had found a pot looking exactly like the one he used usually, but it held warm water and so decided to use this instead. The bat explained to the bush-rat that to make his soup, he had to boil himself prior to serving the soup, where sweetness and flavor of the soup came from the flesh. The bat jumped in the pot seemingly excited, with the bush-rat mesmerised. After a few minutes the bat climbed out and while the bush-rat was distracted, switched pots. The bat then served his soup out of the soup pot, both tasted it. Overanxious and eager, the bush-rat jumped into the pot of warm water. He stayed much longer in the pot, dying in the process.
When the bush-rat's wife returned that night to find her husband dead, she wept and ran to the chief of the land's house, telling him about what happened and what she was sure the bat had done. In hearing this, the chief became angry, ordering for the immediate arrest of the bat. It just so happened that the bat was flying over the house and overheard what was just said. He quickly went into hiding high up in a tree. When the chief's men went looking for the bat, he could not be found. The search to arrest the bat carried on over several days, but he still could not be found. The bat needed to eat, so he flew out of hiding every night to hunt for food to avoid being arrested. This, according to Eastern Nigeria mythology, is why bats only fly at night.
Heraldry
The bat is sometimes used as a heraldic symbol. The coats of arms of certain cities in eastern Spain, such as Valencia, Palma de Mallorca and Fraga, have the bat over the shield. Formerly, the Barcelona city coat of arms also had a bat crowning it, but the bat has been removed in the present-day versions.
The heraldic use of the bat in Valencia, Catalonia and the Balearic Islands has its origins in a winged dragon (vibra or vibria), which featured in King James I of Aragon's helmet or cimera reial. This is the most widely accepted theory, although there is also a legend that says that due to the intervention of a bat, King James was able to win a crucial battle against the Saracens that allowed him to win Valencia for his kingdom.
The use of the bat as a heraldic symbol is prevalent in the territories of the former Crown of Aragon and it is little used elsewhere. However, it can be found in a few places, as in the coats of arms of the city of Albacete, in Spain, as well as the town ofMontchauvet (Yvelines), in France.
The Burgee of the Royal Valencia Yacht Club (Reial Club Nà utic de València) displays a bat on a golden field in its center.
State symbolsThree U.S. states have an official state bat. Texas and Oklahoma are represented by the Mexican free-tailed bat; Virginia is represented by the Virginia big-eared bat |
Comments
Post a Comment