Momma Bear
Magic
The Perspective of Bat
When I was a little girl my dad lived in a house on top of a hill in small town Wisconsin. Summertime would bring loads of mosquitoes, but we slept comfortably at night because of a bat named Oscar who lived in the attic. Oddly, I have felt safe with bats since then, although I understand that many people are freaked out by them. They are liminal creatures, often associated with the space between life and death. They are the only mammals that can fly like birds. They use echolocation like water mammals, and in fact can be accomplished swimmers. Bats are asleep during the day and active during the night, sleeping upside down. This means that bats see in ways that others cannot. Like the hanged man in Tarot, they represent a sort of surrender, a transformation of perspective.
If bat has swooped into your life, look to what is beyond the surface. Listen for the information that you need. Change is coming and night will fall. But do not be afraid. Bat is lucky and will help you navigate.
The Magic of Bat
Significant Qualities
Death
Bat is often associated with death in part because they are nocturnal creatures, or guardians of the evening. Living in the womb of the earth, it can appear that bats are born each evening. Bats can represent death in the sense of releasing of the old ways of yeasterday, and appreciating the new opportunity to release fear, darkness, and any other pattern of thought which inhibits growth.
Change
Bats thrive in liminal space. They prefer when that secret spot when one thing changes into another, whether that be lighting (dusk and dawn) or habitat (stream edges, overhangs, and submerged branches). Bats are the only mammal that can truely fly, and surprisingly they can also swim. They travel freely from one environment to another, while other creatures are much more constrained.
Luck
With a large number of homophones (words that sound the same) in the Chinese language, a rich and intriguing relationship has developed between words and symbols. This vocabulary of symbolism can be seen in our friend the bat. The word “bat” (fu: 蝠) sounds identical to the word for “luck” (fu: 福) making good fortune the symbolic association of bat in Chinese culture. The bat, bringing us happiness and joy, is magnified when appearing in groups of five. This grouping is called wufu: 五福, and translates to the “five good fortunes”. They include long life, wealth, health, love of virtue and a peaceful death. Even more bat-like is that when displayed as a Chinese ideograph, Fú is often hung upside-down, as the words for “upside-down” (dào:倒) and “to arrive” (dào:到) are also homophones. Thus upside down luck and luck arrives sound the same. Basically, bats are good luck, no matter how you say it.
Perception
Hanging upside down, exploring the world when it is mostly asleep, Bat is a dream traveler who sees the world from an unusual perspective. Instead of relying on sight, Bat feels his way through things – listening, sensing, and exploring things beyond the simple sense of sight.
Intuition
Bat is highly sensitive to his surroundings. Considered a symbol of intuition, Bat carries “night-sight” representing the ability to see through both ambiguity and illustion, sensing the deeper truths.
Time
Day: Night
Month: October
Season: Summer, Fall
Sabbat: Samhain
Moon: Full
Planet: Saturn
Zodiac: Cosmic Bat (in Orion)
Magic
Chakra: Brow
Tarot: Hanged Man
Rune: Unknown
Archetype: The Shadow
Gods: Leutogi, Hades, Camazotz, Tzinacan
Nature Spirits: Vampire
Symbols
Stone: Peridot, Obsidian, Alexandrite
Herb: Holly
Element: Air
Number: Unknown
Direction: Unknown
Gender: Both
Color: Black, Red
The Science of Bat
Chiropterology
Latin Name: Myotis lucifugus (Little Brown Bat)
Family (Family): Vespertilionidae (Micro Bat Family)
Other names:
Group name: A Cauldron or Cloud of Bats
Female: Female
Male: Male
Baby: Pup, Battling
Type: Mammal
Size: 8.0–9.5 cm
Weight: 0.19–0.44 oz
Life expectancy: 6-14 years
Sustainability: Endangered
Behavior
Shelter
The little brown bat roosts in a sheltered place such as tree hollows, wood piles, or in protective man made dwellings during the day. In my neighborhood, they prefer the lovely quaking aspen or sun warmed rock outcroppings. It is when they are hibernating that these little creatures will prefer the stereotypical cave or old mine, with temperatures remaining above freezing and lots of humidity.
Range
The little brown bat is native to North America. To the north, this little bat lives across all across Canada, and as far south as Southern California. Look for them in karst landscapes, where the dissolving bedrock has created sinkholes, caves, and springs.
Diet
This little fellow forages along the edges of vegetated habitats and streams. Its preferred feeding times are at dusk for a few hours and then again toward the dawn. You will note that here is another example of thriving on the edges of both space and time. Bat eats insects and spiders and lots of mosquitoes. Pregnant females will consume more than half of their body weight each evening, with their needs growing further during lactation to approximately 85% to 125% of their body weight nightly.
Mating
Although they only mate seasonally in the autumn, Bat has a very promiscuous mating structure. The fellows will only produce sperm from May to August, and then in the fall they will abandon their single sex roosts to “swarm” in temperary coed roosts, mating indescriminately – often without regard to gender.
Reproduction
So sperm production begins in May, copulation happens in the Fall, but egg fertilization takes place the following spring. In the mean time, the sperm is simply stored inside the female until then. Gestation will last for another 50–60 days following fertilization, usually producing a single pup.
Predators
Predators of the little brown bat include owls, raccoons, and house cats. They also fall victim to parasites, rabies, and the disease white-nose syndrome, which is caused by the fungus Pseudogymnoascus destructans.
The Folklore of Bat
Proverbs and Sayings
African Proverb
He who wants to fly like a bat, must first learn to see in the dark.
Turkish Proverb
The eyes of the bat are hurt by the light.
African Proverb
No matter how big the butterfly, it cannot be called a bat.
Hebrew Proverb
Three rebel against the light: the thief, the adulterer, and the bat.
Arab Proverb
More observant than a bat.
African Proverb
You cannot be a mouse and bat at the same time.
If love of mine could witch you back to earth
It would be when the bat is on the wing,
The lawn dew-drenched, the first stars glimmering,
The moon a golden slip of seven nights’ birth.
If prayer of mine could bring you it would be
To this wraith-flowered jasmine-scented place
Where shadow trees their branches interlace;
Phantoms we’d tread a land of fantasy.
If love could hold you I would bid you wait
Till the pearl sky is indigo and till
The plough show silver lamps beyond the hill
And Aldebaran burns above the gate.
If love of mine could lure you back to me
From the rose gardens of eternity.