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Momma Bear

Magic

The Resilient Bear

I share the Rocky Mountains with black bears. I don’t often see bear herself, but her markings and tracks are quite common. Bear spends the winter protected in the womb of the earth. She enters into her den in October or November, when the temperatures drop and snow begins to fall. During her hibernation, her metabolism will change so that she can remain dormant for about 5 months without eating or drinking. She will give birth around February and nurture her cubs until the snow melts. In the spring, she emerges with her cubs ready to eat. Some would describe her as fierce and dangerous. Certainly that can be true, but it is only a small part of the picture. Bears are intelligent, creative and resourceful. They seek out pleasure as well as survival. They swim, climb trees, and explore over great areas.
If bear has rumbled into your day, consider her wide range of skills. She is adaptable, listening to her body and knowing when it is time to feast and when it is time to rest.

The Magic of Bear

Significant Qualities
Strength

American black bears are quite strong. They can move items 2-3 times their weight with a single paw.  Although large animals, black bears are also surprisingly quick and agile. They can sprint up to 35 miles per hour and climb 100 feet up a tree within 30 seconds.

Heal
Bear can heal her injuries while hibernating. She also seeks out healing plants that other animals overlook.
Know
Bear is a gatherer of information. Her nose can smell 7x better than a bloodhound while her hearing is 2x better than that of humans. Bear is considered one of the more intelligent mammals combining excellent navagation skills, sharp long-term memory, and the ability to generalize.
Solitude

Bear generally lives a solitary life.  They can have small family units that are social, but more often they find balance and comfort in solitude. They set up boundaries, and have a “critical space” – an area of personal space around them that they will defend. Entering into this space of theirs forces them to react by either speedy retreat or by attacking.

Curiosity

Bears are rather curious creatures, and that can occasionally get them into trouble.  They will inspect smells, noises and objects to determine if they are edible or amusing. Standing up on its hind legs allows a bear to get more information from its senses of smell, sight and hearing. It is usually a sign of curiosity, not aggression.

Time

Day:  Dawn & Dusk
Month:  April
Season:  Spring
Sabbat:  Imbolc
Moon:  Bear Moon (January) 
Planet:  Saturn
Celestial: Ursa Major, Ursa Minor

Magic

Chakra:  Root, Solar Plexus
Tarot:  Strength
Rune:  Unknown
Archetype:  Mother, Warrior
Gods:  Odin, Thor, Thea/Thrud, Artemis, Berne, 
Nature Spirits:  Unknown

Symbols

Stone:  Magnetite, Honey Calcite
Herb:  Uva Ursi, 
Element:  Earth
Number:  Unknown
Direction:  West
Gender:  Feminine
Color:  Blue

The Science of Bear

Mammology

Latin Name: Ursus americanus (Black Bear)
Family (Family): Ursidae (Bear Family)
Other names:  
Group name: A sloth or sleuth of bears
Female:  Sow
Male:  Boar
Baby:  Cub
Type:  Mammal
Size: 4.5 feet long, 3 feet tall (4 paws on ground)
Weight: 90 – 551 lbs
Life expectancy: 20-30 years
Sustainability:  Not currently of concern

Behavior
Shelter
Black bear typically dens in spaces that provide some wind break. Examples include caves, brush piles, depressions under fallen trees, dense shrub thickets, hollow logs, or rock crevices. On occasion, Bear will simply curl up on the ground, waiting to be blanketed with snow. Except for mothers with cubs, Bears dens alone.
Range

Black bears live in forested areas up north throughout Canada, in the US (especially in mountain ranges like the Appalachian and Rocky mountain areas) and Alaska, and south into some parts of Mexico.  Male black bears need a home range of about 10 to 59 square miles, while a Female black bears 10 to 20 square miles.  She will not share her territory with any other females, but the ranges of several males may overlap or intersect with hers.

Diet

Black bear is an opportunistic eaters.  An omnivore, more than 80% of their diet consists of grasses, roots, berries and other plant matter. Fish, bugs, and small mammals are also a part of their diet, but carrion (the remains of animals killed by other predators) is a critical source for their meat.

Mating
By their fourth spring, black bears have often reached sexual maturity. For the most part mating will occur in June. However, the ritual can begin in May with the female (sow) leaving a scent trail. The male (boar) will follow her around, picking up her scent. After spending several days becoming acquainted, they begin to nuzzle. Mating will follow, repeatedly with copulation lasting from minutes to an hour. When the mating ritual has completed, the sow will want nothing to do with the boar.
Gestation
Gestation will last for 235 days. When an egg is fertilized, it will develop into a small embryo (blastocyst). At this point, the blastocyst stops growing and floats freely in the uterus for several months. If a sow is fat and healthy when she heads into her winter den, the embryo(s) will implant in the uterus and continue to develop. She’ll wake up during January or February to give birth to 1-6 cubs. At birth, cubs weigh 1/2-1 pound and are about 8 inches long. They are blind and mostly hairless. If the mother is not fat and healthy prior to denning, her body will simply reabsorb the blastocysts and wait to start over again the following spring.
Predators

Humans, mountain lions, wolves and brown bears are the only predators of the American black bear. In the United States, more than 200 black bears are killed by motor vehicles each year. An additional 50,000 black bears are legally killed each year by hunters in the US and Canada. On the other hand, an average of one human is killed each year by a black bear.

The Folklore of Bear

Proverbs and Sayings
Turkish Proverb
The bear knows seven songs and they are all about honey.
Finnish Proverb
Everyone knows the bear, but the bear knows no one.
Danish Proverb
It is not easy to sting a bear with a straw.
Italian Proverb
Who divides honey with the bear, will be like to get the lesser share.
German Proverb
Never tickle the nose of a sleeping bear.
Mongolian Proverb
Two bears in one cave will not end up well.
Macedonian Proverb

A bear that dances in your neighbor’s house might soon dance in yours.

Thumbnail

the earth is a living thing
is a black shambling bear
ruffling its wild back and tossing
mountains into the sea

is a black hawk circling
the burying ground circling the bones
picked clean and discarded

is a fish black blind in the belly of water
is a diamond blind in the black belly of coal

is a black and living thing
is a favorite child
of the universe
feel her rolling her hand
in its kinky hair
feel her brushing it clean

Lucille Clifton