Bat- Transmutation, transformation

Deck Credit Spirit Animal Oracle with guidebook- Colette Baron Reid and the Chrysalis Tarot by Toney Brooks Research credit for the Bat

Okay friends, so the animal I have to share with you today is the bat. Before I really get into it though, I do have a bit of a confession to make, in that bats are one of my favorite animals. Yeah that might be a little weird and I appreciate why, but even though I knew a little bit about bats as an animal, I found myself getting even deeper into the fascination with them the more I researched them. So if you’re a bit squeamish around bats, I hope this post will help you change your mind a bit. Here we go.

As a whole, there are over 1400 different species of bat in the world and they tend to live in most places in the world except for extreme desert conditions and in the polar regions. Most of these species live in giant communities but some bats are solitary. The idea of bats roosting with each other may indicate that this is a means of transmitting information about safe places and that they recognize the idea of safety in numbers. These creatures can live up to 20 years which is longer on average than a squirrel. They have also been around on Earth longer than humans have been; studies suggest that they may have over 50 million years of inhabiting their spaces.

Bats have appeared in various mythologies such as Mesopotamian, African, Greek, Celtic, Norse, Native American, Mayan, Aboriginal, Polynesian, Chinese and Hindu mythologies. Sadly, these creatures have come to be associated with the idea of vampirism, possibly due the to belief in some Slavic cultures that if a bat was seen over the grave of a recently deceased person, the bat could reanimate the corpse. this idea was popularized with Bram Stoker’s Dracula but going even farther back than that, there were stories in Sumerian folklore that told of people being attacked by blood-sucking demons. Modern interpretations have come to the conclusion that the natural decomposition process a body goes through would make the body look like it had just fed, even though it was dead and buried.

While bats as a whole get a bad rap for being associated with disease, darkness, and danger, ecologically, they play an important role like bees and butterflies. They are pollinators and critical for keeping bug and insect populations under control. Another misconception people have is that bats are blind, however, this isn’t true because studies have shown that bats have excellent vision during the night and during the day. Some species of the bat will take care of their elderly as well as a mother bat can find her offspring in a large colony of them with no problem.

Symbolically, the bat can represent a deep attachment to your community, longevity, maneuverability, balance, good fortune, and evolution. If you find yourself being drawn to bats, it’s likely that you are more energetic at night, and family and friendship bonds are some of the most important things to you.

Alright, so with all of that in mind, let's get into some cards and see what messages we get, shall we?

cards pulled from various decks

Bat: A rebirth is assured

3 of scrolls (swords): hurts, heartache, pain from all around, knowing something now that is causing you pain.

4 of stones (pentacles): let go and open up, you’re holding on too tightly and this is causing you to feel the need to be stingy.

Psyche (The World): ending, completion, a new chapter begins as an old one ends

The Pilgrim: (page of scrolls [swords]): someone who takes lessons learned and applies them to their mental and intellectual growth and pursuits.

The Sojourner (King of Mirrors [cups]): Someone able to feel their emotions without them being overwhelmed by them, generous, open, and loving.

Here. I’m seeing that there have been some hurts and pains in your space in recent times friend. This has been hard to handle because there have been certain things you have brought into your space that you considered good and right for you but were shown otherwise. This is likely what’s causing you to feel down because now that you have the knowledge, you wish you could just go back to being ignorant of the negative effects these things were having on you. Now that you’ve been called to heal yourself, you’ve put up some walls around yourself to keep yourself safe while you’re doing this healing work. The problem is that this is causing you to be stingy and standoffish.

Let me assure you here my friend, that you are in the middle of a transformation. You are seeing that in order to truly heal and come out of your shell, you need to let go of the pain and open up so you can let this rebirth happen for you. Whatever happened to you is over, but perhaps you rubbing salt on your wounds to keep you in pain because that’s what you know and are comforted by. When you do work on this (let me emphasize the word WORK here), you’ll find that the energy you’re putting into holding on to this thing will change into energy that helps you take action on your thoughts and help you be someone who can feel and understand their emotions without becoming overwhelmed.