The Enduring Hare
Original Artwork ‘Elemental’ of the Three Hares by Vicky Yeates, more information, and more beautiful images of hares, here »
The shapeshifting hare gives us the idea that anything is possible….that our earlier lives do not have to define our future, and we can start a cycle of existence anew…
The story of Ostara and the hare is inexrtricably linked with arrival of Spring, the Vernal Equinox and Easter. (You can read more about the Ostara myth here).
And yet, it is the hare itself that always been a powerful motif for me.
I was was born and raised in a small village just outside Cirencester, a town which has celebrated the hare since the discovery of a Roman mosaic depicting a hare in 1971. The mosaic dates back to the fourth century, and is esepcially rare because it shows the hare nibbling plant stems, rather than being depicted in a hunting scene. The hare mosaic now forms the centrepiece of the town’s musem display, and painted hares can be seen dotted all over Cirencester and its surrounds.
Due to their speed and agility, hares were a favourite hunting prey of Greeks and Romans, and have appeared throughout history in literature and art. Aesop’s famous fable of the Hare and the Tortoise is perhaps one of the earliest, while philosphers Herodotus, Aristotle, and Pliny all wrote about the fertility of hares. Despite being popular prey, hares survived extensive hunting, and their survival became linked to their virility, and fertility, and with the idea of the circle of life, spring, renewal, and immortality.
The symbol of the hare appears in sacred sites across the world - from the Middle and Far East, to the churches of Devon – and it spans diverse religions and cultures, including Buddhism, Islam, Celtic, Pagan, Christianity and Judaism.
And hares appear in cultural legend and story across time and the globe. Norse love-goddess Freyja had hares as servants; warrior Boudicca once performed public divination with a hare; and Aphrodite and Eros considered hares sacred. In Ancient Greece hares were engraved onto wedding rings and wedding bowls; to this day, rabbits are seen as good luck signs in China; and in ancient Egyptian, the hieroglyph for a hare literally means ‘existence’. Wow.
For women, they have a powerful resonance too. They are nocturnal and thus have a deep connection to the moon, lunar cycle, and fertility, but also to truth found in the darkness, as well as a strong connection to magic, rebirth, transformation. Hares were often named as the animal familiars of witches, and it was even thought that witches could turn into hares.
My favouorite depictions of hares are the renowned and ancient ‘Tinners Rabbits’, which were first found in a church in Devon, but whose magical, mystical qualities have endured far beyond these coastal chapels. See Vicky Yates’ beautiful version above, which depicts the three hares, interlocked in a cicle, with only three ears shown, and yet, each hare somewhow has two ears each.
The oldest examples of the three hares have been found in cave temples in China, dating from the 6th and 7th centuries, and it is thought this image arrived in England sometime after the 14th century. Of course, there are links with the Christian Holy Trinity (father, son and holy spirit) and in Judaism they are commonly found in synagogues (particularly in Germany). But they also have strong pagan connections, and a sense of magical resonance and symmetry in the way the three ears and the rabbits are joined in an eternal circle, bewitching the eye, strong, beautiful, wild.
I think, at this time of year, it’s incredible to reminded of the hare, an animal which so brilliantly encapsulate two sides of life – dark and light, clever and foolish, cowardice and courage, virginal and sexualised, revered and feared, playful and wise, hunted and surviving.