Symbol Dictionary: Animals: A-B
(This is an excerpt from a University Of Metaphysical Sciences course at www.umsonline.org,
please feel free to visit the school website)
Alligator: “A North Amerindian cult animal; appears on blackstone carvings on the north-west Coast and is the totem animal of a clan of the Cree Indians,” according to Symbolic And Mythological Animals (1992) by J. C. Cooper. In ancient Egyptian beliefs, the alligator (crocodile) was a sacred animal, as well as in Aboriginal belief systems.
Bat: “The bat has an ambivalent symbolism and mythology, being unlucky and unclean in some traditions, and lucky and an acceptable food in others,” according to Symbolic And Mythological Animals (1992) by J. C. Cooper. Bats are eaten in Assyria and Africa, and used as charms in Egypt but demonized by the Old Testament, as unclean abominations, depicting impurity and adultery “As a creature of night and dark places, bats are symbolic of desolation and desecration in many parts, but in China, though being a nocturnal and yin animal, its name is a homophone of happiness, fu, and thus becomes happiness and good luck.” For indigenous Americans, the bat represented shamanic death and rebirth, as the bat lives in the mother’s cave-womb. In parts of Africa, bats are sacred, the carriers of soul of the dead (as most carrion birds). In the west, while bats are supposed to ward off locusts and hung on trees, they are also associated with vampires, witches, graveyards, death, and the devil.
Bear: “The bear is one of the oldest if not the oldest of the verifiable sacred animals; evidence of the Bear Cult exists from earliest times,” according to Symbolic And Mythological Animals (1992) by J. C. Cooper. Sacred shrines and Altars have been dedicated to the bear since the Neanderthals and the bear remained sacred for shamanistic cults of the North American Indians, Icelandians, Finland, Siberia, and Japan. The Innuit honor the polar bear as the Great Spirit. Often symbolizing the hunt, the She-Bear (often the Grizzly) symbolizes maternal love and renewed life after the winter hibernation and springs new cubs. The Amerindians consider the bear the Guardian of the West, as do the Hopi Indians. The bear is honored by the Ainus of Japan but considered a buffoon by the Cherokee, etc. The She-Bear as Ursa Major is the totem animal of Artemis, the Amazonian Moon-Goddess.
Bee: “Bees are probably the most universally symbolic of insects; objects of admiration, veneration and fear and subjects of cults, rituals and beliefs in birth, death and the soul; they are also connected with supernatural powers,” according to Symbolic And Mythological Animals (1992) by J. C. Cooper. As the providers of the first sweetener (honey), preserver, and alcohol (mead), bees were widely recognized, sometimes as spiritual messengers, they are associated with purity, chastity, and virginity, but their sting has a phallic connotation. The Lower Egypt royal symbol meant “he who belongs to the bee,” while Vishnu, Krishna, and Indra are called Madhava, “Nectar-born ones.” In China the bee is associated with industry and thrift (feng). Demeter was called “the Pure Mother Bee” and the Great Mother was also called “The Queen Bee,” while bees were called the “birds of the Muses, and were believed to have guided the Ionians from Greece to Asia Minor.
Bird: See Birds.
Boar: “the Golden Boar is one of the great solar animals while the White Boar, dweller in the swamps and representing the watery element, is lunar. In some traditions it depicts all that is evil and unclean, in others it can be divine, appearing on altars and images of gods, also on coins and standards; but it always symbolizes strength, fearlessness, savagery and wildness,” according to Symbolic And Mythological Animals (1992) by J. C. Cooper. Often the boar represents the “wild boar of winter” and the coming spring, such as in the Sumero-Semitic myth of Tamnuz, the Boar of Calydon, and the Graeco-Roman boar of Ares/Mars. The boar is sacred to Aphrodite, Demeter, and Atalanta. It is depicted in the hunts of Adonis, Meleager, and Hippolytus, Odysseus. It was the sacred animal of the early Olympic Games, as patron of honest play. The boar appears in Scandinavian, Teutonic, Celtic, and Druid myth, in Zoroastrian as the “shining boar” of the Sun, and to the Chinese and Japanese as the lunar “white boar.”
Buffalo: “In North Amerindian lore the buffalo or bison portrays supernatural power, strength and fortitude; it also represents the whirlwind,” according to Symbolic And Mythological Animals (1992) by J. C. Cooper. The Plains Indians consider it sacred and the Cree, Pawnee and Sioux consider the Cosmic Buffalo as their Grandfather and Father of the Universe. There are buffalo dances, festivals, sacrifices, and rituals among the Mandan Okapi, Zulus, and Malaysians. Vana (Vedic God of the Dead) and The Taoist Lao Tzu both ride on a buffalo while Buddha is sometimes depicted as a buffalo.
Bull: “As the bear is the primary symbolic and sacrificial animal of the hunter, so the bull is that of pastoral and agricultural communities, and it was reverenced and worshipped from earliest times,” according to Symbolic And Mythological Animals (1992) by J. C. Cooper. Representing usefulness, strength, virility, ambivalence, it was the totem animal of the warrior, and the Sky God. However, when ridden by a goddess such as Astarte or Sidonian Europa, the Bull became a lunar symbol, together creating fertility. The Wild Bull was the consort of Inanna, Queen of Heaven and represented the God Baal for the Canaanite, Syrians, and Phoenicians. The Zoroastrians believed the bull was the first animal created, and was revered in Egypt as Apis. For Hindus the bull represented strength, speed, and fertility as Agnis, the Mighty Bull, Siva rides the bull Nandin (Guardian of the West); the Buddhist God of the Dead, Yama is sometimes a bull; and Yahweh is the “Bull of Israel.”
Butterfly: “In changing from the mundane caterpillar and going through the stages of dissolution before emerging as the celestial winged creature the butterfly symbolizes rebirth, resurrection and the powers of regeneration,” according to Symbolic And Mythological Animals (1992) by J. C. Cooper. In Chinese symbolism, the butterfly represents immortality, leisure, and joy, and in Japan the butterfly can also represent the false lover. In Greece the butterfly represented the soul; in the Pima myth it is the Creator; and in Australian Aboriginal myth the caterpillar went up into the sky to find out what happened to the dead and came back as butterflies.