The power and the strength of the Bear is as impressive to us today as it was to our oldest ancestors. In our bygone world powerful animals often represented the Sun, especially those animals that hibernated through the winter months. As the Sun declines they hibernate, the hours of daylight getting shorter each day, until it is reborn at the Winter Solstice, and these animals emerge from hibernation, renewed and gain strength each day.

Sadly the Bear is now extinct in Britain, but the strength of its spirit still remains alive. The Brown Bear died out in England in Scotland in the middle ages, and even earlier in Wales. There was never any evidence to suggest the Bear ever existed in Ireland at all during historical times.

They were hunted and persecuted out of existence. However, they were once very numerous and during Celtic times their skins were exported in large numbers from Scotland.

Bears are mostly vegetarian feeding mainly on nuts and berries as well as insects. However, after coming out of their hibernation in spring when food supplies are scarce they will sometimes attack a young boar or even a deer. A she-bear may produce up to twelve cubs during her lifetime.

Alpine grottoes and caves have been discovered dating back to 100,000 BC, that contain bear skulls and ceremonial hearths. We can imagine that to ancient people the bear caves represented the power of the invisible spirit world.

The Bear is one of the most revered animals in the world, and still even today thought to have enormous powers, they are able to hear sounds from great distances and able to remember.

When a bear is skinned they are said to resemble the same proportions as a man, and is human-like. They have always been identified with humans and the Tungus and Yakuts of Siberia called him Grandfather and in this land of great superstition it was believed that a man could turn into a bear if he crawled round a forest tree trunk three times, growling all the way.

The bears hibernation followed by emerging renewed in the spring, walking tall on its hind legs, has led to it being associated with regeneration and rebirth. Being regarded as a very mystical creature, our Celtic ancestors became cult worshippers, and the Celtic word for bear was arth or arthe, the Latin word is Artos and gives rise to the ancient name of Arthur. The legend of King Arthur sleeping in an underground cave until Britain needs him, recalls a bear in hibernation.

It seems likely that Arthur was originally a Sun god, and Arthur's underground sleep represented the rebirth of the Sun from the underworld of midwinter. In Gaelic tradition it is said that the Kean mathon (head of the bear) was one of the seven signs or names of star clusters engraved on the shield of King Arthur.

Male bears were sacred to the god Thor and the Celtic goddess Brighid is known as the daughter of the bear, and her spring festival of Imbolc follows the rebirth of the Sun in winter. Greek myth tells how the Great god Zeus, originally the Sun God was always looked after by two bears, who of course became Ursa Major and Ursa Minor. These constellations revolve around the Pole star the centre of the heavens. The Greek goddess Callisto was changed into the constellation of the Great bear and in myth became know as the nymph of Artemis and had two sons by Zeus. In a jealous rage Hera turned them into bears and Zeus turned them into constellations.

Bears were sacred to Artemis/Diana and at their Temple of Brauron just outside Athens, dances were performed by young girls dressed in yellow and called bears, these young maidens would then be rushed at by young men in a pre-marriage ritual as a mock hunt afterwards a goat would be sacrificed as a summer and winter solstice rite.

In Labrador when Eskimo's eat a bear's flesh this is a sacred feast and every morsel must be consumed and during this feast there is no talking only singing and drumming.

Bear - baiting continued in Britain until 1835, when it was outlawed. The Romans used bears in their arena's to perform and execute criminals and the sport of bear-baiting and indeed it was the Romans that introduced this cruel sport into Britain.

The Native American warriors would invoke tribal totems before going into battle and might have dressed in bearskins and go berserk calling upon the animals great spirit and courage to aid and possess them. In Native American teachings the bear is associated with the Dream Lodge, the inner space where the advice of the ancestors is sought.

It was once believed that when bear cubs were born formless and their mothers licked them into shape, hence the saying 'licked in shape'. In folk magic to wear a claw from a bear around the neck would take away the pain of childbirth, but in today's world the bear can still teach us many lessons, we learn that strength comes from within-not from what we own.

Think like a bear....he is connected to the earth and the spirit world; this is because he is at peace with himself. His movements are slow, sure and deliberate. He acts with purpose and in winter he enters his silent cave and emerges renewed in the spring.



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