Bel Homme XXVII

Image: Subject and photographer unknown.

Usurper

In the following excerpt from Hare, Simon Carnell explores the hare's role in the persecution of witchcraft in England in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.

Naturalistic explanations include the fact that [the hare] is nocturnal, solitary, somewhat mysterious, popularly (and learnedly) believed to be lascivious; sometimes seen in 'parliaments' or sitting in coven-like circles with other hares. It has been suggested that, like the cat, the hare is singled out as a 'human-in-disguise' because it 'usurps the right to state.' By assuming its form, witches were probably also thought to be usurping some of the positive associations the animal had acquired as a symbol in Christianity, stolen away and inverted. . . . Or rather, stolen back, since in northern Europe, at any rate, Christianity tapped into the power the hare derived from Celtic and British paganism. According to Dio the ancient Britons not only tabooed hare flesh (a sure sign of a sacred function) but used hares for the purpose of divination. Boudicca is said by him to have released a live hare on the field of battle for some such purpose.


See also the previous posts:
The Hare-Witch
Creature of Mystery, Creature of Magic
Hallowtide Transformations
Eyes of the Hare

Image: "Tryst" (artist unknown).