42 - Bat - Rebirth

42

Bat

Rebirth

Sacred Bat...flew to me,


   From the darkness of the cave.


Womb-like reflections,

   
   Answers it gave.



Birth, death, rebirth,


    Cycles of the whole...


      Never-ending, 


         Just eclipsed,


The journey of  the soul.

Steeped in the mystery of Meso-American  

tribal ritual is the legend of Bat.

Akin to the ancient Buddhist belief in 

reincarnation., in Central America, Bat is the 

symbol of  rebirth.

The Bat has for centuries been a treasured 

medicine of the Aztec, Toltec, Tolucan, and 

Mayan peoples.

Bat embraces the idea of shamanistic death.

The ritual death of the healer is steeped in secrets 

and highly involved initiation rites.  

Shaman death is the symbolic death of the 

initiative to the old ways of life and personal 

identity.

The initiation that brings the right to heal and be 

called shaman is necessarily proceeded by ritual 

death.

Most of these rituals are brutally hard on the 

body, mind, and spirit. 



In light of today's standards, it  can be very 

difficult to find a  person who can take the abuse 

and come through it with their balance intact.

The Basic idea of the ancient imitations was to 

break down all the former nations of "self" that 

were held by the shaman to be.

This could entail brutal tests of physical strength 

and psychic ability, and having every emotional 

"button" pushed hard.

Taunting and spitting on the initiative 

was common, and taught him or her to endure the 

duress with humility and fortitude.

The final initiation step was to be buried in the 

earth for one day and to be reborn without former 

ego in the morning.

This ritual is very similar to the night of fear 

practiced by natives of Turtle Island.

In this ritual, the shaman-to-be is sent to a 


certain location to dig his or her grave and spend 

the night in the womb of Mother Earth totally 

alone, with the mouth of the grave covered by a 

blanket.

Darkness, and the sounds of animals prowling, 

quickly confront the imitative with his or her fears.

As the darkness of the grave has its place in this 

ritual, so does the cave of Bat.

Hanging upside-down is a symbol for learning to 

transpose our former self into a newborn being.

This is also the position that babies assume when 

they enter the world through the womb of woman.

If Bat has appeared in your cards today, it 

symbolizes the need for a ritualistic death of some 

way of life that no longer suits your new 

growth pattern.

This can mean a time for letting go of old habits, 

and of assuming the position on life that prepares 

you for rebirth or in some cases initiation.

In every case, Bat signals rebirth of some part of 

yourself or the death of old patterns.

If you resist your destiny , it can be a long drawn 

out, or painful death.

The universe is always asking you to grow and 

become your future.

To do so you must die the shaman's death.