Bat Spirit

Our spirit animal oracle is a theriomancic messenger:

Bat Spirit

What is theriomancy? Theriomancy or zoomancy is a form of divination that involves observation of the appearance and behavior of wild animals. Common forms of theriomancy include ailuromancy, the study of cat movements, and augury, the study of bird formations. While augury appears to be more fixed than other systems of divination, with some sources going as far as to interpret the direction of the birds’ flight, calls, and times of day, individual animal totem or spirit animals also have rich symbolism, which can be accessed by tuning into the oversoul of the animal.

Bat Spirit encapsulates the lessons of tarot cards XIII-DEATH, XVI-TOWER, and XX-JUDGEMENT all rolled into one. Since it sleeps upside down, its wings wrapped around itself like a protective cloak, we even could include XII-HANGED MAN. All cards of the major arcana representing universal archetypal themes, they often show up to announce major life shifts and changes. Although this anomalous spirit animal doesn’t present itself often, when it does, it comes with a profound and distinctive message, that of death-rebirth, transformation, and transmutation.

Although my father used to warn me about the bats in the attic when I was growing up, interestingly, the first time I ever physically encountered one wasn’t until before the pandemic. At the time, dead crows had already started turning up along with dead rodents at the museum were I worked. Although the educator, who also happened to be an avid birder, explained that crows had a natural predator, the resident Merlin falcon she had observed nesting nearby, all the death energy seemed to have a broader, more foreboding undertone. When I posted about this strange series of unfortunate events, one friend even went so far as to make the connection to bat coronaviruses in China!

It was March 2020, and we all know what happened. Within the span of all of but a few weeks non-essential workers were dismissed from their jobs, and asked to obey strict stay-at-home orders in an international public health crisis that hadn’t seen such virulence in this country since the major American Epidemics of Yellow Fever (1793-1905) stuck eastern seaport and Gulf coast cities, from New Orleans, Philadelphia, to Boston. Bat Spirit, therefore, seemed to herald a time of profound, epochal transformation and change.

Image credit: Edward Gorey, Untitled (Man with a Bat on his Head), n.d. Pen and black ink and brush and black and gray wash on cream wove paper, 5 1/16 x 2 11/16 in. The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL. In the pen and ink drawing by American writer, Tony Award-winning costume designer, and illustrator, Edward St. John Gorey (1925-2000), a regal fur-clad figure stands casually in first position seemingly unfazed by the presence of the bat perched atop its head. Early twentieth century couture millinery donned birds, fruit, furs and peacock plumes, but bats? Interestingly, throughout Gorey’s oeuvre, especially in The Sopping Thursday (1971), an illustrated story about a missing umbrella and distressed man, the gothic umbrella also appears rather chiropteran!

Oracle card author extraordinaire Colette Baron-Reid connects Bat Spirit with the alchemical properties of regeneration and rebirth. “After something has run its course and died or been released,” she writes, “there is a promise of a new beginning. Rebirth is assured just as night gives way to dawn, and the bat emerges from the darkness of a womblike cave.” Indeed, Bat Spirit reminds us that this rebirth is a miraculous one, for the very best elements of what we had to give up (TOWER & HANGED MAN) in the death of the old (DEATH) are still present in this new, amazing life now unfolding (JUDGEMENT). This is the miracle and magic of rebirth in every aspect of our lives, including the rebirth of faith in our ability to establish new and healthy relationships.

At the time Bat Spirit presented itself, I felt lost in a directionless job and relationship. Over the course of the next two years, I would come to start this spiritual-based business as a clairaudient empath and multidimensional healer, and would learn that the person I had been chatting with online was NOT my twin flame, but an imposter. While not a false twin (another type of spiritual connection which I had already encountered on my ascension journey) either, this would turn out to be another soul group member whose twin flame happened to be my doppelganger. Talk about a comedy of errors!

On account of our karmic contract which was blocking union with my genuine twin, through the (ab)use of psychoactive substances this character was able to procure enough information from our oversoul to continue to pull the wool over my eyes. While the silver lining was that it provided a bridge to start a reconnection dialogue with my twin about sacred partnership, all the unknowns I was managing during that soul phase did not come without their characteristic looping and cyclical pattern of mental-emotional anguish!

At the time Bat Spirit presented itself, I felt lost in a directionless job and relationship. Over the course of the next two years, I would come to start this spiritual-based business... and would learn that the person I had been chatting with online was NOT my twin flame, but an imposter... While the silver lining was that it provided a bridge to to start a reconnection dialogue with my [true] twin... all the unknowns I was managing during that soul phase did not come without their characteristic looping and cyclical pattern of mental-emotional anguish!

The Nature Conversancy estimates that there are more than 1,100 species of bats, with more than 40 species located in the United States, ranging from tiny bumblebee bats to flying foxes with wingspans of up to six feet. Given their pervasiveness, bats have a vast range of symbolic meanings throughout cultures worldwide who have celebrated this fascinating creature.

According to the Vault Editions micro-exhibition The Symbolism of Bats in Art: Understanding their Significance Across Cultures (2023), bat played a significant role in Ancient Mayan civilization, their writing system frequently depicting the bat hieroglyph throughout many different types of artwork, from pottery, stone carvings, clay figures, to stucco reliefs. In Chinese society, the bat is a significant symbol of good fortune and happiness, the roots of this association having begun in the Han Period between 206 BCE to 220 CE. In many European cultures, however, bats are seen as creatures of darkness and evil due to their nocturnal habits, frequently celebrated in literature, art, and mythology for their gloomy, macabre qualities.

Dan Cooper of Arts & Crafts Homes magazine interprets both bat and owl as motifs of revival. As fascination with Orientalism overcame western decorative arts and antiques, fans, plum blossoms, and ginkgo leaves were ubiquitous throughout the United States and Great Britain. Other design motifs, such as cracked ice, which signified springtime, however, were more subtle, along with the furry little bat. “While we view bats through a gothic eye, bats flapped into our lives, decoratively speaking, during the Aesthetic Movement of the late 19th century,” Cooper explains. “Why? In Chinese, the pronunciation of the words for ‘bat’ and ‘happiness’ are both fu. In Japanese, the bat has the same symbol as ‘luck.’ And so the bat is the Asian equivalent of the Bluebird of Happiness.”

While not as frequently as peacocks and cranes, from the 1880s onward bat appeared on pottery, silver-plated giftware, and occasionally furniture. "As the Art Nouveau and Arts & Crafts movements (factions of which always seemed to court the night) grew," asserts Cooper, "the bat continued to decorate pottery, jewelry, and lighting. Naturalistic elements fell from favor as Art Deco’s geometry stole the limelight, and the bat was banished to the darkest eaves of the art world, where it lurked" until the contemporary revival of transitional design. As a recent A Street Prints blog post puts it, "What's old is new again!"

“While we view bats through a gothic eye, bats flapped into our lives, decoratively speaking, during the Aesthetic Movement of the late 19th century,” Cooper explains. “Why? In Chinese, the pronunciation of the words for ‘bat’ and ‘happiness’ are both fu. In Japanese, the bat has the same symbol as ‘luck.’ And so the bat is the Asian equivalent of the Bluebird of Happiness.”

Recently, Bat Spirit turned up again in the hallway of my building. While there is an unsealed storage room (like the attic in my childhood home) where they no doubt roost, in the past five years since I have resided here, again, I had yet to physically encounter it. Given the associations from my recent past with this spirit animal, however, the encounter certainly gave me a start. While I covered my head and kept a low profile as I was leaving the building to go out for my walk, I pondered what it could have meant. Fortunately, by the time of my return, the property manager had already dealt with it, but as a searched myself I couldn’t help but attribute it to some of the self-limiting, fear-based thinking I had been indulging in earlier that day!

“Bat spirit reminds you that at present, you are in unknown territory and may feel as if you are lost,” Baron-Reid continues; “however, you are called to trust that your intuition will be a reliable guide as you give birth to something new and unfamiliar. Bat Spirit has listened in the darkness of night and has heard all your hopes and dreams, your fears and worries, and assures you that this new version of your dream—this move from darkness into light, from lost to found and death to rebirth—comes to fruition with Love at its core.”

“Bat spirit reminds you that at present, you are in unknown territory and may feel as if you are lost,” Baron-Reid continues; “however, you are called to trust that your intuition will be a reliable guide as you give birth to something new and unfamiliar."

Of course, this article would seem remiss without at least some reference to the strange form of the bat house. While I expected to go off on some research trail into their vernacular architecture, instead the title of a recent Architectural Digest article grabbed my attention: “Here’s Why the Bat House is Becoming a Thing!” “It might seem odd to want to attract bats to your yard,” admits author Bridget Shirvell, “but those little winged mammals are pretty special creatures.” Indeed, the nocturnal pollinators are responsible for helping more than 300 species of plants and trees thrive, including bananas, mangoes, and agave—an annual contribution which The Nature Conservancy has quantified as some $23 billion to US Agriculture.

For homeowners, however, bat-keeping has more to do with the fact that they prey on a variety of pests, including Japanese beetles, cucumber beetles, and other invasive insects that can wreak havoc on a garden, not to mention mosquitos. In fact, Bat Conservation International estimates that one little brown bat can eat 60 medium-sized moths and more than 1,000 mosquito-sized insects in one night!

“As more attention is being brought to climate change, people are trying to find ways to contribute and make their own impact" says Harrison Broadhurst, cofounder of BatBnB, a designer bat house and wildlife conservation initiative as seen on Shark Tank. "Bat houses are one of those ways people can make an impact—it’s actionable, and they can see the results in less bugs and less pests. Since the pandemic, we’ve also seen people paying a lot more attention to their own backyards and trying to make it a better space.”

While my father moved out long before he could ever build a bat house, in the days before his departure I can still hear Bob Marley’s “Redemption Song” (1979) playing in the background of my childhood, “Emancipate yourself from mental slavery/None but ourselves can free our mind… Won’t you help me sing/These songs of freedom? ‘Cause all I ever have/Redemption songs/Redemption songs."

While it is true that we must continue to purify our minds and (subtle) bodies to reclaim our spiritual sovereignty, letting go of what no longer serves can be especially confronting to our dualistic ego-self which may still identify with the very things we are trying to release. As a messenger of transmutation, change, and for that matter spiritual liberation, indeed, the spirit animal would seem to be more akin to the alchemical phoenix that rises from the ashes!

Interestingly, since my most recent bat sighting, the symbol has recurred in the form of the Batman Emblem on car bumper stickers and graphic t-shirts. Both times it has been in the context of other signs and synchronistic messages on my twin flame ascension journey, thus I now am interpreting it less as something loathsome, sinister, or dying. While it is true that we must continue to purify our minds and (subtle) bodies to reclaim our spiritual sovereignty, letting go of what no longer serves can be especially confronting to our dualistic ego-self which may still identify with the very things we are trying to release. As a messenger of transmutation, change, and for that matter spiritual liberation, indeed, the spirit animal would seem to be more akin to the alchemical phoenix that rises from the ashes!

In the end, all has not been lost from my old 3D museum matrix reality, either—it has since regenerated into a museum consultancy worked in conjunction with my 5D spiritual-based business. “Bat Spirit asks you to trust that what seems to have died is actually shape-shifting into something even more meaningful and wondrous than before,” concludes Baron-Reid. “If you feel you are in the dark, know that come morning, all will be revealed, and things will be in a new form that is right for you.” 🦇

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