If it goes underground or hibernates it’s connected to death. Symbol of blood magick world wide, more or less.
Only the South American vampire is associated with blood drinking. Other bats eat insects or fruit and are largely harmless to humans preferring to stay away from them (which I am sure some of us can understand).
Now in China, five bats in a circle with wings interlinked is the 5 happiness’s. In Germany, they were called fledermaus and were thought to be happy cheerful creature. Only rabid bats are dangerous, and they are only harmful when in too great a number in an unfortunate spot, like any other thing. The dung is considered high quality fertilizer, so we could attribute a sort of hidden wealth meaning too.
In India, bats were associated with the God Shiva. Shiva the destroyer? The divider, but yes basically same. Kali was the devourer. Kali was also kali-ma who created too. The Great Mother. The last acknowledged avatar was a disciple of Kali.
We see snakes associated with her sometimes. Snakes are symbols of medicine, healing, and also shedding the past as they shed skin emerging renewed. But all animals associated with Gods people found too scary, were vilified in the western culture. In India, mythical snakes were known as Naga and played much the same role as Prometheus did in Greek belief.
The snake is also a symbol of kundalini. The two snakes on the caduceus represent this and it is said that if one uses the kundalini energy that rises in middle age right, it can bring renewal. The book to look up is Liquid Light of Sex
Now some snakes also can kill. In the old world that represented power too, and death is also a transformation. Most of these misunderstood things come from a misunderstanding of death itself, and fear. The Elysian mysteries of Greece introduced the concept of the fiery underworld, but it wasn’t seen as torture. In fact, the reason the dung beetle or scarab was such a major symbol is it represented the ability to turn waste into energy. As dung was seen as fuel for fire, and the sun was to them a burning ball of dung. Being associated with the sun you don’t see too many battles at night, because you can’t see well.
Owl was a part of Halloween. To the Native Americans it is the night eagle. It does in the night what eagles do in the day. It is the dark counterpart and therefore became associated with the female or Yin and magic. It was the spirit thought to guide the Shaman who chose the hermits path. Creatures that see in the dark are often associated with female magic and mystery. This so explains the cat.
In some tribes, owl is also the same word as ghost. The owl is sometimes called deceiver due to the silent flight feathers. The design of the feather makes it a silent killer. In Thailand culture, it’s seen as inviting death or misfortune. Owl would be a silent predator and very deadly to prey, not to humans though.
We can see that this all connects to (I almost shudder to say) the burning times or witch hunts. Looking at the numbers, we see that was a deep fear of the feminine and the power thereof. And whereas the dark was seen as rest, and peace and comfort in positive terms, the mystery and power of night was also fearful to some.
It is clear from a study of history that much fear can be attributed to fear of female power. After all, truly the female held the secret of life and death in her body. Nothing could be born without it, but if she decided to end a pregnancy that is not so hard either. Those mysteries terrified some and is rooted in the mystery of blood. A bleeding woman can bear children, but if you bleed too much you die.
In fact, someone brought up a point in what I am sure was meant in a derisive way. Any creature that can bleed five days and not die is a scary thing. Blood holds much power. Even to modern science the keys of life are there.
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