Spirit of the Sacred Hare~ New Visionary Art by Lisa Thiel
My first encounter with the desert hares was through a window , where I could see them very close up as they came to drink from a tree well every day .
I was amazed by the vivid orange red color of the eyes, the length of the ears and the long limbs ,their silvery coats with black tipped ears and tails, and soon began to realize this was a very different animal than the little cottontails I was used to seeing .
Then one day in an open field I saw a group running over the plains, and they were not hopping or scampering but leaping and bounding like deer, like antelope.
Years later when a family of Hares moved into the area near my home and I was able to see them continuously and experience their unique presence, their movements , habits , their spirits.
A believer in medicine animals , I felt they were symbolic of the creative life force, of renewal and hope for new beginnings.
Later I learned they are also associated with the underworld/afterlife as guardians and wayshowers in many cultures. One of their many interesting qualities is that they are said to gaze at the moon , sometimes in large groups.
They are revered in Native American, Celtic, Nordic , Japanese, Chinese, Mayan and Egyptian traditions, among others.
Aside from the well known fertility aspect , they are travelers, messengers between the worlds, teachers of silence , patience, invisibility, swiftness, agility, grace, and the pure joy of being.
In fact the Hare hieroglyph on my Egyptian Hares image is WN which means the essence of life.
I spent this summer doing watercolor & pastel paintings of my vision of the Sacred Hare which has brought me a lot of joy,
and I hope that these images capture that feeling for others to experience .
Ive just posted two of the best ones so far on my Imagekind site
in my ‘visions of spirit in nature’ gallery: