Geàrr, Hare Day

Today started unexpectedly. My little dog Billy, caught a hare! Goodness knows how he did it (unless he stole it from the cats!). I never knew he had it in him and, frankly, I wish that he hadn´t - hares are sacred animals and I was very upset to see the beautiful creature dead. At least he had the grace not to mangle it up and, when we discovered him, he was just keeping guard over it.

Well, what is one to do? The poor little creature had already given its life, so I had to deal with it. Head, feet, entrails and fur were buried with reverence in the centre of the labyrinth and tail hung from the central olive tree. Billy lay by the tree for over an hour, until I had cooked the meat. Dog and cats will feast on hare for 2 or 3 days!

I was particularly upset because it is almost exactly a year since I had the privelege of participating in the Solstice Eve release of two hares (Couve and Flor) back into the wild. I wrote about this fully at the time on my Covenspace blog but, as Covenspace is no more, neither is my blog or the photos. So here, for those who didn´t see them, are a couple of amazing pictures from that event:

Rather than staying sad about the dead hare all day, it had the strange effect of stimulating a burst of creative, magical energy. I researched my Druid Animal cards and discovered that the
old name for the spirit hare is Geàrr. My Cornish witchcraft book has White Hare as the familiar of the Southern Road on the Compass Wheel, which in this system represents Earth. The tools of this direction are magical stones, so I painted Geàrr on a smooth pebble for use in future healing rituals that call on this aspect of the Compass. I also created a Book of Shadows entry for White Hare and compiled Hare Smoke incense for use in Ostara and Mabon rituals. I feel the hare was a gift and I trust my efforts have honoured its sacrifice.