Fertility, Resurrection and Prescience. During the iron age, hares were thought to be the messengers to the gods because of their great speed. The ancient Celts would divine the future by releasing a wild hare. Once it was let free they watched the way it ran, and the direction it ran in, to foretell future events. The Talismanic Hare Pendant can't tell you where you'll end up, but it will keep you company along the way.
Design Details
Available in bronze and sterling silver, this pendant is 1 ½” by 1” (38 x 25 mm), and comes with an 18” gold or silver-tone steel chain.
Symbolism of the Hare
Unlike the rabbit, hares live relatively solitary lives, with the male and female coming together only to mate. The female hare gives birth to precocial young (born with hair, open eyes and ready to run) without the protection of a burrow. The babies are born in small tamped down tufts of grass and have a very short period of dependence on the mother. Because of its speed, strength and independent nature, the hare was revered by the Celts and consequently considered to be the messengers of the gods as it traversed between the two worlds. Due to its rapid rate of reproduction, the hare became associated with cyclic processes, such as the cycle of the moon, the reawakening of the sleeping winter world and the new lives that come with the beginning of spring. In a Roman account by Cassius Dio, the Celtic leader Boudicca was said to have released a hare as a good omen and tool of divination before each battle. She believed the hare's movements would foretell the outcome of the battle. She even took a hare into battle with her to ensure victory, and it was said to have screamed like a woman from beneath her cloak. According to a more modern legend, the goddess Eostre changed into a hare at the full Moon.
