The Arctic Hare paddles the Night Boat Moon across the sky bringing joy to Bears everywhere!
The Blue-eyed Bear looks up at the Moon and sees her friend the Arctic Hare taking the night boat across the sky. It is a hopeful sign that the natural order of this creation continues at the most basic of level no matter how many disasters be fall it. Life finds a way to flourish. The B-E Bear believes that life is the meaning of this creation, this world, this Earth.
A Rabbit, or for the B-E Bear’s mythology the Hare, in the Moon has a deep tradition in many human cultures. The rabbit is seen by the Japanese and by the Maya for whom it was associated with the Moon goddess.
The night boat or celestial boat is an old motif that comes out of ancient Egypt as that boat carried Ra the Sun through the underworld it was called the “boat of the Millions” because it carried the millions of the dead. The celestial boat was also important to the ancients of Europe and it appears on the Mittelberg disk the oldest known depiction of the night sky (ca. 1600 BC) found in central Germany.
A night boat, a celestial boat, a chariot, or a sleigh carrying a god from the North Pole and pulled by reindeer are all one and the same. They bestow generous gifts (fertility) on those that believe. Today this myth is relegated to a child’s tale that is told only at the Winter Solstice to spur commerce. The B-E Bear believes that Arctic Hare’s moon boat bestows gifts all year long or at least reminds us of the gifts we already hold!
