Lessons I learned from a bat.

Imagine this. You’re sound asleep and you feel something land on your bed. Being accustomed to the cats jumping up at all hours, you roll over to give whichever cat it is a pat. Only…it’s not a cat!

As soon as you get close, you hear a weird chirp/buzz and something primal in you knows, it’s a bat! Instantly awake and on full alert, you swear and go off one direction while the bat flies off in the other.

This actually happened to me!

After this incident, it took me two hours of hiding under the covers to work up the courage to find the bat (which had gone to sleep) and gently remove him from my house. As I released him out the front door and he flew away, I said, “please, don’t come back.”

Well…he didn’t listen. The next night, he was back again. Thankfully, he didn’t land on my bed. The cats woke me up chasing it. And I was much braver about removing it this time.

The only thing is, it left me super terrified to sleep in my own bed after that. Not to mention the vet trips for rabies booster shots and the needless fear mongering of people trying to “help” insisting I needed a shot too. (CDC guidelines, no I didn’t – thank goodness since I’m needle-phobic!)

Being a shaman, I knew the bat had a message and a lesson for me. But I was so freaked out, it took a while to understand it. Here’s what I’ve come to know.

Bats are all about transition and change – and they can be incredibly traumatic. They also represent dragons, which I work with regularly in my shamanic practice.
There were A LOT of changes happening in my life (family deaths and other stressors) that lead to me changing aspects of my routine.
The stress was so bad, I had acid reflux that took up residence in my mouth causing it to burn when I brushed my teeth.
But now, things that would have normally turned me into a nut case ready for the men in white suits, no longer faze me.
Overcoming fear is definitely possible.

How did I come to learn all this?

It wasn’t overnight! I worked with my guides and some reference sources to understand bat’s message. I also worked with a friend who specializes in trauma and did a release ceremony.

The release ceremony reinforced everything else. I put all the thing that were causing me stress, pain, and anxiety on pieces of paper and burned each one while saying “I release you with love.” Watching those things go up in smoke was a big relief!

Then, I put all the things I wanted to welcome into my life on one sheet of paper and folded it several times. As I burned it, I said, “I invite you into my life with an open heart.” When the fire went out, the ashes of this paper looked EXACTLY like bat’s wings!

It still took a while to settle back into my center and sleep in my own bed. But the bat never came back in the house. (Side note: if you have bats living in your attic, put Vick’s VapoRub on a couple of cotton balls and toss them in there after dark. The bats hate it and will leave and not come back!)

What are you afraid of? Perhaps you need a lesson from a bat too. You can overcome your fear!

Try doing a release ceremony or mediation. And always seek help from a professional if you need it.

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