Bats Meaning in Witchcraft Explained [Symbolism & Dreams]

Today, let’s talk about the mysterious night creature, the bat. We will explore the meanings of a bat in witchcraft, its symbolism, and much more.

The origins and meaning in ancient times

The bat is certainly not the most loved animal, perhaps because of all the sinister legends that see him as a protagonist, together with witches, vampires, and ghosts. Perhaps even for the alleged vice of sticking to a woman’s hair.

Yet on the sacred plane, it is a positive animal, with intelligence and wisdom that attribute it as some of its essential qualities.

This stems from the fact that they can move without hitting obstacles, although they are blind. Its symbolism reconnects to second sight and the faculty of precognition.

In Greece, it is called “nukteris”, from nyks, night. The Erinyes, merciless avengers, have the appearance of old women with bat heads, with snakes instead of hair.

In China, the bat is a symbol of long life and prosperity. Five bats arranged in a star shape include the five states of happiness (wu fu), they are wealth, longevity, tranquility, virtue, and a good death.

According to Agrippa, the bat is sacred to Saturn, and its blood is useful for the preparation of ointments capable of evoking the spirits.

Among Native American Indians, the bat is held in high regard because of its marked sensitivity and represented intuition, dream and vision. Shamans invoked their spirit when energy called “night vision” was needed, capable of revealing any arcane. In early Christianity, bats represented charity, while in medieval bestiaries they symbolized lust and sinners who lived in darkness. The reason for this is that bat mates with both males and females.

In the West, it is associated with dark and underground forces and consequently with demons.

It is no wonder that the devil is represented with bat wings. This is the case of the fifteenth arcana of the Tarot de Marseille. The same negative association started the custom of nailing bats to the doors of houses to ward off evil spirits. Another superstition was to wear a bat’s right eye to make its bearer invisible.

As an animal of power, it symbolizes an inner search. Its medicine is awareness. Invoke its spirit when you feel the need to reflect and understand your deepest desires.

If you decide to work with this totem, you will be put to the test, because it requires the maximum commitment for spiritual growth. In dreams, it bodes well for pregnant women and sometimes indicates the need to retire to meditate to access inner truths.

Bats as vampire ancestors

Until recently, it was believed that witches drank children’s blood or used it to derive magic filters. The modern vampire figure derives from Germanic / Slavic tradition. It was said that when the body was not yet purified, the soul was still connected to it, these decomposed bodies could be preserved only by drinking the blood of the living.

Burchard of Worms (Burcardo di Worms) in his “Liber decretorum” wrote that it was a good idea to stab women who died in childbirth because the child could have turned into a vampire because of its hunger for life. Even the excommunicated dead could become blood suckers.

Romanians call vampires “strigois” which means shout, because they would produce deafening screams during their clashes on the night of Saint Andrew (November 30), which is considered a magical night. Once they called them “necurat” (suicide) which in the deformed version “nosferat” has become a usual term.

Symbolic meanings of bats

Bats meaning in witchcraft

The bat is an animal of power that will faithfully accompany you throughout your life. Even if it was not your main guide animal, it’s never one of those passing animals. Once its energy has entered your life, it will never leave.

Sometimes people who have not had a bat since birth, enter its energy when major changes in their lives are about to occur.

These people must prepare for a transition period that will take them to a new world, as the bat presents itself to help overcome the transition period in the best way possible.

If you met one or one appeared to you in a dream or meditation, it means that something important is about to end in your life, a job, a relationship or possibly anything else, including bad habits or lifestyles that are harmful to you or to finish the way of seeing yourself or seeing life.

The bat will help you transition from your old life to a new one, supporting you as best it can with its arcane knowledge.

The message they send you is to be attentive to your instincts and intuition, to listen and interpret the signs that occur, so you can move with awareness and bring out the best outcome.
It also advises you to ask for help from those who love you, your family, and your friends, so that they can stay close to you and take care of you during the transition phase.

If the first contact with it occurred when an unexpected event has happened to you, when you have already suffered a detachment from someone or something, or when you have understood that something in your life close to you, then it means that you are ready to face your most intimate fears and let them go. It is when we have lost all hope and that we are willing to detach ourselves from our ego.

The bat is telling you that you must kill your old ego to be born again. You have to fail to succeed. You have lost and must accept it to win. It is true, you are at rock bottom, but the Bat is a symbol of good luck and if it appeared to you, hidden by the dark, it means that the results of the changes that you will have to make will be positive.

If you follow its teachings and rely on them, if you let its energy enter your life, then you will rise to the surface and be a new man or woman.

The Bat does not admit cowardice, if you find the courage to go with it into the deepest meanders of the dark worlds below, you will see the Universe without illusions.

If you are willing to face your most intimate fears and look inside yourself in an honest way, then it will help you and you will be reborn, a winner. It teaches you that if your life has dissolved like snow in the sun, it is because you need to detach yourself from an attitude or from a situation.

For witches, bats are often spirit guides and considered as true persons, rather than a simple animal.

Also read:
What do Rats Mean in Witchcraft? [Symbolism & Dreams]

In any case, whether the bat is your main Power Animal or that one way or another has become one of your Guide Animals, you must also know that:

• Symbolically they are considered the Great Master, they enter the bowels of Mother Earth and know its secrets. Mother Earth whispers in their ear, and from them, you can learn the secrets of creation
• Thanks to its highly developed senses and ultrasound, they know how to behave in any situation, and you can ask them for advice on solving anything
• It is the only mammal that flies, sleep, and gives birth upside down, and it is very long-lived for being so small. This means that it has the power to act on the shapeless structure not yet created, and bring to light what it wants, even despite the classic universal laws. He subverts the order as they like and does it because they know the deepest secrets
• It is a natural insecticide and therefore it can free you from any negative presences for you
• It can help you find your true potential and express it
• You can ask it for help to uncover mysteries, that have yet to be revealed
• It helps you to reach the highest peaks of knowledge and to enjoy the freedom
• It brings you the ability to be reborn after crises and renew yourself
• It pushes you to let go of old patterns and habits, to always be a winner
• It helps you communicate to make those you love feel loved and then you can ask them for help
• You can ask them to show you the truth
• You can ask them to show you what will happen, and you can agree with them, what it will be
• You can invoke it when you need courage

If the bat is your Power Animal or one of your Guide Animals and you are not following its medicine, all the negative aspects of its energy will manifest, and you will experience:

• Cowardice
• Your body will age faster
• The inability to get out of situations where you are not comfortable
• Bad communication with your loved ones
• Non-existent intuition and the inability to move on situations
• Selfishness and avarice
• Illusory life and credulity
• Unsatisfied desire to be in tune with the surrounding world
• Bad luck, if something can go wrong, it will go wrong
• You will feel misunderstood
• Fear of changes, even the smallest ones
• Addictions and bad habits that cannot be eliminated
• A closed mind
• Deep and unmotivated fears, life seen in the negative
• The inability to recover after negative events
• Wrong evaluation of people and situations

Remember that the bat is 100% faithful to you, but requires a constant commitment, which it rewards abundantly, with generosity and joy. To access its arcane knowledge, you must be willing to give up everything. You must trust it because it teaches you how to get the most out of giving up your false self.

Dreaming about bats

If you dream of bats, it might be that you are asked to see the world from a different perspective, and you can change your life by doing so. If you dream of a bat in relation to someone else in your life, maybe it’s because they might be wanting you to change your mind.

If you are scared, it might be the dream that has a negative meaning, but if you feel at ease and not scared at all, perhaps it simply means that the bat is here as a reminder of how you can act to change your life.