Smarter than the Average Bear

The famous cartoon character Yogi Bear would acclaim that he was smarter than the average bear. In symbolic terms he certainly is. The bear is the largest carnivorous land mammal. The bear was the animal of Artemis, goddess-hunter. Ferocious as it is intelligent, it is incredibly powerful. Artemis and her cult, 9 year old girls would frolic in the forest wearing bearskins. This bear is from Sicily, part of a mosaic preserved at Villa Romana del Casale. Artemis was known as Diana in the Roman world but the symbolism is essentially the same, because In the unconscious the bear's energy can seize us destructively. I recall a Woody Allen film where in a dream he meets a bear in the forest. He tries to soothe it. "I'm a psychiatrist. Here is my pipe." It's a funny moment but the bear looks destructive - for alchemically, the bear does represents the instincts. Cruelty, bloodthirstiness and brutality are all projections on the bear from ourselves. These things are part of the shadow side of the psyche and ready to be released. But the bear is a also a lunar symbol and nocturnal. A creature of the forest it's like Yogi Bear - a glutton for honey. So what of dreams? Where is your dream bear located? Has it approached you in the wild as a predator - with an open jaw and big teeth?  It just might be - that the bear is you.