Seeing a hare
A hare in a field has no burrow to hide in: it lives in the open and survives on watchfulness and speed. English folklore once read a hare in the village street as a warning of fire.
What it may mean
A rabbit has a hole to bolt into. A hare has none. It spends its days crouched in a shallow dip in the grass, ears flat, with eyes set so far to the sides that it can watch almost all the way around without turning its head. When danger comes close it runs, faster than a fox, often in sharp zigzags. Living in the open on attention rather than walls may be part of why old lore gave the hare an uncanny name, from fire warnings in English villages to milk charmed away in Ireland. Meeting one, sitting tight in a field or sprinting along a hedge, may bring your own exposed places to mind: the job with no cover, the family role where you are always watched. The hare manages it by staying still until stillness stops working, then committing fully to the run.
Depending on how you saw it
Two hares boxing in spring
The famous boxing of hares in early spring is most often a female fending off a male who is pressing too hard, not two rivals fighting. What looks like a brawl is a firm no. Which disagreement near you might really be someone saying no in the only way they can?
A hare running down a village street
An old English superstition held that a hare running along a village street warned that a fire would soon break out. Hares that wander into streets are often lost and frightened, far from their open ground. When have you felt that far out of your element, and who noticed?
A white hare in winter
Mountain and snowshoe hares turn white for winter, and the Cornish took the appearance of a white hare as a sign of a storm. Changing coats with the season keeps the animal hidden. How do you adjust your outer coat when your surroundings change?
A hare on a May morning
In Ireland, meeting a hare on May morning was a worry for anyone with cows, since the milk might be charmed away. May was a season of strong charms in Irish lore. In which season do you find yourself most on guard?
Why it happens in nature
Hares are larger than rabbits, with longer ears and legs, and they do not dig burrows: they rest in a shallow hollow in the grass called a form and depend on camouflage, wide vision and speed, which can top 40 miles an hour in the brown hare. In North America, jackrabbits and snowshoe hares are hares despite their names.
What folk beliefs say
England
An English superstition held that if a hare ran along the street of a village, there would soon be a fire.
Source: Cora Linn Daniels; C. M. Stevans (eds.), Encyclopaedia of Superstitions, Folklore, and the Occult Sciences of the World, vol. 2 (1903), vol. 2, p. 641. View the page
England (Cornwall)
To the Cornish, the appearance of a white hare foretold a storm.
Source: Cora Linn Daniels; C. M. Stevans (eds.), Encyclopaedia of Superstitions, Folklore, and the Occult Sciences of the World, vol. 2 (1903), vol. 2, p. 641. View the page
Scotland
A Scottish fisherman did not mind a hare that sat still or ran toward the beach, but one that crossed his path settled his fishing for the day.
Source: Cora Linn Daniels; C. M. Stevans (eds.), Encyclopaedia of Superstitions, Folklore, and the Occult Sciences of the World, vol. 2 (1903), vol. 2, p. 917. View the page
Ireland
In Ireland, if you met a hare on a May morning, the milk was likely to be charmed away from the cows.
Source: Cora Linn Daniels; C. M. Stevans (eds.), Encyclopaedia of Superstitions, Folklore, and the Occult Sciences of the World, vol. 2 (1903), vol. 2, p. 881. View the page
To reflect on
What keeps you steady in the places where you have nowhere to hide?