The Museum of Witchcraft

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The Hare and Shape Shifting

It is believed that Witches can transform themselves into hares and other animals.

In 1662 Isobel Gowdie of Auldarne confessed that she and other members of her coven transformed themselves at will by saying three times:

I shall go into a hare,
With sorrow and sych and meikle care;
And I shall go in the Devil's name
Ay while I come home again.

When they wanted to return to the human form they said,

Hare, hare, God send thee care.
I am in a hare's likeness just now,
But I shall be in a woman's likeness even now.

Belief that witches can 'shape shift' into a hare is ancient. Giraldus Cambrensis wrote of it in the twelfth century stating that it is "very old". It is still believed by many today.

Stories of hares disappearing after being shot are to be found in all parts of the Country, usually an old woman is found soon after with gun shot wounds.

In pagan times the hare was revered as a sacred creature associated with fertility and Spring. In Northern Europe the hare was sacred to the Spring Goddess Eostre or Ostara, and still has ritual connections with the Christian festival that bears her name.

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