The mole is a chthonic (underground and underworld) creature symbolically endowed with the powers and secrets of the earth. In Ancient Greece it was sacrificed to Poseidon, the god of the sea upon which the earth rested. Both the mole and Poseidon were capable of shaking, undermining, or otherwise disturbing anything built upon land.
According to French folklore the mole, acting according to a remarkably accurate internal time clock, only pushes earth to the surface from its hole at exactly noon and 6:00 o'clock.
In many cultures the mole is an important friend to medicine men and shamen. It is associated with the Greek Asclepius and the Indian Rudra, both gods of healing. French children once wore various parts of these animals in little bags to ward off intestinal worms and convulsions. Moles are symbols of those who have tunneled through the earth and discovered its mysteries. This journey may be understood as a symbolic death leading the initiate to another spiritual plane or to the place of the dead.
In Native American mythology the mole is the first Shaman. He is associated with the underground "Crack in the World" which he taught medicine men to penetrate in order to discover the cures for many diseases. Other worlds, the heavenly bodies, ancestors, and other ages may be seen and contacted through the "Crack in the World."
Moles have terrible eyesight and are symbols of spiritual blindness and deafness. La Fontaine and others have noted that we tend to view our neighbors with the sharp eyes of a lynx while acting as the dim-sighted mole toward our own faults. Christians associated this animal with Satan, the Prince of Darkness, because his tactics blinded the soul and his abode was beneath the earth like that of the mole.
All scripture quotes are from the NKJV Bible unless otherwise indicated.
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Comments© 1998 by Suzetta Tucker
To cite this page:
Tucker, Suzetta. "ChristStory Mole Page." ChristStory
Christian Bestiary. 1998. http://ww2.netnitco.net/users/legend01/mole.htm
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