The Symbolism of the Bear and the Ursa constellations

Why is the Bear such an important symbol - both in the past and now? We use bears in everyday expressions, in finance and we have toys - the teddy bear. We use their image in Coat of Arms. But the symbol seems to have so many contradictory meanings. On the one hand Russia is looked on as a bear - humorless and aggressive, whereas Paddington, Pooh and Fozzie bear are all benign. Fozzie is even funny. All bears in nature are big, strong and ferocious with fearsome claws. Their young are closer to the idea of a cuddly bear, but given the way they have been treated, we might be forgiven in assuming even baby bears would fight back if they were hunted and used in bear-baiting, forced dancing or the Asian bile bear market. And once we look hard at the symbolism we find that the bear is not even a symbol of Russia and has never been one, at least officially. The official symbol of Russia is a double-headed eagle. So an apparent muddle. But to understand the real symbolism of a bear we need to go way back and look at the Constellations of Ursa major and Ursa minor. And here the immense importance of the bear becomes apparent.
========================

CREDITS

PAINTINGS [public domain]
The Dancing Bear by William Frederick Witherington, 1822
A nomadic ursar, a Romani bear-busker. Drawing by Theodor Aman, 1888
A painting of about 1650 by Abraham Hondius of a bear-baiting
Ursa Major constellation - Hevelius
Sidney Hall - Urania's Mirror – Draco and Ursa Minor
Sidney Hall - Urania's Mirror – Ursa Major
Vincent van Gogh – Starry Night Over the Rhone
Pooh sitting on a branch with honeypots plus other drawings by E H Shepherd
Public domain, Creative Commons License, Flickr and Unplash
William A. Troyer - US Fish and Wildlife Service, National Digital Library; FWS-4870 - Hunter with a bear's head strapped to his back on the Kodiak Archipelago
Danielle d’Ermo – Bear with a sore head
A bile bear in a "crush cage" - The original uploader was SlimVirgin at English Wikipedia. - Transferred from en.wikipedia to Commons.
Andrei Ranski
Bobbi Jones - Teddy-bear-face
Hans-Jurgen Mager - Polar bears
Koala - Gary Runn@garunn on unsplash
Cheddar gorge – hm-photo on flickr
Flag of Russian occupied Kharkiv Oblast
Felipe Fidelis Tobia - Lesser Coat of Arms of Russian Empire during Paul I
Russian bear’s grease, Price and co, pot lid 29inch diam black
Lyra pantalaimon and iorek byrnison by lu lu98
Rosser 1954 - Red sandstone carving, St Andrew's Church, Dacre, Cumbria. Third in a set of four. Said to be a bear or lion, chained to a pillar, and being attacked by a cat-like animal
A bear under attack during an illegal bear baiting event in Sahiwal, Pakistan – BRC/WSPA
Rannpháirtí anaithnid –
King Arthur as one of the Nine Worthies, detail from the "Christian Heroes Tapestry" in The Cloisters, New York. Dated c. 1385

VIDEO EFFECTS AND FOOTAGE

Arrow Indicator - Green Screen Animation
https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=E0zl-dMyiFI&list=PLiF9nfdi1fXo9xdOY6ljnCcXtY3i9vg_r&index=18

Polar Bear | Brown Bear | Black Bear | Stock Footage | Creative Common Video | No Copyright Videos
https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=pCeU1dfPcbA

Polar bear | Stock Footage | Creative Common Video | No Copyright Videos
https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=5siQkWHNg4s

Bear Stock Footage - Royalty Free Video, NO COPYRIGHT, Cinematic film - black, polar, grizzly, brown
https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=jqzKvEseIcs

Bear Stock Footage| FREE HD-No Copyright| FREE DOWNLOAD
https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=omU8-QRKrYw

Cute Girl Playing with Teddy Bear
https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=eMwzyR2MsII

Mysterious Scottish Pictish Stones | Geometry, Symbolism & a South American Enigma | Megalithomania
https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=kqnFIK0NJSM

MUSIC

00:00 Western Spaghetti - Chris Haugen
03:18 Tumbleweed Texas - Chris Haugen
06:09 Drop - Anno Domini Beats
06:43 Birdseye Blues - Chris Haugen
08:34 Russian Dance - Joey Pecoraro

10:53 Norður by Alexander Nakarada (www.serpentsoundstudios.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons BY Attribution 4.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

12:33 Adventure by Alexander Nakarada (www.serpentsoundstudios.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons BY Attribution 4.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

17:06 Western Spaghetti - Chris Haugen