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Our Butterfly Souls (page 1 of 3)

Few things have captured the imagination of human beings more than the butterfly. Blessed with a delicate beauty, the power of flight and the magic of metamorphosis our collective awe has lead to it becoming an important symbol in the folklore of many cultures. With our endless desire to explain the human experience and the world we live in. the butterfly has come to symbolize such things as spring, innocence, love, femininity, fertility, freedom, our dreams, consciousness and our very souls.

One could say butterflies are part of the human "psyche'. In fact, the Greek word "Psyche'also means butterfly. Greek mythology contains the story of "psyche " a mortal girl with whom the god Eros falls in love. Psyche is often depicted in illustrations adorned with butterfly wings or surrounded by butterflies .The ancient Greeks believed that every time one emerged from it's chrysalis a new human soul was born and for this reason used the butterfly as a symbol for the soul.

The Greeks were not the only people to hold butterflies in such high regard. Although perceived differently by many cultures around the world it is surprising how many unrelated and very different ethnic groups directly identify butterflies with the human soul. The Russian word for butterfly, "Bobochka", is derived from the more commonly known "babushka" which means granny, and is a reference to the ancient belief that the souls of the dead are embodied in butterflies. One dialect refers to them as "dushichka" or "little soul" derived from the Russian word "dusha" for soul.

The butterfly is a very important symbol for the Irish as well. The "Dealan-dhe' " is a term that has several meanings: brightness or lightning of the gods, a burning stick that is used to create fire and a reference to butterflies ."Tiene dhe' directly associates fire with the butterfly.

Irish folklore attributes butterflies as being souls which have the capacity to cross into the other worlds. There is an old Irish saying "Butterflies are the souls of the dead waiting to pass into purgatory". In the 17th century the Irish were so serious about their beliefs as to prohibit the killing of white butterflies because they were thought to be the souls of dead children. More.....