Butterfly – Animal Guides/Totem Animals

Butterfly
The Greek word for both “soul” and “butterfly” is psyche, and it was once believed that human souls assumed the form of butterflies while they searched for a new incarnation. Throughout Europe, Asia, and the Americas, butterflies have maintained their standing symbol of the soul and rebirth.
To the Chinese, the butterfly is a symbol of joy and conjugal happiness. A Chinese bridegroom would endear himself to his new wife by presenting he with a jade butterfly, which represented the union of their souls.
In the butterfly’s unique lifecycle from dead and dried chrysalis to vibrant and soaring entity, the early Christians found a ready symbol of the resurrection of the human soul and the resurrection of Christ. Certain Christian sects, however, perceived the lovely, but fragile, butterfly as a symbol of the transient and perishable nature of the flesh.
In Dakota tradition, the butterfly represents the Door of the East, wherein appears the splendor of dawn, the dwelling place of the Great Mystery.
To other Native Americans, the butterfly was a living fragment of the rainbow, a beautiful creature that floats with soundless wings above wild flowers on sunny currents of air.
If the butterfly is your totem animal, you are probably a very lively person with rather exotic tastes who loves beautiful and colorful expressions of clothing, decor, art, poetry, music, and self. Although you are a high-energy person, you are also a visionary, so you have little difficulty in settling down in a quiet place in nature or in your own home and going deep into the Silence of meditation.
The butterfly totem will aid you in achieving depths of inner and outer exploration far beyond the ordinary. As a symbol of personal transformation, your spirit helper will hover ever-near to assist you in all those changes within yourself and within your environment that are necessary for you to attain the highest levels of enlightenment.
Dreams
Your spirit helper may be preparing you for an act of unfaithfulness on the part of a lover.
Totems
The Transformative Power Of Your Personal Animal Totem
Brad Steiger
ISBN 0-06-251425-3

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The Butterfly

Throughout history the butterfly has been admired for their delicate beauty. Most adult butterflies live just one or two weeks except for the monarch and angel wing which can live for six months or more. This is very symbolic. It suggests that a person with this medicine will experience tremendous soul growth in their earlier years. A difficult childhood is common. Life lessons are revealed to the consciousness while in the womb of the mother – the cocoon stage – and are completed when the caterpillar emerges into the butterfly and takes flight. Butterflies are symbols of freedom and creativity. They hold the gift of transformation and soul evolution.

Butterflies have a pair of large compound oval eyes made up of thousands of individual lenses. They can see a single image clearly and are able to perceive ultraviolet wavelengths of light. This suggests clairvoyant abilities for those that hold this totem.

The antennae of the butterfly has small knobs on each end which is said to play a role in orientation. When one antennae is missing the butterfly will fly in circles unable to find its way. Those with this medicine need to stay consciously connected to spirit at all times in order to arrive at their desired destination.

The butterfly represents the process of transformation and shape shifting. When butterfly shows up, make note of the most important issues confronting you at the moment. What state of change are you at in regard to them?

To the Native Americans the butterfly is a symbol of joy. They remind us not to take life so seriously. They feed on flowers that they help pollinate, thereby further spreading beauty. They represent the element of air, quickly changing and ever moving, so gracefully. Butterflies are messengers of the moment. They come in a variety of colors. To understand the message that the butterfly holds for you a study of its colors can be helpful.

Whenever an eco system is damaged, butterfly is usually the first to leave. They are especially sensitive to the harmony of earth. If butterfly comes to you in a hurt, trapped or ill way, you are being asked to stop disturbing the natural design of life and to flow with events in a more gentle, natural way.

Author Unknown

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From 2007
Scientists celebrate butterfly return

Wed Jul 25, 8:39 PM ET

REDONDO BEACH, Calif. – Though the surfers, skaters and beachgoers might not notice the butterflies fluttering by, conservationists are celebrating the return of the endangered El Segundo blue to its native habitat along Santa Monica Bay.

The insects, with a wingspan of about an inch, are thriving in plain sight at beaches in Redondo Beach and Torrance after scientists nurtured their dwindling population in three fenced-in nature reserves for years. It had been decades since the critters had been seen in their native habitat.

But thanks to an effort to restore native vegetation to the area, buckwheat, source of the butterflies’ preferred nectar, now blankets bluffs that had been overgrown with invasive nonnative ice plant.

Still, scientists were surprised the El Segundo blues, thought to be too lazy to travel long distances, returned home without the help of human hands.

They have been on the nation’s endangered species list since 1976.

“No one figured that they would just do it on their own,” said Ann Dalkey, co-chairwoman of the Beach Bluffs Restoration Project. “You can see them like crazy. They’re everywhere.”