Caterpillar in the tree
How you wonder who you’ll be
Can’t go far but you can always dream
Wish you may and wish you might
Don’t you worry, hold on tight
I promise you there will come a day
Butterfly fly away
(Miley Cyrus)
So often, the butterfly is a metaphor for change, as this song I really like describes. The change from caterpillar, to cocoon to butterfly is rich in symbolism, rich in mystery and describes, often perfectly, the necessity for acceptance of an ongoing death, an ongoing inner change, even if both the caterpillar and the emerged butterfly are still so fragile in the hierarchy of the animal pecking order. As a friend once said to me, what’s the point in doing all that healing work, only to be as fragile, vulnerable and prone to attack as a butterfly, even if you can fly and look astoundingly beautiful for the shortest of flight times?
What if, instead of much change being required to embody the butterfly, that the butterfly was there all along? What if you already had that inner butterfly, that which moved in accordance with the air, that fragile, wispy-ness, of colour, that closed and opened at various speeds, an inner butterfly, less something that emerged, or that you turned into, but was there all along.
Waiting to flutter, waiting to rise
Waiting to be seen, waiting to astonish
Waiting to be revealed, waiting to be freed
Soul rising, soul living
Feeling the wind, feeling the life through its wings
Truly alive, love and wonder, desire and fire.
What I didnt realise until this evening, that the word for Psyche in its original greek form, meant ‘the immortal wife of cupid…and represented as a beautiful woman with butterfly wings‘ (The full story of psyche and cupid is in this link)
So, profoundly, Psyche, can be both translated as ‘Soul’ and also ‘Butterfly’ .
And to one extent, therefore, this might mean, that you do not transfigure into your inner soul/butterfly….. you are born with it, it was given to you. Your inner butterfly has never not been there, and will never not be there. Its gentle, quiet, wing beats need stillness and space, and the various coverings over and around the soul walls to be gently, carefully, lovingly melted and removed, to allow your soul, your being, your inner butterfly to be free.
Its path is cleared with softness, not with power tools that scare it.
Your inner soul, your inner butterfly is the mystical Love, Being, God or consciousness that dwells within, always there, always, it is your full true self, eternal divine goodness, joy and beauty – fragile and majestic as the flight of the butterfly. Vibrant, Colour, Free.
It is not to be changed into, but to have its flight path cleared of blockages, for the falsities to be removed, for it to be safe to fly.
You will become……maybe you already are.
Never a caterpillar deep inside, always a butterfly.
James Ballantyne 