Butterfly
In its metamorphosis from the
common, colorless caterpillar to the exquisite winged creature of delicate beauty,
the butterfly has become a metaphor for transformation and hope; across cultures,
it has become a symbol for rebirth and resurrection, for the triumph of the spirit
and the soul over the physical prison, the material world. Among the ancients,
is an emblem of the soul and of unconscious attraction towards light. It is the
soul as the opposite of the worm. In Western culture, the butterfly represents
lightness and fickleness. Note Owen Warland's spiritual progression in Nathaniel
Hawthorne's Artist of the Beautiful as it parallels the development of
the butterfly which he struggles to mechanically recreate. In China, secondary
meanings of joy and bliss. Is very closely related to love, especially with wings
and when being burned in Cupid's hand that is not holding the bow. Wantonness,
especially in Shakespeare. In Yeats, the opposite of the hawk, intuition as opposed
to logic.
(Related entry: ANIMALS).
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