SPRING 2007
WHILE WRITING IN PUTNAM VALLEY
While writing in Putnam Valley
SPRING 2007
THE MYTHOLOGY OF BUTTERFLIES
Butterflies. Odilon Redon. 1910
In Mexico, the Nahauatl people believe that Monarch butterflies are the souls of dead children returning to their ancestral home. This interpretation is based on the migration habits of this species. Around November 2 every year (the Day of the Dead celebration) the Monarchs appear en masse in the Oyamel fir forests of Central Mexico. They remain for the entire winter season before returning north to the lay their eggs and die. The massing of these butterflies is so dense that on still days the sound of their wings flapping is quite audible.
In Aztec and Mayan mythology, the god of fire Xiutecutli is represented as a butterfly. Fire, like the butterfly, is a symbol of transformation.
The ancients Greeks originally depicted the soul or spirit as a stick figure with wings. The butterfly/moth as a symbol of spirit and its potential for transformation originated from that source. The myth of Psyche and Eros (Cupid) is a mythological metaphor for the feminine journey toward consciousness. Psyche is the Greek word for both soul and butterfly.
