The white butterfly is a powerful symbol and metaphor for transformation and rebirth.
In Ancient Greek, the word ‘psyche’ (or Psykhe) meant “the soul” and it was also the word for “butterfly”.
The journey of the caterpillar is often compared to the Journey of the Soul as it moves through various cycles before it emerges from the cocoon as a butterfly.
Dream experts say that seeing a butterfly in your dreams signifies creativity, joy and spirituality, a change in the way that you are thinking or some kind of life change or big transformation.
The way that a butterfly flits from one thing to another in flight can also symbolise a lack of focus or a need to lay solid foundations or create stability in your life.
The Butterfly as a Symbol of Rebirth and Resurrection
The cocoon can be seen as a kind of tomb and the butterfly’s emergence from the cocoon as a kind of resurrection.
As the butterfly is emerging from the cocoon, this process causes fluid to flow into its wings, so that when it comes out of the cocoon, it can fly.
In terms of the Hero’s Journey, the butterfly’s struggle to get out of the cocoon can be seen as the Dark Night of the Soul or the struggles and obstacles that we go through during different stages of our life. Sometimes we can’t reach our destined goal or birth our vision without going through all the labour pains first.
The White Butterfly and Death
In some cultures, the white butterfly symbolises death or a departed soul and in many cultures, white is the colour of mourning.
In Traditional Chinese Medicine and Philosophy, the colour white is associated with the Metal element. The emotions connected with the Metal element are grief, sadness, depression, learning to accept change and learning to process and let go of the past. Other emotions include a lack of confidence and feeling unable to live up to other people’s expectations.
In Traditional Chinese Medicine, the metal element is also associated with the lungs and the large intestine. We use our lungs to breathe (another word for psyche in Greek is “breath”) and our large intestines eliminate the substances that the body no longer needs. So the concept of processing emotions and then letting them go is also reflected in the physiological processes of the body.
In movies and TV shows, it has become an overused cliché for a fortune teller to inevitably turn over the Death card in a Tarot reading for a character that is about to be murdered or have some kind of untimely death.
However in “reality”, most Tarot readers will tell their clients that the Death card doesn’t usually mean literal death. The Death card would usually be interpreted as the end of a phase in their life or some kind of transformation, closure or transition. It would represent an ending but not the ultimate ending – and endings usually herald a new beginning – an opportunity to start afresh with a clean state, leaving the regrets and mistakes of the past in the past.
Also in “reality”, just as the Death card in the Tarot deck doesn’t literally mean physical death, many spiritual teachers would say that the death of the body does not mean death of the actual person. With death, the life cycle of the body has come to an end but the soul is entering a new chapter in its evolutionary journey.
The Butterfly and Manifestation Psychology
I like to think of the butterfly as a symbol of peace, rebirth, evolution, expansion, growth, and unfoldment, as a metaphor for transcendence and as the ability to transition from one stage of life to another.
When a caterpillar becomes a chrysalis, it wraps itself in a cocoon made of silk. Nothing seems to be happening from the outside view but in the cocoon, the chrysalis is being transformed from the inside out.
During the process of life changes, we may withdraw, we may isolate ourselves, we may go within and soul search and explore ourselves and during this process, we are transforming ourselves from the inside out.
With Manifestation Psychology, when you change what is going on inside of you, your outside circumstances gradually reflect this inner change.
Psychology literally means the study of the soul and for me, manifestation psychology literally means, the revelation, actualisation and manifestation of the Soul.
Sam Punch is a holistic life coach and the author of Manifestation Psychology.
