By Christine Kern, Intuitive Empath
7-27-18
A friend of mine has been seeing a lot of butterflies and dragonflies lately, and she asked me what they meant.
I told her that both are powerful totems, representing transformative power, which is highly significant to her right now because of the challenges she has recently faced.
Often, nature provides us with messages – some subtle, some more like two-by-fours to the face – to remind us of where we are, what we have accomplished, and what we have yet to do. If you are suddenly seeing an animal that seems odd or out of place, or if it appears DIRECTLY in front of you demanding your attention (like a hawk that swoops down right in front of you), then there is a message for you in its presence.
Butterflies are beautiful creatures.
They also hold a lot of “magic.” (I use magic in the spiritual sense here, not the actual witchcraft sense).
Butterflies have actually been assigned deep meaning by nearly all great civilizations, religions, and spiritual traditions on Earth, and they represent a time of metamorphosis, change, and transformation. Think about the process of how it transforms from a caterpillar into a butterfly: it must wrap itself in layers of darkness, giving itself time to develop, before fighting its way through the chrysalis to show the world its colors in all their depth and beauty.
The Chinese and ancient Greeks believed that the butterfly symbolizes immortality, and the Greeks also see it as a symbol of the soul. Psyche, a princess raised to the rank of goddess in Greek mythology, is also portrayed as a winged girl who resembles a butterfly.
If butterfly has crossed your path, you need to pay particular attention to those aspects of your life or personality that require profound changes and/or transformation. Or, it could also be reminding you that you have ALREADY experienced those transformations, even if you haven’t yet noticed it for yourself. They could be changes that are evident to those around you, but which you are not yet feeling strongly yourself.
Butterfly represents a transition from an old life to a new one, from a state of ignorance to a state of awareness, from a hard life to a better one.
Color also matters when it comes to butterfly symbolism. If a butterfly crosses your path, take note of its primary colors: black, white, or yellow.
White butterflies symbolize the souls of the dead in Japanese culture, so if you see a white one, it suggests that one of your ancestors is trying to communicate you with a particular lesson. And in psychoanalysis, the butterfly symbolizes rebirth, so a white one would represent positive transformation.
Black butterflies have a deeper meaning, and can often represent misfortune or death, though not necessarily a physical death. Black butterflies could represent the end of a relationship, job, or other aspect of your life. They mark a doorway or transition from one stage to a new one.
When you encounter a black butterfly, you should show more authority, be more self-confident, and express your abilities and creativity more in an elegant and gentle manner. They also represent a need to let go of the emotions that are holding you back: fear, anger, jealously, envy, sadness, or greed.
Yellow or orange butterflies represent joy, happiness, and hope. It could be telling you that you will soon meet a new spiritual master or that you will be provided a lesson that will help with your transformation. It also represents positive change, including the beginning of a new life and the end of your sorrows.
If a yellow butterfly flutters around you, hovering, it is a harbinger of good news or of positive changes about to happen.
To encapsulate, butterflies represent:
Powerful transformation, metamorphosis in your life, personality
Moving through different life cycles
Renewal, rebirth
Lightness of being, playfulness
Elevation from earthly matters, tuning into emotional or spiritual
The world of the soul, the psyche
A secondary meaning of the butterfly is about finding joy in life and lightness of being.
“We are all butterflies. Earth is our chrysalis.”
Dragonfly Symbolism
Like the butterfly, the winged dragonfly also brings messages of transformation, light, and the real of the soul.
The dragonfly carries the wisdom of adaptability in life, and as a spirit animal, it is connected to the symbolism of change and light. When you see a dragonfly, it is reminding you to bring more lightness and joy into your life and let go of the darkness that is holding you back. It is a reminder to let your true colors shine.
Dragonflies are also powerful totems because of their transition from water to air, representing the need to transform (and sometimes physically move) in order to evolve. A powerful symbol of metamorphosis and transformation, the dragonfly inspires us to affect the necessary changes in our lives to reach our full potential.
They learn to scurry across water surfaces – a strong symbol of looking beyond the surface of a person or situation. Life is complex and as creatures of both air and water, dragonflies remind us of this.
Just as the dragonfly changes colors through its life stages, you are being reminded to live and experience yourself differently in this new phase of your development. Remain open to the enfoldment of your personal journey.
Dragonflies also represent adaptability, as reflected in their amazing ability to change directions quickly and to speed through the air with no apparent effort. Its lightness inspires us to be flexible and highly adaptable, no matter what we face.
The final and perhaps most important lesson of the dragonfly lies in its short life span. They live a complete life in only seven months. Let the dragonfly be a reminder to you to live life fully present. Let it teach you to look out for the gifts and beauty that you encounter each day.
“Dragonflies are reminders that we are light/and we can reflect light in powerful ways if we choose to do so.” – Robyn Nola
If you’ve been seeing a particular animal lately and want to know what messages it might be bringing to you, feel free to contact me for an interpretive reading! This is a magical season, with lots of messages about!
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