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Interconnectivity: Animals Mourning Together in Modern Stories and Mythology

Joslyn C, Author

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Non-Human Animals and Mythology

Dragonfly:













“The most beautiful thing we can
experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and all
science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer pause
to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead: his eyes are
closed.”

 ~Albert Einstein; Mein Weltbild (1931)





The Butterfly


Butterflies of Good and Evil Omen

"In Japan the butterfly was at one time considered to be the soul of a living man or woman.

If it entered a guest-room and pitched behind the bamboo screen it

was a sure sign that the person whom it represented

would shortly appear in the house. The presence of a

butterfly in the house was regarded as a good omen,

though of course everything depended on the individual typified by the butterfly.

The butterfly was not always the harbinger of good.

When Taira-no-Masakado was secretly preparing for a revolt Kyoto

was the scene of a swarm of butterflies,

and the people who saw them were much frightened.

Lafcadio Hearn suggests that these butterflies may have

been the spirits of those fated to fall in battle, the

spirits of the living who were stirred by a premonition

of the near approach of death. Butterflies may also be

the souls of the dead, and they often appear in this

form in order to announce their final leave-taking from the body."

[Source:  Frederick Hadland Davis. "Dolls and Butterflies."Myths & Legends of Japan.: With Thirty-two Full-page Illustrations by Evelyn Paul. London: n.p., 1912. 216-17. Print.]

The element of fear and suspicion of butterflies is eminent in two Japanese stories "Filial piety" and "The White Butterfly":




Filial piety

Origin: Japanese Mythology

“A young man whose work and hobby was gardening married
a girl with an identical interest in plant life. They
lived only for each other and their shrubs and plants, but in middle age they
had a son, who happily inherited his parents’ love of flowers.

          
The parents lied within days of one another in old age, when their son was still a youth.
The boy looked after his parents’ garden and the plants in it more carefully
than ever, is that were possible, for he felt they contained the spirits of his
dead mother and father. During the first spring following their death he saw
each say two butterflies in the garden. Gentle person that he was, he
cultivated plants on which he saw the butterflies liked to settle, and as
spring turned into summer he dreamed one night that his parents had come back
to the garden and were walking round it together, looking at each plant
carefully, as gardeners will. Suddenly the couple in the dream turned into
butterflies and in this form continued to examine each flower. The next
morning, the same pair of butterflies were, as usual, in the garden and the boy
knew then that the soul of his parents rested in the butterflies and that in
that way they still enjoyed their garden.”

[Source: Juliet Piggott. "Men and Animals." Japanese
Mythology
. Feltham: Hamlyn, 1969. 113. Print.]





 “Butterflies are
souls of the dead waiting to pass through purgatory.”

~Irish Saying




"The White Butterfly"

Origin: Japanese Mythology




“There was a man who died in his
seventies. He had lived alone for years and was a recluse, but as the illness
which proved to be his last one worsened he invited the widow of his only
brother and her son, his nephew, to come to him. He was fond of both, though he
saw them seldom.

   
One day,while sitting with his uncle, the young man saw an enormous white butterfly
come into the room. It fluttered, then perched upon the old man’s pillow. The
nephew tried to brush it away but it persisted. Fearing it would make the sick
man restless, he went on trying to make it fly out of the house. Then the youth
wondered whether it might not be an evil spirit, so unnatural was its behavior,
circling his uncle’s bedding. At this point the butterfly suddenly, of its own
accord, flew straight out the window. The boy’s suspicions were thoroughly
aroused and he followed it. His patient was asleep and could be left with
safety.

         
The white butterfly flew swiftly straight to the local cemetery, which was just across
the road from the house. It went directly to a tomb and then vanished. As it
had disappeared, the nephew returned to the house, having noticed that the old
but fairly recently tended grave where the butterfly had vanished was inscribed
with the name Akiko.

     
He has been away only a few minutes, but during that interval his uncle had died. Later
when he described to his mother the visit of the butterfly just before his
uncle’s death and his chase of the insect, she told him that as a young man her
brother-in-law and a girl named Akiko had been deeply in love, but Akiko had
died just before the day arranged for their wedding. He had bought a house near
her grave, looked after the tomb carefully for over fifty years, and never
spoken of his half century of mourning to anyone. His sister-in-law knew well
the cause of his self-imposed seclusion and respected it: she herself had been
a young and happy bride at the time of Akiko’s betrothal and subsequent death.
The woman had no doubt at all that it was Akiko’s spirit in the form of a white
butterfly which had come to fetch the spirit of the man she loved at the close
of his moral life.”

[Source: Juliet Piggott. "Men and Animals." Japanese Mythology. Feltham: Hamlyn, 1969. 135. Print.]





“The caterpillar dies so the butterfly could be born. And, yet, the caterpillar
lives in the butterfly and they are but one. So, when I die, it will be that I
have been transformed from the caterpillar of earth to the butterfly of the universe.

~ John Harricharan




The Caterpillar and Symbolism 


          “Although the caterpillar is sometimes a symbol of lowliness because of its wormlike
appearance, its metamorphosis can represent the reincarnation or transmigration of souls.

         
          The ancient Egyptian religion, with its emphasis on reincarnation, was fascinated
by the caterpillar, and it is not hard to imagine that mummification rituals were
developed with an eye towards the creation of the cocoon. Similarly, the
ancient Greeks were inspired by their transformation, placing representations
of butterflies in their tombs.

           
          Because of its remarkable capacity for changing form, the caterpillar symbolically can
represent transformation, development, and growth in the human being, or, in
Jung’s terms, the process of individuation. In this psychic journey old ways,
attitudes, patterns of thought, and behavior lose energy and value (in effect,
dying) and a new sense of inner life and psychic reality comes forth,
symbolized by the butterfly/moth about the emerge.  The conscious personality, or ego, must
usually attend tot his process through creative introversion. Thus, the
caterpillar’s retreat into the dark and silence of the cocoon had been seen as
a model for quite withdrawal, spiritual focus and meditation. Consequently, the
caterpillar in dreams can be an image for an intermediate stage of personal
development, characterized by the death of the old and the birth of new patterns
of conduct and attitudes.”


[Source: Caspari, Elizabeth, and Ken Robbins. "Caterpillar." Animal Life in Nature, Myth and Dreams. Wilmette, IL: Chiron Publications, 2003. 53-54. Print.]





The Butterfly and Mythology

        “[The Butterfly] is the archetype of metamorphosis- the
profoundest sort of physical change- and the inescapable symbol of resurrection,
as the worm-like caterpillar, a creature of the earth, transforms in its
quiescent pupa stage and emerges from this still and death-like state as a
gaudy, gossamer creature of the air…the developmental cycle of the butterfly
occur in four stages: egg, larva or caterpillar, pupa and adult (also called
imago). 

          The metamorphosis of lepidopterans [butterflies and moths] is profoundly
striking, with the obvious intimations of immortality. So it is not surprising that the
human spirit or soul assumes the form of a butterfly in many myths across the
world. Especially in Eastern religions, with their emphasis on meditation, the
utterly still, but profoundly changing pupa seems the very model of spiritual
evolution through serene contemplation. In Japan,
the butterfly is symbolically identified with the blossoming of young
womanhood, while in China, it is associated with immortality, leisure and the joyfulness of a
young man in love. The butterfly was an attribute of Xochipilli, the ancient Mexican god of
vegetation. Its fluttering motion suggested the flicker of firelight. And the
goddess of Itzpapàlotl was portrayed as a butterfly surrounded by stone knives.
She was a night spirit associated with the stars, which also flicker or
twinkle, and a symbol of the souls of women who had died in childbirth. In
Christian symbolism, this insect’s metamorphosis represents the earthbound body
of Jesus transformed into the luminous transcendent entity who rose from the
tomb.

          The shortness of life, and the inevitability of death, does indeed give poignancy
to the brief beauty of the butterfly. Like the great goddess who was worshiped
in many cultures and known by many names, the butterfly has a deeply ambivalent
symbolic significance. It is also a vehicle of transformation that can not only
raise us up magically but also stab us in the heart. Thus, in European
folklore, the butterfly frequently shows a surprising demonic aspect. In Serbia, where
belief in witches can be understood as a debased remnant of an earlier worship
of the goddess in her destructive aspect, it is said, ‘Kill the butterfly and
you kill a witch.’

         On the one hand, the butterfly has appositive connotations, often appearing in
dreams as the return of ‘spirit’ and ‘soul’ –a revitalized sense of inner life and
purpose- that might have been missing amidst difficult life experiences, such
as depression or anxiety. The butterfly can betoken the emergence of new parts
of the personality especially feminine aspects, and it may signify the
constellation of a deep, self-healing process.”1 



My Thoughts: As similarly mentioned above in Elizabeth Caspari research
about the butterfly, she mentions one of the butterfly’s symbolisms as, “Its
fluttering motion suggested the flicker of firelight.” The idea of butterflies
representing fire or light is supported in a few Irish mythologies:

  • -“The dealan-dhe' is an Irish term which is used to refer to a butterfly, but also takes several other meanings. It is also the brightness or lightning of the Gods, or it may be used to refer to a burning stick that is shaken back and forth to create the need-fire [Bronach-reference ].”2
  • -“Another reference between fire and butterflies can be seen within the term tiene-dhe' , with the usage of tiene meaning fire. This term refers both to the butterfly and to the fire of the Gods .” 2

[Sources:

1) Caspari, Elizabeth, and Ken Robbins. "Butterfly." Animal Life in Nature, Myth and Dreams. Wilmette,IL: Chiron Publications, 2003.45-47. Print.

2)Bronach





An Indian Butterfly Legend

If anyone desires a wish to come true
they must
capture a butterfly and whisper that wish to it.

Since they make no sound, they can’t
tell the wish
to anyone but the Great Spirit.

So by making the wish and releasing
the butterfly
it will be taken to the heavens and be granted.



                                                                                                                                      ~Author Unknown




The Moth and Mythology

           
         “The moth, like the butterfly, can be a symbol of the psyche. But, unlike the
butterfly, it does not usually carry the sense of the psyche’s rebirth. The moth’s real
(and proverbial) attraction to the consuming flame is its more commonly
considered symbolic characteristic. Psychologically, this quality can be
construed as a desire for consciousness or spiritual life, as implied by the
symbolism of light itself. In reality, however, that light ultimately destroys
the moth, and thus the moth evokes relentlessness or reckless compulsion that
can accompany any quest for illumination. Such consciousness, untempered by an
accompanying concern for life and relationship, can become destructive. The
link between the moth and the flame alludes to the creative and dangerous
quality of passion.

        The potentially destructive aspects of consciousness and passion exist in any
life and at any time. In symbolism, the moth is often associated with the Great
Mother Goddess, whose lover is eventually destroyed by his passion for her- as
the flame destroys the moth. Sometimes symbols can have a simple, mundane
meaning. For instance, moths will generally evoke the image of destruction of
that stored sweater in the attic, ruined by the lepidopteran. One can also
speak of viewpoints being ‘moth-eaten’. Hence, the moth can represent the
process of slow, unseen destruction of the things we cherish most- our values,
religious or mythical feeling, thoughts and emotions we hold dear.” 



[Source: Caspari, Elizabeth, and Ken Robbins. "Moth." Animal Life in Nature, Myth and Dreams. Wilmette, IL: Chiron Publications, 2003. 171-173. Print.]





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