What Will You Be?

As I look around my room, one thing catches my eye: a sparkly butterfly ring. My therapist asked me if I was a creature, what would I be? Butterfly. I seem to find deep resonance with these gentle creatures. In the way that my mind works, lyrics to a Tinkerbell song floated through my heart, "Butterflies and fairy sprites, come to me". Naturally, the butterfly oracle deck called to me as well. Now, it has to be said that this deck has lovely art and symbolism, but not much to relate to butterflies. The comparisons are actually about the plants in the art. I do love my plants, but I have yet to find a deck that uses the butterfly types as symbolism. Perhaps, I will author my own someday. In the wonderful words of Beverly Cleary, "If you don't see the book you want on the shelves, write it."

What I love about the deck is that it has butterfly/dragon art. If my spirit creature is a butterfly, then my soul creature is a dragon. The two seemingly opposite personalities exist well in my world. Again, my therapy weighs in. I was asked to draw my core self, and my first attempt was what I thought I should be like. I then got down to business and drew what I am at my core. Immediately, a correlation between gentle and fierce emerged.

This photo may not be used in any way without my specific permission

Many people see this as duplicitous, or they sense the dragon and it makes them uncomfortable. The reality is that at my core, I am strong, fierce, majestic, and my deep compassion and empathy extend around that stability in delicate fronds of care.

The butterfly not only symbolizes care but also rejuvenation. Just as the planets and solar bodies return to the same positions within a cycle, the butterfly signals the rebirth of a cycle. Life is composed of cycles. Water, soil, plants, migration, and so on. In each season, we become something different. Some changes are dramatic while others are hardly noticeable, but it is still a renewal. The choices we make affect what version of ourselves emerges from the cocoon.