Butterfly Myth and Magic

For those of you unlucky enough not to be on the Raven Mailing list - and therefore having missed out on the latest edition of our Newsletter - here is one of the articles from the June 2014 issue which went out with the new Magical Curiosities catalogue.

Butterfly, Butterfly

Whose soul were you carrying

Butterfly! Butterfly!

Yesterday to heaven?

     This children's song was collected in the western isles in the 19th century. It was believed that butterflies were sent from heaven to guide the souls of the departed, so it was a good sign to see butterflies outside the home of one who had recently died, as it ensured that their soul would be swiftly led to heaven.
     Butterflies are associated with spirits of the dead, or the unborn, in cultures all over the world
     In ancient Greece the word 'psyche' means both soul and butterfly as does the Latin word 'anima'.
     In Teotihuacan, the Aztec capital, is the Palace of the Butterfly, the Palace of the Mariposa - in modern Mexico the word 'mariposa' still means butterfly, but also means a beautiful homosexual man.
     To the Azrtecs the butterfly represented the elements of both fire and water and was sacred both to the rain god Tlaloc and to Quetzalcoatl the Feathered Serpent. Quetzalcoatl was associated with the planet Venus, which appears as both the evening star and then as the morning star, he was the dying god who sacrificed himself in fire, then was reborn as the morningstar. When the morning star reappeared, its symbol was the butterfly which therefore symbolised rebirth and resurrection.
     The Aztecs thought that the earth was maintained through a dynamic harmony of Fire and Water, and that if this balance was not maintained the earth would be destroyed. The butterfly held that balance between Tlaloc and Quetzalcoatl.
     The association with the Fire element is seen in that the butterfly is invoked in healing ceremonies for 'Fire' diseases such as frostbite, chilblains, prickly heat or soreness of the eyes.
     The Celts also believed that the souls of the dead manifested as butterflies and up to the 17th century in Ireland it was against the common law to kill a white butterfly as these were believed to be the souls of children.
     There is an old Irish blessing:

May the wings of the butterfly kiss the sun

and find your shoulder to light upon,

to bring you good luck, happiness and riches

today and beyond

     It was also said that if butterflies are seen outside the home of one who has recently died, they have come from heaven to guide the soul into the after-life. And any butterflies found in the home are spirits of dead loved ones come from heaven for a visit.
     In Russia the butterfly is sometimes called Babochka, which is a name of honour meaning 'old woman' (as in Baba Yaga, the archetypal Russian Witch in her spinning house, on chicken legs) as Witches are believed to be able to transform into butterflies.
     The butterfly symbolises grace, beauty, sensuality, the summer, kisses and secrets. In ancient Rome it was sacred to Juno, the goddess of marriage.
     In China a Jade butterfly is the emblem of love, suggesting the bonding of souls, so a husband would give his wife a jade butterfly to symbolise their eternal love.
     The butterfly is also the symbol of the Vodun lwa Loko who is the spirit of the wildwoods and invoked before any healing ritual.
     The butterfly also symbolises the power of magical transformation. The caterpillar, earth-bound, concerned only with eating and growing, turns into the pupa (dies) and is re-born, transformed into a creature of light, air and beauty.
     According to American folklore, if a girl wants a new dress she should catch a butterfly of the appropriate colour and crush it between her teeth while muttering a magic formula. I suspect the type of girl who is ruthless and selfish enough to try this spell, doesn't actually need it in order to obtain a new dress or any other trinket she desires.
     A nicer spell says that you should carefully catch a butterfly without harming it, and while it is between your hands whisper your wish to it. Release the butterfly unharmed and your wish will be granted.
     If you see a Fritillary butterfly it means you have money coming to you.

     'Once upon a time, I dreamt Zhuangzi was a butterfly, fluttering hither and thither, to all intents and purposes a butterfly, and was unaware that I was Zhuangzi. Soon I awakened, and there I was, veritably Zhuangzi again.
     But now I do not know whether I was then Zhuangzi dreaming he was a butterfly, or whether I am now a butterfly dreaming I am Zhuangzi.'
              Zhuangzi (Chuang Tzu) 389-286 bce

The Winter Shaman or Who is Father Christmas?

The Winter Solstice has been a time both of trepidation and celebration for humanity for thousands of years
The power of the sun grows less and less, the world gets colder and colder. The leaves have fallen from the trees, all vegetation is dead or dying. The whole earth appears to be under a sentence of death.

Then just when all seems lost, the sun is reborn, the days begin to lengthen again, the sun is returning!

Surely that demands a celebration, and so it has done for as long as there have been people to observe this magical turn around which we call the Winter Solstice.

There are deities associated with the Solstice, personifications of the celestial drama:
There is the child born now, the reborn Sun
The Mother of the child
And there is the Gift Bringer

It is the Gift Bringer who alerts humanity to the imminent birth.

In the New Testament it is Wise Men from the East who travel through many lands asking where they can find the magical child. Their questions awaken hope and anticipation - and also fear in King Herod who sees the child as a threat to his earthly power and kingdom.

The gifts these Wise Men bring are symbols which represent the powers of the Sun God:
Gold, the shining metal of the Sun, symbol of wealth, power and kingship
Frankincense, the incense offering to the bright Sun God who lights the day
Myrrh, incense and perfume used in the preservation of the corpse, the perfume of the hidden god, the Sun at Midnight, the god in the Underworld.

The Sun God is born in a cave (in Japan the Sun Goddess Amaterasu also hides her beauty in a cave and has to be coaxed out to bring light to the world) and at his birth the cry rings out: 'Lo! The Bridegroom cometh!'. Not the sort of cry which greets a new born human baby, but the cry which tells his followers that the Sun God leaps from his mother's womb fully adult and ready for battle against the powers of darkness.
In Aztec myths this is depicted in extremely graphic terms as Huitzilopochtli leaps out fully armed and firing arrows (sunbeams) in all directions which kill his sister Coyolxauhqui, the Moon Goddess.

The gift bringers sometimes foreshadow the birth, searching the land and preparing the people for the great event. Sometimes they appear on the day of the birth, or they may even be chasing along behind, late for the birth and giving gifts to all as they do not know which child is the potential Sun God.

In Britain we have Father Christmas, a vigorous elder dressed in a long green robe trimmed with fur, who leaves gifts to be found on Christmas morning.
The red coat our modern Santa Claus wears was put on him by the Coca-Cola company in the 19th century as an advertising gimmick.
In Belgium and the Netherlands Sinter Klaas, Saint Nicholas, leaves gifts in shoes and stockings on his saint's day, the 6th of December - he has translated into the American Santa Claus.
In Italy Befana, who looks for all the work like the classic image of a Witch, hurries along in January, dropping gifts as she tries eternally to catch up with the holy babe.

Although all of these gift bringers have been adopted as part of the christian festival of Christmas, their roots and origins are far, far older.


To be continued .....