Natural Magic  is WHITE MAGIC  -  did  i ever mention that Pagans believe in the
Second Coming of  MERLIN - King Arthur and Camelot?    -   Hebrews,  Xians.
Muslims, Buddhists -  all intent on the same event -  and our focus is on the
Scarab
Beetle hatch -  and the emergence of a whole new  tribe of Pharonic Beetles ..
the micro mega event... ox Sa      


NATION OF WINGED PEOPLE 
Part 2 of Chapter 14

The Voice of the Infinite in the Small by Joanne Lauck. This section contains
our butterfly initiative.  References in this and other chapters attributable
to the Butterfly Gardeners include Norie Huddle, Barbara Marx Hubbard, Jean
Houston, Julia Butterfly, and Dr. Richard Moss.

Transforming Ourselves and Society

This image of transformation is as relevant today as it was in ancient times,
for groups as well as people. On Earth Day 1990 author and educator Norie
Huddle wrote and published a book called Butterfly. 3   In it she tells the
story
of the metamorphosis of humanity from a nonsustainable society to a
"butterfly civilization" that fulfills humanity's potential, individually and
collectively bringing peace, health, prosperity and justice to all the Earth's
inhabitants. In her now popular analogy she compared where we are today to where
the
caterpillar is after having consumed enormous amounts food. Like the insect, we
are encased in our chrysalis and approaching metamorphosis. For the
caterpillar this is a critical time when certain cells, which biologists call
imaginal
cells, begin to develop and the process of building the various parts of what
will be a butterfly begins in earnest, although from the outside it looks as
though nothing is happening. Huddle says that the cultur's imaginal cells are
the individuals, groups, and activities that are building new patterns,
clumping and clustering together and sharing information. She sees all attempts
to
hold to the status quo as merely the caterpillar's immune system rigidly and
reactively clinging to its old worm ways and not recognizing the imaginal cells
as its own, until such time when enough are in place for the winged form to
emerge.

In her 1998 book Conscious Evolution, futurist Barbara Marx Hubbard also
relies on the caterpillar to butterfly metaphor to explain the metamorphosis of
humanity from its polluting, overpopulating phase through a whole system
transition that eventually promises to fulfill our potential as a fully
conscious
society. And the late Willis Harman applies the insect analogy to explain how
whole system change works in our culture and how business will be transformed
from its economic and financial foundation to one that values all life-forms and

the planet. Like Huddle, he likened where we are in the process of this
changeover to the caterpillar within its chrysalis and approaching, through
blind
instinct (and perhaps grace), its transformation. The communities and
organizations already formed and working toward radical change---and under the
considerable influence of the feminist, ecological, and spiritual
movements---are the
imaginal cells in the business community. When the current structure comes
down, those "imaginal cells" will be there in full operation and business will
have been transformed.

In keeping with the resurgence of butterfly images and metaphors, on June 26,
1997, at the United Nations in New York, when heads of state from around the
world assembled to reassess the progress made since the first Earth Summit,
Alan Moore, founder of the Butterfly Gardeners Association, organized a release
of butterflies to symbolize humanity's new awareness of the fragile beauty of
the Earth. Moore, who has since then devoted all of his time to raising
awareness about the potency of this symbol for the millennium, believes that
humanity is emerging out of its cocoon and beginning a new chapter of human
evolution
where peaceful coexistence and responsible stewardship will be the norm. He
believes the butterfly as a symbol for the Renaissance of the Earth and the
dawn of world peace, coupled with organized butterfly releases, could inspire
people to work harder for that renaissance.


Models of Spiritual Growth

In the beetle chapter we saw the archetypal transformative processes at work
in our lives in the story of the bug who emerges from the table to enjoy its
perfect summer life--- hidden life that comes forth when conditions are right.
In the butterfly we have another image for this universal process. The idea of
a hidden life is attractive. It gives us hope that a beautiful and winged
life is also within us, a life whose egg has been buried under layers of
societal
and familial beliefs. To assist our transformation, all varieties of the
spiritual path tell us that our thoughts and actions will help bring about our
metamorphosis into the species we were meant to be. Our thoughts and actions are

our imaginal cells. Taking our lead from the insects and trusting that at
times we too must be in darkness, maybe we can enter life's deep wellspring
without erecting elaborate defenses.

In A Mythic Life, Jean Houston sees the metamorphosis of society as a
renaissance with implications for our personal growth as individuals. "The
culture is
being so newly reimagined that it necessitates a rebirth of the self."4 She
believes that when the door to the caterpillar self has been unlocked and the
wall to the human soul breached, we will be filled and subsequently directed by
a flood of new "butterfly questions" about who we really are and what life is
about.In spiritual traditions the human being who works for his or her own
transformation into a more perfected state by leaving the agitation, noise, and
anxiety of ordinary life has frequently cbeen compared to the caterpillar
entering a pupa to become a butterfly. In fact the three parts of the process of

metamorphosis closely resemble the three degrees of the Mystery School through
which a person unfolds his or her divine nature---from a state of initial
helplessness and ignorance, to a disciple seeking the truth and entering the
tomb,
and, finally, to an unfolded enlightened being.

The pupa provides an ideal image of serene contemplation and a promise of new
life from the perspective of certain Eastern religions. Even today in the
Himalayan mountains, some Asian ascetics live for years in almost inaccessible
caves existing on a minimum of food in order to expose their souls more directly

to the light of divinity. Afterward they become great gurus, comparing
themselves to the huge butterflies that inhabit the valleys of the Indus and the

Ganges.Christian Symbology. In Christian symbolism the caterpillar is a symbol
of
Christ. According to Louis Charbonneau-Lassay's Bestiary of Christ, in the
fifth century the Pope declared that "Christ was a worm, not because he was
humbled, or humble himself, but because he was resurrected."5   In fact all
worms
that underwent a metamorphosis were emblems of Christ. The transformation of
the caterpillar (more than that of any other larva) represented the broken body
of Jesus transformed into the resurrected body which emerges from the
darkness of the tomb. A bright yellow butterfly common in the provinces of
Western
France has even become the symbol of the resurrected Christ (called the Easter
Jesus) because it is the first butterfly to emerge in March or April.

In this same religious tradition the caterpillar also represents the
Christian man or woman who must pass through two preparatory stages before
becoming a
butterfly. The first stage, symbolized by the caterpillar, is physical life,
and the second stage, symbolized by the chrysalis or cocoon, is death. After
death the human soul reaches its goal of resurrection and eternal life,
symbolized by the butterfly.

Esoteric traditions describe a transitional place where people go after
dying. The purpose of the place is to allow a transformation to take place. In
Living On, Paul Beard, former president of the College of Psychic Studies of
London, describes "Summerland," the initial stop on the after-death journey,
using
the metamorphosis of the caterpillar into the butterfly. Summerland is a
waiting place, the chrysalis where people are transformed from human beings
bound
to the laws of time and space into ephemeral spirits.

In the United States, the butterfly is also a well known sign of resurrection
and life after death, even within the Roman Catholictradition. In Bill and
Judy Guggenheim's Hello From Heaven, a compilation of the results of an
extensive research project on after-death communications, the following story
was
shared. After the funeral service for a young woman, her family went to the
cemetery. While the priest was saying the final prayers, a large white butterfly

landed on the casket and stayed until the ceremony was finished. A nun hugged
the
mother of the deceased woman, asking her if she had seen the butterfly and
telling her "a butterfly is a symbol for the Resurrection!"6 The meaning
ascribed provided much peace for the grieving mother.

In another true account from Hello From Heaven, a different butterfly pays an
unexpected visit during a Catholic funeral. While the niece of the deceased
man was praying during Mass and thinking of her uncle, an orange and brown
butterfly came fluttering down the aisle and flew around her and the family.
Then
it went over by the casket and then to the altar before flying away. She
considered it a miracle, a sign that reassured the family and set their minds at

peace. It was the only time she had ever seen a butterfly inside the church.

As a universal symbol of hope and escape from sorrow and death, the butterfly
is unequalled. Recently in the news a young woman who had been abducted as a
child and held by her captors for a year in a van, where she was repeatedly
sexually assaulted, says the butterfly is her symbol of hope and renewal as she
struggles as an adult to heal the wounds from that terrifying experience and
emerge as a whole and happy individual.

Elisabeth Cobler-Ross, a pioneer in the field of death and dying, often
speaks of the numerous drawings of butterflies she saw in the barracks at
concentration camps in Europe. They had been scratched into the wooden walls by
children and adults during the Holocaust. Today pictures of butterflies can be
found
throughout almost every hospice. This symbol of hope is also used extensively
by many grief counselors, spiritual centers, and support groups for the
bereaved.The Darkness of Transformation. For those of us seeking personal as
well as
planetary renewal, the goal of wings is often overshadowed by the dying that
takes place in the darkness of the cocoon or chrysalis. Those who have
witnessed or experienced the struggle that accompanies dying to what is old and
outdated within ourselves (and within our culture) might take heart in the fact
that the transformation process in other species also teaches us that struggle
is
an integral part of the renewal pattern. There is a story told of a man who
found a cocoon of an emperor's moth and took it home to await the moth's
emergence. One day he saw that the insect had made a tiny hole in the cocoon,
and he
watched for several hours as the insect struggled to force its body through
the little hole. Then it seemed to stop making any progress. In fact, it
appeared as though it could go no further. The man, being a kind person, decided
to
help the moth, so he snipped off the remaining bit of the cocoon with
scissors.The moth emerged easily, but it had a swollen body and its wings were
shriveled and small. The man watched in happy anticipation for its body to
contract
and its shriveled wings to expand and unfold. But nothing happened. The moth
lived out its life without ever being able to fly. By saving it from its long
struggle, the man had stopped the process by which blood is pumped into the body

and wings in preparation for its winged life.


The Butterfly Soul

Just as the concept of a soul has been recorded in every culture known to
history, including our own, so has the idea of a butterfly soul symbolizing
emerging life and life after death.In many cultures the butterfly and moth were
believed to be the souls of departed ones. The ancient Slavs opened a door or a
window to permit the soul, often in the shape of a butterfly, to leave the body
of a dead person. The Kwakiutl tribe of northwest North America depicted the
soul as a butterfly, and the Goajiro of Columbia believed a particular white
moth in the house was the spirit of an ancestor come to visit.

Butterflies and moths were also considered to be human souls in the Far East.
Certain Chinese texts, for instance, officially recognize sundry butterflies
as the spirits of an emperor and his attendants. The Japanese treat any
butterfly who enters a house kindly since theybelieve souls customarily take
butterfly shape in order to announce that they are leaving the body for good.
And in
theSouthPacific Solomon Islands a dying person tells family members in which
shape he or she intends to transmigrate---usually as a bird, butterfly, or
moth. From that moment on, the family treats that particular species as sacred.

In Finno-Ugric mythology, the soul is also thought to depart from a dead body
in the shape of a butterfly or moth, but even the soul of someone sleeping
can exit from his or her mouth, drink water from a pond, and return to the
sleeper. And in Slavic countries where, as noted previously the Great Goddess
was
demonized, it was believed that butterfly souls issued from the mouths of
witches to invade living bodies when the true soul was absent.

In ancient Greece human souls were thought to become butterflies while
searching for a new reincarnation. Carvings on sarcophagi show a butterfly soul
flying over a corpse, skeleton, or skull, and the ancient Greeks placed gold
butterflies in the tombs of loved ones to symbolize their reawakening to a new
life. Psyche was the Greek word for both soul and butterfly and in art was often

represented as a maiden with butterfly wings, or simply as a butterfly. In
myth, Psyche's search for Eros is a psychological tale of individuation complete

with the struggle and challenges inherent in any true transformation and
rebirth.

Butterflies as human souls are also featured in many tales of undying love.
In the Hawaiian myth of Hiku and his beloved wife Kawelu, Hiku enters the
underworld to catch the butterfly soul of Kawelu who has died. Returning with it
to
her corpse, he makes a hole in the toe of her left foot and forces the spirit
to enter, thus bringing her back to life.

In a true story shared by aficionado of the Orient, Lafcadio Hearn, a
Japanese man who loves an eighteen-year-old woman named Akiko mourns deeply when
she
dies. He moves near the cemetery and tends her grave, vowing never to marry.
Fifty years later as he is dying, a large white butterfly enters his room and
perches on his pillow. The man's friends and family believe it to be the soul
of Akiko.

In every one of these cultures, the human body was considered to be merely
the container of the soul. When death comes to the body, the eternal soul
escapes as the butterfly or moth breaks through the chrysalis or cocoon.

Today the connection between butterflies and moths and the human soul is
still strong. In parts of England people still believe that the spirits of the
dead take the form of white butterflies. A nineteenth-century grave in
Massachusetts shows a monarch emerging from its chrysalis and taking flight. And
in the
previously referenced book Hello From Heaven, the Guggenheims report that the
butterfly is the most frequently mentioned sign of an after-death
communication. The following three stories taken from their chapter on butterfly
and
rainbow signs illustrate the ways butterflies (and moths) contact people.

Love is Eternal. In the first account, five months after her teenage grandson
had died, a woman was sitting at her kitchen table looking out of the glass
storm door. Suddenly a large monarch butterfly flew to the center of the glass.
As it stayed there fluttering, she felt a strange sensation.She called to her
husband and together they went to the door. The butterfly turned and flew to
a large flower box at the far end of their deck. It flew around the flowers as
they stood and watched for a few minutes. She felt, inexplicably, that her
grandson was around. Mentally she asked her grandson to send the butterfly to
the door one more time if he were really present. The butterfly immediately flew

to the center of the glass, right to her face. It fluttered there a few
seconds. Then she received a very clear telepathic message from the boy saying
he
was alive and alright. After the experience, she knew she would see her
grandson again, that there is life after death, and that "love is eternal."7

In another account, a retired police officer who had lost his teenage
daughter Diana ten months earlier in an automobile accident was at home with his
wife
and some visiting relatives. As they sat outside on lounge chairs, the man
noticed a butterfly. Immediately the thought of Diana inserted itself in his
head. He thought, "If it's you, Diana, come down and tell me."8 Without
hesitating, the butterfly landed on his finger and walked up and down it. Then
it went
onto his hand and continued to walk back and forth on it. Astonished, he
remembers that he was so close to the insect he could see its antennae moving.
His
wife looked at him as though she knew what he was thinking.

He got up, and the butterfly stayed on his hand. He walked to the house and
went into the kitchen, butterfly and all. He told the butterfly he had to take
a shower and that it had to go outside now. He opened the door and pushed it
gently off his hand, watching as it took to the sky. It was an unbelievable
experience. He had never had a butterfly land on him before. He went in to take
a
shower and cried. Later when he attended a conference of The Compassionate
Friends, a self-help organization for grieving families, he learned that their
symbol was a butterfly.

Luna Moth. Moths also have a long history of bringing messages to people. In
fact, in Southeast Asia there is a moth that lives on a diet of tears, a
substance which contains various proteins. Practicality aside, could there be a
better image of comfort? Maybe the souls of those who have passed away return on

wings and in silence to console and drink away the tears of the ones who
remain behind.

Other moths bring comfort and assurance by their timely appearances. In the
following account, also from Hello From Heaven, a teacher and her husband
shared how they lost their teenage son. Two weeks after he died from a heart
attack, the mother was in the kitchen when her husband called to her. She went
outside to join him and there, in the middle of the day, was a large moth. It
was
chartreuse in color and about five inches across. The husband picked it up and
placed it on the branch of a nearby bush. They watched it for a long time and
finally it fluttered away. Later she looked it up in a book and discovered it
was a luna moth, and luna means moon in Latin. Her son's hobby was astronomy.
He had wanted to be an astrophysicist. She also discovered that the luna moth
belongs to the family Saturniidae, and above her late son's desk was a picture
of Saturn. The parents believe that their son sent this sign to let them know
he was in a new life.


Synchronistic Events

The personal associations that make such occurrences so healing are always
present in a meaningful coincidence or synchronicity. These events connect our
subjective thoughts and feelings with the outer physical world, often bringing
reassurance or guidance. They return us to a connection with life temporarily
overshadowed by doubts, grief, or estrangement of some kind.There is a magic
to the timing of these visits that no amount of factual information or
dispersion statistics on a species can dispel. We find ourselves suddenly in the

embrace of the natural world, lifted into a terrain crisscrossed with tracks of
meaning and seeded with divine forces.

In Helen Fisher's book From Erin with Love, a moving account of her
daughter's struggle with cancer and her communications to her family after her
death,
Fisher describes the frequent visits of butterflies. The visits began four days
after Erin died. A yellow and black butterfly appeared in the area where they
scattered her ashes. Two days later at a ceremony celebrating her life that
was held in a natural amphitheater on the campus of the college Erin had
attended, a yellow and black butterfly flew down the hill and into the
amphitheater.
There it flew back and forth over the seats of Erin's family and friends,
capturing their attention.

During the three weeks following Erin's death, her sister, who lived in a
large city, was "literally divebombed by a yellow and black butterfly on two
different occasions. In each instance it flew straight at her and she could feel

the flutter of its wings in her hair."9 The butterfly continued to appear to
Erin's family and friends at significant moments---over two dozen visits in
all---and brought them the message that Erin was alive and well, a message
subsequently reinforced and delivered in a variety of ways in the months that
followed.

Some visits are not as highly charged as the ones that convey news of a loved
one who has died. Yet all speak of a dimension of life, a pattern of deep
intentionality, that we are prone to forget in the dailiness of living. The
presence of a large moth lifted me into this awareness one day years ago.

It descended on cinnamon-colored wings in the early morning hours of a summer
day and took shelter in the protected alcove of my front door. Careful not to
disturb its meditative posture, I studied the markings, the colorful eyes
etched delicately on the faintly powdered surface of the outspread wings, the
graceful curve of the fringed antennae, and the sturdy hair-thin legs. Even then

I knew it was a polyphemus moth because of a childhood interest in butterflies
and moths, but I wondered about its presence, as I had never seen one in the
area before. It was some hours later, with the moth still on my porch, that I
realized an illustration of this kind of moth graced the cover of a book I was
currently reading about a medicine woman.

Native cultures traditionally viewed synchronistic occurrences as a sign of
health. Ecopsychologist Leslie Gray, who began a shamanic counseling practice
after spending ten years with native shamans and folk healers, said
synchronicity is a consistent theme in her counseling. In fact, when a person
fails to
notice synchronistic occurrences in his or her life, it is a sign that something

is wrong. When Gray's clients report having synchronistic experiences, they
share that they feel seen and affirmed by something larger than themselves. And
afterward, they're more congruent with their life and restored to personal
power.

Mitchell Hall writes in Orion Nature Quarterly that when he noticed a series
of meaningful coincidences that involved other species, he began to wonder
about our mysterious connection to nonhumans. He tells of the time when his
six-year-old son Ezra was walking with his mom and a dragonfly brushed his
cheek.
"That dragonfly kissed me,"10 the boy said matter-of-factly. Later that
afternoon, Ezra hit himself with the blunt end of an old Boy Scout hatchet and
started to cry. Hall was holding him when a dragonfly flew out of the canopy of
a
nearby tree. The insect buzzed around in a circle just above Ezra's head. When
Hall told Ezra, the boy stopped crying to look at the insect. Hall told him
that the dragonfly had come to let Ezra know that he loved him. Ezra calmed
right
down, and the insect flew away to the tree.If it is true, as the ancients
believed, that the more simply constituted creatures respond more readily to the

unseen energies that have proved so maddeningly elusive to scientists, it is
likely that insects at one time or another---especially flying insects like
butterflies, moths, and dragonflies---will be involved in a meaningful
coincidence that happens to us---especially if we are open to them and pay
attention.


Synchronicity and Grace

Synchronistic events accompany crucial phases in our growth and are often
called grace. Spiritual pilgrim Scott Peck describes grace as more than gifts:

In grace, something is overcome; grace occurs in spite of something; grace
occurs in spite of separation and estrangement. Grace is the reunion of life
with life, the reconciliation of the self with itself.11

Often what is overcome, if only temporarily, is our general estrangement from
life, our grief, our loneliness, or our uncertainty about a particular
action. In keeping with their role as emissary and as model for growth and
transformation, it should not be surprising then that often a butterfly or moth
makes
an appearance at a critical time in our life when we are contemplating a
particular course of action or have just embarked on a new inner or outer path.
John
Lame Deer says guiding spirits often enter a butterfly and direct the insect
to fly to a particular young woman in the tribe. Usually landing on her
shoulder, the spirit in the insect form then advises her telepathically to
become a
medicine woman.

Flying Boy into a Man. Psychologist and men's workshop leader John Lee
reports in his book Flying Boy that he had his first out-of-body experience with
a
butterfly, and that since that time butterflies have appeared to him at just
the right moment to remind him of the things he learned that day. The initial
experience happened when he was alone on a boat dock reading, and a butterfly
appeared and landed on his big toe. He followed his intuition and attempted to
exchange bodies with it. The butterfly inched its way up his body finally
resting on Lee's hand, where it stayed. He stroked it gently and soon the
exchange
occurred. After experiencing the interior world of a butterfly for about
forty-five minutes, he gently slipped back into his body, having learned lessons

that although untranslatable, would inform his life.

In the months that followed he had periodic experiences with butterflies. His
most memorable encounter came when he was working on the early drafts of a
manuscript about his journey to find his authentic masculinity. It was winter. A

butterfly fluttered through his living room and landed on his desk "as if to
bless my work and remind me of my changes from caterpillar to butterfly---a
flying boy into a man."12

Sometimes an encounter with one of winged beauties is not unusual given the
time of year and the nature of how females attract males by emitting a scent,
but is significant (and memorable) because of the feelings invoked in us. For
example, a Milwaukee, Wisconsin, resident Jean Collins noticed some cocoons
that were hanging from the high branch of tree near her apartment. She thought
how much she would like to have one for her windowsill so that she could witness

the insect's emergence. Since the cocoons were out of her reach, she decided
that if one was to "give itself to her" it would make itself available. Sure
enough, a moment later her eyes spotted a single cocoon hanging from a hedge
and close to the ground. She snapped off the twig it was attached to and brought

it inside placing it carefully in her windowbox. She had almost forgotten the
still cocoon when several months later she walked into the dining room,
glanced at the windowbox, and saw a large cecropia moth. She called neighbors
and
friends to come over and see this spectacular insect and stayed up late
watching it fan its wings as though preparing itself for flight. In the morning
when
Collins looked to see if the moth was still there, she was stunned to discover
that not only was it there, but it had called an even larger moth to its
side, and they were mating. For Collins this sight was a gift of power, beauty,
and mystery. These glorious creatures had deepened her knowing---about the need
to balance the energies of the masculine and feminine inside herself and about
how transformation always has its own perfect timing. A year later in her
reflection on the experience, she says, "They had given me a new metaphor within

which to make my own life choices."13


Chapter 14: Nation of Winged Peoples
FOOTNOTES

3.  In 1982 Norie Huddle got the idea that by looking more closely at the 
actual process of insect metamorphosis, that is, at what specifically  happens
inside a chrysalis, we might gain insight into our own process of 
transformation. After three years and conversations with three  entomologists,
Huddle
understood the fundamentals of this miraculous  change from caterpillar to
winged
creature. In 1988 the information and  her original idea came together one
memorable day, and she wrote the book  Butterfly (or as she tells it, "it wrote
itself in an hour and then asked  to be illustrated." Later that same day she
met the artist Charlene  Madland who then collaborated with her to create the
book's beautiful  illustrations. Butterfly (Huddle Books) is "the first
Official Game  Piece" in Huddle's The Best Game on Earth, a "consciously
redesigned
game of life" aimed at bringing about universal peace, health, prosperity and 
justice on Earth---the "Butterfly Era of Human Civilization." For more 
information contact Huddle by email at: nhuddle@intrepid.net or write her  at:
P.O.
Box 444, Bakerton, WV 25410.
4.  Houston, Jean. A Mythic Life: Learning to Live Our Greater Story. San 
Francisco: HarperCollins, 1996.
5.  Louis Charbonneau-Lassay. The Bestiary of Christ, D. M. Dooling,  trans.
NY: Parabola Books, 1991, p. 346.
6.  Bill and Judy Guggenheim. Hello From Heaven. NY: Bantam Books, 1996,  p.
188.
7.  Ibid.
8.  Ibid., p. 189.
9.  Fisher, Helen M. Fisher. From Erin With Love, San Ramon, CA:  Swallowtail
Publishing, 1995, p. 114.
10. Mitchell Hall. "Some Animal Tales," Orion Nature Quarterly, Spring  1990,
p. 62.
11. M. Scott Peck. The Road Less Traveled, in Daybook: A Weekly 
Contemplative Journal. Grass Valley, CA: Iona Center, January 14-February  10,
1991, p.2.