All About Butterflies
“Just Living isn’t enough said the butterfly, one must have sunshine, freedom and a little flower”, Hans Christian Anderson.
Today, let’s enjoy those most beautiful, the most familiar of all insects: the butterflies. Perhaps no other creature brings out a sense of happiness and even freedom than the butterfly and perhaps this is why many of us like to imprint this insect permanently on our skins as tattoos. Their beautiful wings, creating a flash of color as they flutter by, are a sure sign of the coming of spring and of general well-being.
Ancient Egyptians depicted butterflies in their art 3,500 years ago and the Mesoamericans of Teotihuacan carved brilliantly colored images on temples and jewelry. We have depicted them in art, in jewelry; in fact, on anything we needed to decorate. Of course, who can forget Alice meeting the hookah-smoking caterpillar during her adventures in Wonderland in Lewis Carroll’s famous book?
Many ancient cultures, like the Japanese, the Aztecs and the Romans, considered butterflies the personification of the soul but the Japanese also consider them a bad omen. The Naga people of India and Myanmar claim to be descended from a butterfly. Aristotle’s word for…
