The Rebirth of the Golden Butterfly Queen
Part 2 of Trilogy: Timeless Stories for the End of Time
From Self-doubt to Sovereignty
In my golden book, I write of the rebirth of the Golden Butterfly Queen.
No Madame Butterfly, but a Monarch- born out of a jewel-like chrysalis of warm and sparkling light, Daughter to the Sun.
She was born with the gifts of infinite creativity and transformation,
but it would be many years before this Golden Queen would realize the truth of who she was.
So let us begin at the end of the beginning.
Once upon a time, there was a Butterfly Maiden who transformed herself into a yellow butterfly every night to make love with the flowers and talk with the trees.
She would sometimes journey far for she was a very curious creature and liked to explore beyond her home, called Scare City.
Every morning, she would return to her rundown home and resume her human shape.
When she took on human form, the Butterfly Maiden was a beautiful girl with glowing skin.
But she had to keep it covered because of the attention it attracted.
She had to hide many things about herself for Scare City, as the name implies, was not a place of open hearts.
She had long ago learned to silence her song, control her dancing body, and not upset others with the fire in her eyes.
Scare City was a dense metropolis, a land ugly and congested, piled up with remnants of the past
and filled with sad people who never stopped to rest or look at one another.
They were afraid that what they had would one day be lost and they focused on consuming what was there before it was all gone.
But the more they consumed the more hungry they became.
The harder they worked the more desperate they were to reach the vision that drove them.
The citizens of Scare City believed if they worked very hard,
one day they would be rewarded by being magically transported to a new world:
The Kingdom of Prosperity, a beautiful city of gold and riches, where nothing runs out and no one would ever have to work again.
But no one had ever seen this Kingdom before.
Which only made the people of Scare City work even harder, hoping that one day it would finally be enough to deserve the reward.
It was hard for the Butterfly Maiden to watch her people suffer this way, for she knew there was more to life.
The Maiden always felt joyful and light during her nightly adventures as a butterfly,
where she could escape the confines of the poor city.
But during the day, she felt lonely around her family and neighbors who were always so busy and she felt unhappy about the tasks she had to do, which felt pointless. Every day was the same drudgery.
Until one day, a mysterious stranger riding a fierce black horse entered the city gates.
No one else in Scare City noticed him, for they did not welcome strangers and had no time to entertain.
But the Maiden met the Stranger’s eyes and it was as if she saw her own reflection for the very first time.
His eyes were so clear and bright as stars. His face, noble and kind, and his body like a great cathedral.
The Stranger’s expression revealed that he also felt a deep sense of recognition and he asked the Maiden,
“Do you know who you are?”
“I am nobody,” she replied.
“Oh. I see you have forgotten yourself. Let me remind you. You are the Golden Queen. You rule the Kingdom of Prosperity. Come, I will take you home.”
For a moment, the Butterfly Maiden forgot herself and laughed out loud.
“Scare City is my home. And as you can plainly see,” she said, gesturing at her faded cloak, “I am certainly no Queen. ”
The light in the Stranger’s eyes flickered for a moment before he turned to go.
Whereupon, the Maiden immediately turned herself into a Butterfly and
followed him for she was very curious about whether the Kingdom of Prosperity truly existed,
and perhaps more than a little curious about the Stranger himself.
She fluttered around him as he led them to the most beautiful city of silver and gold.
But when they arrived, the Stranger vanished.
The Butterfly Maiden was surprised by his sudden disappearance but too mesmerized by what she was seeing to think much about what she was not.
Everything in this kingdom sparkled and was crafted with great detail and beauty.
Homes were made of exotic woods, inlaid with jewels. The people wore clothes of the greatest finery and
the public squares were filled with the most beautiful art and music. But the true wealth of this kingdom lay in the collective heart of this happy people.
Each person in this enchanted place was rich, inside and out.
Each one shared and expressed their wealth fully and the light that emanated from the eyes of every citizen was a treasure to behold.
The Butterfly looked around with a mix of delight and bitterness.
“That such a place could exist? While I live in a place like Scare City.
And what is that Stranger talking about?
This land is in no need of a queen. Every being here seems to rule herself, everyone her own king and queen.
And in any case, I could never belong to a world such as this.”
But from that day forward, the Maiden couldn’t help but continue to visit the Kingdom.
Every evening the Stranger came to the gates of Scare City and
the maiden would become the yellow butterfly and follow him to the Kingdom of Prosperity.
Every dawn, she would return home a little sadder.
The more often she visited the Golden City, the more heartbroken she felt.
The difference between the way her people were living and the majesty of Prosperity was just too great.
Sometimes, she considered staying in Prosperity, but she didn’t want to leave her home and family,
no matter how miserable it was.
And perhaps more than that, she knew she would never fit in such a grand place, she didn’t even fit in a place like Scare City.
Returning to her humble home and her human form… she felt ugly and poor.
At first, she tried to show her people the way.
This is what everyone was dreaming about, and it already existed!
They could all go together and start enjoying their lives and be free. The others ridiculed her.
“That land doesn’t yet exist. We have to work for it.
Stop wasting our time with your tales and help us so we can reach it faster.”
The Maiden had always been different but now she was seen as crazy.
After some time, the torment became unbearable.
She couldn’t understand why she was born to live in Scare City, while other beings lived in a City of Gold.
It seemed so unfair. She didn’t understand why none of her people could wake up to the truth-
that living the way they were living was not living… and was never going to lead them to what they desired.
So, the Maiden stopped talking about Prosperity, she stopped visiting the Kingdom and
after a while, she stopped turning into a butterfly altogether.
And the mysterious Stranger, who seemed to know her, she did not see again.
They had never had a conversation beyond the first, as she did not talk as a butterfly and he was reserved by nature.
But it had felt good to be in his presence. Now, she spent every night all alone, looking out of her window,
staring at the changing moon and crying over her life that did not change.
One day, from her tears, sprang a beautiful flowering tree.
And every day, upon the branches of this tree, she would see a black crow and a white dove.
One day this tree bore strange fruit. The dove told her to eat the fruit.
And when she did so, the Maiden found that the fruit contained within it a jewel.
The crow told her to lay that jewel in the earth and the Maiden did so.
Every day the tree bore new fruit, and every day the birds told her to eat and
then lay down the jewel next to the one that was laid out the day before.
In this way, a path was slowly formed.
And this magical tree that perpetually flowered and forever bore fruit would move along the path with her.
So that she did not return home after she was finished the task of laying down the jewel seeds,
but would rest and sleep under the branches of her tree.
When the people of Scare City first noticed the fruit and the jewels, they tried to take them.
But if anyone other than the Maiden held the fruit, it would rot and
there would be no jewel but only a black seed in the center.
And if the jewels which the Maiden had laid down were taken from the earth, they would become stones.
“What a waste!” they said. “And what are you doing? Building this path that leads nowhere instead of
working to reach prosperity? You are neglecting your job and will never reach the kingdom at this rate.”
But, the Maiden knew the truth and had given up on trying to fit in.
As she continued to build this path every day, step by step…she stopped covering herself and let the sun touch her golden skin.
Alone with her tree, she began to smile and sing and laugh again. And she began to enjoy seeing her reflection in the jewels.
After a while, people began to visit her.
They were attracted to the light of the path and the sound of her songs.
Other people began to water her tree (for it was no longer being nourished by her tears).
They would sit beneath the tree and listen to her and cry tears of regret and relief, of remembrance and redemption.
And with every tear, the tree bore a new type of fruit.
And within each fruit was a different sparkling jewel.
And as the maiden ate the fruits and added their new jewels to the earth, all the while singing her song,
people began to wake up to their own songs and the treasures within.
After a time, when the path sparkled with the light of many different seeds,
the Maiden looked up to see a once familiar sight: the handsome Stranger on his great black horse.
It had been many years but he still had the same remarkable light in his eyes.
He asked,
“My Queen, are you ready now to come to the Kingdom of Prosperity?”
Now, the Maiden did feel ready, for she was happy.
She had already left her old life behind and knew that her true home was always with her.
And she knew her beauty and her heart was at peace so she was no longer concerned about how she might compare with others.
But, alas, she said, “Now I cannot come with you, for I have lost my power to turn into the Butterfly.”
And then the Stranger smiled, “Do you not see the way you have paved for yourself? And all who follow you?”
And again, just as on that day long ago when they first met, the Maiden found herself laughing at the Stranger,
who seemed to say something strange every time he opened his mouth.
“As you can plainly see, this road leads nowhere. I’ve simply been passing the time, following the voices of the birds…”
The Stranger did not laugh but pointed back to where the path began.
“The place where you started is no longer the home you once knew. Come.”
And when the Maiden turned to look, she saw a city that glimmered with silver and gold.
So she followed the Stranger as she had done so many times before,
but now she held his arm and walked beside him as a woman
on a path that she had built with her own hands.
They walked to where Scare City had once been, but now it looked and felt entirely different.
As the Maiden entered the gates to her old home, she saw she was in a land of kings and queens.
While she had been building a road of jewels that led nowhere,
the people that she had touched had awakened to the jewel within. And they had come back home and shared their gifts.
The land of prosperity that the Maiden had so often visited and longed to live in had always been her home.
But, her people could not experience it, could not travel there,
until she stopped trying to escape where she was.
Until she stopped running away from who she was.
And as the stranger placed a golden crown upon her head,
the Maiden looked into his eyes and saw herself again.
A Golden Butterfly Queen that could
fly without wings, be at home with no house,
and rule a kingdom without issuing a single command.
Thanks for reading! We’d love to receive your submissions for our new publication.
If you would like to read the first story of the trilogy, or the third story of the trilogy …
