Butterflies have long been associated with the process of transformation and metamorphosis - a powerful representation of the soul and its journey through life. We know that change is inevitable in life. Change ensures growth and maturation.
Everything in life must go through stages of development. Butterflies begin as eggs. The fertilized eggs hatch into caterpillars which eventually spin cocoons around themselves, setting the stage for the chrysalis process. A mummy-like pupa forms inside the cocoon and dissolves into a liquid mush. Even though everything seems lifeless, a cellular reorganization is taking place. Basically, the whole structure of the organism is being reconstituted during this intense process of change. Then, from the cocoon the final expression of life emerges. Even as the butterfly appears we are reminded that everything has a purpose. In the process of struggling to leave its cocoon, the butterfly’s wings are strengthened. A butterfly would not be able to fly - and would die - if it were prematurely pulled from its cocoon.
This intense transformation process can be equated to the alchemical stage of Solutio. Solutio is the root of alchemy, where one form disappears and a new revitalized form emerges. The alchemists thought that matter could not be transformed unless it were first reduced to prima materia, its original form prior to the differentiation of elements.
An important alchemical premise is “Until all be made water, perform no operation”. (1) Psychologically the prima materia refers to the watery womb of the unconscious from where the ego was born. “The philosophical water in which everything takes place is both the beginning and the end of the opus, the prima materia, and the Philosophers' Stone. It is a liquid symbol of the Self containing the opposites…” (2)
According to Edinger “Fixed, developed aspects of the personality allow no change. They are solid, established, and sure of their rightness. Only the indefinite, fresh, and vital, but vulnerable and insecure, original condition symbolized by the child is open to development and hence is alive… the image of a child in dreams…can symbolize the prima materia.” (3)
Written for @jungsouthernafrica
References: (1) https://aras.org/concordance/content/solutio (2) CW14: par. 317 (3) Edinger, E. (1994). Anatomy of the psyche: Alchemical symbolism in psychotherapy, p. 11
Image credit (1) Janine Epere, ‘New Life’ (2) Annelie Dachsel Widmann ‘Metamorphosis’
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