Butterfly Medicine

In Cherokee: (kamama nvwati)

MEANING: Transformation, Next Step, Spiritual Growth...

When Butterfly Medicine grabs your attention it is asking you to embrace your own ability to transform your Life. It takes courage to transform your Life because it means letting go of things that no longer serve you to your Highest Good and change can be scary when confronted with the unknown.

When Butterfly Medicine appears in front of you, this means you are ready for the transformation process to begin. You may be so ready that you actually manifested a Butterfly to appear as to remind you of your heart's desire.

Butterfly's message is about taking that next step in your transformation process. Take note of the steps of transformation and let the steps guide you along your spiritual progression path. Remember, if Butterfly has crossed your path, you are ready to change in a big way and the transformation process has already begun.

- Dr. Laura Standley, "Butterfly Medicine," http://www.drstandley.com/animalmedicine_butterfly.shtml

This last weekend, while I was sitting on a picnic table under a tree near my apartment reading, for some reason I reached up and started to gently pull a twig out of my hair. The twig was actually a squiggling, green caterpillar. I gently tossed it to the bench seat on the other side and resumed reading. A short while later, as I was closing up my book, I was a little surprised to see it on the corner of the table right behind the book, stretching out as if to crawl on my chest. I wondered what the portent of this strange behavior was. Why did it so desperately want to be with me?

Today, while I sat on my front porch reading A Coward's Guide to Conflict at a very emotive portion at the end, I looked up to see a beautiful orange, black and white winged butterfly on the sidewalk, occasionally closing it's wings, only to reopen them a short time later. It was the first butterfly I have seen this Spring. I greeted it with, "Why...hello there," and went back to reading. It fluttered to within an inch or two of the page I was reading, and spiraled above my head up a short distance of about 5 feet. It then performed an aerial dance, swirling just over my head several times. So, I put down my book and simply tried to ask it for its message. Only one came to mind: the very nature of the butterfly is that of intense transformation. And a few raindrops started to fall.

The quote above is what I found when I Googled "butterfly medicine." She is a harbinger of major transformation, spiritual growth and the courage to be transformed. As I read Dr. Standley's interpretation, I felt tears of acceptance that indeed I am already transforming, and that possibly, I have just embarked on a change that will leave me radically changed and spiritually larger. Is it a coincidence that this message framed my first week of my RLT?

I can only anticipate that I will reach new depths of myself and my connection to others in the months to come.

Hugs and God Bless,

Sophie