How To Attract Butterflies To Your Garden Ebook

How to Attract Butterflies to Your Garden

WHY SHOULD YOU ATTRACT BUTTERFLIES?

Besides the obvious reason that they are simply beautiful, there are a myriad of other reasons why you may want these flittering creatures to come to your garden. These reasons are both practical as well as mystical when you consider the role of the butterfly in the ecosystem as well as the symbolic representation of butterflies throughout different cultures.

We think that’s the most interesting part about attracting butterflies – what they mean and symbolize in history. We’ll look at that part first. You may be quite surprised and learn a bit in the process!

Butterflies have inspired humankind since antiquity, not just for their decorative value but also as spiritual beings, symbolic of metamorphosis, rebirth, love, hope, and freedom. This is the only book that explores the butterfly's role in myth, religion, literature, art, and the decorative arts, and includes magnificent pictures ranging from ancient stone carvings to modern furniture, Pompeian mosaics to Sevres porcelain.

Butterflies apparently have a great deal to do with luck, both good and bad. "In Louisiana it is thought that good luck will follow shortly after a white butterfly flies into your house and flies around you." However, the same action is an omen of death in Maryland

The life cycle of butterflies and moths has been used in many cultures to represent many things. The hatching from the egg is the equivalent of human birth. The caterpillar represents the stage of life; the lowly "worm" waiting for a transformation, just as we await our reward in an afterlife

Another metamorphosal symbol is inherent to the chrysalis (pupa) or cocoon. This is the "magical closet" where the amazing transformation will take place. It is the protective covering which will provide refuge for the changeling. The pupa or cocoon is a natural symbol for protection

Metamorphosis of butterflies and moths is one of the mysteries of Nature. The ability of these insects to change from the crawling caterpillar to the flying adult is almost magical. Many people are so awe inspired by the metamorphosis that they believe that butterflies and moths could never have evolved over millions of years without a God behind it.

The butterfly exists in four distinct forms.  Some consider that so do we:  The fertilized egg is planted in our mother's womb.  From our day of birth we are like the caterpillar which can only eat and creep along.  At death we are like the dormant pupa in its chrysalis.  After that, our consciousness emerges from the cast off body, and some see in this the emergence of the butterfly.  Therefore, the butterfly is symbolic of rebirth after death.  

For Christians, the butterfly's three steps of metamorphosis -- as caterpillar, pupa and then winged insect -- are reminiscent of spiritual transformation.


The caterpillar's incessant crawling and chewing reminds us of normal earthly life where people are often wholly preoccupied with physical needs. The chrysalis (cocoon) resembles a tomb and empty, can suggest the empty shroud left behind by Jesus.  Therefore, a butterfly represents the resurrection into a new condition of life that is free of any material concerns. 


In images of the Garden of Eden, Adam's soul is symbolized by a butterfly, or drawn with butterfly wings.  In paintings of Mary and her Child, the presence of butterflies stands for their care for human souls.  The Gnostics depicted the Angel of Death by showing a winged foot stepping on a butterfly. 

Since the insect is so fragile it can be torn apart by a hard rain, the butterfly stands for human frailty, both moral and physical.  Also, as its life is not a long one, it is also a symbol of the ephemeral nature of physical existence.  A butterfly with a torn wing is the icon for a North American charity that benefits disabled children.

The butterfly is also a symbol of woman's delicacy.  It can serve as a reminder to treat her with gentleness.  In Japan, a beautiful woman wearing a kimono is often compared to a butterfly. 

In Pre-Hispanic, Mexican Indian culture, the butterfly is one of the symbolic representatives of Tlaloc, god of rain. The fantastic stone heads that jut out from the bas-relief background of the pyramid of Quetzacoatl are carved in the same spirit (human form to geometric forms) although on a smaller scale. They represent symbolic combinations, alternately of jaguars and snakes, and of the stylized features of the rain god and the butterfly, which was considered one of his symbolic representatives.

Butterflies symbolize witches and fairies, but they also symbolize the soul of witches. Both butterflies and witches have the ability to change their form; butterflies change in the course of their development, witches allegedly can change at will.

The Serbians look on the butterfly as the soul of a witch and believe if they can find her body and turn it around while she is asleep, the soul will not be able to find her mouth and reenter, and the witch will probably die. Probably, this concept of the soul explains why many medieval angels have butterfly wings rather than those of a bird

Perhaps the most prominent association of the butterfly with the soul is with Psyche.

The myth of Psyche originated in the Orient. A Myth said the Rhetors (mere talkers) is "an untrue narrative representing truth." This myth is a good example of approaching "profound realities of Nature by poetic intuition." "Its secret sense shows through thanks to the symbolism of the butterfly."

By her beauty, Psyche has aroused the jealousy of Venus. She had seduced Eros himself. Carried away by Zephyre into a flowery valley, she lived there in a dream Palace. Each night she greeted there a lover that she was not supposed to see.

On the false-hearted advice of her sisters, giving in to curiosity, she came once with a lamp, to see the one who shared her bed. A drop of oil fell on the god who took flight. Thus began the terrible afflictions from which the unfortunate one could escape only thanks to the complicity of Love. When she had surmounted them her wedding was celebrated in Olympia and she was admired at the banquet of the gods.

Now in Greek, Psyche signifies at the same time soul and butterfly. The myth was interpreted by playing on this double sense. It became the story of the soul touched by divine love, but which, by reason of the mistakes made, must undergo some tribulations before having access to happy immortality. The night butterfly [the moth] attracted by the flame, like the soul attracted by heavenly truths, burns in the flame, reflection of the trials that must be endured to eliminate the fleshy sink-stones before knowing the joys of the beyond.

Mythology and symbolism aside, Butterflies are beautiful. Butterflies are inspiring. They can be quite magical, helping us to connect with nature, as well as with our spiritual selves.

Yet butterflies are disappearing everywhere right before our very eyes. When uncaring human activities get out of hand, it is always the butterflies that take the first and most profound blow.

Studies have shown that when rainforests are destroyed, or local temperatures rise, or chemicals and pesticides contaminate our environment, or natural habitats are lost, it is almost always the butterfly that suffers most. For these reasons they serve as environmental indicators, and stewardship of butterflies becomes linked to such serious issues as habitat destruction, pesticide misuse, global warming, genetically engineered foods, and deforestation.

When in the caterpillar stage, the (eventual) butterfly will eat pests that can threaten the livelihood of your garden. As we have already pointed out to you, Butterflies pollinate wild plants and our crops, ensuring the production of seeds and fruits required for the continued survival of plants and animals, including humans. Because they are fragile, they can indicate the health of our ecosystems and butterflies are valuable sources of food for songbirds.
So the benefits of attracting butterflies to your garden abound. Perhaps it will help you if you begin by understanding the life cycle of the butterfly.