Butterfly represents a need for change and greater freedom, and at the same time it represents courage. One requires courage to carry out the changes necessary in the process of growth. It is the never-ending cycle of self-transformation.
Virtually all cultures have marvelled at the magical process that transforms an ungraceful caterpillar into a magnificent fluttering butterfly. Butterfly Medicine is all about transformations, the element of Air, and mental powers. Butterfly can bring clarity to your mental process, help you organize the project you are undertaking, and assist you in finding the next step in your career or life path. The power that it brings to us is akin to the air. It is the mind, and the ability to know the mind or to change it. It is the art of transformation that butterflies teach us by example about self-transformation.
Butterfly medicine is very present at Amaya Inner Journey Centre. It is the symbol of our place of transformation. 3 years ago while our Facilitator, Fabrice, was in the Andes on a shamanic medicine journey he unexpectedly met a local female shaman just one hour after landing in La Paz. It was her 6 year old daughter who presented him with a small painting of a beautiful butterfly she had made with her name signed on the bottom, "Amaya". He felt a deep power and essence in the passing of the butterfly medicine but had no idea why. The painting was brought back to the home and placed on the altar for years. Amaya Inner Journey Centre was manifesting. The little painting still remains on the altar of our ceremonial space to help guide participants through their own inner journey of self-transformation regardless of what stage they may be in.
Just like the butterfly you are always in a stage of your own transformation and it is important to understand what stage you are in. Which stage do you believe yourself to be in?
The Egg stage where you are full of potential and possibility but still very unaware of what you can become?
The Larva stage where you are aware of who you are but what you know deep down inside has not yet become reality?
The Chrysalis stage where you are doing a lot of inner work and are in the processing of actually creating your new birth?
Or the Butterfly stage, the final stage, where there has been a transformation and you are able to bring your fullest potential and inner offerings out into the world. This is what our world needs, people who come alive; people who can realize their own uniques gifts and purpose and allow them to change our world for the better.
Using butterfly medicine effectively means listening to your inner voice very carefully. Changes in our lives are inevitable and sometimes events or happenings that seem quite traumatic are exactly the catalyst needed to propel yourself into transformation.
The butterfly grows wings and before using them has no idea if it can actually fly. The courage to change is not always the easiest but these new situations and challenges can create a phenomenal emergence with the courage to do so.
At Amaya Inner Journey Centre we like to think of our dark room as a form of chrysalis, cocoon or womb of the earth mother. An opportunity for deep inner work is present and upon re-entering the light there is an energetic feeling of rebirth as we re-enter the light.
“What the caterpillar calls the end, the rest of the world calls the butterfly.”