Butterfly
Total dissolution before reformation, trusting the soup phase, the imaginal cells
- Card
- 39 of 52
- Suit
- Air
- Station
- death and return
- Kingdom
- Insect
- Tradition
- Aztec, Native American, Greek
In Nature
Inside the chrysalis the caterpillar dissolves almost entirely into a soup of imaginal cells before the butterfly's body reassembles — it is not a costume change, it is liquefaction and reconstruction.
The Medicine
The caterpillar does not grow wings. It dissolves — almost entirely — into a living soup, and its own immune system attacks the first imaginal cells like an infection before enough of them gather to remember the plan. Only then does the body reassemble into something that flies. You cannot manage this kind of transformation while it is happening, because for a while there is no you to manage it. If you are in the soup phase, take heart: the wings assemble around a design you did not consciously make. Your only task is to trust the liquefaction.
The Number
As card 39, death and return, the Butterfly carries dissolution, the imaginal cells.
Shadow
Skipping the soup, trying to fly out of the caterpillar body without dissolving.
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