creatures, instincts
Dreaming of butterfly
Read two ways. Let them disagree, the truth often sits between.
Artemidorus · Oneirocritica
Drawn up, it speaks of The butterfly signifies the soul and a change of state, and foretells a turn for the better after a confined season, the shut thing opening.
Drawn down, it warns of Its beauty is brief, and so it warns of fortunes lovely but not lasting, enjoy the good arriving, and do not build the house on it.
Jungian · the collective unconscious
Drawn up, it speaks of The Greeks used one word for butterfly and for soul, psyche, and the dream knows it. A butterfly is transformation completed, what crawled and went dark in the cocoon now moving on its own wings, the Self after the long inward season.
Drawn down, it warns of A butterfly that never lands is change without integration, the dreamer flitting from becoming to becoming, afraid that settling means going back in the cocoon. Even wings need a stem to close on.
Did you dream this?
Keep it before it fades
Write the dream down in your journal and the cards will name its symbols for you, or have the whole dream read in full.