What Butterflies Teach Us About Spiritual Awakening

A butterfly is a fascinating insect because its transformations are so extraordinary. It goes through four major transformations in its life:

1. Egg
2. Larva (caterpillar)
3. Pupa
4. Adult

Although I already wrote about the three stages of growth, which can be compared to the butterfly’s growth stages of egg, larva and adult, it’s the pupa stage that I missed in that post, and the butterfly’s example is perfect to expound on this stage of growth.

The pupa stage of the butterfly’s life-cycle is when a larva encapsulates itself into a shell-like structure that hangs from a twig.

It looks like this

…and it can be compared to the human stage of the dark night of the soul.

Though from the outside it doesn’t look like anything is going on, inside this capsule the insect is rapidly changing. If talking about the dark night of the soul, you feel stagnant, but under the surface intense transformation and preparation is taking place.

Quite a few people in the West are undergoing this spiritual crisis and they should take it as a natural growth stage, the stage that cannot be avoided, after which their true selves will emerge and direct their lives.

So the feeling that one lacks purpose, or sadness and loneliness are passing stages. These must be felt, especially the feeling as though you’re grieving, because indeed you are grieving the old you. Though the new you will be certainly wiser and happier, there’s always a sort of melancholy felt by unconsciously knowing that the old you will be no more.

Accept these feelings fully, knowing that they signify the ‘pupa’ stage of your development. The reason nothing on the surface seems to be happening is because all the energies are focused on bringing about an extraordinary change within. This change, once completed, will manifest externally too, and thus your whole life will shift. But first the work must be done within!

When you emerge from this stage, you’re no longer the same person. It’s hard to imagine how a pupa could transform into a splendid butterfly, and it’s as hard to imagine how a common person could transform into a magnetic being with a spiritual eye wide open. Such a person indeed grows spiritual wings during this intense transformation, which enable him to become the master of his life.

Once the dark night of the soul is no more, dependence on various teachers ends, because no more lack is left within. As all the search ends, all the desires leave you naturally; the chains that kept you in ignorance melt into nothingness, and your soul is freed again.

Then you become the Light in your own right,

and you can shine the path to those who are still blind.

Resource: simonarich.com