Secrets of Creation · Chapter 05 · The Butterfly and the Swallow (November 10, 1870)

Chapter 05

The Butterfly and the Swallow (November 10, 1870)

01] Your sister desires an explanation about what actually, in the spiritual sense, the swallow and the butterfly are, or what spiritual prototypes lie hidden under these two images from My kingdom of creation?

02] Since I have placed something spiritual into everything that exists, there is certainly also something in these two creatures, as individual members of two species, which could serve as a sublime example in relation to you human beings; now then, I will tell your sister that these two species of creatures occupy the same level, the one among all winged beetles and insects and the other among the birds that joyfully fly through the air.

03] In order to arrive at the proper explanation, we must first answer the question: What is the butterfly? Consider, My dear child, the butterfly is one of these species of creatures which, like the flying insects, serves as a transitional stage - from the crawling worm or the caterpillar to the bird - forming a connecting link between the two. Among these, the butterfly is in particular the creature which in its body reveals its independence on the earth elements and in its colorful wings the relationship with the elements of light and sun.

04] Its own metamorphosis (transformation), shared by the entire species - first as a worm and caterpillar assimilating the suitable earth substances and then as a butterfly spiritualizing them through the sunlight products, as the finest juices of the flower calyxes, gives you, My dear Children, a very beautiful example of your own activity and life, that I cannot neglect to explain it to you in more detail and at the same time recommend it to you earnestly. Therefore, listen:

05] The worm crawls in the dust, and the caterpillar feeds on the inner part of the buds of trees and shrubs, both absorbing elements coming from the earth.

06] So it is with you human beings.

07] Under the prevailing educational methods, you most generally receive from childhood on only worldly instructions and your childish hearts are filled with superficial sciences.

08] Thus encumbered with vain knowledge, you proceed toward a more mature age, like the caterpillar approaches the stage, when wrapped in a cocoon, it begins its hibernation and the better evolution into a quite different being from its former status.

09] And you, what is happening to you? Behold, you too are approaching the springtime of your life. Wrapped up in conventional rules of conduct and concepts. You believe to be entirely in accordance with your own calling and consider important only the laws which the state or the usual customs impose on you. If no other more powerful awakener came, you too, like the chrysalis of the butterfly or the larvae of a flying insect, would remain your whole life what your school and domestic education has made of you!

10] Just as with the butterfly in its chrysalis the image of its future existence is already forming and its body is already prepared not to crawl heavily along the ground as before, but to be carried by two light pairs of wings – so also despite all the wrong education there is enclosed in you human beings a higher spiritual man, who has only been concealed, but not destroyed, and in whom, as with the chrysalis of the butterfly, only one impulse is needed to burst the larvae, so that his wings can grow out and it, as a free air-borne creature, can easily spread its wings in the warming rays of the sun, it may then rejoice in a higher spiritual life; now equipped with new sucking organs, instead of the former eating tools, it can now absorb its light nourishment for the further preservation of itself from those members of the plant kingdom of parallel rank of its own – namely the flowers clothed in colors.

11] So it is likewise with you, My dear children.

12] As soon as the more mature and serious period of your life approaches, I send you the warming rays of My love, giving the first impulse through various sufferings and misfortunes to break through the hard worldly crust of acquired prejudices, so that you may learn to understand that in many cases the things you have learned are not sufficient to give you comfort; the inner spiritual man begins to stir, knocks on his worldly encasement, wants to spread his wings, because he feels that he is created for a higher existence than the one to which you want to condemn him; the sufferings from the outside and the urging from within work together, and in some cases the earthly shell is shattered which enclosed the spiritual man, and free like a butterfly, rejoicing and giving thanks, he soars towards the sun which warms him spiritually, feels at ease in its rays, absorbing only the spiritual eternally never fading teachings of My love as the finest juices of the flower of My wisdom, and then becomes what the butterfly on earth is, in the spiritual heaven he becomes a child of light or – “My child” and free as a butterfly.

13] This is the manner in which you must understand the butterfly, and as it is adorned with the most beautiful colors in delicate dust covering its wings, rejoices in its life, so you too shall have your soul wings covered with the pollen of divine attributes and, instead of the lowly earth and worldly turmoil, you shall prefer sunlight nourishment of My divine love and wisdom above all other foods for your preservation.

14] This, My child, is the symbolic analogy that a heart turned towards Me can draw from the butterfly and its appearance in nature, you too become what it is and you will always be able to rejoice in My sun of grace in the joyful flight of the spirit through the miracles of creation!

15] And now we proceed to the second creature that interests you and of which you wish to know its spiritual significance; so listen now:

16] From the very beginning I have said that what the butterfly is among the flying insects, that is the swallow among the birds; now then, in order to prove this, we must take a closer look at the species to which it belongs.

17] Behold, My dear child, if there is a spiritual similarity between animals, then this must be understood in such a way that not all conditions of one animal are exactly repeated figuratively in the other, but that I as Creator of the one as well as the other animal, intend only an even, regulated orderly advancement in the classification.

18] As you well know, there are many diverse kinds of birds; their difference being either in plumage, song, or build, all according to the food they assimilate in order to transform something of a lower rank into a higher one.

19] Now, under this species there are animals that draw their food from coarser elements, or those that live off plants and grains, and finally yet another species that lives from flying insects, which insects themselves in their species are the most developed in spiritual regards, because they are “sunlight-collectors" (see "The Fly", Chapter 11, The Fly as a Collector of Light and Life).

20] Well, this last-mentioned food is exactly what the swallows, the birds that are so pleasing to you, need, and it is precisely in this respect that the swallows resemble butterflies, because they also only consume the finest food substances, so that then the next higher species may evolve, namely that class of birds already endowed with a more noble song. In their (swallow’s) organism is then already gathered all the spiritual essence, which – although almost silent or only expressed by simple chirping in their kind – evolves only in other higher species into loud rejoicing voices, becoming a song of praise for me!

21] It is for that reason that the swallows are those animals which, nourished by the food of the sun, are always friendly with man, who is also closer to the spiritual sun.

22] They, the swallows, choose human dwellings to build their nests, through their food they free you from many other pests, and although man is cruel to many others of their species and kills them, partly to prepare a delicacy for his spoiled appetite, partly to exterminate them out of boredom or passion for murder, he is more tolerant of this species of birds. It is a certain reluctance that prevents him from chasing these animals away from his dwelling, which have approached him so trustingly, and he is not wrong about this; for as long as swallows nest under his roof and flutter around it, it is a sign that healthy air surrounds it, where also the flying insects that are destined to feed them can dwell. But if one or the other is lacking, man may be persuaded that illness and death will soon enter his house and his country; likewise if flowers and the butterflies that live from their juices are absent.

23] Where neither of the above are present, My blessing is far away, and unfortunately the rod of correction is swung there over an incorrigible people, after My words of love and grace fell only on deaf ears.

24] Therefore all of you, My children, be active in My school, so that I am not forced to withdraw My messengers of peace on your earth from your dwellings; for then the pleading for help will no longer be of use, and you must undergo harsher remedies, which I would be compelled to apply, but mind you only in the very last case.

25] Now, My dear daughter, you have a weak notion of how to observe and understand My nature and its individual members, if one searches spiritually.

26] You can imagine that there is still many more and remarkable things to say about these two little animals,; for they are creatures of a God; and therefore their meaning is also infinite! Amen.