G'day folks - I came across this marvellous story recently and would like
to share it with you - such wonderful imagery and symbolism from indigenous
mythology (dreamtime) for the role of butterflies in Open Space - I
couldn't resist passing it on....enjoy.
Brendan
in warm and sun-filled Australia
Birth of the Butterflies
An Australian Aboriginal Dreamtime Story
When the world was young, the birds and animals had a common language and
there was no death. No creature had any experience of its mystery, until
one day a young cockatoo fell from a tree and broke its neck. The birds and
animals could not wake it, and a meeting of the wise ones decided that the
spirits had taken back the bird to change it into another form.
Everyone thought this was a reasonable explanation, but to prove the theory
the leaders called for volunteers who would imitate the dead cockatoo by
going up into the sky for a whole winter. During this time, they would not
be allowed to see, hear, smell or taste anything. In the spring they were
to return to earth to relate their experiences to the others. The
caterpillars offered to try this experiment, and went up in the sky into a
huge cloud.
On the first warm day of spring a pair of excited dragonflies told the
gathering that the caterpillars were returning with new bodies. Soon the
dragonflies led back into the camp a great pageant of white, yellow, red,
blue, green creatures the first butterflies, and proof that the spirits
had changed the caterpillars bodies into another form.
They clustered in large groups on the trees and bushes, and everything
looked so gay and colourful that the wise ones decided this was a good and
happy thing that had happened, and decreed that it must always be so. Since
then caterpillars always spend winter hidden in cocoons, preparing for
their dramatic change into one of springs most beautiful symbols.
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