Butterflies have long inspired the heart and soul

Many of the ancient civilizations believed that butterflies were symbols of the human soul.

The Greeks believed that a new human soul was born each time an adult butterfly emerged from its cocoon.

Butterflies have been used by the Chinese and Japanese cultures for centuries as symbols of joy and the essence of happiness. Both cultures have added them to manuscripts, paintings and drawings for centuries.

Early Europeans believed that the human soul took the form of a butterfly so, they viewed the butterfly with great respect and often with fear.

Northern Europeans throught that dreams were the result of the soul-butterfly's wanderings through other worlds.

In southern Germany, some say the dead are reborn as children who fly about as butterflies, resulting in the belief that they bring children.

The Irish believe that butterflies are the souls of the dead waiting to pass through purgatory.

Native American Indian legends told that butterflies would carry the wishes to the Great Spirit in heaven to be granted.

Shoshone Indians believed that butterfles were originally pebbles, into which the Great Spirit blew the precious breath of life.

Native American Zuni tribes believed that butterfles could predict the weather. The Zuni also believed that the white butterfly predicts the beginning of summer.

The Blackfeet Indians believe that dreams are brought to us in sleep by a butterfly.

The butterfly is a symbol of the fertility of the earth among some tribes of Mexico.

Born out of the caterpillar in the chrysalis, butterflies were a symbol of rebirth, regeneration, happiness, and joy to Native Americans in Mexico.

The Maya looked upon butterflies also as the spirits of dead warriors in disguise descending to earth.

A dying man in the Solomon Islands has a choice as to what he will become at death and often chooses a butterfly.

Among the Nagas of Assam the dead are believed to go through a series of transformations in the underworld and are finally reborn as butterflies. When the butterfly dies, that is the end of the soul forever.

The Aztecs believed that the happy dead in the form of beautiful butterflies would visit their relatives to assure them that all was well. These butterflies flew around the house and around bouquets of flowers which were carried by Aztec men of social rank.

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