XXV.

Butterfly wings:

A butterfly is the primary symbol of Reverie: the Path to Joy. It’s a symbol of the inextinguishable soul. Satisfying our soul is the root of Joy. No one can dim our light.  The choice to fly unconfined towards the path to joy is yours to make.  Butterflies are also a symbol of birth, metamorphosis and a beautiful life well lived, because a soul is all of these things and passes through all of the stages of life. Included in this still life shot are the smaller versions with initials on them or crusted diamonds that celebrate the beautiful souls in our lives: my soul, your soul, our children, our parents. They are birth announcements, when worn with our own initial they are also a defiant shout that our soul is ours alone to fuel and fire...they are also in memory of the souls that passed but continue to live in our hearts. There is an end to life, but not of love.

To discover more about the meaning of butterflies:

Read Joseph Campbell’s writing on the “Myth of Psyche” . Renaissance scholars viewed the butterfly as symbolic of Psyche, the Greek Goddess representing the human soul and the search for what is true, meaningful and important.

“an experience of being alive, so that our life experience would resonate within our innermost being and reality, so we actually feel the rapture of being alive”.

Read about the Egyptian Tiger butterflies on the temple walls of the Tomb of Nebamen.

See Coin from 1774: butterfly alighting on a skull symbolizing that eternal life vanquishes death.

XXVI.

If you are wanting to celebrate a joy in your life with something decadent… my very favorite type of red wine is Chateauneuf du Pape from the Rhone wine region of southeastern France.  I have never been to see this area in person-definitely on the list of must sees…