We Need Not Walk Alone

Butterflies

The butterfly is NOT the official symbol of The Compassionate Friends (TCF) but for many of the individual Compassionate Friends members the butterfly has come to represent the spirit of our children.

Throughout the history of our world, the butterfly has been symbolic to many groups of people and in a variety of ways; often the butterfly was linked to life after death and spirituality. This is most likely why so many of us within TCF have come to cherish the butterfly.

Here are a few examples of the spiritual symbolism of butterflies:

Many Christians consider the life-cycle of the butterfly to be representative of the human life-cycle: the caterpillar representing our life in the physical state here on earth, the cocoon representing the death of our physical state and the emergence of the butterfly representing the freeing of our spirit (or soul) after death.
The ancient Greeks believed that butterflies were the soul of the deceased.
In New Zealand, the Maori people believed that, after death, the soul returns to earth as a butterfly.
In Germany during Word War II, many children drew pictures of butterflies on the walls of their encampments. Elisabeth Kübler-Ross¹, author of many books on the subject of death, dying and the grief of those left behind, believed that the children intuitively knew of their fate and that the butterflies were their way of leaving us that message.

¹ For more information on Elisabeth Kübler-Ross, visit her official website:
http://www.elisabethkublerross.com