Overview: Common Symbols in Water Color & Pencil (WCP)

Much of my work contains recurring symbols. The origins and meanings of the symbols are described below, rather than repeated in each presentaion. The information presented here is gathered from personal experience, coursework and studies and is additionally quoted from various sources within my bibliography.

Wings/Butterflies:
Throughout my life I have always felt an affinity with butterflies, their gentle floating and amazing coloring, the transformation from caterpillar, the rich variety of symbolism, metaphor and mythology, continue to fascinate and inspire me.

“The butterfly is one of the oldest images of transformation. No one who, as a child, has waited for a caterpillar to turn into a butterfly can forget the moment when the earth bound caterpillar becomes the beautiful winged creature that flies away. Some 8000 years ago, the caterpillar and the butterfly suggested that there were two aspects to a single life form: one was ‘born’ out of the other. Thus it became one of the oldest images to suggest the regeneration of life from an outworn form and, analogously, the survival of the soul after the death of the body.” (The Goddesses and Gods of Old Europe – Marija Gimbutas – page 186)

“Psyche was the Greek word for both soul and butterfly, dating from the belief that human souls became butterflies while searching for a new reincarnation. The mythical romance of the maiden Psyche, beloved by the god Eros, was really an allegory of the soul’s union with the body and of their subsequent separation. The Celts also believed in fly-souls and butterfly-souls which, like bird-souls, flew about seeking a new mother. It was thought that women became pregnant by swallowing such creatures. In Irish myth, Etain took the form of a butterfly for seven years, then entered the drinking cup of Etar (Etarre), who swallowed her, and so brought her to rebirth. In her second incarnation, Etain married Eochy, the High King of Ireland. It is still said in Cornwall that the spirits of the dead take the form of white butterflies. It is also said in Mexico and Siberia. Butterflies were soul symbols in the Far East as well as Western Europe. The Chinese considered a jade butterfly the essential emblem of love, suggesting a wedding of souls. The most appropriate gift for a bridegroom to give his bride in China was a jade butterfly.” (The Woman’s Dictionary of Symbols and Sacred Objects – Barbara G. Walker – page 415)

“…Early Greeks believed human souls could occupy flying insects while passing from one life to the next. The belief was not forgotten. At Carcassonne in 1329, an amorous Carmelite monk was accused of witchcraft for hiding love charms in women’s houses. It was charged that he also called up Satan and sacrificed a butterfly to him, in symbolic offering of the soul.” (The Woman’s Dictionary of Myths and Secrets – Barbara G. Walker – page 826)

The butterfly continues to be a metaphor for transformation, reincarnation and romance, globally in modern culture references:

“Butterfly – Rebirth in higher form; transmutation of energy. The beauty that comes from trusting the process of growth through all its ups and downs, emerging triumphant in new awareness.” (The Dream Book – Betty Bethards – page 79)
“Social success, romantic success, and/or domestic happiness is forecast by a dream of these gaily colored creatures.” (The Dreamers Dictionary - Lady Stearn Robinson & Tom Corbett – page 72)

“Butterfly – The soul; immortality. As changing from the mundane caterpillar, through the state of dissolution, to the celestial winged creature, it is rebirth, resurrection. Also, like the double headed axe, a symbol of the Great Goddess. Celtic: The soul; fire. Chinese: Immortality; abundant leisure; joy. The butterfly with the chrysanthemum portrays beauty in old age; with the plum, it is longevity. Christian: Resurrection; its stages of development are life, death and resurrection. Sometimes shown in the hand of the Christ Child. Greek: Immortality; the soul; the psyche; also Psyche in Greek art. Japanese: A vain woman; a geisha; a fickle lover. A pair of butterflies is conjugal happiness; a white butterfly is a spirit of the dead. Maori: The soul.” (An Illustrated Encyclopedia of Traditional Symbols – J.C. Cooper – page 27-28)

These modern associations get their foundations in the above referenced cultures and eras, however, less known in mainstream society is that throughout history, in ancient cultures, the butterfly can now be recognized as being associated with the Great Goddess and the cultures that worshipped her, as is evident through the arts and crafts uncovered:

“On a Late Minoan vase from Mochlos, the Deity as half-woman/half-butterfly is depicted with a stemlike columnar body, upraised arms, and butterfly wings…on a Late Minoan pithos from Pseira, the central butterfly has widespread wings sectioned by bands of parallel lines…floral motifs and bull heads with butterflies like flowers between the horns…the symbolic context is further enhanced by bands of butterflies, circles, spirals, concentric circles, and double spiral flowers…” (The Language of the Goddess – Marija Gimbutas – pages: 23)

“Scenes of regeneration and hymns to rising life are portrayed on Late Minoan sarcophagi…features panels of sacred horns with rising butterflies, shells, and buds…it is a declaration of the triumph of life, in which plants, animals, and sea life participate.”

“The butterfly was one of the many insectomorphic manifestations of the Goddess in whose hands was the magical transformation from death to life.” (The Language of the Goddess – Marija Gimbutas – pages: 23)

“The emblem of the Great Goddess in its origin has nothing to do with the axe; it antedates the appearance of metal axes by several thousand years. In the second millenium BC, because of their increasing importance axes were made in imitation of a butterfly (therefore double bladed). When finally the butterfly became the double-axe, the image of the goddess as a butterfly continued to be engraved on double-axes. Moreover, on painted Minoan vases there is frequently an anthropomorphic image of the goddess having wings in the shape of a double-axe, an echo of the goddess’ epiphany in the shape of a butterfly.” (The Goddesses and Gods of Old Europe – Marija Gimbutas – page 187)


Spirals:
Spirals have been found on every continent in ancient sites. We have recently discovered that our universe is formed in a spiral, our DNA in spiral strands, indeed it is likely our bodies form in a spiral from the imbilical cord. It would seem that instictivly we feel and want to illustrate a connection with this.

"A highly complex symbol which has been used since paleolithic times and appears in pre-dynastic Egypt, Crete, Mycenae, Mesopotamia, India, China, Japan, pre-Columbian America, Europe, Scandinavia, and Britain; it also appears in Oceana, but not in Hawaii. It variously represents both solar and lunar powers,; the air; the waters; rolling thunder and lightening; it is also a vortex; the great creative force; emanation...a manifestation of energy in nature." (An Illustrated Encyclopedia of Tradtional Symbols, page 156)

Additionally it is believed that the spiral symbol inspired the creation of labyrinths.

Nature:
Nature is the inspiriation of our culture, our ancient ancestors viewed the cycle of nature, earth, the seasons, the moon, stars, and sun and learned to survive and create a foundation based on these observations. Today, many of our cultures are removed from nature and only glimpse its beauty and sacredness occassionally. Throughout time, people have been called to reproduce what they see and to try to understand their place on the world by relating to the environment around them.

Sun, Moon and Stars are common natural symbols in my work. The sun has many metaphors attached to it, but is most often referred to as a metaphor for the masculine and the moon as feminine.