Goddesses & Figures


Generations Butterfly GoddessSmall Butterfly Goddesses 1Small Butterfly Goddesses 2Small Butterfly Goddesses 3Small Butterfly Goddesses 4Three Little WitchesDreamin'Three MusesWitch in Flight


My Butterfly Goddesses display a more Yin-like side of my personality. Like the Sun Faces I sometimes use them as canvases for other concepts. The butterfly itself has a fair amount of mythology and symbolism behind it. In Japan, one butterfly stands for young womanhood while two symbolize marital bliss. To the Aztecs, the butterfly stood both for the souls of dead warriors who had fallen on the battlefield and the souls of women who had died in childbirth – the two most noble deaths of which an Aztec could conceive. In Christianity, butterflies, along with the dragonfly, are linked to the soul which has escaped the confines of the flesh. The butterfly has also come to represent not only beauty itself but also the transitory nature of that beauty and of all life. They represent a transition to a more expressive life, or a change of life for the better. An Irish blessing goes: "May the wings of the butterfly kiss the sun, and find your shoulder to light on. To bring you luck, happiness and riches today, tomorrow and beyond."

© James Best 2019