An illustrated design on a Route 66 sign with two women with butterfly and leaf hairstyles, facing each other, in a desert landscape with an open road and a bright orange sky.

22     METAMORPHOSIS  

KEY CONCEPTS:  catalyst, transformation, destruction, inner turmoil, chaotic environment, butterfly effect, cause and effect, change in circumstance, guardian angel.

MESSAGE:  A monarch butterfly’s existence begins as an egg, secured to a host plant by a sticky substance.  Larva emerges, now a caterpillar, who lives to eat and grow.  Shedding exoskeletons several times, her size increases up to 10,000 percent.  Attaining maximum growth, the caterpillar stops consuming and enters her pupa stage. Inside the chrysalis, profound change occurs; the caterpillar dissolves her own tissue into a fortified soup.  Dormant cells activate, rapidly building mature structures.  Now an adult, she comes out from darkness, fully-formed, hanging upside down to shake out her crumpled wings.  Shifting focus to reproduction, she’ll make an instinctive migratory flight of 3,000 miles.  Multiple generations contribute to the full-circle journey…which passes through the butterfly habitat city of Joplin, Missouri.  Expect small events to wreak great changes when Metamorphosis flies into view: you’re on the brink of a catalyst.

Joplin welcomes visitors with myriad butterfly signs.  The city lies in “tornado alley,”  on old Route 66 near the borders of Kansas and Oklahoma.  Joplin endured a particularly savage and deadly EF-6 storm in 2011.  It tragically killed 158 people and was one of the worst in U.S. history.  In its aftermath, a uniquely inspiring phenomenon came to light.  Many in the path of the storm, particularly children, described benevolent, winged beings hovering over them to provide protection.  Reportedly, these “butterfly people” guided victims; children of diverse background and location told identical stories of these otherworldly guardians. 

Do you run from storms? No matter if you hate, fear or even excessively love them, you’re demonstrating attachment.  Desires dam up spiritual progress.  A famed concept holds that when a minuscule change occurs  - such as a butterfly flapping its wings - it’s a catalyst for monumental shifts.  The slightest motion can snowball to create an extreme outcome. 

When life transformation begins, it yields chaos.  Your hunger for achievement takes a hit while you smash against everything in your path. Each stage serves a purpose, friend:  you can’t have it all at once in this world. How could you be a baby and an old man simultaneously? Leaving earlier phases behind spurs turmoil and pain: like the monarch, your past melts away.  Surfacing from darkness to changed circumstance,  shake open your wings...but know that massive gusts fan out from a tiny flutter.  Keep your eyes on the sun’s position to stay on course.  Ride the thermals when you’re exhausted, conserve energy.  Stay alert; use heightened senses to detect precious nectar refreshment.  When you finally arrive, still your weary wings:  know that this too shall pass.

RELATED SITES:  SHOAL CREEK CENTER’S MONARCH FESTIVAL, JOPLIN, MO;  ILLINOIS ROUTE 66 MONARCH FLYWAY: A 66-MILE-WIDE CORRIDOR STRETCHING FROM CHICAGO TO ST LOUIS INCLUDING SANCTUARIES IN LITCHFIELD, ELKHART, WILMINGTON AND DARIEN, IL.