Image: excerpt from a mural of Itzpaplotl, Obsidian Clawed Butterfly, in San Francisco.
The Story of Obsidian Butterfly
Once upon a time there was a being of deep sweetness called Butterfly. She was beautiful. Her wings were gossamer rainbows and she rode the currents of the wind from blade of grass, to shady rock, and sometimes to the tops of the high mountain peaks that rose from the valley where she lived.
Every day was beautiful. On some days the sun shone, on others gentle rains soaked the land. The wind was never too hot or too cold, and it carried her kindly wherever her heart wanted to go.
But one day there was a rumble in the earth and a deep groan that froze with fear all the living things in the land where Butterfly lived. The gentle creatures fled, looking for shelter as the sky grew dark and the air became thick with acrid smoke. Soon Butterfly and her companions knew that there would be no escape. A great plume of hot ash rose into the sky, and when Butterfly looked up she saw the earth bleeding from a wound at the top of the mountain.
Butterfly tried to rise high above the molten rock and fiery ash, but the air was too heavy and it pushed her towards the earth. She settled on a flat stone by the sea and awaited her fate.
Soon the wound in the bleeding earth became as gash that carved a great canyon down the side of the mountain and swallowed up all the land. It devoured everything in its path—animal, vegetable and stone. When it reached Butterfly she spread her wings in wide surrender, her magnificent colors shimmering in the molten glow for a brief moment, and then, she was gone.
But what Butterfly didn’t know was that someone was watching. The Great Goddess of the Land, the Rainbow Lady, was watching from beyond the High Clouds in the Clear Sky. Great Goddess had created all the creatures of the land and she loved Butterfly with her glimmering, rainbow wings very much.
So she brought her lips together like a kiss and blew a cool wind down the side of the mountain and across the valley to the sea, to the place where Butterfly had been swallowed by the molten stone, and even imprisoned within that dark cave, Butterfly could hear her sweet voice as she said, “Little One, do not fear, for I have brought the rain.” And with that a cool rain poured down from the sky and Rainbow Lady gently scooped up Butterfly in her hands and in that moment Butterfly knew that a new life had come to her. The Goddess spoke again, “Precious One, with wings the colors of all of Creation, I could not save you from the scorching fury of the Fire God, but I can give you a new life with a Great Purpose.”
Inside her tomb of stone, Butterfly’s heart fluttered the way her wings yearned to. “Yes! Yes!” said she. “Please… I want to be free!”
The sacred stone goddess, Rainbow Obsidian Butterfly, who came to my husband, Mike, and I several years ago during a time of great darkness. She helped us from our cave and into the light, and now resides on our land, River Song Mountain Sanctuary. She bestows magick and great blessings on all the earth medicines I create there.
“And free you shall be, sweet Butterfly! But you will not be the same for the alchemy of fire and death have transformed you. No longer will you be only a carefree companion of the wind, now you will have the power to descend into the shadows and caves, to the darkest places where no light and no wind dare to dwell. Your wings are no longer soft playthings that shimmer only in the light, they are the power of fire caught in stone, and they can illuminate the dark. They are edged with razor sharp claws that will cut through the Ignorance that All Beings suffer from: the illusion that they are separate from Love. From this moment forward you will be Obsidian Butterfly and you will have the powers of both the Light and the Dark Mothers. Your hard glass wings will act as a mirror into the depths of the souls of all that look upon you so that they may see their own Shadow and love it as they love their Light.”
Butterfly was humbled by the gift, and a little unsure, but in her heart she was strong. She turned her face to the great Goddess and spread her new wings forged of Fire, Rain, Wind and Stone and said, “I am here to serve.”
The Obsidian Goddess still lives to this day and she holds the space for us between the Clear Sky and the Deep Below. She is the messenger and the mirror, the guide who will take you from your Dark Cave and into the Light. All you need to do is take her hand.
The Story of Obsidian Butterfly was written by Teal Chimblo Fyrberg. © 2014
This story was inspired by the great Mayan Goddess Itzpapalotl, the Obsidian Clawed Butterfly. I will share more about her in future posts. Thank you for reading, and may the Goddess hold you in her arms always.