Butterflies and Moths — A Spiritual Tale of Two Different Beauties

Kimi Michelle
4 min readSep 21, 2021

--

Photo by Amy Baugess on Unsplash

The beauty of a butterfly, fresh out of its cocoon, its wings stretched far and wide for all to see, is undeniable. Sure, if you look closely, you can still see its former caterpillar self — the grit, the struggle, the ugly. The focus when most see a butterfly is its beauty.

But what about moths?

Moths, like butterflies, spin cocoons for themselves and rest before becoming their full moth self. But we don’t appreciate the beauty of moths, do we? This is because in most cases, moths aren’t all that pretty. Night dwellers versus the day flight of the butterfly, moths are almost parasitic in nature.

Let’s really take a closer look at the moth, shall we?

Moths always find themselves chasing the light at their own peril. They’ll fly up as close as they can — taking the risk of getting burned, but it’s because they like the light. They like the warmth. The primary reason, though, that we don’t like moths is they get in your clothing. Imagine you go to put your favorite shirt on with your cute jeans and your high heels (or sneakers). You know the shirt — it’s the one that you found on your favorite kitschy apparel shop and it has the cute, snarky saying and things. You go to put it on and, lo and behold, there’s a damn hole in it! And it’s not in an inconspicuous place, you know, somewhere that you might’ve been able to hide it. Nope, it’s smack dab in the middle of your chest. And sure, you can absolutely stitch the little hole up and make it look like it wasn’t there — but we all know it’s a done deal. Now you’re big mad. You might even throw the whole shirt out.

Why aren’t we as quick to throw things out in our own lives, though?

You have moths in your everyday life yourself. They’re attracted to your light because it shines brightly and effortlessly. Even when you turn your light off — that is, you’re having a bad day — the moths can find you in the dark because you radiate. Literally. And, like the moths that pick at your clothing and leave little holes that you don’t see right away, so do the moths in your everyday life.

They come to you because you are light.

They take little bits of your essence day by day, without you noticing, because they need those bits to feed, to survive.

Photo by Daniele Bissoli on Unsplash

And it’s not until you’re ready to go outside and be your best and be dressed in your best, that you suddenly realize all the little holes that you have. And you wonder how you missed that.

The brighter your light is, the more moths come and find you. Why? They need what you have. In some ways they can’t help it. They’re not built to live on their own. They need what you have — quite literally.

So, how would you normally get rid of moths? Moth balls might be the first thing that you’d think of, and it’s likely what your grandparents used — but there are lots of natural ways now, like lavender sachets and cedar wood in drawers. For the moths in your life, though — it’s all about cleansing and intuition.

Pay attention to the people who offer you kind words without any light behind their eyes.

The biggest key to knowing and identifying the moths in your life is about using your discernment and your intuition. When you are moving in alignment, your intuition is your natural cedar wood against moths. It will direct you when you are being taken advantage of. It will catch the moths — before they leave their holes in you. What’s more important to understand and recognize is that in most cases, moths don’t realize that they’re leaving holes in you. They’re simply feeding. Most times, it’s not malicious — they literally lack the capacity to engage differently. They just know what they need.

There is beauty in the moth, same as in the butterfly. The difference in the beauty here — is knowing when to direct your light, away from the moths.

--

--

Kimi Michelle
Kimi Michelle

Written by Kimi Michelle

Change agent. Soca & rap junkie. BK Girl in Queens. Mom. Chef, Writer, & Psychic Medium. Chili oil obsessed. Trinidad & Barbados stand up.

No responses yet