What a Diseased Butterfly Taught Me

We went to Butterfly World on Mother's Day as this is our yearly tradition.  

It is such a magical place for me, as every year when we visit, the butterflies have landed on me. I’ve always seen it as a sign and affirmation from the higher realms that I am in alignment with my purpose of helping others through their own transformations and rebirth.

Usually, it’s the Tree Nymphs - the soft yellow butterflies that find their way to my wrists.

But this year, something shifted. 

The Tree Nymphs were sparse, almost absent and none were landing on me. Instead, the Blue Morphos flew in abundance. Their iridescent blue and turquoise wings sparkled as the sunlight would make contact, looking like sapphires floating through the air. 

But the Blue Morphos also seemed to be more finicky and distant from humans, until... A blue morpho flew right onto my white skirt. I was so overjoyed by the connection, I got to see one so close with my very eyes. 

After that magical landing of the Blue Morpho on my skirt and seeing how iridescent the blue is on their wings, I felt a different kind of magic in the air. And while this was exciting, I still felt myself clinging to the idea of the tree nymphs landing on me from the past, and I couldn't help but feel a bit disappointed.

But breathing through all that new magic mixed with disappointment, and eventually landing in acceptance, we then headed to the gift shop to purchase our very own chrysalis.

We walked up to the section where they have all the chrysalis laid out in their perfect little clear containers with the date they went into the cocoon. As I was scanning the section, I saw they had a monarch butterfly chrysalis, which felt like a no brainer for me and Claire.

We selected the exact container we wanted to adopt and began our up close and personal Monarch metamorphosis journey with this lime green cocoon, filled with the excitement of the promise of a monarch butterfly to emerge soon.

This would be our 5th chrysalis and I knew the drill; set him down in a dry stable area and let him do its thing. (we usually name them, but just didn't this time. So many layers of a tradition were changing before our very eyes.)

We brought him home, set him down in a spot and let him unravel inside his own magic.

Then about 6 days later, I looked over and saw the cocoon was black and thought - yay this butterfly is coming soon! 

The cocoon appears black at this stage because the pupal casing becomes translucent, revealing the dark pigmentation of the fully developed butterfly wings inside, signaling that emergence is near.

Later that day I saw a bit of movement in the cocoon. I saw him wiggling and he was about half way out of his cocoon, but something seemed off.

I could feel it immediately.

I tried to shake it off as a little fear flare, and went on with my day. Later that day, I visited him again, feeling that something was not right.

I knew the proper signs - like when the butterfly begins to emerge from the cocoon, usually there is this big drop of reddish liquid that falls into the paper towel beneath it. This is called meconium, a leftover waste that the butterfly releases after its transformation is complete.

When I looked at our butterfly, there was no big drop of reddish liquid below and he was hanging halfway out. Also, it looked like the cocoon was slightly ripped at the top. The emerging butterfly also seemed to be very wet and black all over.

I paused, I breathed and I sent him love, hoping for a miraculous shift. 

We then just waited. I did not intervene and just allowed him space to figure it out. I also just sent him with unconditional love and light from the outside of his container.

The next day, now 20 hours of a partial emergence from the cocoon and no improvements - I was getting a bit more concerned.

I posted about this in my Instagram stories to see if anyone had seen this kind of delay in coming out of the cocoon. And someone responded with, “move him over to a location with a bit more sunlight.” So I moved him to a window sill (not in direct sunlight, but a bit more natural light) and let him do his thing.

I checked back in on him about an hour later and there was now condensation in his little incubator. I opened the lid a bit and let him be.

Fast forward to the next day, I woke up and went to check on him and he had dropped out of the cocoon, but part of the cocoon was still attached to where his wings should be, they looked like two long and skinny raisins with a hard shell covering them in the shape of a half circle.

He also only had 2 feet out on one side, and Butterflies have six legs total,(three on each side) so he was lopsided and kept rolling onto his back. 

He was wiggling around and couldn’t stand up because he only had two legs.

That morning, about 40 hours after his initial emergence of the cocoon, I called Butterfly World to see how I could help.

I was told that some monarchs were getting this disease OE (Ophryocystis Elektroscirrha) which is a microscopic parasite that infects monarchs and can cause deformities, difficulty flying, and makes them very weak.

The lab tech told me he was not going to live, but that I could try to help him. He also said that if it looked like it was suffering I could put it out of its misery, which was like a chemical shock to my system. I thought to myself, "I will definitely not be doing that." But he did advise that I could try to get the shell of the cocoon off of him. 

I got off the phone and felt nervous.

To be completely honest, I thought, "I didn’t sign up for this. I just wanted to have a magical experience watching the metamorphosis and now I have to decide between its life and death. No."

But I knew there was a deeper meaning here. So I went inward, into my heart and asked for guidance. I had no idea at this point how the "magic" I longed for would unfold in my world.

My heart then guided me to pick him up. I touched the area that should have been his wing and found a little leg in there stuck. My intuition guided me to help, with the most gentle movement I had ever executed in my life, I was able to help wiggle his little leg out. He did it, the leg was out and moving. He was still very weak, but I could feel his life force.

I knew he was still very alive.

I put him back down for a rest and Claire came in and said "Mom let’s build him a home." We collected some leaves and a very ripe slice of a banana and built him a little home. As we were moving him into his home, the coolest thing happened. The way I grabbed him, he wiggled himself onto the top of my finger and he just perched there.

It was like he finally found a comfortable position, which was surprising to me because he had been in very jagged movements up until now, but this felt different. 

I ended up holding him for about 30 minutes, he was just so stabilized on my finger with his three legs. I just hung out with him, smiled at him, talked to him, and felt his little life force. 

Claire put little drops of water on my finger and he was even drinking them.

It was a magical moment, filled with life force energy and love. 

I even pulled out my phone out to record a video and my phone kept crashing, which I knew was a sign that this was not meant to be documented, but rather simply felt with my heart. 

I could feel his life force beating through him, I connected with him and felt so much love for him. I could feel his tiny legs tickling my finger and we were ALIVE together! 

It was then time to put him down and I made a paper towel roll up with rubber bands at the end to mimic the shape of my finger and perched him on top of the tube shaped paper towel and gently placed him back in the bowl with leaves. He seemed to like that.

I told him I loved him and I went to bed. 

The next morning I woke up to find his lifeless body. He had returned his life force to the light of God and all that remained behind was the body that he no longer needed.

I was sad, frustrated and confused.

I went inward to collect some deeper answers and here is what Spirit so kindly shared:

Me: Can you give me clarity on why I chose a diseased Butterfly when all I wanted was magic?

Spirit: It is so common to think with the judging mind that the disease is bad, but it’s a lesson that can take you to a whole new dimension of magic. You actually connected with this butterfly in an entirely NEW way, deeper than you have connected with the butterfly species before. The disease slowed him down enough for you to see the very life force in this small being and connect to and give the love and connection his soul wanted. You gave him a great life in those 48 hours. You held him and loved him.He was very alive and got to even balance on his 3 legs. This was a deeper experience for you to experience the magical connection with life force energy itself. You could feel his little body and his will to live and the life force running through him and you. You saw the magic. You connected with the essence of the gift of life through this little being. His mission was complete, so he returned to Spirit. Do not judge the disease, as that is just the permission slip to travel back to the light.  Focus on the vibrations that awoke, see the light that was shared and embrace this new activation of life force within you.

I came out of this session very grateful and deeply touched.

I thought back to the moment in the butterfly garden when that Blue Morpho landed on me, for the first time ever.

I knew this had represented a shift inside of me, but had no idea it actually represented a connection between me and life force energy itself.

So thank you to the little butterfly with a great mission of activating this new strand of Life Force energy in my heart.

You had a big mission and I thank you with my whole being for your purpose. You lived big, and I saw you little butterfly man!

Moral of the story, things are not what they seem. There is so much going on behind the scenes that are awakening new frequencies within and leading you to new timelines; ones that will land you in what we call the New Earth.

The signs are everywhere, we are collectively entering a New Era and a New territory. We are here at the precipice of something we’ve never experienced before and the proof is all around you. It may just take a shift in perspective to see the deeper meaning. 

With Light,

Sophie Frabotta, M.A.

Author, Certified Spiritual Life Coach, Healer

Hi! I am Sophie Frabotta. I am a heart-centered, soul leader who is so honored to be doing this work. With over 10,000 hours of 1-1 experience, a leader in the field of Spiritual Life Coaching, and a Globally recognized Spiritual Life Coach Certification – I teach students the depth of real transformation in a way that most have never seen. Having transformed my own body, mind and spirit, I am honored to take you into your inner chamber, show you how to lift out of karmic soul wounds and stabilize your higher vibration in 5D.