Butterflies, the fairies of our gardens, are quite magical creatures all on their own. Their ethereal being has intrigued and inspired people through the ages, not to mention their life cycle of transformations. For the Minoans of the Ancient Greece, labyris, the double axe, was the symbol of the Goddess as a butterfly. Butterfly’s three stages of life symbolized the cycle of life, death and rebirth or resurrection.
Perhaps the best-known butterfly lore comes from the classical Greece. Psyche was the goddess of the soul and the wife of Eros, the god of love. She was born as a mortal princess, whose beauty stole attention from Aphrodite. Aphrodite commanded Eros to make her fall in love with hideous men, but Eros fell in love with her himself. Psyche was depicted as a beautiful woman with butterfly wings.
Fairies and butterflies have the most eerie similarity and thus butterflies have often been considered to be fairies in disguise. The fickle nature of the butterflies seems appropriate to the nature of the fairies, who are said to enjoy doing pranks to people. However, the winged appearance of fairies is rather a recent phenomenon. In folklore, fairies didn’t have wings. They flew on their own or using plant parts, like ragwort stems, or birds as their flying vehicles.
No matter what the true nature of the butterflies is, they are a delight in the garden. If you want to attract them to your own garden, there are several ways to do it. The first and most obvious is to plant butterfly enticing plants.
The next step is to put up a butterfly bar ( link in Finnish) I tried to find some links in English on this, but couldn’t find any – perhaps this is a Finnish invention? Anyway, the idea is to offer butterflies nectar they can’t resist. The blogger behind the link tested for different mixes and found out that red wine + syrup was the winning combination. She also suggests you make at least one litre of it right away. Put it in a jar and stick a sponge in it so that it absorbs the liquid and the butterflies can reach it safely on the surface. It’s best to place the jar somewhere quiet, because it will also entice wasps. A warm, wind protected spot would be nice. Then just enjoy watching butterflies – and perhaps even fairies…
Susan
