SYMBOLISM OF THE GOLDEN TIGER SWALLOWTAIL

. . . WHAT KIND OF BUTTERFLY ARE YOU?

by Wanda Sue Parrott, F.R.C.

The vision that led to my annual Senior Poets Laureate contest first came in 1981 during meditation. There appeared what looked like a flying bird. I followed it with my mind's eye as it transformed into a golden pen and sprouted butterfly wings. The words "Thoughts are Things sent down to Earth on Wings of Men's own Pens" flowed behind it like a silk banner with golden words.

Four years later, while master of my fraternal lodge in San Fernando Valley, the meaning of this vision was made clear. I was intuitively inspired to give a poetry contest for Rosicrucians throughout Southern California and call it the Golden Pen Contest. Winner was a young public defender who wrote haiku. I gave the contest by the seat of my pants solely by intuition, meaning Amy guided me as my master-mentor-muse. What a surprise I got! My personal opinion was that no one was interested in poetry. I was wrong!

In 1993 while a freelance editor with Senior Pages Newspapers in Springfield, Missouri, I was pondering what to do with a file cabinet full of unsolicited poetry submissions from readers, Amy nudged me into action. "Give a local Senior Poet Laureate contest!" Vera-Jane Goodin, the other editor, and Steve Wentworth, publisher, approved the idea; thus, the first such event was held. A retired school janitor won with a rhymed Ozarks folk tale.

The next year, Vera-Jane and I produced the contest privately and published the first chapbook containing the winners' works. The back cover of GOLDEN WORDS premiered the motto and image I first saw back in 1981: Thoughts are Things sent down to Earth on Wings of Men's own Pens. Both GOLDEN WORDS and the Golden Pen Award, evolved over the next nineteen years, and the Senior Poets Laureate Poetry Competition is now an international event for American poets age 50 and older. Intuition led me to discover the kind of butterfly I am. As a writer, what kind of butterfly are you?

How does writing relate to a butterfly? According to Amy, "It is a symbol of the true nature of man (an intelligent being distinguished from all other life forms by his thoughts). The two wings of the butterfly represent the two brain hemispheres of a human, and the body--the symbolic golden pen--is the physical instrument through which man's thoughts are translated onto paper, typed via a keyboard or captured through other physical form."

The beautiful tiger swallowtail butterfly is also symbolic of the meaning of the name of the organization that has long sponsored the contest I still run: Amy Kitchener's Angels Without Wings Fdn.

As Amy says, "Thoughts are Angels on Earth that fly freely without Wings." The butterfly symbolizes poets who, when in their golden level of creative consciousness, join Amy and her ilk by transcending the mundane plane. According to Amy:

We are the Ascended Race,
Wearing--sometimes--human face.

May you experience the beauty of your own inner butterfly, and may the Muse fly with you.