As ecotherapist Anna Cariad-Barrett, DMin, M.S., MFT, previously explained to mbg, “Butterflies show us how we can go within ourselves to dissolve old forms and morph, rebuilding and evolving ourselves.” They’re a reminder of the importance of surrender and trust, as well, “as part of the essential process of growth and renewal,” she adds. And so to see butterflies frequently, then, is most generally thought to be a symbol or metaphor for growth and transformation, whether you’re in the midst of a transformation right now or the universe is encouraging you to level up. And butterflies, Van says, seem to float on the wind. “Similarly, we can ‘float’ from wonderful thing to wonderful thing in our own lives if we learn how to process the dark and heavy things we experience and move through life in ways that are aligned with our spirits or higher selves, which are also symbolized by the color white,” she explains. As Van explains, “If you already have something in particular that comes to mind when you see a white butterfly, then that is the first thing you should consider when asking yourself what it might mean. Messages are often extremely personal to the recipient, so a symbol that has a general meaning that may apply to most other people may not apply to you at all.” That said, here are a few common interpretations of seeing white butterflies: Van says this is the most common meaning of seeing a white butterfly, and it doesn’t ask anything of you but rather is “simply intended to provide comfort,” she notes. “If you think about the lightness and grace of the white butterfly, it speaks to what we most want for ourselves when we are sick: a return to freedom and lightness of body and spirit,” Van tells mbg, adding, “White butterflies’ specific message of healing has to do with really, truly delving into the darkness that is weighing you down. A butterfly can’t grow its wings and achieve its freedom until it goes through total transformation in its chrysalis.” In this case, white butterfly is asking you to figure out what it would take to feel happy in your life and be willing to take the risk to get it. However, if you’ve been going through a time of hardship, sorrow, etc., Van explains that white butterflies can be encouraging you to face your darkness. “Facing it, feeling it, being in it so it no longer frightens us and holds us back is generally the scariest freaking thing we will ever do, but it’s where our ’treasure’ lies. It’s how we heal,” she says. And thinking about the themes of transformation and creation, of course, white butterflies may also be pushing you to level up or evolve, particularly in terms of your spirituality. On a more practical level, if you keep seeing white butterflies in your garden and they’re wreaking havoc on your vegetables, Van explains that this can actually be an opportunity to problem-solve in a creative way, figuring out a solution to benefit both your garden and the butterflies. “Plant nasturtium in the same bed as your cabbage, kale, etc. It adds an aesthetic element to your garden, but it also grows quickly, and cabbage butterfly caterpillars love it—[which] means they’ll tend to eat the nasturtium and leave your veggies alone,” she notes. To that end, the message may be that a seemingly insurmountable problem has an easy solution, Van says. “Instead of treating the problem as something that must be attacked and destroyed, how can you add something to the situation that will bring everything into balance?” As Van previously explained to mbg, “Dreams are much more personal than we realize, in which case, the symbol is supposed to get us to look at what is going on in our life and ask ourselves if it mirrors what happened in our lives the last time we experienced that animal in the aforementioned fashion. If so, what issues from that time might still need to be resolved?” If you tend toward the belief that dreams contain messages, they can be another way that the universe speaks to us. And so if white butterflies keep showing up in your dreams, any of the aforementioned meanings could be applicable, just coming through to you in a different way—while you’re asleep rather than awake.
