Butterfly
The butterfly is the most important modern secular symbol of mourning - an ancient mythological metaphor for the soul (Greek *psyché* means both "butterfly" and "soul") that was marginal in the nineteenth century and has, since the late twentieth, become the dominant alternative symbol of remembrance alongside cross and heart.
Written by Dr. Helene Vasall
The butterfly is the fastest-growing symbol in modern mourning and memorial jewellery. While cross and heart (see Cross, Heart) are historically dominant mourning symbols, and weeping willow and hourglass (see Weeping Willow, Hourglass) had their heyday in the nineteenth century, the butterfly belongs among those symbols whose current heyday begins only in the 1980s. It can be used in secular contexts, it is visually consoling, it is legible as a biological metaphor, and it fits a culture of mourning that has freed itself from the ritualised heaviness of the Victorian mourning dress code (see The Middle Classes and Mourning Jewellery in the Nineteenth Century).
Symbolic meaning
The butterfly carries several overlapping meanings:
- Soul - its primary charge; in Greek, psyché means both "butterfly" and "soul"; in ancient iconography the soul is depicted as a winged butterfly leaving the mouth of a dying person
- Resurrection and transformation - the metamorphosis caterpillar → chrysalis → butterfly as a biological image of death, transition and new life
- Liberation - the butterfly frees itself from the cocoon and flies away; a metaphor for the liberation of the soul from the earthly body
- Lightness after heaviness - the butterfly is the visual counter-image to the weight of grief
- Transience and beauty - butterflies live only a few weeks; their beauty is as fleeting as life
In Greco-Roman antiquity the soul-as-butterfly metaphor is firmly established. Eros, the god of love, is often accompanied by a female figure with butterfly wings - Psyche, the personified soul. This iconography is taken over in Christian late antiquity and occasionally picked up again in medieval sarcophagus reliefs.
History
Antiquity. The butterfly as a symbol of the soul is attested in Greek and Roman funerary iconography. Hellenistic sarcophagi bear reliefs of the winged Psyche; butterflies appear in the funerary iconography of the Pompeian frescoes.
Early Christian period and Middle Ages. Christian theology takes over the soul-as-butterfly metaphor only in part - in medieval iconography the soul is depicted rather as a small winged human being (above all as a naked child figure) than as a butterfly. Butterflies do, however, appear in illumination and panel painting as a symbol of resurrection.
Renaissance and Baroque (see Baroque (c. 1600–1750)). In vanitas still lifes and memento mori images (see Memento mori) the butterfly is a recurring motif - as a symbol of the fleetingness of life and of beauty. In jewellery it remains marginal.
Sentimentalism and the Georgian period (see The Georgian Era (1714–1837), Sentimental Jewellery). Sentimental butterfly pendants appear - small butterflies in gold mounts, often with enamel or pearl accents. They are not primarily mourning symbols but general tokens of love and remembrance.
Victorian (see The Victorian Era (1837–1901)). The butterfly appears frequently in Victorian jewellery, but usually as a general naturalistic motif (animal jewellery, insect jewellery) and not specifically as a mourning symbol. One exception: mourning jewellery for deceased children occasionally incorporates a butterfly as a consoling, weightless symbol.
Twentieth century. With the general secularisation of mourning culture (above all after the two world wars) a need arises for mourning symbols without explicit Christian ties. The butterfly is gradually drawn into that role.
1980s to the present. A massive rise of the butterfly as a mourning symbol. Several factors contribute: the hospice movement accompanying the dying uses the butterfly as a central symbol; the movement of parents bereaved of children takes it up; and in memorial tattooing it becomes the dominant motif. In the modern memorial jewellery market the butterfly is today one of the three most frequent symbols (alongside the heart and the fingerprint element).
Formal variants
Naturalistic butterfly. With detailed wing patterns, often with painted enamel or inlaid gemstones. Above all in higher-priced memorial pieces.
Stylised butterfly. A reduced silhouette with a recognisable butterfly shape, but without detailed wing patterns. Frequent in modern, minimalist designs.
Abstract butterfly. Only a suggestion of wings and body, often as a curving line or a geometric abstraction. In very contemporary designer jewellery.
Butterfly with relic setting. The body of the butterfly carries a hollow setting for ashes, hair or a fingerprint element. The wings frame the relic setting visually.
Pair or swarm of butterflies. Several butterflies in a shared composition - for several deceased family members, for instance, or for a pair of siblings.
Winged heart with butterfly wings. A hybrid of heart and butterfly (see Heart) - symbolically "my love flies to you".
Materials
Butterflies are made in practically every modern memorial material:
- Gold (see Gold in Mourning Jewellery) - high-quality pieces, often with enamel accents or small gemstones
- Silver (see Silver in Mourning Jewellery) - dominant in modern work, above all in ash pendants
- Stainless steel - the inexpensive variant, in mass-market products
- Titanium - hypoallergenic, modern
- Enamel on a gold ground - for colourful naturalistic butterflies
- Acrylic casting with embedded ashes, often in the shape of a butterfly
- Memorial diamond (see Memorial Diamond) as the central stone in a butterfly pendant
The butterfly in the modern memorial market
In today's market the butterfly serves several functions:
The classic memorial pendant. A discreet gold or silver butterfly with an engraved inscription. Prices: 80–500 €. Popular above all in family mourning contexts.
Butterfly with relic setting. A hollow butterfly setting with an ash capsule or fingerprint element in the body. Prices: 200–1,500 €. A growing variant in the ash jewellery market.
Butterfly swarm pendant. Several small butterflies on one chain - as a symbol for several deceased family members or as a deliberate multiple composition.
Pendants mourning children. Colourful, naturalistic butterflies with painted enamel - specifically for mourning a deceased child. An emotionally highly charged sub-genre.
Tattoo variant. In tattooing the butterfly is one of the most frequently chosen memorial motifs - often combined with initials, a date of death or a short inscription.
Shifts in symbolism over time
The rise of the butterfly is part of a broader shift in mourning symbolism:
- Until 1900: dominance of Christian religious symbols (cross, anchor, Sacred Heart), alongside sentimental symbols (weeping willow, urn, mourning figure)
- 1900–1970: discreetly Christian symbols and a general vocabulary of remembrance; the butterfly marginal
- 1970–2000: the first broad secular mourning movement, and the rise of butterfly and rainbow as non-religious mourning symbols
- From 2000: the butterfly as one of the top three mourning symbols in the modern market (together with the heart and the fingerprint element)
This shift reflects a deeper change in Western mourning culture: away from ritual, socially prescribed mourning codes, towards individual, secular and spiritual mourning practices. The butterfly is not only a symbol - it is an indicator of that change. Families choose it deliberately because it is not explicitly Christian, because it conveys consolation without dogmatic prescription, and because it offers a visually gentle way into the symbolism of mourning.
Questions about this entry
- Why is the butterfly a symbol of mourning?
For three reasons. Ancient and mythological: in Greek, psyché means both "butterfly" and "soul"; in ancient iconography the soul is often depicted as a winged butterfly freeing itself from the body. Biological and metaphorical: the metamorphosis from caterpillar to butterfly - the death of the caterpillar, the stillness of the chrysalis, new life as a butterfly - is read as a natural metaphor for resurrection. Visual and consoling: the butterfly is a light, beautiful, wonderfully free creature - the counter-image to the heaviness of death. This combination makes it the ideal secular, modern symbol of mourning.
- Was the butterfly a mourning symbol in the nineteenth century too?
Only marginally. The Victorian mourning canon (see The Victorian Era (1837–1901)) was dominated by cross, anchor, heart, weeping willow, hourglass and skull. The butterfly does occur - as a detail on mourning brooches, for instance, or engraved inside a mourning ring - but it is not at the centre of mourning iconography. Only in the second half of the twentieth century, with the decline of explicitly Christian mourning symbolism and the need of secular, spiritually minded mourners for a non-religious symbol, does it gain importance on a large scale.
- In which memorial contexts is the butterfly especially popular?
Three contexts dominate. Mourning for children - for deceased children the butterfly is chosen as a consoling, weightless symbol, often in colourful variants (monarch, swallowtail). Young adults - memorial pendants and memorial tattoos for deceased siblings or friends often carry a butterfly, sometimes with initials or a date of death. Secular, spiritual mourning - families who do not choose a church funeral but still want a symbol for "the soul lives on" frequently reach for the butterfly. In North American memorial contexts (the United States, Canada) the butterfly is today one of the most frequent symbols of remembrance.
Further reading
- The Butterfly in Western Iconography - Maria Tatar (2014)
- Mourning Symbols - A Cultural History - Phyllis Bober (1994)
- Sentimental Jewellery - Shire Library - Ann Louise Luthi (2007)
Related entries
- Core conceptsMourning Jewellery
Mourning jewellery is body adornment that signals a death, binds the memory of a deceased person, or does both at once - since the 17th century a jewellery type in its own right, with a material language of its own.
- Core conceptsMemorial Jewellery
Memorial jewellery is jewellery that deliberately binds itself to one particular person - through an inscription, a photograph, hair, ashes or, the defining medium today, a digitally captured fingerprint.
- Symbols & motifsHeart
The heart is the third element of the Christian triad of virtues (faith - hope - love) and at the same time the strongest secular symbol of love and affection in mourning and memorial jewellery - from the medieval Sacred Heart via the Georgian heart locket to the modern ash pendant in the shape of a heart.
- Symbols & motifsTear
The tear - as a shaped teardrop pendant, as a drop-shaped pearl or as a painted tear on a miniature portrait - is one of the most direct mourning symbols of all; it joins bodily reality (the drop actually wept) to symbolic condensation, and appears in jewellery from the Baroque memento mori to the modern teardrop ash pendant.
- Symbols & motifsCross
The cross is the most formative Christian symbol of mourning and remembrance - from the medieval reliquary cross via the Victorian jet cross to the modern memorial pendant; in all its formal variety (Latin cross, Celtic cross, patriarchal cross, cross patté) it always points to death, redemption and resurrection.
- Jewellery formsAsh Pendant
The ash pendant is a modern remembrance pendant with a tightly sealed hollow setting that holds a small quantity of a deceased person's ashes - today the fastest-growing jewellery form in the modern mourning and remembrance market.
- Jewellery formsFingerprint Pendant
A fingerprint pendant carries the line pattern of a fingerprint, milled or laser-engraved into gold, silver or platinum - today the defining form of modern remembrance jewellery and the technical successor format to the Victorian mourning locket.
- Jewellery formsMourning Locket
The mourning locket is a pendant worn on a neck chain with an interior compartment - a concealed carrier of hair, photograph or inscription that keeps the memento close to the body and has been, from the eighteenth century to the present, the most important private form of mourning jewellery.
- Modern memorial jewelleryMemorial Diamond
The memorial diamond is a synthetically grown diamond cultivated from the carbon of cremation ashes or a lock of the deceased person's hair - the most technically demanding and most durable keepsake of the present day.
- MaterialsGold in Mourning Jewellery
Gold is historically the most dominant carrier material of mourning and memorial jewellery - usually in muted alloys, often contrasted with black enamel or as a restrained gold setting around a dark principal material such as jet, onyx or a plait of hair.
- People & cultural historyMourning Rituals in the German-Speaking World
German-speaking mourning rituals differ perceptibly from the English court-mourning tradition - shaped by confessional division (Catholic / Protestant), middle-class sensibility, Biedermeier domesticity and an independent culture of memorial jewellery which carried different emphases in Vienna, Berlin and Munich according to region.