[rwcarter]

This card contains the images of a large butterfly and a small white rose.

The butterfly

• can represent metamorphosis, the soul that doesn't die with physical death
• is associated with Eros, the god of love
• can be a symbol of empty vanity and futility and can also correspond to that which is trivial, changeable or superficial
• can represent immortality through its life cycle - life (caterpillar), death (chrysalis) and resurrection (butterfly)
• is associated with beauty
• can represent the transitory nature of happiness
• can represent both freedom and the desire for freedom

The Butterfly Effect refers to the enormous impact that a very small change or disturbance can have in the course of events.

Wings

• can represent liberty and ascent
• suggest the power or means to transcend the mundane world
• represent spontaneous movement
• may suggest the need to rise above one's current situation

"To wing it" is to figure out how to do something as one does it.

The white flower/rose

• may reflect something within one that is about to blossom
• may symbolize growth, vitality, joie de vivre
• may represent talents or inner beauty that bursts forth
• can typify purity and innocence
• can also represent the cycle of birth, life, death and rebirth like the butterfly
• can represent the need for discretion, silence or secrecy
• may represent perfection, completion, the mystery of life and the unknown

By itself, the image speaks of someone who may need to take time out to smell the roses. It could also represent someone who merrily goes along on their way without paying attention to their surroundings, someone who is single-minded of purpose. The image also speaks of cycles, especially the cycle of nature.

Rodney

[Sidhe-Ra]

You might also notice that the butterfly has spirals on its wings...this hints towards the rainbow coloured spiral we see in the World card, showing the potential the Fool carries.

Em xx

[SilentBreeze]

The butterfly is really delicate, and it's wings so thin it almost seems as if its not there at all. When in the midst of other cards it can sometimes get lost. The butterfly seems to promise movement and change, something new that's about to develop, something that you cant even see. The flower seems to show concrete evidence of this chance, growth, also so small you can't really see it yet, but if you wait around, the whole card may be filled with flowers and greenery. The flower is also very fragile and could easily be destroyed but if allowed to grow, it may become more stable.The butterflies wings are disproportionate to its body just as the flower is disproportionate to its stem.

[rwcarter]

Spirals may indicate cyclic development. And since the Fool is about beginnings, the spirals suggest evolution, renewal, increase, waxing, emanation, expansion, growth and that which is dynamic.

Rodney

[Grizabella]

The "butterfly effect"? Maybe that would give some food for thought, too. I'm gonna ponder about that for awhile.

Also, someone else mentioned the fragility of a butterfly. Yet, if the butterfly effect is true, it would be potential great power, wouldn't it? So that if, say, the Fool and the World card appeared together, maybe that would give the Fool added "oomph" in the reading because if a butterfy's wings can cause a tornado on the other side of the world, then the Fool added to the World card might give the fool much more importance or vice versa.

I probably didn't explain myself accurately to what I mean, but maybe someone else will get the gist who can explain it better than I did. Or else maybe I'm just demented.