Transmutation of the Soul

Since we have been talking about the transmutation of the soul in the last few classes and how that was connected to The Alchemist, I found myself returning to a previous class where we mentioned the soul. In major author's, we discussed the idea of the soul as a butterfly. Apparently many ancient civilizations thought that butterflies were either wandering souls or connected to the creation of new souls. In other words, everytime a butterfly came out of its cocoon, a new person was born somewhere.

It's interesting that ancients would use the butterfly as the symbol for the soul, as if they knew the connection between the transformation that the soul must go through in life and the transformation that a caterpillar goes through to become a butterfly.

I am imagining Plato explaining to one of his students the importance of knowledge and the transformation of the soul into something higher, an angel.

"We must remember how to fly," he tells his pupil, we'll call him Aristotle, who looks on in confusion at what the old man has just said.

"How can we learn to fly, Master?" Aristotle asks, still befuddled.

"Why, simply by remembering all the other things that we have forgotten. It is only after we remeber everything else that we can regrow our wings and take flight," replies the teacher, as if it were obivious.

"Will you teach me to fly, sir?" the boy ask eagerly.

Plato stares at his star student for a long moment as if he has asked the stupidest question. "It is not my place to teach you how to fly boy," he says finally. "You must learn on your own."

With these mysterious words, Plato leaves Aristotle to his own musings.

So we are all trying to transform ourselves into something better. Much like the young Aristotle, we crave the guidance of another to show us where to go. But the butterfly does not seek any help. It tranforms through its own power into something far greater than it was before. Where it was once chained to the earth, now it soars into the sky. It remembers how to fly and becomes the angel.