The Dream Chrysalis

The protective outer covering of the pupa of a butterfly or moth is called a chrysalis. The term, of 17th century coinage, derives from the Greek root khrusos, for gold. This was inspired by the golden sheen on the pupa of several species.

“When [caterpillars] finally fall asleep and a chrysalis forms around them, tiny new imaginal cells, as biologists call them, begin to take form within their bodies.The caterpillar's immune system fights these new cells as though they were foreign intruders, and only when they crop up in greater numbers and link themselves together are they strong enough to survive. Then the caterpillar's immune system fails and its body dissolves into a nutritive soup" [Elisabet Sahtouris].

This imaginal cell soup coalesces into buds. These then constellate into a completely new creature. Emerging from the chrysalis, the butterfly flutters away. This natural metamorphosis has become a metaphor of the ages. Imaginal cells indeed.