Nature is often complicit in guiding you through life, and when butterflies cross your path, it is often a metaphysical message or symbol.

There are even some instances when these butterflies may be old souls or the souls of passed loved ones.

So if butterflies have been crossing your path, here are the metaphysical meanings that you need to know.

Change & Growth Are On The Horizon

Butterflies are a symbol of change and growth.

A butterfly starts as a caterpillar before entering a cocoon, from which it emerges as a butterfly. This is the archetypical example of metamorphosis, and the metaphors surrounding change and growth are clear.

We know that although we are one way now, the power is within us to change and grow – to evolve into the person we want to be rather than settling for who we are right now.

When butterflies cross your path, see it as a push towards growth and change and a reminder to keep your eye out for opportunities for self-improvement and progression towards your goals.

Carpe Diem: Living In The Moment

Once a caterpillar becomes a butterfly, it has only a concise time to live. There is no way for the butterfly to live other than in the moment – after all, they are only ever in a few of them.

When butterflies are crossing your path, they may be urging you to seize the day.

Perhaps you have been reluctant to take risks lately, preferring to stick with the easy options. You might have been thinking of this as developing a routine, but consider the possibility that this is a rut.

When you are in a rut, living in the moment is a great way to get out of it. Mother Nature might have sent these butterflies as a gentle reminder that life is fleeting and that we shouldn’t sleep through it.

Appreciating Beauty

Butterflies are undeniably a symbol of beauty.

The world is brimming with beauty for those who have the time and inclination to seek it out.

Have you been reluctant to stop and appreciate life lately? It might be that the butterflies that cross your path are trying their best to get you to stop and smell the roses for a moment.

A Lost Loved One

Finally, butterflies are believed to be common ways for passed loved ones to manifest on the physical plane.

If butterflies tend to cross your path while you remember a lost loved one, then it is very likely that those butterflies are their soul manifesting for you.

Often this is to deliver a message of love and support, reassuring you that there is beauty where they are and that they are watching over you.

This is especially the case if there is a single butterfly that crosses your path or visits you from time to time. This is almost always a visiting soul reminding you that they are guiding you through this life and along your soul journey.