Pat Barker Quotes

Metamorphosis has always been the greatest symbol of change for poets and artists. Imagine that you could be a caterpillar one moment and a butterfly the next.

I mean, I feel like just a new person completely.

We need to understand that Christianity is about changing; it is not about a religion.

Death makes angels of us all and gives us wings where we had shoulders smooth as ravens claws.

And besides, look at elder flowers and bluebells-they are a sign that pure creation takes place - even the butterfly. But humanity never gets beyond the caterpillar stage -it rots in the chrysalis, it never will have wings.It is anti-creation, like monkeys and baboons.

He built a small house, called a cocoon, around himself. He stayed inside for more than two weeks. Then he nibbled a hole in the cocoon, pushed his way out and... he was a beautiful butterfly!

Do ye not comprehend that we are worms born to bring forth the angelic butterfly that flieth unto judgment without screen?

To change, you must face the dragon of your appetites with another dragon: the life-energy of the soul.

If you are what you've always been, you are not a Christian. A Christian is a new creation.

The Bible was not given for our information but for our transformation.

In nature a repulsive caterpillar turns into a lovely butterfly. But with human beings it is the other way round: a lovely butterfly turns into a repulsive caterpillar.

Setting is preliminary to brighter rising; decay is a process of advancement; death is the condition of higher and more fruitful life.

I feel like the spirit of the butterfly transferred itself to me.

...if we expended all our energies solely on taking care of our own needs we would stop growing. In that respect what we call "soul" can be viewed as the surplus energy that can be invested into change and transformation. As such, it is the cutting edge of evolution.

Awakening is not a thing. It is not a goal, not a concept. It is not something to be attained. It is a metamorphosis. If the caterpillar thinks about the butterfly it is to become, saying ‘And then I shall have wings and antennae,’ there will never be a butterfly. The caterpillar must accept its own disappearance in its transformation. When the marvelous butterfly takes wing, nothing of the caterpillar remains.

I've always loved butterflies, because they remind us that it's never too late to transform ourselves.

Some things, when they change, never do return to the way they once were. Butterflies for instance, and women who've been in love with the wrong man too often.

The baptism of the spirit will do for you, what a phone booth did for Clark Kent, it will change you into a different being.

To regret the exchange of earthly pleasures for the joys of Heaven, is as if the grovelling caterpillar should lament that it must one day quit the nibbled leaf to soar aloft and flutter through the air, roving at will from flower to flower, sipping sweet honey from their cups, or basking in their sunny petals.

I died as a mineral and became a plant, I died as a plant and rose to animal, I died as an animal and I was Man. Why should I fear? When was I less by dying?

Love is the catalyst that causes change. Love is the balm that brings healing to the soul.

A caterpillar who seeks to know himself would never become a butterfly

This is my life, I thought...I have excised the cancer from my past, cut it out; I have crossed the high plains, descended into the desert, traversed oceans, and planted my feet in new soil; I have been the apprentice, paid my dues, and have just become master of my ship. But when I look down, why do I see the ancient, tarred, mud-stained slippers that I buried at the start of the journey still stuck to my feet?

You are the nest. You are the hatchling. You are the chrysalis. You are the progeny. You are the rot that falls from stars. You may not understand what I mean. You will.

Authentic spirituality... does not render the self content, it renders it undone.