Interesting Facts: The Symbolism of Insects

   Was working on a new erotic horror "Cicada Wood Diaries" which heavily features insects and their symbolism and thought I would share these interesting facts.

Hate bees but like them better than wasps

Bees ~ Order, immortality; the disembodied soul; Thought to be the souls of dead priests and priestesses of Aphrodite (one of her symbols was the golden honey combs). The bee was the symbol of the Lower Kingdom in Ancient Egypt. Symbols of order, industry and cooperation. Since they die after stinging only once they are seen as a symbol of noble self sacrifice. 

But also a symbol of flightiness and fickle love 

Butterflies ~ beauty, femininity; reincarnation, in Celtic mythology a fairy princess died, became a butterfly then flew into a woman's mouth to be reborn as a human girl; In Japanese lore, a butterfly was the soul of a samurai; Two butterflies in flight symbolize love and marriage; Native American lore says butterflies bring dreams.

People would stick wooden
Cicada carvings into a
dead person's mouth
as a symbol for their soul

Cicadas ~ music, immortality, rebirth, an emblem of wishes and dreams that come true. In Greek mythology it was said the gods turned a woman into a cicada after she died because her singing voice was so beautiful. Another Greek Myth says that the goddess of dawn, Eos begged Zeus to make her mortal lover immortal but neglected to ask for eternal youth as well so he aged to the point where he dried up into a tiny hissing insect.

Given their ghostly appearance fireflies
were automatically associated with the dead

Fireflies ~ spiritual illumination and enlightenment; rebirth; souls of the dead. Because it brings light to dark places, the firefly was also seen as a spirit of a great hero.

The Prince of Hell, Beelzebub

Flies ~ associated with dirt, decay, rotting matter, and filth. They do represent death and rebirth but that's overshadowed by the fact that they lay their eggs in putrefying matter. In Ancient Egypt, people still wore flies on amulets to ward them off but also to help with fertility since flies are pretty good at that.

Gross looking... but lucky

Grasshoppers ~ (or Crickets) a symbol of good luck in China and the Mediterranean, especially if it's seen in the house. Also a symbol of death and resurrection since it lays its eggs in the earth, with the newly hatched creature appearing out of the soil. 

I've been calling them Lady Bugs this whole time!
They're actually called Ladybirds! 

Ladybirds ~ (a.k.a. Lady Bug) Dedicated to the Pagan Goddess until Christianity took over then the lady bug was dedicated to the Virgin Mary. A symbol of good luck, prosperity, protection, and fertility. If a lady bug crawls across a girl's hand, folk belief says that she will be married within the year.

Moths get a bad rep...

Moths ~ Considered the butterfly of the night. This nocturnal creature craves light so much that it will immolate itself in pursuit of it. Symbolizes the sublimation of the ego as death makes the soul a part of the collective unconscious. An emblem of stupidity, vanity, and hubris. Even the markings on a moth's wings carries significance. The image of the death's head on the back of the moth of the same name speaks for itself, and to find this moth presages bad luck. Seen as the disembodied soul, a destructive force (however, clothe-eathing moths are a rarity). 

Ancient Egyptian Steatite ring

Scarab ~ There's so much about the scarab's mythology (especially in Egyptian mythology) I had to shrink down as much as I could, highlighting the most important symbolism. Symbols of fertility, people thought that even a dried husk of this beetle could make someone fertile. Scarabs were sacred for the Egyptian God of the Rising Sun, Khepera. A symbol of death and rebirth. 

Instead the scorpion was referred to euphemistically
instead of there being an actual word for it

Scorpions ~ embodiment of brute aggression. In some countries there's no word for "scorpion" for fear that even mentioning the word would summon the creature. In Hindu mythology, the scorpion is a reminder of the constant nearness of death; and that the scorpion was a "threshold" creature, able to open the doorway to the next world.

I still wouldn't want to touch it...

Snails ~ Perhaps incredibly gross but has some pretty interesting symbolism attached to it. Because the snail appears and reappears in and out of it's shell it makes it a lunar emblem, symbolic of seasonal renewal. Snails come out when it is generally moist so logically it was believed that snails brought rain. Since the snail carries it's house it became a symbol of self-sufficiency. The spiral shape of it's shell represents the Golden Ratio. The Mayans created the glyph for zero after seeing this creature's shell. The trail of the snail resembles the secretions of not only the vagina but also it looks like semen. Some Africans believed that the snail contained a reservoir of semen. Thus the snail is also a symbol of fertility. In Christian iconography the snail is used as a symbol for a wicked and a lazy person, and its slime is considered a sign of lewdness.  

Native Americans called the
spider "Thinking Woman"

Spider ~ Creator/Creatrix archetype. Not many people fully appreciate the symbolism of the spider or it's role in pest control. It's a creature that webs the fabric of the universe. However, the seeming fragility of the cobweb led to the suppositions that what the spider made was no more than the illusory veil of "reality" that Vedic scriptures call Maya. The idea of spinning and weaving is also an attribute of the Fates in both Greek mythology and the Qu'ran. In Native American lore, the spider is both creator and destroyer. In African lore, the spider is seen as a creature of divination. Many regard the spider as a disembodied soul; In Vietnamese culture when a person dies, their soul crawls out of the body in the form of a spider so it was considered bad luck to kill a spider.

Still hate them.
Hate them worse than bees

Wasp ~ symbol of bad-tempered irritability because it will sting without cause and unlike the bee will not die so it can sting over and over again. However, in African lore, the wasp is considered a sacred creature, able to transmute the profane into something sacred. The wasp is also one of the creatures believed to have introduced fire to mankind so is seen as a helpful and beneficial creature. 


      Hope these were interesting facts to help inspire you.