BUTTERFLIES / БАБОЧКИ

Butterflies may look for an ordinary eye something trivial and insignificant, but in a deeper view of the soul they are truly unique beings. So dainty and delicate, so graceful and elegant, having such amazing colours and designs! Moreover, they are winged creatures and can fly, can flitter freely, as if dancing with all their beauty in the breezes, so airy and light. Wings are a special symbol: they embody the age-long dream of humanity of flight which in a deeper truth is the dream of freedom, of absolute liberty with no bonds or limits. So for the soul’s eyes the airy and marvelous freely flittering butterflies appear the symbol of the soul’s freedom, of its free termless flight with no care or trouble in the eternal summer of light and beauty and happiness and liberty, the all-blissful and all-free beings of paradise. They as if embody all these priceless paradisal qualities for which the soul in us yearns since the beginning of Time.
It is in this deeper view that many of the photographs of butterflies are presented here. Many photo-poetic works also attempt to reveal another states and dimensions of consciousness and being that may exist unnoticed near us and parallel with us — or in our own microcosm — or, perhaps, our macrocosm? — for in a deeper view they prove to be one, and this All-Oneness of Being is the main theme of my creativity. It is presented through the insights into some inner realities of the World-Being in the symbolic World of Butterflies. Please, read the poems below the photos.

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King of the Jungle / Король джунглей

Atlas moth — Attacus atlas (Linnaeus, 1758) is a large saturniid moth found in the tropical and subtropical forests of Southeast Asia, and is common across the Malay archipelago. Atlas moth is one of the largest moths in the world in terms of total wing surface area; its wingspans reach over 25 cm! Atlas moths are said to be named after either the Titan of Greek mythology, or their map-like wing patterns. In Hong Kong the Cantonese name translates as “snake’s head moth”, referring to the apical extension of the forewing, which bears a more than passing resemblance to a snake’s head. Adult Atlas moths do not have mouths, so they live off of fat they got when they were caterpillars.

Павлиноглазка атлас — Attacus atlas (Linnaeus, 1758) — бабочка из семейства Павлиноглазок. Прекрасная и поистине огромная бабочка! Павлиноглазка атлас является одной из самых крупных бабочек мира: размах крыльев до 25 см! Встречается в тропических и субтропических лесах Юго-восточной Азии, Южного Китая и от Таиланда до Индонезии, Калимантана, Явы. Говорят, что бабочку назвали «атласом» либо в честь титана Атласа из греческой мифологии из-за ее огромных размеров, либо из-за узоров на крыльях, напоминающих карту-атлас. В Гонконге этого гиганта называют «змееголов» из-за сходства окончаний верхних крыльев со змеиной головой. Удивительно и то, что эта бабочка вообще не ест, а питается на протяжении жизни (1—2 недели) исключительно запасами, накопленными на стадии гусеницы! Цветок — что-то из кактусов.

Attacus atlas atlas moth saturniid butterfly павлиноглазка атлас атлас бабочка мотылек павлиноглазка Ritam Melgunov Ритам Мельгунов