TAO of the MAGICAL MONARCHS

At approximately the 10,500 foot level in the mountains 100k west of Mexico city, Marnie and I dismounted from our hired horses amidst the twirling of multi-coloured leaves. The ‘leaves’, though, didn’t fall to Earth - they kept circling and reattaching themselves to the pine branches. We were at our destination – and these were not leaves but were, instead, millions of Monarch butterflies, known to the Mexicans as the ‘Mariposas’.

It was mid-January, and even by 11AM the thin air was still cool because of the altitude, the horses skirting frozen puddles along the trail. The Monarchs hung from the tall pines in massive, elongated clusters, each cluster comprising tens of thousands of the mosaic creatures, clinging together to share their body heat to survive the night.

By the time of our arrival, sunlight was starting to pierce the pine forest canopy, and as the slashes of light hit each cluster it would slowly become animated and gradually, all around us the air became filled with colour and the whisper of wings as the creatures swirled and danced before seeking food from groundcover shrubs. We were at the wintering grounds of the same Monarchs seen here in Ontario each summer.

Well, in a way they are the ‘same’ butterflies, but in reality those in the departing flight from Mexico each Spring are the ancestors of the ones that we’ll see two years later - what we see up here is the second ‘leg’ of a stupendous, three and a half year, four generation migratory odyssey from - and back to - their Mexican mountain sanctuary. What is uncanny is that none of the insects that we see up north has previously been here. There is no lead butterfly - there are no recognized or remembered landmarks to guide the way. The trans-generational migration arises and is conducted solely on pure instinct.

In early April of each year the millions of butterflies depart their mountain stronghold, heading northward through upper Mexico, across Texas and into Missouri, where they will mate, lay eggs, and die. The eggs will hatch before autumn, the resulting caterpillars feasting on milkweed and maturing, each then constructing its individual chrysalis for the pupa stage prior to winter sweeping the Great Plains. Within the chrysalis, during the winter, one of nature’s wonders occurs – over 98% of the caterpillar’s body is dissolved [the technical name for this process is descriptive – HISTOLYSIS] and the - by now - undifferentiated matter – goop to you and I - becomes the ‘construction material’ for the flight vehicle for leg two on the great migratory loop. [Again, the technical term for the rebuild process is descriptive - HISTOGENESIS].

By Spring, the new crop of Monarchs emerge from their chrysalises, spread and dry their wings, and take flight, still heading north to their migratory apogee across Manitoba, Ontario and Quebec. With winter again on its way, the flocks embark on the mating, egg laying, dying cycle - the eggs hatching on the milkweed and the caterpillars maturing - each building its pupa chrysalis and, by Spring, again transforming to the butterfly stage via metamorphosis.

And then away on leg three – destination the Carolinas – where again they mate, lay eggs, die, etc. and again in Spring they’re off on leg four across Georgia, the Gulf of Mexico, Eastern Mexico and ‘home’ to their Central mountain refuge by late November. Since the ancestors of the particular flock seen by us that morning had started north nearly four years earlier, three other migratory flights had arrived and departed in season on their respective spokes of the great revolving colour wheel.

Never really knowing ‘home’, the Monarchs which we saw comprise part of their species’ continuous Tao, a movable feast for themselves that never ends – an intentional, wondrous, magical flight of life ever renewing itself across vast expanses of space and time.

Keith and Marnie Elliott’s “REMEDY” Site

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