I know there are many ways to decide what name to bestow upon your animals or children. But here’s what I do: I ask the being, What is your name? or What name do you want?
When I asked Montaro – he sent me an image of a mountain – a huge mountain. So I chose Montaro, which means “mountain” in Esperanto and “big boy” in Japanese.
Audelina set me a tremendous challenge when she asked for a name that reflected her heritage (she’s Belgian/Brabant) with the letter “A”. Took me 2 weeks of research and Google Translate to find a name that fulfilled those requirements, that I also liked, and that fit my sense of her!
So when Audelina birthed her gorgeous colt (which I first thought was a filly – if you follow our Facebook Page, you would have come along for that drama!) I planned to wait a couple of days for his name to emerge.
As Michelangelo said, “Every block of stone has a statue inside of it and it is the task of the sculptor to uncover it.” Well I have that same approach with babies and animals – you already have/know your name, and my task is to uncover it.
However, this time my daughter Zara beat me to it. She was connecting with the newborn foal, his first morning of life, out under the trees, and she got an image and the words (all together) of “blue butterfly”.
When she told me, I said, “Oh, let’s go look up species of blue butterflies – I’ll bet his name is there.”
We looked at all the species names for Blue Butterfly and the one that jumped out at us was: Junonia orithya – the Blue Pansy butterfly. When we looked at a photo of this butterfly, the photos confirmed that this was indeed his name.
You can see that the topside of the wings are a beautiful blue and other striking colors, and the underside of the wings are the exact same flaxen/beige color as his coat!
So we named him Junonia; Juno for short. I noticed that his name also has 4 syllables like his mama (Audelina). Just saying.
As my brother later interpreted: The blues and other colors are what’s inside him. The other side of the wings is his outside color. And as he grows he may change to more of the reddish-brown color that is also on the underside of the wings.
And what is the symbolism of butterfly? My favorite Medicine Cards tell me that Butterfly is the medicine of transformation:
“If you look closely at what Butterfly is trying to teach you, you will realize that it is the never-ending cycle of self-transformation. Butterfly can give clarity to your mental process, help you organize the project you are undertaking, and assist you in finding the next step for your personal life or career.”
Two days before Juno was born, I had written this article about the next step my life/being was calling me to.
So I welcome the notion that this foal has come to hold space and intention for this next phase of powerful transformation in my life – and all of the 15 beings in our family!
Oh and one last applicable tidbit: Juno is also an ancient Roman goddess involved with the cyclical renewal of time in the waning and waxing of the moon. This foal was born the morning of July 17th and July 19th was a Full Moon. Again, just saying.
Jini Patel Thompson is a natural health writer and Lazer Tapping instructor. She began riding at age 2 in Kenya, and got her first horse at age 8 in Alberta, and so continues a life-long journey and love affair with these amazing creatures.
