SENSE: Moth Edition 🦋
Imaginal cells, cocoons, & chrysalis goo
‘I watch as the milkweed stems weep pearls of latex sap under the early autumn sun. One lone Monarch weaves between the flowers. Is she the same butterfly I watched last year? Translated through cocoons, genomes, imaginal cells, seasons, and generations?’
SCENT
Zoologist’s perfumes are incredibly expensive but on the plus side, they don’t use any animal products despite being inspired by the animal kingdom. The description for this Moth scent is rich enough to imagine:
‘Their days are spent secluded in camouflage, the intricate pattern of their wings disguising them against a coarse backdrop of barks and rocks. When they finally stir, even their flight is concealed, shrouded beneath the cover of night. Moonlight ripples off a delicate coating of tiny hairs as their feathered antennae guide them in their search for a mate. Only one temptation can lure them from their quest. Should they succumb to the attraction of the flame, their urge to procreate may be quashed in a wisp of smoke and a smattering of ashes.
At first encounter, the rich, gothic scent of Zoologist Moth may surprise but soon it hypnotizes. A heavy dose of dark spices jolts your senses before settling into a dusting of honey-sweet rose and powdery florals. Slowly, it tests its wings, taking flight on an exotic journey of nagarmotha, guaiac wood and patchouli. Beneath it all lingers a smoky undertone that serves as a constant reminder of the danger within the tantalizing flame.’
SIGHT
SOUND
‘The caterpillar is a prisoner to the streets that conceived it
Its only job is to eat or consume everything around it, in order to protect itself from this mad city
While consuming its environment the caterpillar begins to notice ways to survive
One thing it noticed is how much the world shuns him, but praises the butterfly
The butterfly represents the talent, the thoughtfulness, and the beauty within the caterpillar
But having a harsh outlook on life the caterpillar sees the butterfly as weak and figures out a way to pimp it to his own benefits
Already surrounded by this mad city the caterpillar goes to work on the cocoon which institutionalizes him
He can no longer see past his own thoughts
He’s trapped
When trapped inside these walls certain ideas take roots, such as going home, and bringing back new concepts to this mad city
The result?
Wings begin to emerge, breaking the cycle of feeling stagnant
Finally free, the butterfly sheds light on situations that the caterpillar never considered, ending the internal struggle
Although the butterfly and caterpillar are completely different, they are one and the same.’
Caroline Polachek talking about the concept for Chairlift’s 2016 album Moth:
‘we liked the idea of the moth as a metaphor for vulnerability, for something that’s fragile but relentless at the same time. It goes towards the light; it beats its wings until it dies.’
If you’re in the mood for a podcast instead of music, The Moth creates spaces for intimate storytelling and features true stories told live on stage.
‘to recreate in New York the feeling of sultry summer evenings in his native Georgia, when moths were attracted to the light on the porch where he and his friends would gather to spin spellbinding tales.’
TASTE
I want you to experience sweet, slow, goop, not Gwyneth Paltrow’s Goop™, but the goopification of self:
‘Gooey as in sticky, as in soft and deeply sensitive, like my heart is an overflowing honey jar... I feel like I’m entering my goo era, a moment of in-between, the liminal sticky space involved in transformation. If you too are feeling gooey and like metamorphosis is arriving, I’d like to introduce you to a gooey guide: The Goo Era Manifesto.’
TOUCH
For touch I’m thinking of what metamorphosis feels like in the bones, I’m thinking of the reverberations of imaginal cells:
‘I'm very into deepening my relationships with the earth through the lens of transness-as-spirituality. My partner named this type of spirituality, "transimaginality," after I explained about "imaginal cells" in a caterpillar. Basically, caterpillars have these cells, called imaginal cells or imaginal disks, that carry all the DNA necessary to become a butterfly. When a caterpillar goes into their cocoon and turns into soup, the only things that remain are imaginal disks. These cells specialize into the different structures of a butterfly. But in the caterpillar, they are seen as invaders by the immune system, and attacked.
When I read about these, I said, "trans people are the imaginal cells of humanity." And thats when my partner came up with transimaginality as a descriptor for the spirituality I've been investing in for many years now. So I am continuously looking for these types of lessons and mirrors and relationships in the earth and in animals and insects. I'm obsessed with the unique portal of transness, and how that portal is reflected across all of nature’.
- Eli Lawliet (Gender Doula) in an interview with Edgar Fabián Frías
‘Surrounding myself with handmade items, I spin myself into a cocoon of domestic comfort, creating space for my imagination to emerge amid the chaos of the greater world. This extra layer of insulation is new to me, and I know through my own experience that what I physically stitch, mends what is fragmented within me.’
‘In effect, the animal is a chimera, an amalgam of two, where the first one lives and dies... and then the other emerges. There are indeed two very different sets of genetic instructions at work… most of one body dies and the new life is resurrected in a new body.’
‘The body is a tomb for the soul. The cocoon is a self-excreted crucible. And it is also a coffin. The caterpillar is not so much transformed as it is hydrolyzed. We must not forget that the word metamorphosis when broken down to its constituent Ancient Greek - from μετα (meta) and μορφή (morphe) - means something closer to beyond form or after form. The linkage between caterpillar and butterfly is not fluid. Form is not transformed. Form is abandoned, melted down to imaginal cells. The butterfly, then, is an afterthought. The form that comes after form is abandoned. The life after death.’
