In Pre-Hispanic, Mexican Indian culture, the butterfly is one of the symbolic representatives of Tlaloc, god of rain. The fantastic stone heads that jut out from the bas-relief background of the pyramid of Quetzacoatl are carved in the same spirit (human form to geometric forms) although on a smaller scale. They represent symbolic combinations, alternately of jaguars and snakes, and of the stylized features of the rain god and the butterfly, which was considered one of his symbolic representatives.

Butterflies symbolize witches and fairies, but they also symbolize the soul of witches. Both butterflies and witches have the ability to change their form; butterflies change in the course of their development, witches allegedly can change at will. The Serbians look on the butterfly as the soul of a witch and believe if they can find her body and turn it around while she is asleep, the soul will not be able to find her mouth and reenter, and the witch will probably die. Probably, this concept of the soul explains why many medieval angels have butterfly wings rather than those of a bird

Perhaps the most prominent association of the butterfly with the soul is with Psyche. The myth of Psyche originated in the Orient. A Myth said the Rhetors (mere talkers) is "an untrue narrative representing truth." This myth is a good example of approaching "profound realities of Nature by poetic intuition." "Its secret sense shows through thanks to the symbolism of the butterfly."

By her beauty, Psyche has aroused the jealousy of Venus. She had seduced Eros himself. Carried away by Zephyre into a flowery valley, she lived there in a dream Palace. Each night she greeted there a lover that she was not supposed to see.

On the false-hearted advice of her sisters, giving in to curiosity, she came once with a lamp, to see the one who shared her bed. A drop of oil fell on the god who took flight. Thus began the terrible afflictions from which the unfortunate one could escape only thanks to the complicity of Love. When she had surmounted them her wedding was celebrated in Olympia and she was admired at the banquet of the gods.

Now in Greek, Psyche signifies at the same time soul and butterfly. The myth was interpreted by playing on this double sense. It became the story of the soul touched by divine love, but which, by reason of the mistakes made, must undergo some tribulations before having access to happy immortality. The night butterfly [the moth] attracted by the flame, like the soul attracted by heavenly truths, burns in the flame, reflection of the trials that must be endured to eliminate the fleshy sink-stones before knowing the joys of the beyond.