Der Kokon
The cocoon, 2022
This work is dedicated to Gemma and Rosaria
The photograph shows a real cocoon of the silkworm, the larva of the silkworm.
After the initial discharge of an irregular, loose mass of fibers, the "wadding silk",
it is in a short time covered by a dense silk web, the cocoon.
This cocoon consists of a single thread up to 900 meters long. Eight days after spinning in
the silkworm pupates, and after another eight days the butterfly hatches.
"Once we have done all our work on this earth,
we are allowed to cast off our body,
which imprisons our soul, like a cocoon imprisons the butterfly.
When the time is right, we can let our body go,
and we will be free from pain,
free from fears and worries,
free as a beautiful butterfly..,
returning home to God."                        
  Elisabeth Kübler-Ross, psychiatrist and death researcher
Dying is a transformational process. In the process, an increasing change of physical, mental and also, in the broadest sense, spiritual constitution takes place.
The dying process is the last phase of life of every human being. Directly before death it forms
the last still to the life belonging side of the life end.
The ancient Greek word psyche means soul, breath, as well as butterfly.
As a symbol of the soul, representations of the butterfly can be found in ancient Egypt.
The ancient symbolism of the butterfly for the immortal soul of man, which leaves the body
of the dead, was adopted by Christianity as a symbol of resurrection.
The caterpillar represents life, the chrysalis death, the butterfly represents the resurrection



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