Dragonflies

I think I have mentioned how struck I am by the sheer number of dragonflies I have seen since I have been in Vietnam. When I look out at the vista from the fifth floor of RMIT, I can usually see dozens of them below me ... probably because they are so large. Some of them seem the size of a hummingbird. I have tried in vain to take pics but they are elusive. I found one photo at www.richard-seaman.com/Arthropods that looks a little bit like the ones I have seen here: big, brownish-orange, sturdy and hundreds of them at a time. They are not at all like the elegant and stylish iridescent black and blue and even greenish-silver ones I have seen in other places. The students say they are called Chuồn Chuồn, which sounds more like Jun Jun ... and that they are harbingers of rain. Wikipedia says, "Vietnamese people have a traditional way to forecast rain by seeing dragonflies: "Chuồn chuồn bay thấp thì mưa, bay cao thì nắng, bay vừa thì râm" (Dragonflies fly at low level, it is rainy; dragonflies fly at high level, it is sunny; dragonflies fly at medium level, it is shadowy)."

Of course, I prefer to think of them as symbols of transformation, and so they are. They have rich symbolic connotations ... and not all of them positive. In Britain and Scandanavia, they were largely associated with sinister goings-on and even death. But in some Native American mythology and Asian symbolism, dragonflies can symbolize martial victory, a good harvest, pure water, courage, strength, and happiness. One of the explanations I like best is, "The dragonfly symbolizes going past self-created illusions that limit our growing and changing." One can hope!