Twin Flames and Soul Mates: Madame Butterfly

Puccini's Madame Butterfly tells the story of the American Lieutenant Pinkerton and his contract marriage to Butterfly, a trusting fifteen-year-old Japanese girl. These two souls symbolize twin flames. Their Eastern and Western cultures represent both the masculine and feminine polarities of twin flames as well as the gulf that separates souls who have not yet balanced their karma and must endure the pain of separation as a result.

Pinkerton, a man hardened by the world, has lost the sense of the purity of true love. Although he is attracted by the beauty and charm of Butterfly, he deliberately plans to desert her for an American wife. However, Pinkerton and his Japanese bride do share intense moments of love—their souls uniting as one flame commemorating their original wholeness in God. And the fruit of this union is the conception of a child—a symbol of their great love.

But the Lieutenant is ignorant of this development and blinded by his own selfish desires. He goes home to America leaving Butterfly trusting in his eventual return.

Pinkerton does return, several years later—with an American wife. In her grief at this desertion by her twin flame, Butterfly takes her life.