I imagine you have heard about “transgenerational trauma,” where trauma is passed down in the family lineage through changes in genes & DNA. But have you heard about “transgenerational wisdom,” where wisdom is also passed down?

Monarch Butterflies could be a beautiful example of how we can remember the mysteries of our ancestors to find our way home.

As the days get shorter, these small, strong, vibrating, black, orange & white winged creatures, about the weight of a paper clip, somehow migrate up to 3,000 miles (4828 kilometers) from the Rocky Mountains of Canada to the Sierra Madre Oriental mountains in central México. This is considered one of the greatest natural events on earth.

These individual butterflies will never return but their great, great, great, great grandchildren will.

A monarch goes from egg to caterpillar to chrysalis to butterfly to death and around again. It is the fourth or fifth generation of monarch butterflies that actually migrate all the way back up to Canada again.

PHOTOGRAPH BY JOEL SARTORE, NAT GEO IMAGE COLLECTION

The season of migration for the “mariposa monarcha” in Angangueo, Michoacán, México has typically been from January - March, but the climate is certainly changing.

​Some friends and I went to a place called El Rosario Sanctuary, where we road horses to see the monarchs. I would recommend this experience whole-heartedly.

How do the butterflies know where to go?

It is a mystery. Apparently scientists have NO IDEA but it appears to be a combination magnetic pull of the earth and the position of the sun. Maybe it is even in their DNA, that transgenerational wisdom.

​They migrate alone but when they finally arrive in Mexico, the trees provide a microclimate that protects them as they wait out the winter. They huddle together by the hundreds of thousands in “sacred fir trees” called the Oyamel Fir.

The oyamel forest ecosystem is Mexico's most endangered forest-type. Only 2% of the original forest remains. According to National Geographic, Western monarchs have declined by more than 99 percent since the 1980s. Eastern monarchs have declined by an estimated 80 percent.
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​The disappearance of milkweed is a major reason for their population decline. Milkweed, which is the only place monarchs will lay their eggs and the only food caterpillars will eat, used to grow in and around agricultural crops. The systematic removal of milkweed from fields in recent years, as well as increased use of herbicides and mowing alongside roads and ditches, has significantly reduced the amount of milkweed available.
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​Climate change is also a concern for a number of reasons. Monarchs are very sensitive to temperature and weather changes, so climate change may affect biological processes, such as knowing when to reproduce and to migrate. It’s also creating more extreme weather events, which negatively affects their overwintering habitats, the availability of milkweed in their breeding habitats, and their survival directly—too hot or too cold, and monarchs will die.

What can we do?

     • Reduce carbon emissions with carbon credits
     • Be mindful of Monsanto & pesticides (DO NOT USE THEM!)
     • Put monarchs on the endangered species movement
     • Plant milk weed & create a pollinators paradise where ever you live
     • Trust the cycle of life and death
     • Learn from their ancient, mysterious wisdom
     • Remember how you experience life now can be passed onto future generations
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​As for me, my paternal grandmother Eleanor Evans Hooper, certainly passed on her wisdom & love of nature to my father, Henry Evans Hooper who then passed his wisdom onto me. And being in Angangueo, México this year, during this migration was a phenomenal, natural sight to see.