Sounding like a symphony of high-pitched monotone didgeridoos, voices of summer, the piercing music of cicadas ring in chorus throughout the Australian bush and city alike. Cicadas quite likely made the first animal sounds on earth, their evolutionary history dating back at least two hundred and fifty million years. Fossils found in Australia indicate little change in their development.
Historically, the cicada is one of the most archaic of symbols. The ancient Greeks used this insect as their symbol of music. The main purpose of cicada’s music is to draw a mate; and side effect is his loud noise deters predatros.
Cicada goes through transformation before he can make music, and spends quite some time living beneath the ground before emerging into the trees. The nymph breaking free from its shell (which can often be found as brooches on trees) is called the ’emergence.
Adult cicadas feed from the sap of trees. Although little is known about these insects, we do know the whole life cycle of Cicada is entwined around trees.
If Cicada strikes a chord within your heart, it is time to speak out about something. If you sense you are in the larvae beginning stage of something, then be ready for the emergence of something different in form to what you anticipated. Cicada’s shell reminds you of the positive aspects of change – a change in home environment, or lifestyle.
Cicadas highlight the mystery of nature and perceiving something without actually seeing it (spot a cicada! It’s much easier to walk beneath a tree and be urinated on then to actually see one! They seem to detect us much easier than we them.)
Energies of change and transformation are also called into action as the Cicadas, from the dark depths of the soil, emerge into the light of summer. Go on, take flight and sing for your summer, Cicada!