Recently there were four times over a week or so that I had encounters with dragonflies.
The first time was when I was with two of my three granddaughters – and it was an astonishing encounter!
We were walking down the street of a beautiful little town and the 4.5 year old spotted the dragonfly hovering just in front of us. She alerted us to it, including her little sister and we were all amazed at it. It was hovering for a few minutes right in front of us. Very steady, it felt like it was deliberately engaging with us. I noticed its long, strong, straight brown body and 4 beautiful, transparent wings. It felt like it was saying “I am here. i see you. I am with you”
The second encounter was during a breathwork meditation where I was experiencing all kinds of things in the spirit realm, including one with the dragonfly. This time the encounter had time to be experienced so each flap of the wings felt like a vibration of life, the beauty and Light of Life radiating through the wings in the spectrum of the rainbow. It was magical and ethereal all at once. I felt connected to it more deeply and in a joyful way.
The third encounter was with my other granddaughter the day after the first two. We were playing on the floor together and she spotted a “My Little Pony” tin in my wardrobe. When we opened it there was a tiny sticker on the bottom…. of a dragonfly! (see accompanying image!) What she noticed was amazing! She noticed that the “tail” end of it was in rainbow colours!!
The fourth encounter with dragonflies were at the Hot Springs a week after the first three.
Down at the shallow thermal ponds were DOZENS of dragonflies!! They were amazing and beautiful! There were blue ones, purple ones and red ones! large and small – all hovering above the waters… I was transfixed by their movement, their presence, their steady hovering and lightening speed darting from one place to another!
Four times! I knew that I needed to explore the meaning of a “dragonfly” in the Christ-conscious, mystical traditions. I once again turned to the expansive reach of AI to explore the potential symbology and meaning.
Here is a simple AI summary that resonated strongly with what I have been experiencing at this time.
Seeking a grounded understanding, I explored the meaning of the dragonfly through both a Hebraic lens and a broader symbolic one. In the Hebrew worldview, while dragonflies are not named specifically in Scripture, all winged creatures move within the realm of “ruach”—the breath, wind, or Spirit. They inhabit that quiet space between earth and sky, carried by unseen currents. In this way, the dragonfly can be received as a gentle expression of life animated by Spirit—an embodied whisper of movement, presence, and the nearness of the Creator woven through creation itself.
From a universal perspective, the dragonfly has long been associated with transformation, light, and awakened awareness. Its life cycle—emerging from the hidden depths of water into the open air—mirrors the journey from inner formation to outward expression. Its translucent wings catch and refract light, often revealing a spectrum of colour, evoking themes of illumination, joy, and the subtle radiance of life fully alive. There is something both delicate and precise about its movement, as though it exists in effortless alignment with the currents that carry it.
The setting of water adds a profound layer to this symbolism. Water is the place of origin, of gestation, of unseen becoming. It represents depth, emotion, memory, and the quiet work that happens beneath the surface of awareness. That dragonflies arise from water is not incidental—it is essential. They are, by nature, creatures of emergence. What lives below, in stillness and obscurity, is one day drawn upward into light, into breath, into motion.
To witness dragonflies hovering above warm, living waters—especially in such abundance—becomes a kind of living parable. The image holds a simple but powerful truth: when the conditions are right, what has been forming in hidden places begins to rise. Not through force, but through readiness. Not through striving, but through alignment. Life reveals itself when it is fully formed, and it does so with a kind of quiet brilliance.
There is also a quality of awareness carried by the dragonfly. It hovers, sees, and responds with remarkable precision. In many traditions, this has come to symbolise clarity of perception—the ability to see beyond illusion and remain present to what is real. It does not rush or scatter; it moves with intention and lightness, reminding us that attentiveness itself is a form of wisdom.
Taken together, these encounters suggest a season not of becoming something new through effort, but of allowing what has already been formed in the depths to emerge into expression. It is a movement from water to air, from hidden to revealed, from weight to lightness. The repeated presence of the dragonfly becomes less a sign to interpret and more a gentle invitation: to trust the process of emergence, to recognise the life already rising, and to rest in the quiet assurance that what is ready will reveal itself—in its own time, and in its own radiant way.