DREAM: TURTLES...march 7. 2011

Partially animated and yet very realistic large fast moving and frightening turtles, tortoises. These were land turtles so I guess terrapins. Probably three feet in diameter with ancient green shells and bright red evil looking eyes. They were rushing with huge energy back and forth taking care of business. I was very concerned that they were coming after me but finally realized that they were not at all considering me an enemy.

REFLECTION. I have a dream and life history associated with turtles, usually the land type,  terrapins or tortoises. As a kid living in town I once had a pet terrapin. I painted his shell, not a good thing I now understand, and put his name Timmy on it. He wandered away and I could not find him. I was sad about that. Six weeks later I found him accidentally outside in some bushes. I was so relieved and happy. I decided it was best to let him crawl loose. For several years I would find Timmy occasionally. So this was a friendly positive turtle experience.

Giant Tortoise

When gardening in TN in 1975 our low hanging tomatoes had been chunks taken out of them on the vine. I imagined several animals but it turned out to my surprise to be terrapins that were doing the damage. Surely this was 'low hanging fruit' for the turtles, like the fruit of Wisdom that Eve ate in the garden of Eden. From then on I tried to keep the tomatoes high and just let the turtles have what they could reach. So here the turtles showed their capacity for the 'dark side' as destroyers and of having the courage to 'eat forbidden fruit.'

Maybe the first dream that fully got my attention and began my life long habit of recording dreams was in 1981 in CPE. A turtle was by the water looking ordinary. Suddenly it became nothing less than 'dazzling'. Then astonishingly a tiny female half human half goddess came out of her shell and began to do an enticing erotic dance with her shapely little form. Wide eyed I nudged those with me asking, " Do you see this?' And none of them could see the miracle I was granted to see. So here is where the 'anima' was reaching for my attention using her familiarity with Eros. She was coming 'out of her shell' and inviting me to as well. And she was a turtle. Somewhere in my CPE notes that dream is written out and it was shared with the group.

When I was introduced to the ancient Chinese Wisdom contained in the IChing, I read that one of the most ancient ways of arriving at answers from the oracle was to break into pieces a terrapin shell. How they arranged in that particular moment would lead the adept to the hexagrams that gave the spiritual answer to the sincere question brought to the IChing.

And now these 'evil' appearing nearly monster turtles appear unexpectedly in this dream. I’ve reflected with head and heart for several days on these 'evil eyed' turtles. I've discerned that they are meant to be a comforting message to me that evil behavior in the world, whether by dictators, greedy grabbers or abusers of others and of nature does not go unnoticed. There turtles, who appear as the dark side of the Sacred, are about the business of not letting evil doers always keep their destructive abusive power over others. They mean business and they do business. They come from the necessary 'dark side ' of Sacred power, that raging power within the Godhead that only the Logos and Spirit are imagined to channel and tame.

To me the turtles have now presented themselves as friendly, dark sided for good purposes and carriers of the most deep and ancient Wisdom coming from the archetypes of the Collective Unconscious. They are brought to my attention by the 'anima' function that has served to make me more aware of the Unconscious throughout the years of my life. The images imply that it is always best, if at all possible, for evil to be corrected slowly and methodically rather than with stormy fires of direct and vengeful power. Two IChing Images I recall regarding how evil is dealt with. One that comes up in the gospels is that of letting good and evil grow together and allowing for a natural separation when the fruits of each are clearly seen. Another is to pull the evil plants up before their roots are strong. The terrapins are famous for being slow but the dream shows the archetypal ones can also be swift avengers for justice. Instruments of God that would terrify the hearts of the most evil plans in the world.

_______________

Diamond Back Terrapin

__________________

From Animal Planet Internet Site:TURTLES, TORTOISES & TERRAPINS

Turtles have been on the earth for more than 200 million years. They evolved before mammals, birds, crocodiles, snakes, and even lizards. What makes a turtle or tortoise different from all other animals is its shell. Turtle shells have fascinated children and scientists for centuries.
From Wikipedia:Plastromancy or the turtle shell oracle is probably the earliest record of fortune telling. The diviner would apply heat to a piece of a turtle shell (sometimes with a hot poker), and interpret the resulting cracks. The cracks were sometimes annotated with inscriptions, the oldest Chinese writings that have been discovered. This oracle predated the earliest versions of the Zhou Yi (dated from about 1100 BC) by hundreds of years.