Some people pick up on the fact that the clan badges are presented on a turtle shell background. There are several reasons for this, and there’s a lot of symbolism involved.
- Turtles symbolize longevity, due to their almost god-like resistance to aging. Turtles are very long-lived animals.
- Turtles are the most ancient invertebrate animals in the world.
- Turtles live everywhere on Earth.
- Turtles are symbols of immortality, and are considered temporary dwelling places for souls on the many paths towards nirvana.
- Many ancient religions, legends and myths believed the weight of the world was supported on a turtle’s back.
- In the Far East, the turtle shell was said to symbolize Heaven, and the square underside symbolized Earth. The turtle’s magic was said to unify Heaven and Earth.
- The turtle is a shore-dwelling animal of water or land, neither nocturnal nor diurnal.
- Being a shore-dwelling animal, and shorelines being associated by some myths as doorways into the fairie realm, turtles are considered by some the keepers of doors.
- Some turtles’ shells have thirteen individual sections, or markings, which led Native Americans to associate the turtle with the lunar cycle and the power of female energies.
- Being opportunistic omnivores, and being a symbol of Mother Earth, Native American mythos considered the turtle to be powerful medicine, and a reminder that the Earth will provide.
- The turtle’s long life and slow metabolism reminds us to slow down and take our time, and shows us that sometimes it’s okay to live inside a shell.
Photo by Tambako the Jaguar.
In the movie Kung Fu Panda, it was a turtle who was the ancient, wizened Kung Fu master who “unraveled the mysteries of harmony and focus.”
Lest we forget–from Stephen Hawking’s 1988 book A Brief History of Time: A well-known scientist (some say it was Bertrand Russell) once gave a public lecture on astronomy. He described how the earth orbits around the sun and how the sun, in turn, orbits around the center of a vast collection of stars called our galaxy. At the end of the lecture, a little old lady at the back of the room got up and said: “What you have told us is rubbish. The world is really a flat plate supported on the back of a giant tortoise.” The scientist gave a superior smile before replying, “What is the tortoise standing on?” “You’re very clever, young man, very clever,” said the old lady. “But it’s turtles all the way down!”
Why, in this ancient myth, is it a turtle upon which the Earth is resting–why not a crocodile, or a cockroach, or a mammal even? Because turtles are one of the most ancient species that lives–it is, in fact, the most ancient of all vertebrate animals. It’s not as ugly or filthy as a cockroach, and because the turtle is considered patient and wise, there’s very little threat of it tipping its head back and eating the planet. The turtle is safe, and with its shell has a solid foundation for the Earth to sit upon.
The turtle appears in modern legends as well. Stephen King uses the turtle in many of his stories. In It, the main character meets a giant turtle which professes to have had an upset stomach and “sicked up the Universe.” The turtle pleads not to be blamed for having inadvertently having created All That Is. In King’s Dark Tower series, a turtle named Maturin is one of the “Guardians of the Beam:”
On his shell he holds the earth.
His thought is slow but always kind;
He holds us all within his mind.
On his back all vows are made;
He sees the truth but mayn’t aid.
He loves the land and loves the sea,
And even loves a child like me.
The name “Maturin” is obviously borrowed from Patrick O’Brian’s Aubrey/Maturin series’ Dr. Stephen Maturin. Dr. Maturin discovered a new breed of turtle in his many travels, and named it after the other half of the series’ title: testudo aubreii.
The turtle is a captivating creature, and the mascot of [Re]Evolver.com.
