Turn in to your shell and reclaim all lost parts of your story. Come to love and shape your unique adventure.
~ ancient soul, grounded, trusting, at home in the self ~
It is wonderful to be in the presence of a Turtle personality. Like the Beaver, the Turtle has a strong relationship with the earth and water elements simultaneously. This helps to ground and connect them to the deeper truths of life, no matter where their travels lead them. Turtle energy is behind all great writers and storytellers as they collect life experiences under their shells for later use. The most potent Turtle energy helps us close all the other books and begin to tell our own true tale.
when in balance ~ peaceful, adventurous, and productive
when out of balance ~ slows down to a halt
to bring into balance ~ an adventure
Hi friends! :) Welcome to week 37 of our yoga series -- exploring your life through the symbolism of the animal kingdom. Each creature represents a different aspect of your human journey, helping you to better understand and connect to your inner and outer worlds. Every 5 weeks in our yoga classes, we cycle through each of the 5 elements (earth, water, fire, air, space) and their respective animals in this card deck. How can you bring each of the animals within yourself into balance?
Last week, the buffalo taught us of the strength that comes not by your appearance or size, but by how rooted you are in presence, clarity, and your connection to your higher purpose.
This week, we return to the water element, which relates to your emotions, feelings, creativity, and inspiration. The turtle teaches you the importance of turning inward to your shell, to your story… and fully owning and loving your unique individual path. And by doing so, by claiming where you’re at and who you are, you have the higher wisdom, the confidence, and the joyous faith to venture out of your shell and continue to explore, expand, and add to your life’s journey — continuing to write and add to your story.
In the Bhagavad Gita, a great yogic text, Krishna says to Arjuna, “It is better to live your own dharma (purpose) imperfectly, than to live another’s dharma perfectly.”
This is the message of the turtle. As always, I can only speak from my own personal experience, but I believe these themes to be universal and applicable to all humans. So often, I find myself (consciously or unconsciously) looking to others, to ideals, to the past, and to logical reasoning for answers… which has its place and validity. Comparison is a helpful tool sometimes. However, conditioning and logic alone will always only get me so far, because I’m not an omniscient being. My knowledge is limited, so... I would only be able to know anything with absolute certainty, if I knew everything.
So, since my predicament as a human being means I have limited knowledge, I can’t always rely on logic alone. In order for me to truly evolve, I must also operate based on inconclusive belief… based on faith… based on dreams. If you ask most people who’ve “made it” … yeah there was hard work and logic involved… but many of these people attribute their actualized dreams to “I just really believed.”
That belief is not based on any kind of hard evidence… the belief is not because circumstances are in their favor (often it’s quite the opposite)… the belief is based on just another human who truly believes they have the power to write their own story. They truly believe that although they may have been born into a particular set of circumstances, they are not chained to those circumstances.
You can’t go back and rewrite the past chapters of your life… but you can view them as events leading you to right here right now. As events that did not chain you and did not leave you broken, but as experiences that made you strong as hell. No matter what may have happened in your past, you truly do get choose how you interpret your old pages. Being prisoner is just as true as being in a metaphorical boot camp… in training.
So, those past chapters, that have led you to right here right now… preparing you… true, you can’t change the past objective events. But you can choose how the story continues. It’s a dance of self-effort and grace. It’s dance of “I’m Kat tying to do certain things and accomplish and be successful and I want things to be this particular way” AND “there is a greater reality, a complete wisdom, an omniscient force of the incomprehensible cosmic unfolding that is happening that I am a part of and even though I have my own preferences to how my life should be, my knowledge is limited so how can I truly know the totality of my dharma (purpose)?”
Ya know, sometimes I experience what feels like divine intervention (whether perceived positively or negatively) that takes me off my current track and focus… and redirects me. Then later down the line, I’m like damn thank GOD I was forced to change directions. I understand now.
So… anyways. Everything in life’s a paradox hehe. But to bring it back around, the turtle teaches us that in the confines of “I’m Kat and THIS is my unique story. It is not “right” or “wrong”. It is my unique expression. It is my character in this movie. And I’m trying to play her the best I can. Even when I feel that the script is painting me as dumb, ugly, or a failure. It’s my story. I can love it or hate it. Ultimately… what do I want to choose? I can choose to loathe and despise the parts of myself that aren’t a societal or personal “ideal” or aren’t in my eyes or another’s “beautiful” or “preferable” or “successful” or “likeable”… but ultimately, I do get to choose. Just as the perfect lover chooses to love their partner evenly through their radiant chapters and their dark, disgusting ones. That’s unconditional love baby, that’s what we’re after here. That the aim of the whole game.
The turtle symbolizes the deep wisdom within you that understands that the deceptively simple but most profound thing you can do, is to fully claim and love your unique story. And that reclaiming of yourself, allows you to continue to write your story with more autonomy, effectiveness, expansiveness, and vigor. Because you’re bringing ALL of you forward to evolve… not just the parts you deem “right”.
🤍🤍🤍
Next week, the gazelle teaches us that an increase in awareness and sensitivity and beauty, requires an equal increase in grounding and presence.
til next time ✌︎
dream extreme!
♡ kat
Comments