Turtle Medicine

Lately, I have been visited by turtles in my garden. Every time I see them, they look at me and then head back to the stream next to our house. It is like they are sending me a message, and once I notice them, they have completed their mission and are ready to go back home.

The Native Americans believed that spirit would send us messages through nature if only we would take the time to notice. One of the beings they use to send their messages is animals. So if an animal keeps crossing your path or shows itself to you more than once, take that as a sign. Spirit is trying to communicate with you. I always know when something is a message for me because of this inner knowing feeling that you can’t deny.

Turtles medicine

Turtles teach us to slow down almost to a crawl and trust that we do not have to do as much as we were told to accomplish our dreams and goals. That is, slowing down will allow you to operate in a better frequency rather than the force and push attitude society deems as correct.

The famous story of “Tortoise and the Hare” is an excellent example of turtle medicine. Society constantly tells us we need to be the Hare and “go hard or go home” and that productivity should be fast and efficient as possible (even just typing out that last sentence made me feel a disgust, haha, but sadly the Hare is our default behavior in the United States). The poor Hare starts strong but becomes so burnt out and overly confident that the tortoise wins the race with his slow and steady pace.

The message of the turtle is slow down, relax and enjoy. Everything will get done in its time. You have been fed the false illusion of productivity, and now it is time to make those changes so you can enjoy life.