Thomas;Like a great green turtle slumberedOn the sea which it encumbered.”
The Turtle
1. Now, Mary took her son, when he was forty days of age, up to the temple in Jerusalem, and he was consecrated by the priest.2. And then she offered purifying sacrifices for herself, according to the custom of the Jews; a lamb and two young turtle doves.3. A pious Jew named Simeon was in the temple serving God.4. From early youth he had been looking for Immanuel to come, and he had prayed to God that he might not depart until his eyes had seen Messiah in the flesh.5. And when he saw the infant Jesus he rejoiced and said, I now am ready to depart in peace, for I have seen the king.6. And then he took the infant in his arms and said, Behold, this child will bring a sword upon my people, Israel, and all the world; but he will break the sword and then the nations will learn war no more.7. The master's cross I see upon the forehead of this child, and he will conquer by this sign.8. And in the temple was a widow, four and eighty years of age, and she departed not, but night and day she worshipped God.9. And when she saw the infant Jesus she exclaimed, Behold Immanuel!
The Turtle
The back shells of at least three European pond turtles, scraped clean inside, perhaps for use as bowls or rattles.
The turtle shells are unique among Mesolithic burials in central Germany.
swimming afloat, asking which is the way to the turtle-back, Tula-pin.
They can go no farther; but some tarry at Firland, while the rest return to where they started from, "the old turtle land."
Thomas;Like a great green turtle slumberedOn the sea which it encumbered."
Transition: The Great Turtle and other animals brought earth from the depths to create land, and Sky Woman's descendants, including her twin sons, brought order to the world.
Turtles have a very long history.
Fossils show that relatives of turtles were already living in the Middle Triassic, among them Pappochelys, which had broad ribs but no shell.
Few animals have kept the same basic body plan for so long, and many cultures have made the turtle a figure of the world itself.
In comparative mythology the World Turtle is a giant turtle or tortoise that holds up or contains the world.
In Hinduism the turtle that bears the Earth is called Akupara, and sometimes Chukwa.
Popular retellings add a further layer, with the world resting on elephants that stand on the turtle's back.
Chinese myth tells of Ao, a huge sea turtle.
The Black Turtle-Snake, Xuanwu, is one of the Four Symbols of the Chinese constellations.
It guards the north and is usually shown as a turtle wound about by a snake.
For some Indigenous peoples, Turtle Island is a name for North America, taken from stories of a turtle that holds the world on its back.
The earliest written record of the Lenape account of the "Great Turtle" dates from 16 October 1679, when the Labadist missionary Jasper Danckaerts noted it down from a Hackensack elder named Tantaqué in Lower Manhattan.
Other peoples of the Northeastern Woodlands share the story, most notably the Haudenosaunee, whose Sky Woman is often said to have begun the land on a turtle's back.
In Hawaiian the green sea turtle is called honu, and it is seen locally as a sign of good luck and long life.
Petroglyphs of the honu appear in the Puʻu Loa lava fields on the island of Hawaiʻi, and the turtle stands for a navigator who always finds the way home.
Kumukahi is sometimes named as a turtle that led the first Polynesians to Hawaii, but Hawaiian sources describe it differently.
The channeler Lyssa Royal Holt writes of turtles as loving, balanced beings.
Turtles hold deep affection and an even mix of masculine and feminine.
… Turtles are very balanced in their male-female energies.
It is one reason many indigenous cultures on Earth use the turtle to represent Earth.
Today, I'm going to tell my daughter the story of Turtle Island and why the Ojibwe people call this place Turtle Island.
0:36A lot of times when I work with kindergarten kids and young kids, especially, and I tell them that we never called this place Canada, we called it Turtle Island, right?
A lot of them wonder why Turtle Island?
Why would you call this place Turtle Island?
So, we're going to tell the story today about why the Ojibwe people call this place Turtle Island.
In this great big sea turtle, back then, the animals were much larger than they are today, so he was a huge sea turtle.
The sea turtle came up underneath Nana Beaujo, caught him on his giant shell, and raised him back up to the water surface so he could breathe again.
5:07The turtle saved Nana Beaujo for the time being.
Nana Beaujo was laying on the back of this giant sea turtle.
He was dying still, and the turtle didn't know how to help because there was nowhere to go, no land anywhere in sight.
The beaver, muskrat, loons, seals, and walruses began to gather around the turtle's shell, looking at Nana Beaujo.
The turtle got a great idea and said to the creatures, "If you can get me a little bit of soil from the bottom of the ocean, with the help of the creator, I might be able to create something for Nana Beaujo."
I got this." He got up on turtle shells, took a deep breath, and down the walrus went, swimming and swimming.
He came back to the turtle shell, got up on the side of the turtle shell, and looked around at the other animals, trying to catch his breath.
The big leopard seal jumped out of the water, took a huge breath, and came back to the turtle's shell.
One after another, the animals were trying desperately to get to the bottom to bring up some soil and put it on the back of the turtle shell, but they were all failing.
I'm going to give it a try." He got up on the turtle shell, took a big breath, and down he went, disappearing under the waves, swimming down, down, and down.
They rushed over, grabbed little muskrat, brought him back to the turtle shell, and put him on the back of the turtle shell.
11:42They took that little bit of soil in muskrat's paw and slapped it on the back of the turtle shell.
As soon as the soil hit the back of the turtle shell, the shell started to expand, getting bigger and bigger.
The little bit of soil spread out across the shell, and pretty soon, grass started to pop up off the back of the turtle shell in that little bit of soil.
Before the animals knew it, they were looking around and couldn't even see the edge of the turtle shell, which had gotten so big.
The grass turned into bushes, the bushes turned into trees, and before they knew it, they were standing around Nana Beaujo in the middle of this thick, dense forest that had grown on the back of the turtle shell.
It grew into the home that we call Turtle Island.
There's this relationship that the beaver has with that little muskrat, taking care of him, and I think it directly relates to that story of Turtle Island.
13:39That is why we call North America, Canada, Turtle Island.
I hope you enjoyed that story of Turtle Island.
There are regional differences around Turtle Island, but generally, a lot of the teachings are very, very similar, if not exactly the same.
The familiar Western image places the world on elephants that stand on a giant turtle.
In his Discworld novels the flat world rides on four elephants standing on the shell of a great turtle.
Mikinaak (the snapping turtle) came forward and said, "I have a broad back.
the Four Holy Beasts (四靈獸), the Turtle, the Qilin, the Phoenix, and the Dragon.