Turtle
There are so many different sizes of turtles it is difficult to be specific, but turtles are creatures that can live under water and also on land. They have a protective shell they can withdraw into, and these are probably the main points your dream uses to depict something you are doing. So, this part of your dream may link with feelings of deep inner feelings or even vulnerabilities that are surfacing or being felt at present. In other words, you may feel vulnerable and withdraw into a protective shell – or are emerging from such vulnerability. It may be referring to a time in the past you did one or the other.
For women the turtle can appear in dreams about pregnancy, so you may dream this if you are or are trying to become pregnant. See: Pregnancy and Dreams.
The turtle is a slow mover, but nevertheless is a survivor and can live easily in different environments.
Useful questions are:
Am I feeling vulnerable at the moment, and if so what about?
Are there ways I withdraw sometimes, and in what way do I do that?
What am I feeling from deep within me?
Is there any indication I am pregnant?
Comments
I had a dream that it was storming. I was in my mothers old RV. I looked outside and the storm was causing turtles to come out from the ground. There were many turtles and all different sizes. They were looking for a place to go. Some were crossing the flooded streets with cars passing by. It is strange because the flooding caused them to come out of ground and they had no place to go.
Dear Angie – If we take away the images and events occurring in a dream and simply look to see what feelings or emotions are evident, the dream is often more understandable than if we try to interpret the symbols. Feelings in dreams are nearly always undistorted. We therefore do not need to interpret them, simply to recognise them and see if we can recognise where they occur in waking life.
You do not mention any of the feelings your dream figure may have experienced.
What feelings arise when your dream figure sits in your mother’s old RV?
What feelings arise when it storms?
What feelings arise when she sees so many turtles, crossing the streets with no way to go?
Please use http://dreamhawk.com/dream-encyclopedia/acting-on-your-dream/#BeingPerson
Because you are in your mother’s old RV, your dream may reflect how you have found a way to relax and feel safe so that you can open up to the Life Stream; http://dreamhawk.com/approaches-to-being/opening-to-life/
Allowing the release of pent up feelings in a dramatic manner may have helped you to experience feeling vulnerable; a feeling that you had buried before.
You do not mention if the turtles manage to cross the streets. Do they?
Some turtles crossing the street can symbolise a change in perception about feeling vulnerable and if you can open up to that too, all these turtles will have a place to go; they can go to you!
See also https://www.ted.com/talks/brene_brown_on_vulnerability?language=en
Anna 🙂
Hi, I had a dream of a turtle which was kept in a bucket which was half filled with water. Turtle tried to come out of bucket and also succeeded(can not recall the number of attempts it took him to jump out). Then I hold him and to my wonder turtle did not go in his shell when I lifted him!! After that, I placed him back in the bucket thinking to reduced water level in bucket so that turtle dont try escaping one more time.
What does this dream means???
Please Reply
Dear Jagdish – To get a deeper understanding of your dream, you can use http://dreamhawk.com/dream-encyclopedia/acting-on-your-dream/#BeingPerson for the turtle.
So imagine being a turtle that is kept in a small bucket with little water and you keep on trying to leave this place. What thoughts/feelings/images arise?
What does it feel like to be picked up by your dream figure and to feel that “you” do not have to hide in your shell?
And then what does it feel like to be put back in the bucket again, with even less water?
What do you think/feel does your inner turtle prefer?
Your dream may reflect how you still carry around feelings of being vulnerable and when you (the turtle) escape in the dream then you know of some way to emerge from the restrictions of fears, attitudes, ignorance or beliefs that have been holding you back in some way.
When “you” leave the bucket you become aware that there is nothing to hide for; “and to my wonder turtle did not go in his shell when I lifted him!!”
With that in mind you may ask yourself why you decide to put the turtle back in the bucket with less water, which suggest that you do not want to become aware of your inner feelings.
If you feel like trying a different approach, see http://dreamhawk.com/approaches-to-being/opening-to-life/
Anna 🙂
Hello….last night I dreamt that I had out of nowhere suddenly found a baby turtle…he was the cutest thing ever…I loved him immediately…he never hid or was cruel…and I carried him everywhere. ..but then..just like that I lost him…I tried to find him…but I couldn’t. I woke feeling at a loss for what had happened. Like I had to find that turtle. I couldn’t.
I can’t find anything on this 🙁
Dear Andrea – Did you read these entries yet; http://dreamhawk.com/dream-dictionary/losing-something-someone/ and http://dreamhawk.com/dream-dictionary/carried-carry-carrying/ and
http://dreamhawk.com/dream-encyclopedia/acting-on-your-dream/#BeingPerson?
Anna 🙂
in my dream, I saw three small turtles. I holded them in my hand, brought them to my home. What does it mean?
I dreamed I was doing something in a kitchen that closely resembles my real kitchen. I stood back and all kinds of little animals came from the area where the stove sat. Ahead of all the little creatures were three little turtles crawling straight ahead. I felt overwhelmed and didn’t know how to get rid of the many creatures. I looked it up on the web and found a Mayan interpretation that seem to give insight to what I had dream. What do you think?
I am 6 months pregnant and Last night I had a dream that my brother was laying on my couch and asked if he could hold my baby. I lifted my shirt and pulled out a snapping turtle and placed it on his stomach. We treated the turtle like a baby, but the turtle kept biteing him. So i picked up the turtle and it kept biteing me ( still treating it like a baby) and it seem to not bother me that it was not a real baby. What does this mean
Dear Desire –Before sharing with you what I see in your dream, I would like you to read Julia Karadi’s view on pregnancy (birth and natal) http://juliakaradi.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/19/2014/09/Childbirth-as-Initiation1.pdf
Because pregnancy is a time of radical changes it’s understandable that you may be feeling vulnerable.
The baby you “gave birth to” in your dream symbolises that you are slowly moving towards accepting your “vulnerable self” and “it’s feelings”.
Embracing/holding these feelings is like owning them.
When you decide to honour the request of your brother – I wonder if your brother in waking life is aware of your real feelings – you also make the decision to not hide your feeling vulnerable behind your clothes.
Your clothes are a symbol of how you present yourself to others, but underneath you feel quite differently (about yourself).
Perhaps you can ask yourself if you “snap at other people or yourself” as a way to feel less vulnerable?
Perhaps you can explore a different approach and express directly what you feel, if only to yourself (at first); “I feel vulnerable.”
You might be surprised how strong you can feel in a wonderful way when you own and express your feelings in a direct way; http://dreamhawk.com/dream-encyclopedia/secrets-power-dreaming/
Anna 🙂
I dreamed last night that I saw hundreds of turtles coming onto a beach. There was one large turtle, and when I looked closer I saw there were hundreds of others. I was excited and pointed them out to other people. Next thing I knew, they had killed all turtles except one, saying there were ‘too many turtles’ and they seemed happy about it. I was devastated.
I will also mention I live abroad. I am leaving my current teaching position in one week. I am either going home to visit orbto stay for awhile or to another teaching gig abroad somewhere else in a month.
I couldn’t find anything about turtles dying .
Thank you for your help
Dear Hazelbee – Dreams often present to us summaries or details of experience we have been unable to access consciously and therefore exploring the symbols in your dream will take some inner work; http://dreamhawk.com/dream-encyclopedia/dream-yoga/
What do you associate with hundreds of turtles coming onto a beach?
What I associate with it is that there are two species of turtles that are known for their behaviour of synchronized nesting in mass numbers and that the females of these species return to the very same beach from where they first hatched, to lay their eggs.
Eggs are used in dreams to indicate your potential, the parts of you as yet unrealised or not fertilised by your conscious action or quality.
In dreams the beach is also the place where aspects of the previously unknown meet us – out of the sea.
What I see is that your dream figure in the dream is excited about meeting your unknown potential and the endless possibilities you can give birth to.
See also http://dreamhawk.com/pregnancy-childbirth/the-baby-in-your-dream/
But eggs are fragile and because they hold the potential of life, they can express the feeling of vulnerability with something precious.
Perhaps other parts of you – symbolised by “other people” – do not like to feel so vulnerable and so “they” decided to kill all other future possibilities and that is why you feel you are left with only one choice; “to another teaching gig abroad somewhere else in a month.”
Can you imagine going home and leave it open what will happen when you visit or stay there for a while?
What do you feel is “at work” inside you when you plan your future? Is it the Life Will or your human personality? http://dreamhawk.com/dream-dictionary/what-we-need-to-remember-about-us-3/#HumanP
Do you feel that your human personality is in conflict with the Life Will?
http://dreamhawk.com/approaches-to-being/the-lifestream/
Anna 🙂
Hello, recently my bf and I have thoughts about me being pregnant. Like, paranoia. I’m only eighteen so this is pretty scary. But my mom told me that last night she had a dream that we were at a river, I had a daughter that was stuck in the river and there were three huge turtles in the water. But apparently e couldn’t make it to my ‘daughter’
I’m confused and either need answers or reassurance. Something. What did that dream mean?
Thanks, Salem
Dear Salem Vale – I understand your confusion and I trust that you have done a pregnancy test by now and that you do not have unprotected sex (anymore?).
I do not see your mother’s dream as a sign of you being pregnant; I merely see it that your mother is aware of your fears. (Perhaps you shared your fears with her or she sensed them with her intuition?)
Because this is your mother’s dream, I will answer her so that it cannot be (even more) confusing.
Dear mom – Your dream suggests that you are aware that your daughter has given birth to a new part of her. Like any baby or child, it is something new and vulnerable that has come to life – come to her life. The important question is, what is it that is new and growing in her love, in her work, or in herself and how can you help her not feeling stuck with this new part anymore so she can “go and grow with the natural flow of Life again”.
See http://dreamhawk.com/pregnancy-childbirth/the-baby-in-your-dream/
and
http://dreamhawk.com/dream-encyclopedia/personal-growth/
Your dream suggests that you are also aware that she feels very vulnerable at the moment – three huge turtles – and that it is probably the fear for growth, for becoming (more) independent that is keeping her stuck.
See http://dreamhawk.com/dream-encyclopedia/individuation/
Sometimes a mother has to move or to grow first, before she is able to help her daughter move beyond feeling/being stuck.
If you can relate to that then your “granddaughter” in your dream (also) expresses a part of you that did not have a chance yet to grow and to break the cycle of passing this “stuck part” on to your daughter you will also have to learn to “mother your inner child”.
See http://dreamhawk.com/health-and-healing/inner-baby-and-child/
Growing together can be very rewarding too.
Let me know if you – Salem Vale and mom – have any questions.
Anna 🙂
The turtle was in the bath it was really big i think it has a child with it but didn’t really c much of the child the bath was full up of water and i had asked my partner why it was in the bath and why it was here he told me he was selling it by ebay or something i didn’t agree with it but told him i
want it here i think i was more concerned it bitting my fingers because it was that big
Dear Sham – Do you know the saying ‘Once bitten twice shy’? It refers to a hurtful or frightening experience that leaves you feeling uncertain about how to deal with your vulnerable self now.
It could be that your child’s authentic self was misunderstood, labelled, or worst of all, rejected. The fear of rejection can then become so powerful, that you decide to wear a shield around you and to not give that vulnerable inner child a real place in your inner world anymore;
“I think it has a child with it but didn’t really see much of the child.”
See http://dreamhawk.com/inner-life/your-inner-child/
In your dream you are exploring how to deal with being vulnerable and you did not find an approach yet which pleases every part of you.
So all you can do is continue to explore.
Try “Being the turtle” because it will give you a direct experience of what being vulnerable means to you http://dreamhawk.com/dream-encyclopedia/acting-on-your-dream/#BeingPerson
Let me know if you have any further questions.
Anna 🙂
I had a very odd dream the other night I was in the kitchen cooking but when I was opening up the stove I saw 20 turtles being roasted, I was basically cooking them. What exactly would this dream I had be trying to say? Or mean.
I’ve placed a small turtle into a water and it burrows in the muddy bottom of the pond…………
I almost feel protective of it…..
What is that mean?????
I dreamt of passing a temple of turtle. The dream told me that re good and I need them.
What do I need most now ?
I had a dream last night about turtles in between hamburger buns and the turtles were alive. There were three buns each with a light brownish turtle. I lifted the bun off of one and noticed there was a cut down the back. It was spread open and looked to be completed cooked. I didn’t eat them because it made me sick to my stomach. I’m not a vegetarian. What does this mean?
I had a dream that I was on a beach walking a pier sort of rock where there were various sizes of turtles. As I moved past them they would snap at me and my mother would tell me to be careful. One really large one bit me and pulled me into the water but it wasn’t a hard bite so I was able to free myself and get out.
Hi! I keep having this re-occuring dream of my desert turtles. I am in a comfortable public situation and I come across someone that’s cooking/boiling these turtles alive and putting them inbetween a piece of bread or a roll to eat. The turtles are alive and moving. This makes me sick to my stomach. I am a vegetarian and love animals. What does this mean??
Kim – The fact it is recurring suggests this is important. But it might not be about the outer animals that are killed, but the inner ones that are being slaughtered all the time. Our inner animals are all the ignored instinctive feelings that are ignored and so killed.
This shows you killing urges or needs you have that are natural. Mostly this is injurious to your wholeness, but occasionally needs to be done to deal with special life situations. The killing might also point to feelings of pain and conflict, as when we kill out something in us that is natural or even beautiful.
Tony