A QUESTION OF TIME....

Summer time is the opposite yet compliment of our winter season. Winter represents the aged and the wise, and our ancestors. It is in the position of the North within the Native American Medicine wheel. Summer's position on the Native American Medicine wheel is in the South- life is born and infused with positive energy for health, wellness and 'good ways'. Great Mystery planted a sacred tree - which represents the 'Givers': animals, plants, trees, even humans, and their sharing/caring ways. Those of this season give of themselves as food, medicine, shelter and clothing and as well as love. Our Life force soars with warm winds and azure waters. Children/Youth sit in the South for they represent that wonder of learning new things as they look toward their endless horizons. Summer time is a glorious time for it is the magic of the middle of the circle and growing things. This is the place of the Healer  and the Female energy of Earth. Cedar is the season's herb its strength is a balm for physical healing. The Cancerian gifts of intuition open us to this season with memory. Of all the zodiacal signs, Cancer remembers the most and the longest. Cancer is also represented as the adolescent not quite a child and not quite an adult. Summer's seasonal passage through Cancer, Leo and Virgo is the transformative emergence into adulthood and the growth towards maturity. Yet, Cancer's strength and foundational place as a leader shows us that there is a world of the physical and also the world of our dreams. For even though summer is mid second of the wheel, the wheel never ends, therefore Cancer remembers winters wisdom deep within. At times there is yearning for the dreams and the beauty of this remembered 'imagination'. The power of the dream is Cancer's innate asset of the feeling nature which brings presentness to all places. Whether it is the past, future, dreams or present activity, her/his feelings are so strong that they take president for all times. Feelings are Cancer's main reality and relatively only moment.

Newton and Galileo decided (up until the 20th c) that time was the same for everyone everywhere because of their concept that space and time were a single continuum based on a timeline. This changed with Einstein's theory of relativity (special and general) which states that rates of time move differently depending on relative motion. He also based space and time merged into spacetime (a physics mathematical model as space and time in a single continuum). Spacetime is considered as: space being 3 dimensional (from Euclidean space perceptions-sum of 3 sided triangles) with time as the fourth dimension. Einstein felt that an object or individual traveled on a world line instead of a time line. Einstein felt we travel our unique path through spacetime and based on coordinates i.e. in astrology as to when one is born and when one dies. Though there is always the question as to when an entity began. Physicists believe the entire Universe and therefore time itself began about 13.7 billion years ago in the big bang. Whether it will ever come to an end is an open question. Perhaps that is the concern when we get hit within our travels through the summer season, whether it is in the actual season, or our chronological sequence of growing from a child to a responsible adult or the process of an awakening consciousness. Do we really die? Or was there ever a beginning to even consider an end? Since we do know there are many different types of beginnings and endings, which one was the one real beginning? Perhaps since animals,plants and minerals manifested on our planet prior to us, we might consider Indigenous wisdom as well as Aristotle's primary interests in our physical world as important.

In particular, respect to our brother/sister the turtle, the honored nature totem for this summer's season.

To go on to honor our relative the turtle I am sharing a creation story on the earth I've heard first from an elder from my own tribe the Coast Miwok people of CA but have also found it to be from others as well...

The Turtle is considered to be the oldest, sacred symbol of the Native American people. They believed that North America was created on the back of a turtle.  Father Sky's wife fell through a hole in the sky, and to keep her from drowning little Muskrat managed to bring up a handful of soil from the bottom of the ocean; she placed it on Turtle's wide back and the land immediately began to grow eventually forming North America.  To this day most Indigenous peoples refer to North America as Turtle Island.

The medicine of turtle is its deliberate and thorough approach to life; Turtle is also courageous because it makes progress only when it sticks its neck out, and moves forward with patient, steady flow in order to achieve the desired results.

The turtle shell was also used as a calendar, with the thirteen large patterned squares counting out all the full moons of the year. The 28 small squares on the outside counted the days of each lunar month.

The Solidarity of the Turtle

I realized that I have to honor our relative the turtle because the turtle is one of my major totems, as well as my husband's, (when we joined up we found turtle talisman's etc abundant in our home) and its totem symbol seems to emerge at many of our circle gatherings. I tried to get rid of much of my own pieces because I want to start to settle down, but recently a friend gave us a photo of a turtle within a great Hawaiian wave and it was after I announced our next journey back to the mainland. So the turtle is staying within my life. I had wanted so much to have a turtle in my pond in CA but the raccoons would eat them, so that stopped my desire. I have many turtle stories to tell and some day I will. One important gift that the turtle gave me is acquiring a sense of independence and freedom. Traveling along the path of life seems to be much more an accepted and welcomed adventure.

Our brother the turtle comes from (Aristotle's biological categorizing) the order Testudines characterized by a special bony or cartilaginous shell developed from their ribs that acts as a shield. Turtle as well as tortoise, terrapin, sea turtle, testtudine, and Chelonian all refer to the same creature. The earliest known turtles date from 215 million years ago, making turtles one of the oldest reptile groups and a more ancient group than lizards and snakes. It seems from the earliest of turtles the shell was always the stable body plan. The Turtle can vary their internal temperature according to the ambient environment and like other reptiles, dinosaurs, birds, and mammals, they breathe air and must surface at regular intervals to refill their lungs even thought many spend much time near or in the water. The largest turtles are aquatic.The largest turtle is the great leather back sea turtle, which reaches a shell length of 200 centimeters (6.6 ft) and can reach a weight of over 900 kilograms (2,000 lb).Giant tortoises of the genera Geochelone Meiolania, and others were relatively widely distributed around the world into prehistoric times, and are known to have existed in North and South America, Australia, and Africa. They became extinct at the same time as the appearance of man. The only surviving giant tortoises are on the Secychelles and Galapagos Islands and can grow to over 130 centimeters (51 in) in length, and weigh about 300 kilograms (660 lb). The smallest turtle is the Speckled Padloper Tortoise of South Africa. It measures no more than 8 centimeters (3.1 in) in length and weighs about 140 grams (4.9 oz). Two other species of small turtles are the American mud turtle and musk turtle that lives in an area that ranges from Canada to South America. The shell length of many species in this group is less than 13 centimeters (5.1 in) in length.

Turtles lay eggs, like other reptiles, which are slightly soft and leathery. .Sea turtles lay their eggs on dry, sandy beaches. Baby sea turtles are not cared for by the adults.

It has been established that it is very difficult to tell the age of a turtle unless you were around when it was born. The turtle is said to have a miserly metabolism and a tranquil temperament, able to forgo food and drink for months at a time and its shell which can protect him/her from stampeding wildebeests is considered the longest living creature the world has ever known. Researchers today find that not only the turtle refuses to grow old but also to grow up. Female turtles don't reach puberty until their 40-50th year and it has been found that individual turtles have lived for centuries. Researchers lately have been astonished to discover that in contrast to nearly every other animal studied, a turtle’s organs do not gradually break down or become less efficient over time. Dr. Christopher J. Raxworthy, the associate curator of herpetology at the American Museum of Natural History, says the liver, lungs and kidneys of a centenarian turtle are virtually indistinguishable from those of its teenage counterpart, a Ponce de Leonine quality that has inspired investigators to begin examining the turtle genome for novel longevity genes.

“Turtles don’t really die of old age,” Dr. Raxworthy said. In fact, if turtles didn't’t get eaten, crushed by an automobile or fall prey to a disease, he said, they might just live indefinitely .Turtles have the power to almost stop the ticking of their personal clock. “Their heart isn't’t necessarily stimulated by nerves, and it doesn't’t need to beat constantly,” said Dr. George Zug, curator of herpetology at the Smithsonian Institute. “They can turn it on and off essentially at will.”

It has been determined that the turtle has lived through deluge, famine, climatic change, you name it. He/she is a lonely solitary survivor that can exist on scavenging and little resources. There are about 300 species of turtles on the planet with 1/2 of these going into extinction. We humans are the cause of this ancestor's demise. I find that such a creature has a wealth of information and wisdom if we can only learn to honor and have a relationship with it.

The Vietnamese believe that when a turtle appears to you it is said to be heralding a portent event. The name of Hanoi’s Hoan Kiem Lake means ‘Lake of the Returned Sword’, a reference to a local legend. It is said that Le Loi, who became the great Emperor Le Thai To, was awarded a magical sword by the spirit of the Lake to help him drive invaders from the land.

Years later, after victory, he sailed out on the Lake to express his gratitude by making a sacrifice to the spirit. Suddenly, a giant turtle appeared and the sword flew from the Emperor’s scabbard. The turtle seized the sword in its mouth and plunged to the depths to return the sword to its rightful owner. Even today, people believe that the lake is inhabited by large turtles, and periodic sightings are claimed as omens of good luck. In 2007 there was a discovery of a giant extinct turtle in a lake of Haoi. Link to a video. There are attempts to now clean up the polluted lake . I find it a good thing to have legends to honor life within any culture. Unfortunately China has a very big appetite for exotic animals whether they are for digestion or for curiosity sake and turtle eggs and the turtle meat are among the lists. There is already a booming Burmese Casino town that trades and sells wild animals to satisfy such appetites. Many of the turtles population has been decimated in Vietnam,Indonesian and Burma and the market has come to the United States in particular Florida.

From an article in the National Geographic...The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) estimates that 75 percent of Asia's 90 freshwater turtle and tortoise species are now threatened. This drop has placed greater pressure on places where the animals are still plentiful, including many parts of the United States. Dramatic and quick declines in Florida turtles prompted a recent law.In the past several years, people working in the state had noticed a large number of turtles being harvested. Asian buyers had come into Florida and now there was a big increase in demand. Nearly 32 million live turtles were exported from the U.S. between 2003 to 2005, according to a study by World Chelonian Trust, a turtle conservation group. Wild turtles are taken to supplement the farming production.

I have to say the Hawk billed sea turtle that Hawaii has come to know is greatly protected here in these islands. I have had the wonder and honor of swimming with them in their environment. The Hawaiians did eat the turtle, but did not slaughter to its near extinction. Having a relationship is very important for a connection from the heart. I am listing a few websites that are working to protect the turtle.

The World Turtle Trust

The LeatherBack Trust

Save the Sea Turtles International

How you can save the Gopher Tortoise

The Great Turtle Race

Free the Leatherback

Canadian Sea Turtle Network

Galapagos Conservation Trust Tortoise

World Chelonian Trust

Most of the animals that are being caged and sold are because there are consumers that believe that their body parts and fluids give them longevity, beauty, youthfulness and its vitality. We don't have to be from another culture to think this way. We just have to turn on the television or look at the advertisements throughout the media to see. Unless we stop supporting such desires we will continue to contribute to our relatives destruction as well as our own.

Even if we think we are going 'Green' by supporting a product, do we ever educate ourselves to see that to manufacture such products we are creating more destruction to life. If any of these products need repair or break they release an enormous amount of toxins in the environment.

Our relative the turtle has much to teach us even more than so called ancient knowledge hidden in crystals and ancient scrolls. He's right here. If we can seek out the living creatures as well as existing peoples alive on the planet we don't have to find books written about them. We have the source right in our midst's and within our life time. Many we be blessed with the vision to see the Divine in all its manifestations this season. May we learn well of the good and gifts in our lives.

Aloha Always

Diveena