A Lowly Turtle Full of Grace

About this poem

The turtle has a prominent position as a mythological symbol in all cultures globally, and in all continents. The eminent psychoanalyst Carl Gustav Jung interpreted the turtle analytically as the alchemical massa confusa; as the primordial chaos. Mythological accounts of the turtle can be traced to as early as 4th millennium BCE, to a zoomorphic palette in the form of a Nile soft-shell turtle. This poem entitled “A Lowly Turtle Full of Grace” was composed in 1993 as part of a workshop activity at Puppetry in Practice, Brooklyn College, City University of New York (CUNY), celebrating the workshop theme: “Bring the Magic of Storytelling and Puppet Drama into The Classroom. ” The first line of this poem employs the hermetic alchemical philosophy of Kybalion, the ancient Egypt principle or maxim, “As above so below” employing the observed truth that there is always a correspondence between the laws of nature and phenomena of various aspects of being and life; that whatever happens on the earthly plane, is reflected in the astral plane. Thus, the turtle’s shell or carapace is symbolic of the heavenly dome or astral plane, and the turtle’s underbelly or plastron is symbolic of the earthly plane; altogether combining the maxim, “As above so below.” The unstated theme of the poem is that, as inhabitants of the earthly plane, we are all part of the universal sphere of consciousness and that only together and collectively we can discover our individuated selves. more »