Turtles are widely recognized across the world and throughout history as being symbols of longevity, prosperity, protection, abundance, and connection with the planet. Turtles have appeared in ancient stories and folklore, and are used as a symbol to provide metaphors for many parts of our human experience. So, what does it mean if you dream of a turtle?
Dreaming of a turtle represents the health and harmony of your environment and lifestyle. Because turtles are known for being slow, they can show up in a dream to convey messages related to time. The shell of a turtle is a dream my be symbolic of protection, seclusion, or being closed or “shelled” off from others.
Depending on the context of your turtle dream, the meaning of a turtle appearing to you in your dream could have various meanings. This article goes over the most common dreams of turtles and a possibility of how they may be interpreted. This is meant to serve as a guide to spark your own inspiration and intuition so you can investigate your own turtle dream with your own inner wisdom.
What Is The Spiritual Meaning of Dreaming of a Turtle?
Seeing a turtle in your waking state may bring up a range of emotions for you; however, the most common emotion that they are related to is peace, tranquility, and getting synced to the natural cycles of your physical body.
In dreams, this is no different. Seeing a turtle in a dream often brings up feelings of joy, peace, and comfort. However, depending on your own emotions and the emotions of the turtle, these dreams can be very distressing.
Spiritually, turtles in dreams represent how you see the world and how the world sees you, in a multi-faceted way of how you create and view your identity in this lifetime. In this way, turtles represent the pace at which you function best, and how naturally you integrate into the cycles of your own physical reality.
Turtles can also appear to you in a dream if you are carrying someone else’s problems or emotions and confusing them with your own. This is commonly seen in people who are empathic or a highly sensitive person.
In some contexts, turtles can show up as a messenger from the spirit realm, as they are master communicators in terms of frequencies and vibrations that extend beyond different realms. They may be appearing to you in a dream to understand how to communicate to someone, or if your higher self is trying to send you a message that you have not yet consciously received.
Turtles have been linked to telepathy, clairaudience, and clairsentience, all psychic abilities related to hearing from the spiritual realm or in an extra-sensory way, and feeling the emotions of others around you.
The Symbolism of a Turtle
Sometimes animals or objects can appear in a dream to help you understand a concept in your waking life that relies on literal interpretation or symbolic reference.
Symbolically, turtles represent longevity, protection, the planet earth, and approaching something with a slower pace. They also are symbolically related to the element of water, related to intuition, emotions, yang energy, lunar cycles, and the subconscious.
It can be helpful to look at the symbolic meaning of a turtle and see if the symbolism of a turtle can help you uncover the meaning of it appearing to you in a dream. Symbolic dreams usually contain multiple symbols for greater clarity. For example, a turtle appearing with the image of a clock could symbolically represent approaching something with a slower pace, or not to rush into something.
What Does it Mean To Dream of a Friendly Turtle?
It is common to have positive turtle dreams in which you and a turtle are interacting in friendly ways. Turtles usually give the dreamer a sense of protection, comfort and peace. But, what is the deeper meaning of a friendly turtle?
Having a positive dream of a turtle represents the gift of empathy, or that you are in a season of giving back to your community, environment, or to yourself. It represents a season of growth, abundance, and comfort with being in “your own skin.” It can also represent that you are stepping into a higher vibrational level of self-awareness and self-acceptance.
Below are some of the most common friendly turtle dreams, and some ways in which you can view or interpret these dreams.
Dreaming of a Pet Turtle
Having a dream of a pet turtle represents nurturing something within you. This could be a goal, habit, or aspect of yourself. A pet turtle also represents the need for patience in the process of nurturing, and that it takes unconditional love, commitment, and determination to achieve your goal.
In dreams that you have an animal as a pet, it usually relates to a commitment to a goal, or ownership over something in your energetic space. Related to a turtle, this could be nurturing a process of slow growth towards your goal. A pet turtle in a dream reminds you to show up for your goal every day, even if it is just accomplishing very small tasks moving you one step closer to success.
For example, if you want to establish a habit of meditating every day, dreaming of a pet turtle lets you know that you have taken ownership over that area of your life and want to slowly work on it to make it stronger. This means feeding it every day, maintaining it, and watching it grow and thrive. It could be just 5 minutes each day until you establish it as a habit.
Turtles are all about slow and steady movement, establishing a mindset of determination, patience, and persistence. This mindset, once mastered, can help you achieve many things in your life.
If you dream that you have a pet turtle that is slowing you down, it may represent a part of yourself that you need to be patient with or a goal that you have abandoned that you need to recommit yourself to.
Feeding a Turtle In a Dream
Similar to dreaming of having a pet turtle, feeding a turtle in a dream represents nurturing a goal or learning a new skill. It may also mean giving back to your community or the planet via time, energy, or finances.
If you are feeding a wild turtle in a dream, this represents external goals that you are nurturing, instead of personal goals. This could be joining a network of people that believe in the same values and contributing with others towards a common goal.
You may have a sense of optimism about the future and idealism about where we can evolve as a species. Or you may have valuable information to share with the world, and want to align with others that can help you realize this vision for the future.
As with the general theme of turtle dreams, this is a slow nurturing process that helps you establish a mindset of commitment, determination, persistence, and slow but hard work.
Dreaming of Riding a Turtle
A dream that you are riding a turtle represents trusting that direction and flow of the universe that you are in right now. You may feel that things are moving too slowly in your life, yet this dream lets you know that whatever pace you are moving is perfect for where you are. There are other things happening underneath the surface that are taking you where you need to go.
On another note, riding any type of animal in a dream relates to a deep connection to that animal, pointing at a relationship that may be spiritual in nature such as a spirit animal, animal spirit guide, or power animal.
You may be moving through a deeply spiritual or life lesson linked to the energies of a turtle. This could be mastering your empathic abilities or synching up to a different reality that is more in alignment with your pace of life.
This dream also may mean that there are big changes headed your way, but trust that you are protected, and that things will not change suddenly. You may be undergoing a slow change that may not feel as abrupt or overwhelming as you think.
Dreaming of Helping a Turtle
A dream of helping a turtle represents empathy, especially related to empathy with nature and the earth. You may be extra sensitive to the health of the planet or more energetically aware of the interconnectedness between everything in the universe.
Because turtles represent the planet earth, a turtle may be sending you a message that you can help heal the planet, and that you are called to step into this role. This may be a career in healing others or bringing the planet back into balance in some way.
If you dream that there are too many turtles to help and you can’t get to all of them, this represents taking on too many problems for others around you. It can be a sign of unbalanced empathy. It also may be an invitation to ask others for help, instead of being the only one that helps others.
You also may be too overwhelmed by the unbalances that exist in our world right now, causing you to feel depressed or helpless. It can be helpful to understand that you alone can or should be responsible for the health of the planet and to release some of that guilt and responsibility. Instead, focus on giving compassion to the world.
Dreaming of Holding a Turtle
Dreaming of holding a turtle represents energetically holding onto events from your past that are slowing you down. It could also represent holding onto other people’s emotions or problems which indicates that you are empathic. In a positive context, this dream represents deep compassion for others and cultivating an environment of trust.
If the dream has a positive feeling, this could represent your ability to hold space for people or events that require patience, understanding, and compassion. There may be a friend, family member, or client that could benefit from you listening to them and creating a safe space of acceptance and trust.
If you are holding a big turtle in a dream and feel positive, it may indicate that you have compassion for the world at large, or care deeply about a wider socio-political issue that impacts a community of people that your values align with.
In dreams where you are holding a turtle and you feel negative, such as the weight of the turtle is too large, it can represent that there are memories or events from your past that are holding you back.
For empaths, feeling overwhelmed when carrying a turtle could represent an empathic imbalance causing you to take on other people’s problems or energy as your own. You may feel the heavy burden of their problems weighing you down, just as the slow energy and heavy shell of a turtle can feel in your arms.
This dream could be an indicator to start developing some of your empathic abilities. A great article to read if you want to hone in on your empathic gifts and develop them as strengths can be found here.
What Does It Mean To Dream of an Aggressive Turtle?
While turtles are very slow and nonaggressive in real life, dreams often depict situations that are not based on reality. It is possible to have dreams where a turtle is acting in an aggressive or negative way, showing signs of anger and causing you fear.
Dreaming of an aggressive turtle can represent a conflict with your inner and outer worlds, related to your natural pace, your core values, or your goals for the future. Because aggressive turtles are usually acting outside of their shell, it represents external energies that are competing with your inner world.
Aggressive turtles can also represent external energy in your life that is passive-aggressive. Because turtles are naturally passive creatures, the aggressive behavior you are experiencing from someone may be hidden beneath a surface of manipulative intentions.
What Does A Turtle Attacking Me In a Dream Mean?
Dreaming of a turtle attacking you in a dream brings up inconsistencies between how outside events are happening and the pace at which you feel comfortable moving at. This dream may be related to issues around feeling a lack of protection, unbalanced energy in the home, or unstable boundaries.
This dream could also indicate a relationship or partnership that is moving too fast and aggressively, and your intuition is putting up red flags at the alarmingly fast rate that things are going. It might be best to try to slow things down or leave a situation that is making you feel uncomfortable with the domineering pace and energy.
Also, related to aggressive turtles, this dream could also mean someone is acting in a passive-aggressive way towards you.
Dreaming of a Turtle Chasing You Or Running Fast In a Dream
Similar to dreaming of a turtle attacking you, if a turtle is chasing you in a dream it indicates that something in your life is moving too fast for your comfort level. It could also indicate feeling insecure with your capability or intelligence level, or not being adequate enough.
In reality, turtles are the iconic representation of slow movement. So, in a dream, if a turtle is running fast or chasing you, it is a sign that something which you believe should be slow is overtaking you.
This could translate into any skill, career, relationship, or energetic situation. For example, If you are just starting out in a new career, you may feel that you should be qualified enough to keep up. However, the learning curve may prove to be too steep, and you are hard on yourself for not being able to keep up.
This dream also indicates that something in your life is out of sync related to the pace at which you are moving. You may be designed to move more slowly through life; yet, your reality is forcing you to move faster than you can keep up.
A sign that your reality is not in sync with your natural rhythms is fatigue, health issues, depression, anxiety, or an overall feeling of not being able to catch up. This can result in a desire to be alone whenever possible, and to not want to take on too many demands. It can lead to an avoidant lifestyle because everything around you feels too overwhelming. Quite literally, you may feel like retreating into your “shell.”
A turtle chasing you in a dream is an invitation to investigate the natural pace at which you move, and what jobs, living situations, relationships, or hobbies align with that pace. There is absolutely a lifestyle that you can choose that aligns with your natural pace. Find it, and you will not only succeed, you’ll thrive.
Dreaming of a Turtle Biting You
A turtle biting you in a dream is a sign to remember something that you were once committed or to remember an aspect of yourself that you have abandoned. It is to call your attention back to an important aspect of yourself that is in danger of being forgotten.
Animals biting in dreams is a way to bring your attention back to remember who you truly are. You may be living a life that is not reflective of your higher calling in life. A clue to let you know what is more in alignment with your true calling is in the animal that bites you.
In this case, a turtle represents patience, longevity, and long-term determination. You may have forgotten or abandoned a long-term goal that you were once committed to. A turtle biting you reminds you about these long-term goals and invites you to recommit yourself to these long-ago passion projects.
Depending on where a turtle bites you could be a clue as well. A turtle biting your hand represents your contributions to the world, in the form of career or energetic output. A turtle biting you in the leg represents your domestic life and energies in your root chakra. A turtle biting you in the foot represents the direction and path you are moving towards. These are just some examples.
Turtles Fighting in a Dream
Dreaming of turtles fighting in a dream represents inner conflict related to your spiritual and physical values. It could also represent competition in your domestic space that is causing you stress.
Turtles represent both the planet and the moon and exist both on land and water. They represent strength and determination, but also represent protection and going within. Turtles blend two competing paces of slow-moving physical and more fluid intuitive imagination. These energies can compete for attention in our lives, making us hyper-focused on one over the other.
A turtle fighting with another turtle may be a sign that you are spending too much time in imaginations, dreams, and ideas and not enough time taking steps to realize your goal. Or, you may be stubbornly pushing towards a goal without doing the meditative introspective work to make sure it aligns with your core values.
Because turtles also represent protection and your domestic space, it could also literally mean a conflict that exists in your home. There may be people, animals, or energies competing for attention, causing stress. This could be a reminder to reclaim the space in the home as being safe and grounded.
What Does It Mean To Dream of a Dead or Dying Turtle?
One of the widely accepted meanings of a turtle is longevity because of their uniquely long lifespans. So, if you dream of a turtle dying, it may seem to contradict the symbolic meaning of what turtles represent. However, in the spiritual realm, death and dying simply represent change and transformation.
Dreaming of a dead or dying turtle represents a very slow change that you are undergoing in your life. You may not notice how things are changing overnight, but under the surface, there are subtle shifts that are happening at a slow pace.
These slow changes are based on a slow awakening of your core identity and alignment with your inner and outer worlds. This integration happens over a long period of time for some people who do not do well with sudden change.
If you feel very unsettled by a dream of a turtle dying, it may represent a literal issue that we have in our waking lives. Due to the practices of humans extracting resources without replenishing them, the turtle population is rapidly decreasing. This energy may be very disturbing to you and overlap into your dreams and may mean that you are an earth empath.
Dreaming of Killing a Turtle
Dreaming of killing a turtle represents a struggle that you have with time, specifically trying to avoid something that you perceive as something slowing you down. It can represent procrastination that is becoming a mental hardship for you to take control of, making it feel like a threat.
This dream may also represent impatience towards something that you perceive is overly slow or taking too much time to complete. The act of killing the turtle in a dream could be a way that your subconscious is trying to speed things up. However, the turtle symbolism lets you know that learning the skill of patience may be a better way to approach this situation.
Because turtles have a hard shell they can retreat into as a defense, in your dream you may be breaking or hitting the shell of a turtle. This could represent breaking through someone’s thick shell. Turtles also represent communication, so you may be trying to break through to someone who has communicatively shut down.
Dreaming of a Sick Turtle
Dreaming of a sick turtle may represent feeling stuck, stagnant, or unhappy with where you are in life. You may feel that you made choices that slowed you down, and can not move quick enough in life to get back to where you thought you should be. This may be related to a “fear of missing out” or a fear of getting older.
Because turtles represent your environment, your body, and your physical space, this dream could be related to imbalances in your root chakra or grounding centers. You may feel that the planet is sick or your environment is degrading. Or on a more personal level, you may feel that your health is declining or your home is falling into disrepair.
Cooking or Eating a Turtle In a Dream
While this dream may seem disturbing, eating a turtle in a dream represents embodying the spiritual traits and protections that this animal has to offer. You may be in a season of bringing in more protection, longevity, or abundance into your life.
In indigenous Hawaiian belief based on animism and polytheism, the turtle, known as Honu, was a sacred spiritual deity that was an aumakua. Families that had the turtle as their aumakua would eat a turtle to embody the spiritual traits of this creature.
Dreaming of eating a turtle has similar symbolism. Food turns into energy, so eating a turtle in spiritual language is a complete embodiment and expression of turtle energy.
What Does It Mean To Dream of a Turtle In Water?
Dreaming of a turtle in water is a spiritual dream that represents intuitive development, spiritual progression, compassion, psychic abilities, telepathy, and interconnectedness. It can be a sign that you are in a season of embracing your spiritual gifts and are receptive to the changing tides that are moving you closer to your higher self.
Turtle In an Aquarium
Dreaming of a turtle in an aquarium may represent knowledge that you have of your intuitive and psychic gifts; yet, you feel that your current reality is keeping these on lockdown. You may feel that there are glass walls holding you back from your highest potential, but can’t quite grasp what it is exactly that is holding you back.
This dream is all about limitations in your spiritual development, but a reminder that you can still fully express your intuitive being in the contained reality that you are living.
Dreaming of a Turtle Drowning
Dreaming of a turtle drowning in water may be a sign of being overly empathic or holding onto other people’s problems or emotions. Water is a turtle’s natural element that it thrives in, so when it is drowning in its natural element it represents a natural gift that is out of balance.
Because turtles are sensitive to vibrations in water, they symbolically represent an intuitive and telepathic connection to others. Also, the element of water represents emotions and intuition. If a turtle is drowning in these elements, it can signify that the subtle bodies that process these sensations feel overwhelmed. This is common for highly sensitive people or empaths.
Dreaming of Different Parts of a Turtle
| Dreaming of a Turtle Head | Dreaming of a turtle head represents third eye energies, specifically related to psychic abilities and claircognizance (clear knowing). |
| Dreaming of a Turtle Shell | Dreaming of a turtle shell represents protection, safety, and energies around the home. In a negative dream, this can represent defensiveness, anti-social behavior, introversion, and unbalanced empathy. |
| Dreaming of Turtle Feet | Dreaming of turtle feet represents moving slow, patience, and knowing your own pace. It can also represent taking small steps towards a larger goal, or consistent forward movement to establish a long-term habit. |
| Dreaming of Turtle Eggs | Dreaming of turtle eggs represents new ideas, specifically related to a project that is innovative and enhances the well-being of the entire planet. Turtle eggs hatching in a dream represent new beginnings on the horizon, and an attitude of grit to get you into the big wide ocean full of opportunities and long-term success. |
Different Colored Turtles in Dreams
| Dreaming of a White Turtle | White turtles in a dream represent spiritual growth, physical healing, life-force energy, and the spirit-mind-body connection. They can also represent healing related to your inner child, or healing holes or breaks in your auric field. |
| Dreaming of a Black Turtle | Black turtles in a dream represent shadow work, subconscious energy, external forces slowing you down, lack of boundaries. |
| Dreaming of a Brown Turtle | Brown turtles in a dream represent nurturing energy, motherly love, lunar energy. They can also be related to natural events, such as natural disasters, or natural cyclical events. |
| Dreaming of a Blue Turtle | Blue turtles in a dream represent communication, creativity, seeking balance, and world peace. |
| Dreaming of a Golden/Yellow Turtle | Golden or yellow turtles in a dream represent abundance, success, career, and self-expression. They could also represent hidden treasures that you will unexpectedly find. |
| Dreaming of an Orange Turtle | Orange turtles in a dream represent emotional fluidity, emotional intelligence, and emotional expression. |
| Dreaming of a Red Turtle | Red turtles in a dream represent protection, relationships, domestic energies, and fear of aging |
| Dreaming of a Purple Turtle | Purple turtles in a dream represent psychic abilities, clairvoyance, and telepathy |
| Dreaming of a Green Turtle | Green turtles in a dream represent compassion, innovation, new beginnings, change, patience, determination, and the health of the planet and an ecosystem. |
Different Types of Turtles in Dreams
| Dreaming of a Sea Turtle | Sea Turtles in a dream represent intuition, interconnectedness, empathy, abundance, courage, curiosity, and manifestation. They blend the wisdom of an elder with the enthusiasm and joy of a young child. |
| Dreaming of a Tortoise | Tortoises in a dream represent consistency, determination, patience, and establishing habits. They can represent the beginning of a long-term project or life-long change. |
| Dreaming of Snapping Turtles | Snapping turtles in a dream may represent setting boundaries, courage, and pivoting in an area of your life (usually career-related). They can also represent impatience, indecision, and passive-aggressive behavior. |
| Dreaming of Small Turtles/Baby Turtle | Small or baby turtles in a dream could represent new beginnings, starting a project, traveling abroad, and taking risks. When baby turtles show up in dreams, there is massive long-term growth headed your way. |
| Dreaming of Giant Turtles | Giant turtles in a dream represent a big issue that you can no longer ignore related to something moving too slowly in your life. It may be a relationship that isn’t moving forward or a career where you can no longer move up in the company. |
Other Turtle Dreams
Carrying a Turtle In a Dream
Dreaming of catching a turtle represents taking on a new responsibility, temporarily working extra hard to complete a project, or carrying a heavy burden. You may feel like the burdens of the world are weighing you down, and that you aren’t moving quickly enough to accomplish everything you want in life.
This dream could also indicate being slowed down by age, feeling like the world is passing you by.
Catching a Turtle In a Dream
Catching a turtle in a dream represents inspiration, potential, new ideas, and a new wave of motivation. This dream could indicate that you should follow your heart and explore ideas or projects that you have been thinking about starting.
Starting out on a new project may make you feel vulnerable, so a turtle in a dream encourages you to start small and explore the depths of your dreams. Try it out as a temporary experiment to see if it has longevity. You can always release the turtle if it is not the right time or approach.
Dreaming of a Flying Turtle
Flying turtles in dreams represent the ability to bend time and space and manipulate time to fit within the constraints of your project. It could point to the concept that time is an illusion, and we create whatever timeline we desire. This is known as “Einstein time.”
To learn more about this, I encourage you to read about “Einstein time” found in the book The Big Leap by Gary Hendrickson. Here is a video that summarizes what it is:
Turtles Falling From the Sky In a Dream
Dreaming of turtles falling from the sky represents feeling like you are out of control in terms of time and your pace. You may be required to move more quickly than you can, making you feel a sense of chaos or being overwhelmed.
Dreaming of Frogs and Turtles
Dreams that have both frogs and turtles could be related to aspects of the mind, mostly related to critical thinking and balancing logic and intuition. It can also be related to misaligned expectations and judgments.
When frogs and turtles appear in a dream, it could represent high expectations from others without meeting those expectations yourself. For example, you may expect others to jump high, whereas you can only walk slowly.
It could also represent scattered energy, frustration, impulsiveness, or choosing to fight a battle that you don’t have the sustained energy to keep up with. It could also represent a “grass is always greener” mentality, especially regarding relationships.
Dreaming of Snakes and Turtles
Dreaming of snakes and turtles brings up reptilian energy in a dream, mostly related to fire, creation, and primal energy. It can represent delegation, seeing into the future, entrepreneurship, and manipulating others to complete your vision for you.
You may be able to stay at a slow pace and accomplish great things by delegating certain tasks to others that you don’t want to take on.
This dream is all about creation, masculine energy, leadership, and technology. You may be called to start a tech company or step into the digital or fintech space.
What does a snake eating a turtle in a dream represent?
A snake eating a turtle represents infinity and eternity. It also represents longevity and the sustained forward motions to overcome any obstacles in your path.
Dreaming of a Turtle in Your Home or Bed
Dreaming of a turtle in your home represents protection, abundance, and success. It can relate to the energy of Saturn, slow and steady hard work that is now returning home.
According to this article, Saturn is all about “maturity, responsibility, discipline, and stewardship.” Similar to this, dreaming of a turtle in your home ties in these themes to events in your waking life.
Dreaming of a turtle in your bed represents protection of your astral body and your experience in the astral realm. It is a sign that you are being watched over and protected while you sleep.
Dreaming of a Group of Turtles or Turtle Family
Dreaming of a group of turtles, or a family of turtles represents completion, wholeness, and protection that can be found within a strong core community. It may also mean that you feel your community is moving too slow for where you want to go, but this is a challenge to have patience and help those who need your support.
Summary
Having a turtle appear to you in a dream can have a lot of symbolism attached to it depending on the context and your emotional reaction to the events in the dream. Generally, turtles in dreams represent time, protection, passivity, seclusion, and the health and harmony of your environment.
Like everything on this site and on the internet, use your intuition to determine what symbolism works best for you. This article is meant to serve as an inspirational guide, and should in no way replace your own intuitive answers. Keep investigating this dream, and you may be surprised that the answer may appear to you out of nowhere.
