Finding the First Turtle Shaped Island: A True Story

 I have loved turtles since I was a teenager. Maybe even before that. I’ve loved them since before I understood they have significance to any American culture. And my very favorite of all the turtles are the green sea turtles. Catching a glimpse of these gentle giants unexpectedly in their element has always been a moment of excitement and awe for me. At the beginning of this year, I snorkeled at the beach of an island. It was our first time trying out full face snorkel masks. My hair was braided to keep it manageable in the water, but in the undulating waves it would snake in expected directions, and a time or two it’s frayed end had startled me, mistaken for a curious fish or eel that had ventured too close to my face. At the beckoning of family members on shore, I began to return to the sand with my children, fresh from an octopus sighting. Before I reached it, I discovered one of these beautiful creatures swimming between me and the shore, to the East. I pointed it out with childish joy to my eldest so she could see also. Her fingertips pressed soft craters into the skin of my arm as we exchanged giddy grins. It was her first time seeing an adult in the wild, and only my second.

It began to swim ahead of us, and we followed, me wary of keeping the required distance—without remembering what exactly that precise distance is... Just a few days earlier we had learned the difference between the male and females of this species. This one, I would later realize, was a male. He poked his head above the water and took a breath, before turning westward. He looked at my daughter and I as we hovered back, observing, as other swimmers did likewise on the other side of him. And then he took off into the west, following the path of the sun through the sky.

This is not an uncommon experience. There are many just like this that happen by the day, and many people with stories like mine.

But the difference to me is now I know a little more about the symbolism of this animal. It means something more to me than simply being a cute animal, something more sacred. I had drawn a distinct symbolism between the turtle and God’s covenant with a people for this American land, this turtle island. So as we pulled ourselves out of the water, this meaning was likely in my mind already, and continues to be since then as I recall it. This symbolism comes, of course, from the native traditions of the Creation of this land. The turtle was the animal that bore the weight of the earth, in order to provide a place where man could live. That the shell of the turtle is also a calendar of native tribes, tracing the days and months in a single year, adds to its importance and symbolism. And... though less important a point, it reinforces my confidence in my selection of a favorite animal.

I remembered later the name of the island we were on is another culture’s name for the Son of God. Furthermore, the name of the beach translates to “arms embracing the sea.” So unknowingly, I was swimming in a place symbolizing the embrace of the Son of God, and seeing a symbol of what I understood as His covenant with this land appearing before me in the direction of birth, knowledge, and beginnings. I then saw it follow the path of the sun, towards its highest peak in the sky, the fullness of the day, the fullness of light, and onward to descent.

I’ll be honest, it bothered me that the turtle was male. When pondering on it later, inquiring of the Creator (probably more like complaining) whether there was anything I was meant to learn from the event, I asked about why it had to be a male turtle? Didn’t a female make more sense? I connect anything signifying land with a mother, of course, so it seemed more fitting to me that this turtle, if it was meant to be significant to me in this way, should be a female. It seemed I was invited to explore it further, and this was how I came to understand why the turtle would be male.

Because I have made the connection of the muskrat in the Anishinabe tradition to Christ, I had overlooked the obvious symbolism of the turtle to Christ as well, He who bears our burdens, He who lifts us above spiritual sin and death (symbolized by the floods). And when I finally realized this, I could see why my turtle was male. I was being taught something new and necessary. Because the turtle isn’t just His covenant for land. The turtle is the Son of God, Himself, who came to dwell among His own creations, in order to lift them. This is more obvious in other tribal versions of the creation that do not feature the muskrat.

So now when I read in the Seven Fires that the journey will begin and end with a turtle shaped island, beginning as it did in the story of creation, I now see this journey beginning with recognizing Christ as our turtle island, the knowledge that He is what we must find at the beginning of the journey, following Him into the waters of baptism and being reborn into His spiritual embrace, and guided along the good path to a fullness of light, where the turtle island is at the end of our journey too, as we come at last into His presence and actual embrace. (I am the Alpha and the Omega; I am he who was slain, I am he who lives; I am your advocate with the Father. T&C 157:27) But the turtle still has a definite tie to the land as demonstrated by the soil in the story of creation multiplying on his back. He provides a place for His people who follow His path:

Now we’ll witness God’s decrees concerning this land, and whoever occupies this land of promise must serve God, or they’ll be swept away when they provoke His full wrath upon them. The full extent of God’s wrath will be provoked when they’ve ripened in iniquity. This is a land that’s specially chosen and better than all other places on earth. That being the case, those who inhabit it must serve God or they’ll be swept away because of God’s everlasting decree. But they aren’t swept away until there’s a fullness of iniquity among the occupants of the land. This is coming to you, Gentiles, so you can know God’s decrees, so you can repent and not continue in your iniquities until the fullness has come, so you don’t provoke the full extent of God’s wrath upon you as the inhabitants of the land have all done before. This is a choice land; and any nation that inhabits it will be free from enslavement and captivity and from all other nations under heaven if they will only serve the God of the land, who is Jesus Christ, who’s been revealed to you through the things we’ve written. Ether 1:7

The land that He bears on His back is indeed a special land. It’s a land given specifically for those who serve Him.

And how do we begin this? How do we know how to be reborn/recreated as His people and begin our journey on the good path and into His presence? In His own words:

Listen carefully to what I tell you: I will declare to you My doctrine. This is My doctrine, and it is the doctrine that the Father has given to Me: I testify of the Father, and the Father testifies of Me, and the Holy Ghost testifies of the Father and Me. I also testify the Father commands all people everywhere to repent and believe in Me. And anyone who believes in Me and is baptized will be saved, and they are who will inherit God’s kingdom. But anyone who doesn’t believe in Me and isn’t baptized will be damned. In truth I tell you this is My doctrine, and I testify of it from the Father. Anyone who believes in Me also believes in the Father, and the Father will testify to them of Me, since He will visit them with fire and with the Holy Ghost. In this way the Father will testify of Me, and the Holy Ghost will testify to them of the Father and Me, because the Father and I and the Holy Ghost are united as one. In addition, I say to you: You must repent and become as a little child and be baptized in My name, or under no circumstance can you receive these things. And again, I say to you: You must repent and be baptized in My name and become as a little child, or under no circumstances can you inherit God’s kingdom. In truth I tell you this is My doctrine. Whoever builds on this builds on My rock, and the gates of hell will not prevail against them. And those who declare more or less than this and establish it as My doctrine advocate evil and are not built upon My rock, but are built on a sandy foundation, and the gates of hell stand open to receive them when the floods come and the wind pounds them. Therefore go to this people and declare to the farthest reaches of the earth the words that I’ve spoken. Covenant of Christ, 3 Nephi 5:9

“Rock” is a form of land, like the land on the turtle’s back. So, this could be looked at as saying that building our foundation on this “doctrine of Christ” is the same as building our foundation on the turtle’s back, building it on Christ, Himself. Like the story of creation where only the turtle’s back provides a way for mankind to live on despite the flood, so is it with building our foundation on the Doctrine of Christ. Only those who do this will prevail when the “floods come and the wind pounds them.”

This doctrine of baptism is what a prophet called “the gate by which [you] should enter” the strait and narrow path (or the good path).

Therefore do the things I’ve told you that I saw your Lord and Redeemer will do. They’ve been shown to me for this purpose, so you’ll know the gate through which you’re to enter. And the gate you’re to enter is repentance and baptism by water, and then a remission of your sins comes by fire and by the Holy Ghost. Then you’re on the straightforward and narrow path that leads to eternal life — indeed, you’ve entered through the gate. You’ve acted in accordance with the commandments of the Father and the Son, and you’ve received the Holy Ghost promised to you once you entered through the way, which testifies of the Father and Son. Covenant of Christ, 2 Nephi 13:3

And, of course the journey does not end with entering the gate, the entire good path lies before us once that is done. Just as my turtle swam off into the west, and just a Nanabush sought his father by journeying west before coming into his presence and being acknowledged as his equal, so must we follow the light to its fullest. In the words of that same prophet:

Now, my dear people, I believe you’re wondering a little in your hearts about what you should do after you’ve entered through the way. But why do you wonder over these things in your hearts? Don’t you remember I told you that after you had received the Holy Ghost, you could speak the words of angels? Now, how could you speak the message of the angels unless you did it by the Holy Ghost? Angels speak by the power of the Holy Ghost; as a result, they speak Christ’s words. Therefore I told you: Feast on Christ’s words — because the words of Christ will tell you everything that you should do. After I’ve said these words, if you can’t understand them, it will be because you don’t ask or knock. Consequently, you aren’t brought into the light but are certain to perish in the dark. I tell you again, if you will enter through the way and receive the Holy Ghost, it will show you everything you should do. This is Christ’s doctrine. No more doctrine will be given until after He visits you here on earth. Once He shows Himself to you here on earth, you must obey what He tells you. 2 Nephi. 14: 1

Thus the good path begins and “ends” with the turtle island when, “He visits you here on earth...” From the testimony of St. John, we learn some more about this in the words of Christ:

I go to prepare an abode for your upward journey. And when I arise, I will prepare places for you, but I will be your companion again and visit each of you, so that where I travel, you may journey to also. And the path I follow upward you know, and the way of ascent you also know. Thomas said to him, Lord, we don’t know where you are going; how can we know the way? You have not told us. Jesus said to him, I am the way, the record of the truth, and the means for Eternal lives, worlds without end: no man comes to the Throne of the Father without me. If you follow me, you will come to the Father’s Throne through me and will thereafter be like him forever. T&C: Testimony of St. John 10:9

But as the medicine wheel teaches us and the cycles of life and time, that is not where the path of ascension ends either. It is also circular and continues with a return, after such an ascent, to a place of darkness, where those who have been in the presence of that light and glory, then reside in a place of wisdom and share that light with those who have not yet found the first turtle island, until they too understand and seek and follow the same path, starting in the East with their own rebirth, and so on and so on. But this is a topic I will have to visit in a new series regarding ascension.

There is so much I’ve left unsaid here because it would be too long and have too many tangents. I’ll just include one last thing that applies. Because if we intend to follow the God of this land, we should know how this baptism is to be performed. I will include Christ’s directions on it that were given just before He declared His doctrine:

Then He spoke to Nephi who was in the crowd, and commanded him to approach. So Nephi stood up and went to Him and bowed before the Lord, and he kissed His feet. Then the Lord commanded him to stand up, and he got up and stood in front of Him. And the Lord said to him: I give you power to baptize this people when I’ve ascended into heaven again. 

Then the Lord called up others and said the same thing, giving them power to baptize. He instructed them: You must baptize in the following manner, and there must not be any controversies about this. I instruct you that anyone who repents of their sins because of your words and wishes to be baptized in My name, you must baptize them in the following way: You must go down and stand in the water and baptize them in My name. Now these are the words that you must say, calling them by name, saying: Having authority given to me by Jesus Christ, I baptize you in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen. And then you must immerse them under the water and bring them back out of the water. This is the way you must baptize in My name. Truly I tell you that the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost are united as one; I am in the Father and the Father in Me, and the Father and I are united as one. And exactly as I’ve commanded you, so you must baptize. You must not argue about this as you’ve done before, and you must not argue about the points of My doctrine either, as you’ve done before. In truth I tell you: Anyone who welcomes the spirit of conflict doesn’t follow Me, but is following the accuser, who’s the father of conflict. He incites people to angrily fight with each other. This isn’t My doctrine, to incite angry fighting by people. But this is My doctrine, everything like that should end. 3 Nephi 5:7-8

I recognize the first turtle island reappearing in this age, returning to the original people. It is the Son of God, calling out to all who will listen, inviting all to climb upon His back and follow His way. I believe it is time for the birth of a New People, who are willing to fulfill the measure of their creation, and to embody the image they were created in, the Creator’s own image.

All this is what I have come to understand from the turtle I saw. It does seem of great importance to me, and, though perhaps a common occurrence in some parts of this world, it will continue to be sacred in my heart.