Sphinx, Crab, Turtle

Sphinx: The main functions of these creatures were as the guardians to the sacred ground.

A sphinx and any area guarded any kind of sacred ground at all actually.

Human head on the lion's body is the most common thought of a sphinx but they had rams heads and falcon's head also.

The Greeks wrote a lot about Egyptian culture and the word sphinx itself is thought to have come from the Greek word for strangulation

(sphingo) and in relation to a lioness and the way that she kills her prey by strangling it.

Interestingly enough if you want to see the oldest sphinx-like carving in the world run out to Ulm, Germany where they have a bone that was

carved into a lion headed manlike figurine around 32,000 years ago.

Thought to be the oldest known sculpture ever found and cut from mammoth ivory, measures 11¾ inches, was carved with a flint stone and

has seven grooves cut into the left arm.

Of course the Sphinx was considered to have originated in Egypt and was given its significance by that culture, in the main but the fact that

people depicted a lion-headed figure prior to that may have had an earlier influence filtering through the culture at the time of it's actual

creation as an icon of protection.

Many type of sphinx sprang up through time and many had to do with destruction, mayhem, conquest, victory, duty, all sorts of intertwined

associations from all around the world and this similar figure appears in many forms with breasts and wings, horns, serpent tails and most any

manner of hybrid combination you can conjure.

Crab: What a strange looking creature and one of the closest things to alien species that we can even conjure is a crab.

There are 6,793 known species of crab and 850 of those are fresh water or semi terrestrial (land crabs) which are all decapods or ten legged.

Scavengers by trade the crab will eat about anything including each other and come in a vast variety of colors and sizes form centimeters and

up to six feet in leg span.

Wearing its skeleton on the outside gives the automatic protection from predators as well as the legs that are formed as claws and pinchers, that

is to say that two of it's legs are formed as claws and others formed as pinchers and the others are used as legs and also swim fins.

What does the crab have to do with the Chariot card?

Turtle: If you've ever been up close and personal with an Ocean Logger turtle they are a very impressive creature that are now a Federally

protected species due to all of the interference by mankind and their overpowering the eco-structure of the coastlines around the world.

An interesting fact about the little hatchlings is that they will crawl toward the light when they emerge from the sand and too often the

manmade light (the opposite direction) is the light they will see first and it does them no good to pick them up and carry them to the water

because they need that exercise of crawling to build the muscles for swimming.

So if you carry them to the water you are helping them drown, just in case you find yourself in that situation some day.

Of course the turtle has the self preservation aspect of the shell and protective and steady qualities attached to it throughout the centuries and

self protection is primal for all species.

The turtle has an ever-peaceful nature to it for us as a species and there are some though few that will attack a human without provocation or

threat.

They get caught up in fishing nets and are no longer hunted for the shells eggs and meat, well not legally hunted anyway.

It's kind of surprising that the turtle isn't on the Hermit card as you would think being reclusive would go right along with the turtle and it's

natural behavior but just by it's makeup as an amphibious creature and formation with a defensive outer coating (shell) it portrays a protected

change.