Seal Symbolism & Meaning

Are you becoming a workaholic? Are you avoiding success by refusing to dive into an opportunity? Seal, as a Spirit, Totem, and Power Animal, can help! Seal teaches you how to embrace your inner child, all while letting go of your fears of the unknown. Delve deeply in Seal symbolism and meaning to find out how this Animal Spirit Guide can calm, enthuse, and motivate you.

Seal Table of Contents

• Seal Symbolism & Meaning
• Spirit Animal
• Totem Animal
• Power Animal
• Native American Symbolism
• Celtic Symbolism
• Seal Dreams
• Back to all Mammals
• Back to all Spirit Animal Meanings

Seal Symbolism & Meaning

“Gulls shriek plovers and sandpipers run up and down the beach. The tide is all the way out. The stone jetty from which people fish in the summer is covered with seals basking in the light.”
–Kathleen Valentine

Seals spend most of their lives in the mysterious, ever-moving sea, yet it gives birth to its pup on land; this dichotomy has a major impact on Seal symbolism and meaning. With Seal, the Water Element and Earth Element are a balanced influence. Seal Energy ignites intuitive abilities and awareness deep within your subconscious while helping you ground. This duo keeps you aware of rhythms both within and without—your inner realm and the external world, in perfect harmony, just waiting for further exploration.

Seals are agile; this makes them fantastic at maneuvering through the water, even when the tidal waters shift and change. On the human plane, Seal’s ability to navigate deep waters is equal to your ability to adjust to new circumstances and to remain comfortable with the ever-changing energetic tides around you.

Seals are playful. It almost seems as if they are swimming comedians who aren’t afraid to show off or clown around. Here, Seal Spirit reminds you that humor is wonderful food for the soul. As a Spirit Guide, Seal expresses the importance of finding happiness in your life every day. Tell a joke, listen to one, or find another way to make someone smile; it’ll lift everyone’s spirits. Along with a healthy portion of whimsy, Seals appear to have endless energy, enthusiasm, and infectious love of adventure. Overall, Seal Spirit’s energetic signature is light-hearted, fresh, and inspirational.

The whiskers of the Seal are energy detection systems. They gather information from the environment that helps them in the hunt. Seal Spirit mirrors this by teaching you how to detect and interpret surrounding vibrations. Seal knows a heightened awareness opens the doors to opportunity and helps you protect what is yours.

Seals also understand the world around them through their hearing; the creatures’ ears allow them to hear while underwater. In your life, the lesson of learning how to be an active listener is essential. Seal, as a Spirit Guide, will show you how to detect the real meaning behind a person’s words and actions. So, the creature’s support can help you with developing stronger relationships. Water also symbolizes the realm of emotion; sometimes, your emotions shape your perceptions in such a way that you may not hear what someone is meaning when they speak. Part of Seal’s Medicine involves mastery over emotions that might cloud your perceptions-it will allow you to remain unbiased about what you hear.

Because Seal’s habitat is in chilly waters, they have thick skin and plenty of fat for warmth. Blubber protects Seals from harsh temperatures but also predators. Seal Spirit understands the idea of being “thick-skinned”. You can, therefore, use Seal’s energetic support and benefit from an extra layer of emotional protection when people become nasty or aggressive, and make it easier to let negative conditions roll right off your back!

Seal Spirit Animal

When Seal enters your awareness, it may have one or more messages for you. First, if you feel inundated by people’s good-intentioned advice, it’s Seal’s arrives with the message it’s okay to take pause and move away from all the chaotic “noise”. Seal Spirit will help you find your strength and purpose so you can have a clear head before you sort through all the conflicting guidance. Then you can make an empowered decision.

Seal Spirit also recommends you learn how to “go with the flow.” Sometimes, you might feel the temptation to rebel and refuse to conform, and sometimes such behavior is appropriate. But if your rebellion makes unnecessary waves, it might only prolong the inevitable. It can hinder your ability to find success or free yourself from negative situations. Seal knows there are some energetic waves or situations you cannot fight. The creature urges you to release yourself to those waves, so you discover where it takes you both in spirit and mind.

For those struggling with creative blockages, the Water-Energy of Seal Spirit helps you tap into dreams, visions, and ideas free-flowing from the realm of imagination. Seal’s ability to navigate through water serves as a lesson for relationship management, too, especially when balance becomes imperative for ensuring all parties are emotionally satisfied. Likewise, you can couple Seal’s Water-Energy with the creature’s Earth Energy to bolster rationality while rooting out the source of relationship difficulties and finding practical solutions.

Seal Totem Animal

People born with a Seal Totem have incredible inner strength. You always try to stay true to the self while also adapting to life’s ongoing change. You have a knack for dealing with people from all walks of life with equal ease since you have a natural, go-with-the-flow mentality.

If Seal is your Birth Totem Animal, there is no end to your creative potential. You are one of those people with big dreams that finds a way to manifest your aspirations. Sometimes others think you are a bit daft until they see the results of your efforts! The Seal Spirit within whispers in your ear, “Don’t let anything stop you! Dive right into new waters!”

Working with Seal Energy means walking with joy in your heart. There’s a peaceful whimsy about you that makes everyone comfortable. You are a genuine believer in the adage that laughter is the best medicine.

One of the exceptional gifts you get from Seal Energy is being able to balance your head and heart even with pressing matters. With less important things, you may get moody, but that’s just Seal’s ties to the Water Element rising to the fore. When you feel Water Energies overwhelming, do as the Seal does; swim out of emotions, come up for air, take a deep cleansing breath, and get back in touch with Earth Energies to ground yourself.

Seal Power Animal

Call on Seal Spirit as a Power Animal when you want to let loose and take time out to play. Seal knows the damage that too much work can do to one’s attitude and mood. When you want to reduce anxiety and stress, Seal helps you swim through darker emotional waters into a headspace where you can clear your mind and lighten your spirit. Invoke your Seal Power Animal to help you find room for peace and pleasure; the creature helps you awaken your inner child.

Call on Seal as your Power Animal when you want support overcoming fears. Angst has a way of zapping your energy. Seal steps in with tons of positivity, so you make progress again. Your Animal Ally lends you the energetic support you need to release fearful thoughts and adapt to positive change. A lesson stemming from Seal’s Wisdom teaches that you cannot change the past, but you can fully embrace the future by maintaining an upbeat demeanor.

Native American Seal Symbolic Meanings

In North America, Native American Tribes use Seal as an emblem of abundance and providence. The Inuit regard the Seal as an innocent creature. The Nootka place images of Seal on their boats, ensuring safety.

Eskimo stories include tales about the Goddess of the Sea, Sedna. Sedna’s story does not begin on a cheerful note. The Goddess’ ruthless father tossed Her out of His kayak into the ocean. When She tried to grab the side of the boat, Sedna’s father cuts Her fingers off and Her severed digits turned into the first Sea Creatures. Sedna floated downward in the waters and became the ruler of Adivun, The Underworld, deep in the sea where it remains invisible to the human realm.

The following Makah story is the tale of the first Seal (Makah Indians): At the beginning of the world, there was nothing but grass and Earth. The brothers of the Sun and Moon came to Earth, bearing the name “The Two Men Who Changed Things.” They came to ready the planet for the Indian race and began making creatures, trees, plants, and Birds to populate the land.

One of these creatures took what didn’t belong to it. The Two Men Who Changed Things transformed the beast; its arms became short, and its legs disappeared. They spoke to this new creature, the Seal, saying that it would have to be responsible for its own nourishment. Thus, Seal became good at finding food, and no longer stole from others.

Seal as a Celtic Animal Symbol

Celtic stories from Iceland to Scotland tie the Seal to myths of Selkies. These creatures appeared as Seals in water but shed their Seal skin and turned into humans on land. They were shapeshifters. If a human obtains the skin, they can coerce the Seal that had shapeshifted into human form into a relationship. But, if Seal ever gets its skin back, they could shapeshift back into their original form and return to the ocean waters.

Merrows or Irish Mermaids are creatures that are half-Seal and half-human. Unlike the Selkie, Merrows cannot transform. Norse myths speak of Finfolk, who, like Selkies, cannot shapeshift into humans. Often, the Mermaids’ and Finfolks’ fate ended in tragedy when they fell in love with humans, married, and ultimately returned to the watery realm from which they came.

Not all Selkie are women. The handsome males of the species are charming. They seek human women who want a better life. The male Selkie does not lose his home in the sea. Instead, his human wife has a way of calling out to him whenever she desires his company. One such story of Ursilla from Orkney suggests crying seven tears into the sea would bring her husband to her. Alternatively, her Selkie husband promises to return every seven years, which is a number often used in bardic ballads. Folklorists compare the Seal’s story with that of the Swan Maiden, whose Swan skin falls off, allowing her to become human.

Near Galway Bay in Ireland, there is the belief Seals are not just animals, but they are magical people. Some families draw their lineage back to Seal Ancestors. For example, the Keneally family’s reputation is that they descended from Seals.

Seal Dreams

Depending on the disposition and color of the Seal in your dreams, it may have many meanings. One speaks of your playfulness and upbeat disposition. It may also represent being wise when using your power while letting instinct guide you.

Seals are creatures of Water and Earth. Your dream is urging you to consider what rules you more, your head or your heart? The dream about Seal may be a message that you should restore the balance between the two.

Meeting a Seal in your dream is a positive business omen. If there is more than one Seal in the dream, it means you’ll meet more than one person who will help you achieve or exceed a financial or business goal.

A sick Seal in your dreams symbolizes your worries, which are weighing heavy on you. It would help if you got out from under the emotional torrent so you can breathe. It may mean making significant changes, and the sooner, the better.

White Seals foretell a marriage. They also foretell of a happy family life and good relationships with your parents. For friendships, this is also a good sign. You may have an adventure ahead of you.

Seal Symbolic Meanings Key

• Transformation
• Inventiveness
• Imagination
• Good Fortune
• Intuitiveness
• Keen-Mindedness
• Ease of Movement
• Security & Protection
• Humor
• Dreaming