The orca is a symbol of family, love and romance, and protection. One of the main meanings of orcas is also longevity, as the average lifespan of the orca in the wild is between 50 and 80 years. They’re also smart and quite social animals, despite many wrongful depictions of this animal being a predator.
Also known as the Killer Whale, the orca is one of the biggest aquatic creatures in the world. It’s an imposing animal that doesn’t have any natural enemies – it’s considered too big to be a prey. That’s why it’s also called an apex predator.
However, this animal is not as aggressive as you might think. Actually, it’s quite the opposite – it will only hunt other animals to survive, and it doesn’t have a real killer instinct. Instead, it has a strong survival instinct and it only wants to protect its family. Orca symbolism centers around this behavior.
Let’s take a look at the meanings of this giant animal and why you’ll find some quite surprising symbolic meanings of the orca.
> This article is from our A-Z series on sea creature symbolism
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Orca Symbolism – The Top 7 Meanings
1. Family
Contrary to popular belief, orcas are heavily family-oriented and will only rarely look outwards to be aggressive. Instead, they play a more protective role and they will only hunt other animals to sustain themselves.
One interesting fact is that orcas are female-oriented animals. This means that females play a crucial role in a typical orca family, which means they’re highly matrilineal in nature. However, it’s the role of the male to provide for the family, although smaller orcas will learn how to sustain themselves pretty early on.
They’re also highly clannish animals, which means they’ll mainly stick to their own pod. Very rarely you’ll find orcas from different “clans” roaming together – instead, orcas move around in pods, which is an equivalent of family in human terms. However, when cut off from its family and kept in captivity, an orca will only survive for about 20 years. That’s astonishing!
Other family-oriented spirit animals are the otter (see here), penguin (here) and pelican (here).
2. Communication and Intelligence
Orcas are also one of the most intelligent creatures on earth. According to research by scientist Lori Marino, orcas have the second biggest brain among all ocean mammals, weighing in at around 15 pounds. This research also finds that orcas are able to teach one another hunting techniques and even languages or dialects!
But their intelligence is not only supported by the size of their brain, but also by their behavior. They’re highly social and communicative animals, and they use their own “language” to communicate with each other.
They’re capable of converting to other orcas through echolocation, which means they let out specifc, deep-tone sounds that only other orcas are able to hear. Only rarely will you be able to hear an orca if you see one in its natural habitat.
See also: Dolphin Dream Meanings
3. Protection
The size of killer whales makes them an imposing figure in the depths of the sea. In terms of size, it is an equivalent of a bus. This makes them one of the largest species in the ocean, although they’re not harmful to other animals as they don’t hunt for fun.
Instead, most of the hunting they’ll do is to sustain themselves. They’re carnivores, which means they’ll most feed on smaller fish and plankton. And when they travel around in pods, they make up for the largest and the most threatening group of animals in the world. No other species will prey on these animals.
But for orcas, their family, or their pod, is their priority. They’ll almost never be aggressive towards other animals, and they’ll stick close to their pod so that they don’t get into danger. They feel safe because they’re embraced by a large group of other protective orcas. As a spirit animal, the orca offers you protection against the dangers in your life.
4. Teamwork
Killer whales are highly intelligent creatures. They’re very capable of catching the prey on their own, although most of the work is done in groups. To be more effective, they’ll group up and team up with their pod members, which will normally bear the most food for them.
A single pod can have up to 40 orcas in it. This means that this pod will almost never be attacked by other animals, although the pod is perfectly capable of catching other animals when they work as a group. Often, they’ll only catch other animals that are standing still or are taken forwards by the flow – as they’re unable to resist the size and the strength of the orcas.
5. Femininity
Orca pods have a very strong social hierarchy. At the top of the hierarchy is the mother, while males will often play other roles. However, the mother sets the tone for the rest of the group. And when the mother dies, her daughter will be considered the leader, and so on.
Again, this goes to show how strong is the social behavior of killer whales. Males will be tasked with protecting the group, but especially for protecting the baby orcas. And even the males of the group will be subordinate to the feminine leader.
This makes orcas a powerful symbol of femininity and feminine energy. It’s interesting to observe that one of the strongest, largest, and most powerful animals carries this meaning.
As a polar opposite sea creature, the seahorse symbolizes masculinity.
6. Strength and Power
People often say they “go with the flow” – but the people that “create” this flow are among the most powerful people in the world. And it’s the same in the animal world. Orcas are the ones “creating the flow”, while other animals either avoid it, go against it, or go with it.
These groups of orcas will travel up to 40 miles in just a day, and they’ll not be stopped by anything that comes in their way. For other animals that find themselves in their way, this either means death, or if they try to avoid it, a dangerous encounter at least. This is an unstoppable power of nature.
That’s also why orca pods are so successful in hunting other animals and surviving for so long in the wild.
Another sea creature that symbolizes strength is the lobster and a sea animal that symbolizes power is the shark.
7. Longevity
Speaking about surviving for long, orcas are one of the longest living sea creatures in the world. In the wild, these animals will survive for up to 100 years if the conditions are right. They’re capable of achieving the older years, but only if they stick together in groups.
Interestingly, these animals won’t do well on their own and in captivity, where they might only reach around 20 years of age. Without the group instinct, they’re not capable of surviving for as long as they normally do.
Additionally, killer whales have been around for thousands if not millions of years. They surely must be doing something right, then?
MORE AQUATIC CREATURES SYMBOLISM:
Orca Dream Meanings
Dreams about orcas are most likely a reflection of your state and your real life situation. However, if you’ve recently seen an orca in an amusement park, then this dream is nothing surprising.
Generally speaking, seeing an orca in your dreams is about something closely tied to your family. It’s either about someone special in your life like your other half, or perhaps one or more members of your closer family. This dream represents positive emotions and feelings about these people close to you.
Also, this dream also means these people care deeply about you, and that you also care deeply about them, too. However, it might also be an indicator that you should be paying more attention to them. That’s especially true if you’ve been away from them for some time.
- Swimming alongside an orca in your dreams means that you’re likely to have some success in your life soon. Whether it’s at work or in your personal life, swimming with an orca means “going with the flow”, which can be a good thing if you’re pursuing something great in your life.
- However, playing with an orca in your dreams can have some different meanings. The first one is that you’ll probably be making friends with someone you’ve had arguments in the past. Secondly, this dream might represent that you’ll soon make friends with someone you would’ve never thoughout you would be friends with.
- If an orca is chasing you in your dreams, then you should be wary about some people you’re close to. It means that they’re likely only getting what they want from you, and that they might be exposing you for it soon. Observe your relationships and how this dream can relate to them.
Final Thoughts
Orca symbolism has some very surprising and positive meanings. They’re named killer whales for their ability to hunt down larger quantities of other animals, although they only do that to survive and sustain themselves.
For them, family is everything. That’s what they can bring to you, too. They respect the strong social hierarchy and are strong communicators, something which you can take away from these animals and use in your life.
I’m Chris and I run this website – a resource about symbolism, metaphors, idioms, and a whole lot more! Thanks for dropping by.