Lizard: light – lunar creature; believed to be tongueless and subsisting on dew; represents silence; sacred to the Egyptian god Serapis and the Greek god Hermes as a symbol of divine wisdom; the lizard Tarrotarro is an aboriginal Australian culture hero, creator of the sexes, taught man the art of tattoo; as it warms itself in the sun, seen as the seeker of spiritual enlightenment; because it sheds its skin viewed as a symbol of rebirth
dark – in Zoroastrianism a symbol of Ahriman and evil; in Christianity, represents evil and the devil; Roman mythology views the lizard as death and resurrection as it sleeps through the winter; symbol of drought; in some African cultures, seen as a master of evil transformation
Toad: light – associated with rebirth, bones of toads were found in burial pits in France; in American Indian lore, the wife of the sun is the Toad Goddess; Chinese three legged toad dwells in the moon causing lunar eclipses (my error to include toads in this reptile blog post - toads are amphibians)
dark – Aztec symbol of death, related to the underworld womb of regeneration; poisonous skin excretions associated with witchcraft in Europe
Turtle: light – caryatid of the universe; beginning of creation; in Southern Asia, believed to represent the cosmos, its upper shell the heavens, its body the earth, its under shell the water or underworld; Native American mythology tells how the turtle carries the world; avatar of Vishnu, the preserver, the power of the waters; as Kasyapa, the North Star, the first living creature; Japanese Shinto symbol of longevity and immortality, called kame; Chinese yang symbol of the Black Warrior as strength, endurance, and longevity; Greco-Roman representation of fertility, sacred to Aphrodite and Venus
dark – the trickster; sagacious; Christian symbol of darkness; Egyptian enemy of the sun god; drought; in China, a yin symbol of water, winter, the northern region, the color black (primordial chaos); Mexican symbol of the Great Mother in her terrible aspect