The Jaguar’s Noble Spiritual Task

The Jaguar is the guardian of the forest. It is the renovator, the animal that transforms life in the rainforest. It represents sudden change – life and death. To us, it may seem odd that the transforming force of the Universe is associated with death. However, the Ancestors believed that transformation meant renewal, renovation – and that whatever is not renovated would perish. Nothing is stable or permanent in the Universe, because the Universe is constantly flowing. Chaos and order, expansion and contraction are natural cycles in life.

Sickness is not only an opportunity to recover health – but also to leap into a higher level. Healing is not merely a way to eliminate symptoms, it means improving health. That is the energy of the Jaguar.

A stable system is one that does not change easily. People do not change when things go well, but rather when something goes wrong. Crisis bear opportunity. We are able to change our body so that we can facilitate healing and we age beautifully by incarnating the powers the Jaguar represents. I grew up believing that we metaphorically have nine lives, much like cats. As we come to the end of one of these lives (which many prefer to call stages or phases), it is important that the old ego is buried and then, like a Jaguar, we take a leap to the infinite - where all beings that have no definite form as yet reside - and come back transformed. The Jaguar is the steward of the forest and the Guardian of the Death Portal. It helps us dismantle all that has to die in us, so that a new one is born.

The hurricane embodies the Jaguar’s chaotic power. A beehive or an ant colony, with all their complexity, are the expression of the beauty of the Jaguar’s power. The Jaguar’s energy works on the realm of a village, of an organization, or even of the individual. Many times, marriages must be dissolved so that people may survive and be healthy. Or a village has to be abandoned so that others may prosper somewhere else. That happened with the Anasazis, the Mayas and the Incas. Abiding by the natural cycle of order and chaos, they periodically abandoned their homes and built new villages somewhere else.

The Jaguar shows us that death is needed, so that hope may be retrieved and balance be brought back after chaos. We can invoke the Jaguar’s energy to contain the chaotic expansion of cancer, or the wild spreading of fire in a forest. The Jaguar may be invoked to bring back peace to someone who is going through an agonizing process in chaos – and it will guide that person on a journey into the world of the Spirit.

The peoples living in the jungle also venerate the Jaguar, knowing it can transform dark energies into a glowing energy field. The Jaguar is the transformer of ceremonial magic. The Jaguar is a healer, operating from a distance whenever it is called, and always present in any Healing Circle.

The Jaguar purifies the energy on a magical ceremony, transmuting them whenever necessary. A legend from the Amazon has it that when it participates in a ceremony, the Jaguar devours the negative feelings of rage, fear and sadness. The Jaguar is a spiritual purifier that transforms heavy and dense energies into Light. As the protector of life, the Jaguar guards the ceremonial space, preventing any negative energy from entering our Healing Circle.

I, the Golden Jaguar, of the Lowland Wolves Clan, have spoken... IA HO!

Text by Wagner Frota, sociologist and shaman, member of NEX Consultant Board
(http://www.nex.org.br).