Jaguar represents the direction of the West. The sun sets in the West. In the darkness, a sleek black cat moves silently. For the shaman, the jaguar is a potent symbol of the Divine Feminine. With no predators in the rain forest, the jaguar lives free of fear, taking just what it needs from the jungle for nourishment and no more. It doesn’t kill out of greed, or for sport, or out of concern that the food supply will dry up. It doesn’t scramble to be more, do more, or accomplish more. It doesn’t need to prove itself.

Jaguar is very good at tracking, particularly tracking of emotions and sensations. It helps us to be fearless and to tread without causing harm. Jaguar does not collude with anything. Nothing is as it seems. Jaguar helps us to walk the rainbow bridge between the worlds, outside conventional space and time. Into non-locality. Into altered states of consciousness.

In our journey to the West, we embody the wisdom of the jaguar, letting go of our fear of the unknown and trusting that what is dying inside us needs to be renewed in order to serve our lives. With the cycle of life and death, harmony is re-established. Jaguar gives us the confidence to step out and explore, sure that we’re moving in sync with our life’s purpose.

Jaguar energy brings us into balance and sanity even if the world around us has gone mad, or we’re paralyzed with fear and confusion, or we’re faced with the prospect of debilitating disease. Jaguar returns our power and confidence, and restores our health.

One of the exercises that I offer is looking at decisions to be made from the different archetypical states of Serpent, Jaguar, Humming-bird and Eagle. Everyone of course has their favourite perspective. For lots of people it is eagle, which is out there, looking from above at the various choices we could take in this life, but that can be associated with spiritual bypassing. As Thomas Hubl notes, Spiritual bypassing is an enhancement of the trauma symptom. True spiritual practice is to arrive, which includes the integration of the trauma and hence the pain. Not escaping.

I really encourage people to associate with serpent and jaguar, firmly planted on the earth, on the path they should take, to fully live while they are alive.