| In the tropical
forests of South America, jaguars continue to play starring
roles in the real-life dramas of tribal people, particularly
through shamans, curanderos (and curanderas), or doctors
of natural medicine. Although each practitioner's repertoire
varies, such specialists generally believe they possess
supernatural powers to heal or cause sickness, summon and
communicate with spirits, see visions, shift perceptions
of reality, and transform themselves into such praiseworthy
animals as jaguars. When a shaman, for example, consumes
a psychotropic drug, paints his face with spots or rosettes,
and bejewels himself (or herself) with the teeth, claws,
and skin of a jaguar, that shaman believes he or she shares
in the cat's ability to rule the rainforest, expand physical
senses, and explore all dimensions of consciousness.
In this context the jaguar
is considered not merely a totem or companion animal, but
as a portal to another realm. Some shamans, adorned with
the claws and teeth of the sacred cat, go so far as to store
their most important compounds in hollowed jaguar bones
or within medicine bags crafted of jaguar leather.
Remote lowland tropical basins are where the jaguar is most
closely associated with tribal ceremonies and origin stories.
Members of the Tukano tribe, for instance, believe the sun
itself created the spotted cat to be his representative
on Earth. They believe our neighborhood star gave jaguar
the yellow color of solar power and the growl of thunder,
said to be the voice of the sun.
Examples of jaguar emulation abound throughout Amazonia.
Members of the Matsés tribe of the Río Gálvez
rainforest, for example, surprised their European 'discoverers'
in 1976 with decorations they wore in order to resemble
and pay homage to the jaguar. These included thin bones
piercing the flares of their noses and meant to resemble
cat whiskers, shell earrings said to look like jaguar ears,
sticks puncturing lips to evoke long canine teeth, and tattoos
or dyes that suggest the cat's rosettes and mouth. Sometimes
called 'the cat people,' the Matsése are masters
of 12-foot-long blowguns; the poison for their darts occasionally
mixed with jaguar hairs for extra potency.
Perhaps the greatest fascination with the jaguar was demonstrated
by the Classic Maya of Mesoamerica, who believed the cats
served as intermediaries between the living and the dead
and also protected the homes of Maya rulers. In short, they
were close allies in a sacred universe. The priest-kings
who ran society wrapped themselves in the cat's skin as
they sat on elevated pedestals, feet tucked into jaguar-leather
moccasins. Stone thrones were sometimes shaped like jaguars,
then covered with jaguar pelts in a show of respect to gods,
spirits, and rulers. One of the finest gifts anyone could
bestow upon a shaman or a king was a jaguar cub, which could
be kept to adulthood, offered as a blood sacrifice, and
'harvested' for its pelt and other valuable body parts.
Over centuries, the Classic Maya wove jaguars into a worshipful
tapestry of art, religion, and legend. The animal is thought
to have embodied several important deities, including those
variously overseeing the sun, night, rain, and Xibalba --
the surreal underworld where only the most holy and powerful
men (and an occasional woman) could enjoy infinite afterlife.
This same god ruled the night's "sun-less sky."
The ebony, gold, and cream-colored marks on a jaguar’s
fur symbolized the splash of stars across the heavens and
simultaneously allowed the cat to blend into the shadows
of trees. In the jungle night, the feline's wide, perceptive
eyes were said to gleam like the moon.
A traditional Maya belief is that the Jaguar God (as a ruler
of darkness) is transformed into the fire-eyed Sun God (a
ruler of light) precisely at dawn each morning, traveling
across the sky before again becoming the Jaguar God at dusk.
Without this creature's help, the sun might never return.
In this metaphoric way, both the supernatural jaguar and
the regal priest-king was said to defy the permanent death
that afflicts less-exalted beings. The notion was that some
kind of living god was essential in order to take the sun
safely through the forbidding night and draw it consistently
beneath the Earth from west to east. What better emissary
than a jaguar?
The Maya -- like the Olmec and Inca before them and the
Aztec and Toltec who followed -- revered jaguars even as
they hunted and sacrificed them. Indeed, few beings have
engaged the human heart and soul as consistently and as
deeply as have these magnificent felines. The jaguar has
long dominated the religions and cultures, myths and legends,
of nearly our entire hemisphere, from the Southwest deserts
to Argentina's pampas. It has symbolized gods and nature,
virility and power, royalty and magic, healing and destruction.
Given this enduring bond, a world without Panthera onca
is hard to imagine.
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