DON’T MESS AROUND WITH JAGUARS
The ancient Mayan word for Jaguar was spelled and pronounced “eesh”.
That, of course, is an assumption because it has been a while since we heard any ancient Mayans say anything, much less to talk about one of their favorite beasts.
The eesh was quite important to them in many ways, and a few of them still roam throughout the southwestern United States, and more plentifully in Central America and parts of South America, as well. It is on
not, by any means “extinct”, or about to become so.
The shamanistic lore of the Mayan people thought of the eesh as “the earth father” and the spots on his dark hide are said to be symbolic of the stars in the heavens above.
The Jaguar, as seen by Shaman practitioners today is viewed as that one who presides over the various powers of the Earth planet. This spotted panther is regarded and revered as the Totem Spirit of the Sky
God.
Our literature has, perhaps, been unfair by emphasizing gruesome human sacrifices and that sort of graphic thing when we speak of Maya Jaguar Priests, known as “Shamans”. Theirs was a rather complex and
intricate set of beliefs It is true, of course, that the ancient teachings of the Sky God were perverted and abused by subsequent generations but to see the a civilization as nothing more than a savage barbarism, at best, is a improper
and unfair view.
It is said that the Great Being came down from the stars and taught the Mayan people that the greatest of all virtues was integrity. He instructed them in unconditional love and forgiveness, peace and how to
be honorable and trustworthy. His teaching of a person having a sacrificial heart, a willingness to give freely of one’s self and to share one’s physical holdings to the benefit of the individual and of the community. Those basic
teachings were perverted in the generations which follow as the Mayan nation declined and as Europeans first witnessed it. It is thought that the concept of a “sacrificial heart”, for instance, was taken literally by renegade teachers,
and by a strange twist, turned into a bloody sacrifice in which the heart of a victim was extracted from the body and presented to the Jaguar spirit with hope of appeasing the Sky God. Instead of being pleased with such actions,
the Sky God was angry. To let people know such ways were not a part of his teachings the Sky God sent the Jaguar spirit to prowl the dreams of the “two-legged”. Where ever the Jaguar Spirit found hearts which had been
blackened by hatred, dishonesty or greed he would haunt them, relentlessly, unmercifully until they repented and with ceasing until the repented and reinstated integrity in their transformed lives.
If you meet with a Jaguar let it pass by. Make sure he is merely fishing in a mountain stream, which, I am told, they like to do, and not stalking you for some mis-deed you’d rather not talk about.
Don’t mess around with the “eesh”. Instead, rethink your own ideas of integrity, love and peace.
A.L.M. July 29, 2002 [c534 wds]
