![]() Jaguars held such power for ancient peoples that entire civilizations identified with them. By weeding out the weaker animals of the forest, the jaguar helps eliminate that which must die in order for the new to be born, and is therefore seen as a force of change. In the lore of the rainforest peoples, jaguars are seen as the caretakers of the jungle because they’re at the top of the food chain, with no predators other than man. The jaguar is the king of the Amazon rainforest-the most important animal for the jungle shaman because it represents the power of transformation. When we engage the energies of the serpent archetype, we summon the feminine creative principle that can rekindle our passion and help us shed the past, as a snake sheds its skin. In nature, fecundity is the creative principle associated with the feminine. The serpent represents the essential life force that seeks union and creation, and is therefore a symbol of fertility. It is a universal archetype: When Moses led the Israelites through the desert, he carried a serpent staff that symbolized wisdom a serpent in the Garden of Eden tempted Eve to eat the forbidden fruit from the Tree of Knowledge in the East, the snake symbolizes the sage Kundalini energy that lies coiled at the base of the spine and channels up through the chakras and the physicians’ symbol, caduceus, which dates from ancient Greece, depicts two serpents intertwined around a staff. The serpent symbolizes knowledge, sexuality, and the healing power of nature. (You may remember that we invoke these four spirit animals in our prayer to create sacred space.) Four archetypal animals are particularly important to the Laika: the serpent, the jaguar, the eagle (or condor), and the hummingbird. In doing so, they’re seeking to be associated with the animal’s energies and to embody its powers. Like many Native Americans, the Laika are so closely linked to the animal world that they often take an animal as their namesake.
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