Inner Michael

Michael Jackson was the consummate shape shifter. I have said this before but I want to explain what is meant by that. And I want to tell you about shape shifting from a shaman’s perspective.

In many Native American traditions, the medicine man or woman or tribal elder who holds the position of healer-priest-seer is able to use many kinds of medicine for constituents—the tribe. For example when I smudge (a ritual of cleansing the space by burning Cedar, Sweetgrass, Sage or other ingredients) it serves to “scrub spiritually, the molecules in the space,” or cleanse and bless the space, the people in it and the ceremony the space is being prepared for. The actual cut and dried cedar is placed in a shell-bowl and it is lit with a match while the wafting smoke is used to cleanse people and space by brushing it over the people and into the space with a feather or in my case—using a hawk’s wing.

In the Catholic Church, the censer (container for burning incense) is a thurible—the metal container on chains that priests swing a prescribed number of times, depending on the ceremonial event, to bless and consecrate the space. The Native peoples also use consecrated containers for this cleansing ritual—an Abalone shell is one such sacred container. This cleansing of spaces is medicine for the soul.

The ingredients- of sage or cedar or sweetgrass or incense is also considered medicine. The native people used many things from the natural world as medicines—plants, trees, animals and animal parts. You will often see the shamans and aboriginals of many traditions wearing a mask or headdress depicting some kind of animal. When the shaman or participants call upon the medicine or power of a particular animal, that animal is then considered their power animal or totem. Humans have, since ancient times, admired, called upon and incorporated the characteristics of animals in rituals, sacred rites and cultures. Many peoples all over the earth have used animal characteristics or likenesses for ceremony and living. A well known and culturally iconic animal symbol is the Egyptian Cobra that can be seen on the headdress of the royals.

One of the well known animal medicines is the coyote. Coyote is considered the trickster of the animal kingdom so when one is dealing with Coyote medicine in their life, things will not be as they seem. Coyote is a great teacher but the medicine of coyote will turn one’s life upside down. Native peoples read the landscape and chance meetings with animals as omens or portends of things now or things to come. They paid attention to what showed up in their path and if an animal showed up, they considered that a message and “read” the characteristics of that animal. It is said that if an animal shows up three times in a row, that is your power animal or totem and you may have more than one.

The panther is found in different parts of the world depending on whether it is a member of the leopard (Africa and Asia,) Jaguar (Central and South Americas) or cougar (North American) family. My power animal has been the panther for more than twenty years. It is also my familiar or magical animal helper.

When a shaman retrieves your power animal for you, she blows it into your body—the heart or head area, and the animal then becomes a part of you. It gets in your bones. And the first thing that an apprentice shaman learns to do with their totem is to dance the animal. He literally becomes the animal or familiar who is his power animal or spirit guide called their “totem.” The dance allows the shaman to feel and assimilate the animal and its characteristics.

There is a shape shifting to this ritual and more and more the shaman dances to the drumbeat in the body of the animal or with the animal in his bones. Some shamans actually bodily take on the characteristics of their totem—their faces begin to look like their spirit animal and their bodies mimic the energy and movement of the familiar. Michael’s Panther Dance is Michael dancing the animal. It is a shamanic and shapeshifting ritual.

 The late Ted Andrews, author and husband of Lynn Andrews, Native American author, put together a guidebook about the spiritual and magical powers of creatures. The book is titled Animal Speak and is considered the seminal collection and dictionary of totem animals. In it, Ted tells of Panther Medicine <paraphrased and excerpted: >

“The keynote of the Panther is the reclaiming of one’s power. [Think Black Panthers and racial inequality.] The cycle of this creature is the dark of the moon, the New Moon and winter. This is a representation of stealth, secret power, warrior medicine and it is definitely lunar having to do with the moon. It is mysterious and magical.

The panther is smaller and more fierce than other larger cats like the lion or tiger, and has 500 muscles it can use at will. They are loners or solitary and territorial animals. They are agile, graceful and move with ease. People with panther medicine respond to pressure and deadlines well.

They are seers with “inner vision” and the inner vision should be trusted. Some people when studying metaphysics and meditation have their inner lights “clicked on.” People with panthers as totems come into the world with their lights already on.

Panthers hear well and each ear can, just like their eyes, turn independently toward the source of their stimulation. They hear and see beyond this dimension and are visionary. The touch faculty is sensitive especially body hair and the face. Panther people are very sensitive to touch and skin stimulation. They are sensual, passionate and it runs deep, mystical and mysterious.

The panther is a resurrection animal similarly to the phoenix bird that rises from its own ashes—symbolizing darkness death and rebirth. The panther is a totem of the mystical feminine in all her aspects—child, virgin, seductress, mother, warrioress, seeress, and old wise woman.

The panther is all about power or reclaiming one’s power. It can signal the awakening of Kundalini which is an energy that rises and runs from the groin area to the head when all the chakras are active or activated.

In mythology the panther is related to Argos of a Thousand Eyes whose eyes were transferred to the feathers of the peacock—which is another phoenix bird. It is also related to Jesus and is listed as the surname for the family of Joseph. It is said a healer called “Jesus ben Panther” healed a man from old wounds—yet another story of a resurrection. It is related to Bacchus or Dionysus whose chariot was pulled by panthers.

The story of the panther is one of awakening and unleashing powerful forces—one of which is Kundalini. The others are the awakening to the hero’s quest, to the divine feminine, to creative forces and unconscious urges. Dionysus had to overcome many years of wandering, plundering, madness, destruction and suffering before he could take his place in heaven. His story is that “we are gods and goddesses in the making.”

The panther will attract a guide or advisor to the heroic path, someone who is teacher and nurturer. The hero begins to see and dwell in alternate realities. These realities contain powerful sexual energies. And they are related to birth and rebirth and the dark feminine (not negative- just very potent) which means twice born. It portends a time of facing offending shadow characteristics within ourselves or the dweller on the threshold. That can mean suffering the loss of what we think we love the most.

The panther is also a protection symbol and power reclaimed from whatever is dark in our lives. Dionysus had a magical wand, a thyrsus which was entwined with vines and had a pine cone atop that bestows the ability to create delusion and illusion. There awakens within the person with a panther totem, the ability to cause people to think and see as you wish them to which is earned through self discipline. The panther blends into the surroundings with ease.

To the Native peoples, the Jaguar of the Americas was especially a symbol of mastery and power; its roar was the roar of thunder and it could swallow the sun during eclipses. To the Arawak Indians, everything has jaguar and the man-jaguar was the ultimate shapeshifting ritual. The Aztecs and Mayans considered the half human-half jaguar to be a cultural enigma. The panther is a great archetypal force. ”  <from Animal Speak: Ted Andrews>

The panther is a powerful ally. It is a yin figure or divine feminine having to do with procreation, gestation, life, death and rebirth. The panther represents a wild unleashed force that is mysterious, lunar, magical and heroic. When a man embraces and incorporates his feminine side (yin/anima) he becomes less polarized and more whole and thus, more powerful. A man who rejects his feminine side in favor of his masculine side (yang/animus) loses the ability to navigate the world with balance. Both aspects are present in both genders. It is not wise for either gender to reject their polar opposite but is better to embrace and integrate it.

The dark feminine powers are very potent and women who are “on their moon” or menstruating, for that very reason, are not allowed in Indian sweat lodge and ceremonies because their powers are so amplified at that time. Woman carries the seed of procreation and is powerful in all the cycles having to do with life, death and rebirth, healing, the earth, wounds, growth and the cosmic mother.

Sexuality is very closely related to spirituality and creativity and they are powerful forces that must be monitored and regulated. Tantra is one way to manage the sex drive which is one of the most powerful forces in the human and the universe. The drive toward physical union mimics the drive for union with the divine or what some call the ascending gesture. They mystics longed for this union of the physical with the divine or ecstatic state. It would be an orgasmic spiritual experience. In its human or animalistic form, this force is expressed in sexuality—again a force to be reckoned with and orgasmic. In its animalistic and human form it is a genesis or new beginning and in its spiritual form, and is closely related to genesis—another name for creativity. The panther is a mysterious, mystical, mythical magical midnight being.

Next: The Black Panthers

* The first photo is my altar and my power animal the panther. This replica is a 30 inch ceramic sculpture.

* The coyote woman is from artist Susan Seddon Boulet’s collection of Native and Shamanic paintings.

* The book is “Animal Speak” by the late Ted Andrews.