JAGUARS. The jaguar (Panthera onca) is the largest native American cat, and for over three thousand years it has been one of Central and South America's most important symbolic animals. Sometimes associated with the puma (Felis concolor) and ocelot (Felis pardalis), the jaguar was a recurring motif in the religious iconography of many major pre-Columbian civilizations, including the Olmec, Maya, and Aztec in Mesoamerica and the Chavín and Moche in South America. In the twenty-first century, throughout tropical rain-forest areas, the jaguar still plays an important role in the spiritual beliefs of indigenous Amerindian societies.

As with all animal symbols, jaguar imagery is more than artistic depiction. It represents the symbolic joining of animal and human features and qualities and epitomizes the ways physical attributes and supernatural qualities could be fused to represent deities, spirits, shamans, and divine rulers. Beautiful and deadly, the jaguar's strength and agility...