All of our Otherworldly experiences are recorded in our memoirs: Tequila and Chocolate:

I am ever amazed at the profound knowledge left to us by the Mesoamericans and other ancient indigenous cultures. According to the Maya, and we were on the land of the Maya, each person has one of twenty different day-signs: “A person’s birth date, falling on one of twenty days, each having a specific name (sometimes that of an animal) and characteristics, is believed to influence one’s own character and is one of their co-essences.”

My Maya birth, day-sign is Dragon of the Sky: Cauac-Kawak – Storm/Rain/Lightning (Purification). My day-sign is also called the Celestial Home of the Gods. Huracán is the Maya god of the storm. The Maya calendar has 20 signs, and they follow each other, changing daily. The sign on the day of your birth is your day-sign. Storm as my day-sign represents lightning and thunder, and the energy of nature, and the elements. It’s interesting to note that Cauac is also associated with bees and honey and, as the dragon of the sky, in him the gods of rain and storms converge. Furthermore, Cauac is related to the Maya rain god Chac, who often carries weapons of lightning such as an axe.

According to Dr. José Argüelles, Cauac is storm, thunder cloud, and thunder being, transformation that precedes full realization and represents the West. Furthermore, “concepts of rain and lightning are conflated in the nineteenth Yucatec Maya day name, Cauac or Kawak, which is given the traditional meaning of “rainstorm” and corresponds to the Aztec day-name Quiáhuitl meaning ‘rain,’ ‘thunderstorm,’ ‘fiery rain,’ or ‘lightning-storm.’”

Co-Essence:

Guardians are usually referred to as totems or power animals. In our fast-paced, performance-oriented society, these Otherworldly energetic guardians have been trivialized in different ways, with one being the use of the term “power animals.” A more appropriate name would be guardian spirit or “co-essence.”

Some also use the term animal familiar. But co-essence is a better more inclusive term as a person could have a co-essence such as lightning, which of course is not an animal. As the name implies, an animal including birds, or celestial phenomenon, such as rain, share in the consciousness of the person to whom it is connected and is reflected in their character.

Co-essences may take many forms, such as thunder and/or lightning. But many times, the form is an animal. Whatever form, a co-essence is a powerful companion for us in our journey to awaken. These guardians may help us become closer to nature and its seemingly wild and untamed forces. We are never truly alone in our journey of life. Our guardians are our constant companions as well as our helpers.

A hummingbird co-essence may help us move faster on our feet, whereas a serpent co-essence may help us internally release/shed our past that is inhibiting our happiness and growth in the present. A jaguar guardian may help us achieve a fearless state of mind, as well as give us the courage to face our symbolic death so that we may be reborn as a “person of power.”

Nagual:

Nagual (nahualli or nahual) is commonly known as spirit guardian. The word nahual derives from nahualli meaning both a form-changing shaman and the being into which a shaman transforms. The concept of a nahual has its roots in indigenous Mesoamerican notions of shamanic power and transformation. As a shaman possesses the power to transform him/herself into his nahual (say, a jaguar).

My dear wife, Sherry, is a nahualli, a shapeshifter, a shamanic form-changer. To the Maya, she is a wáay Báalam who’s bodyguard spirit is a jaguar or has the ability to transform into a jaguar. The story of her shapeshifting is told within our memoirs and in The Fifth Sun—A Storm’s Coming…

Jaguar:

Besides Storm, Jaguar is another of my co-essences. The Toltecs believed that Jaguar controlled not only the rain, but also, lightning bolts. The jaguar was linked with Tlaloc, the god of rain. Jaguar, alter ego to the shaman, was the “animal equivalent of the storm, equally powerful, equally sudden in its attack, equally destructive of human life and order. Furthermore, the jaguar was at home both in water and in the trees from which it was able to fall, like the storm, on its prey.”  In other words, jaguar was a representation of the elemental forces of wind, rain, lightning and thunder. It was through this power that shamans were able to harmonize with nature and thus bring unity and wellbeing to their people.

The Maya believed that the jaguar’s ability to see at night made it possible for it to move between worlds, associating it with the underworld and light and darkness. Additionally, Jaguars are associated with vision and foreknowledge – an inner knowing. Jaguars have binocular vision, which provides them with better depth perception.  This is the reason for their connection with vision and foresight. Additionally, the jaguar was believed to be an animal of the stars as well as of the Earth, a divine animal of the two ways.