Excerpted The Fifth Sun, Chapter 16 – Shapeshifting:

After taking a large swallow of his beer, Jimmyl began by saying, “The main reason I stopped last night concerned Shri and her extraordinary ability, condition is a better word. One unbeknownst to her or me. What I am now going to tell you, no one else knows. You two will be the first…” Jimmyl paused while the two stared at him with faces that showed bewilderment. “Shri was a nahualli, a shapeshifter, a shamanic form-changer….”

I wanted to escape from this dark, humid, grimy land that smelled of damp fur and death. Shri and I had reached the second corner when she stopped and dropped her light. I could feel and sense her changing. With the beginning of her growling, I knew we were about to be attacked … but by what?

At once I lit the torch and stuck it into the wall of the tunnel. When the flame flared up multiple nightmares meant my sight. It was as if they had jumped out of horror stories of mutant humans.

***

Excerpted Tequila and Chocolate, The Jaguars Are Coming:

1989 Yucatan, Mexico, from a brochure explain our group shamanic journey:

Come awaken your spirit adventurer consciousness during our seven-day, “Night of the Jaguar” experience in the Yucatan sacred sites of Tulúm and the Laguna Chunyaxché. Step into your personal power as a warrior and healer and explore the timeless techniques of eastern and western shamans. Transcend your separateness of mind, body and spirit and enter the awesome power of the one. . .. The power of the one will be further experienced during our full-moon ceremony inside the cave of the “night spirit” near Tulúm. This will be the moment when the stalking jaguar leaps out of the darkness and shares the Earth beside us.

I didn’t have the slightest idea how true and prophetic these words from our journey brochure would turn out to be. During August 1989, a friend, Sher and I were leading a shamanic group to various coastal and inland Maya sacred sites such as Tulúm and Coba. We were also meeting up once again with Antonio, Maya hméen or h’men (healer), who was also an archeologist who had mastered the techniques of calling in and working with the balam (jaguar) and u’Pi xan akob (night spirit) energies.

Early the morning of the full moon, our Maya friend wanted to take us to an archeological site that had
not been extensively unearthed, as we were bringing the group there to experience The Night of the Jaguar. This site was Muyil, also known as Chunyaxché, Muyil, one of the oldest of Maya archeological sites, is located on the mainland side of a lagoon in the Sian Kaán (“where the sky is born”) Biosphere.

It is home to over 350 types of birds, as well as pumas, jaguars, and ocelots. After we arrived, it was without our students, we were checking out the site before we brought them back later that evening. As we stepped out of our car, it was evident that no one else was around. One of the joys of the late 80s to early 90s was being the only humans at sacred sites, which is hard to experience in today’s world of over-crowded, roped-off, and guarded ruins crammed with flocks of chattering tourists.

When we began walking through the jungle foliage to one of the ruins, I could feel and sense Sher going into one of her trance states to access the Otherworld….

We hadn’t told our students what happened to Sher as it was not necessary for them to know. On the way to the site and before it was dark, we stopped at a little-known sacred cave, a passage down into the Earth that contained a subterranean pool of water. This sacred virgin water, zuhuy ha, contained shamanic powers of transformation. Shamans have used these waters of prophecy and transformation for centuries to guide their people, and for ritual purity.

Crawling into the Earth was a unique experience. Only a few could go in at a time. Antonio went in first, next Sher, then me. Sitting next to a virgin pool (no sunlight has permeated these waters) took me back to a surreal existence of the ones before us who had used these sacred waters for healing and ceremony….

The Full Moon

Minutes passed. I couldn’t see, but felt and sensed the change in Sher, she was beginning to transform. I waited until I could take it no longer. Foregoing Sher’s instructions not to interfere, I reached out my hand to ground her with my energy. Wrong. Faster than any martial grandmaster could move, a clawed hand swept my hand away and I could hear the low, growling song of a feline. And I could feel the scratches she left behind.