:: Ja' Jchanul Bolon ~ My Other Soul Is A Jaguar ::

:: 2015 :: 45cm x 60cm :: Acrylics, Inks and Markers on Canvas ::

This work is twinned with Xisk'opon Tal Li Chauke ~ Thunder Comes To Talk To Me as they are intended to be mirrors of each other. The Tzotzil Maya people of that region believe that they have several souls, one of which is an animal that lives inside a mountain. This animal soul, a chanul, roams the wild countryside when the owner is sleeping. I have often had dreams of jaguars throughout my life - see for example The Dream Of Jaguar Slash - and just before setting off on my travels I had another one, in which I again wandered in deep forests, coming to realise the trees and dark landscapes through which I was treading were aspects of my own hidden self.

My Other Soul Is A Jaguar

my other soul
is a jaguar

a silent hunter padding
through shimmering trees
wet with hanging vines

my chanul twin
does not hide in forests
or wait on mountainsides

she wanders far,
seeking dreams and whispers
upon my archetypal breeze

and when her quarry is spied,
she waits and listens with care,
holds her leaping heart at bay

for she does not pounce,
does not even disturb the leaves
but learns, still, with eyes closed,

words that mark her body,
images that hover in my eyes,
and sated she walks away

then her fur becomes covered
not with spots but glyphs,
that murmur, still, of myths

and soundless secrets
of an inner life only sometimes seen,
of a bright-eyed vision that

my other soul
is a jaguar