Leopards and Mythology

Mythology and the Leopard

Leopards are featured throughout ancient myth stories, its multicolored hide and behaviors serving as the basis for allegorical tales. Mystery, mysticism and magic have especially been attributed to the melanistic feline for millennia. Its sheer blackness suggests the night, the moon, primal darkness, and the energies that emerge from the depths. In art and legend, a beautiful and courageous woman is often symbolized by the black panther. Virgin, mother, warrior, seducer, priestess and crone, this cat speaks of the feminine in all its aspects. Creating a link with the powerful archetypal force is the goal of many who work with spirit energies. The link is thought to reawaken the innate power of our creative energy when it has been subdued or blocked. The word “panther” is used to refer to a wide variety of large cats such as the cougar, the jaguar, the puma, the mountain lion, and the leopard, especially if the animal is dark or black in appearance. The panther is a symbol of Jesus Christ because he is the enemy of snakes and dragons which are popular symbols of Satan.

Europe

In Germany, heraldic representations featured a creature with four horns, cow’s ears and a fiery red tongue. In Croatia the city of Cres proudly displays their coat-of-arms emboldened with a fiery tongued leopard. Iconic, it’s known as the “Panther Incensed” and depicted with flames shooting from its mouth and ears representing the panther’s sweet breath.

“The panther is usually incensed and signifies fierceness; fury; impetuosity; remorselessness” An Illustrated Encyclopedia of Traditional Symbols, J. C. Cooper, Thames & Hudson, London, 1978, p.126

This particular form was most notably used by King Henry VI and other members of the House of Lancaster and certainly seen on Pilgrim Badges until they fell out of use around 1640. The heraldry from Raglan Castle in England features an example of a non-feline panther called the Raglan Panther that looks more like a dragon without wings. Panthers were thought to be one of the three chaste animals. In medieval times, artists occasionally hitched panthers, along with the unicorn and the elephant, to the chariot of Virginity personified. Fausset’s Bible Dictionary noted the leopard’s agility was commented on in Habakkuk 1:8, “you would fancy it was flying”. And Oppian of Apamea wrote in a poem about hunting with dogs entitled the Cynegetica., “it climbs trees, and can crawl along the ground.” (iii. 76). Hence the symbol for Greece and Alexander’s rapid victories The prevalence of leopards in Israel is verified by the many place names for them (Namer, Hebrew): Nimrim, Beth Nimrah. “…the mountains of the leopard” (Song of Solomon 4:8), namely Mt. Hermon and Mt. Lebanon and where they are still found today. This area is filled with secret caves and lush valleys and was once home to Noah.

Greece

The ancient Greeks believed the panther was one of the favored mounts of the god Dionysus. In classical mythology, Dionysus, the god of wine, wears a leopard skin and is accompanied by leopards as he travels the earth, teaching the art of wine-making. Because the animal was a totemic symbol of Dionysus his priests wore the magical skins in representation. Its name in Greek meant “All-beast” referring to the god as “the All” which was also another beast version of the divinity, Pan. In the myths and stories of Dionysus the panther is a symbol of unleashing desires, and thus the awakening of the kundalini forces. The panther symbolizes a time of moving from mere poles of existence to a new life without poles or barriers. The panther in a Dionysic manner awakens the unconscious urges and abilities that have been closed down. It signals a time of imminent awakening.

Panthers were much admired in Rome, and were imported from Africa for public displays and games in the arena.

The Woman’s Dictionary of Symbols and Sacred Objects, Barbara G. Walker, Harper-Collins Publishers, New York, 1988, p. 385.

The leopard is also associated with Hera’s thousand-eyed watchman, Argus. He is known for wearing the skins of leopards. (See Harvard Studies in Classical Philology, Volume 12 Argos, Io, and the Prometheus of Aeschylus p.341.) In mythology and scripture, the panther has been a symbol of the “Argos of a Thousand Eyes,” who guarded the heifer Io who was loved by Zeus. After his death, the eyes were transferred to the feathers of the peacock. The panther always brings a guardian energy to those to whom it comes.

Egypt

Like the Dionysian priests, Egyptian priests wore the skin of the leopard. Funerary priests attended ceremonies enrobed with the dark skin. Early Egyptians were known to sacrifice panthers to various gods. Since the black leopard embodied the spirit of Set, (considered anathema to man and the gods) wearing its skin meant Set was dead, an adversary the wearer had personally defeated. The wearer was now in possession of all the magical powers imbued in the skin. Wearing the physical evidence of the sacrifice of Set warded off evil spirits who might attend the funeral. Coincidentally Asians and Amerindians also believed spirits haunted the dead.

In the Egyptian Book of the Dead, Pepi the king must pass through the ceiling of heaven with his panther skin upon him. Bearing the skin across his shoulders signified he had vanquished his desire for the earthly realm.

“The doors of Pekh-ka which are in the abyss open themselves to Pepi, the doors of the iron which is the ceiling of the sky open themselves to Pepi, and he passeth through them; he hath his panther skin upon him, and the staff and whip are in his hand. Pepi goeth forward with his flesh, Pepi is happy with his name, and he liveth with his ka (double).”—Book of the Dead, Vol. I, p. lxiii. E.A. Wallis Budge

In Egyptian mythology Seshata, who invented writing, is shown clothed in leopard hide. The spots on the skin were thought to represent stars. The stars in the night sky symbolized eternity. This goddess not only kept track of all sacred and mathematical knowledge but even the number of years allotted the Pharaoh on Earth. After the introduction of Thoth she was depicted with a crescent moon above her displacing an even more ancient symbol, a seven-pointed star.

China

In China there were five mythic cats. The dark one reigns in the north with winter as its season of power, and water its most effective element. A feminine element, this totem encompasses all the obvious aspects: child, virgin, seductress, mother, warrioress, seeress, old wise woman. Black Panther spirit awakens the deepest, most hidden aspects of our being. Its power jostles awake the sleeping right brain, the kundalini, the core nature. One struggles with harnessing the unbridled inner passions in an effort to master one’s true power.

In China leopards hibernate and so their cyclical disappearance and reemergence was associated with the rhythms of nature. Leopards were embroidered on the robes of Generals to endow them with the leopard’s famed ferocity.

In China, a pretty but aggressive or dangerous lady is called a “brightly colored panther.”

Leopard Myths in the Americas

Panther as a Totem

The panther was and still is a very powerful and ancient totem in Native American myth stories. It is generally associated with a particular species of leopard or jaguar although the cougar is also referred to as a panther. As with most of the large cats, the panther is a symbol of heroic ferocity. It’s lithe form embodies aggressiveness and power. For the individual favored to embody the panther’s power goes the ability to have the necessary strength to accomplish what one wills; be it a physical, mental, or emotional task.

Of all the panthers, probably the black leopardess has the greatest mysticism associated with it. In this inky melanistic feline, a strong lunar connection was made because it was dark—the absence of light, and by association the sun, was inferred. Meso-American cultures found it very significant that panthers came in two color phases, yellow and black and believed that the yellow phase of the panther pulled the sun across the day sky and that the black phase of the panther pulled the moon across the night sky. The panther / jaguar was often the symbol of shamans, individuals who could bridge the conscious and unconscious worlds, who had a special access to the afterlife and to the spirit world. Many thought the panther was shape-shifter, able to transform itself at will.

It becomes the symbol of the feminine, the dark mother, the dark of the moon. In ancient times women were held in awe for their ability to produce children something men; despite their prowess, could not do. Their cycles ran along with the moon. Inherent in this symbol of mysterious feminine energies manifest upon the earth was its connection to the power of the night. It is often a symbol of darkness, death, and subsequent rebirth from out of it. There still exists in humanity a primitive fear of the dark and of its consequent association with death. A visceral fear that underpins our whole response to anything regarding the subject of death. By understanding the black leopard, the totemic initiate comes to know the trans-formative powers of death as being necessary to life. The acolyte who takes on the leopard’s power surrenders to this truth thereby controlling fear and honoring the wisdom of the totem.

Leopard traits therefore were studied in order that lessons could be extracted. As a whole panthers are loners (solitary) although they do associate with family, they are most comfortable by themselves or within their own marked territory. They are drawn to those individuals who are likewise often solitary.

The Native Americans regard the panther as the Protector of the universe. It is feared but also respected. The Zuni thought that the ancient ones wanted the world to be guarded by those keen of sight and scent. The puma (the greatest of them) was the sentinel of the north (the most important position). The Miwoks believed him to be the ideal hunter, while the Apaches and Hualapais thought her wailing was the omen of death. In Navajo myth a hero was wounded by witch objects shot into his body. A Puma extracts them and saves his life. They also thought that the Puma benefited them by leaving the better part of the portion of its kill for the people to eat. Conversely the Papago and the later white settlers considered the cougar a flesh eating beast. To many Indian societies it was both a Totem and a source of help for hunting and warfare. In fact the Hopi and Zuni took carved mountain lions when hunting deer in hopes that they would be as good at it as the mountain lion was. In many cultures the puma was often deified for its ability to hunt.

(http://dana.ucc.nau.edu/djw2/panther.html)

To the Indians of North and South America, the jaguar especially in the form of the Black Panther – was endowed with great magic and power. The jaguar panther climbs, runs, and swims— even better than the tiger. Because it could function so well in so many areas, it became the symbol of mastery over all dimensions. The Inca hunted many animals in great round-ups where they would hunt the hunter. They found it much easier to catch bear and deer in the rounds-ups then panthers. To the Tucano Indians of the Amazon, the roar of the jaguar was the roar of thunder. Thus the Black Panther was the god of darkness and could cause eclipses by swallowing the sun. This reflects the tremendous power inherent within the feminine forces. The Arawak Indians say that everything has jaguar. Nothing exists without it. It is the tie to all life and all manifestations of life (thus ties to the eternal feminine within all life). To them, becoming the man-jaguar was the ultimate shapeshifting ritual. The Olmecs created monuments to the jaguar, and the Aztecs and Mayans spoke and taught about the power in becoming half-human and half-jaguar. One who can become a jaguar is shorn of all cultural restrictions. The alter ego is free to act out desires, fears, aspirations. The Indian shamans would perform rituals to borrow jaguar power. One who could do such could do great good or great ill. Nietzsche once said that “that which does not kill us makes us stronger.” It is this same idea that is awakened in the lives of those who are open to the power of the panther totem. Those things of childhood and beyond that created suffering and which caused a loss of innate power and creativity are about to be reawakened, confronted and transmuted. The panther marks a new turn in the heroic path of those to whom it comes. It truly reflects more than just coming into one’s own power. Rather it reflects a reclaiming of that which was lost and an intimate connection with the great archetypal force behind it. It gives an ability to go beyond what has been imagined, with opportunity to do so with discipline and control. It is the spirit of imminent rebirth.” (Ted Andrews, “Animal Speak”: http://www.greatdreams.com/panther.htm)