The Shaman’s Four Levels of Creation

In shamanic traditions, reality is perceived as a multi-layered construct, each layer offering a different perspective and understanding of existence.

These layers are often symbolized by animals and are associated with specific levels of consciousness and ways of interacting with the world.

This guide explores the four levels of reality as understood by shamans: the Serpent, the Jaguar, the Hummingbird, and the Eagle.

By delving into each level, we can learn how to turn within, understand how our mind works, perceive reality more fully, and co-create with it.

Level One: The Serpent

The Serpent symbolizes the first level of reality, where you crawl on the earth, unable to lift your head beyond your shadow. At this level, everything is as it appears to be.

This is where most people live, perceiving reality only through what they observe and measure. It is the realm of the physical body and material existence.

The focus here is on survival, physical health, and immediate needs—nourishing the body through healthy eating, exercise, and rest.

Application

• Health Practices: Engaging in exercise, proper nutrition, and sleep to maintain physical health.

• Mindfulness: Practicing mindfulness to stay present and connected to the body.

• Nature Connection: Spending time in nature to ground oneself.

Insights

At the Serpent level, we learn to honor our physical existence. By taking care of our bodies and respecting the material world, we build a solid foundation for exploring higher levels of consciousness.

“The body is your temple. Keep it pure and clean for the soul to reside in.”

— B.K.S. Iyengar

Level Two: The Jaguar

The Jaguar represents the realm of the mind, where reality is no longer solely what it seems. At this level, deeper truths lie beneath the surface. For example, politics and human desires often mask hidden motives.

The mind governs emotions and feelings, creating both health and disease. To transcend this level, one must heal traumas and free themselves from the emotional hooks of the past.

Trauma persists through the stories we tell ourselves, but by reframing these narratives, we can uncover the wisdom and gifts hidden within them.

The Jaguar teaches fearlessness and the realization that nothing can truly harm the eternal Self. By facing fears and transcending negativity, one can heal and break free from entanglements.

This level involves understanding the subconscious mind, healing traumas, and transcending fears.

Application

• Develop Emotional Intelligence: Recognize and understand your emotions, as well as those of others. Practice empathy, self-awareness, and emotional regulation to respond constructively to challenges.

• Cultivate Mental Clarity: Learn to see beyond surface appearances and societal constructs. Analyze situations critically to uncover hidden motives and deeper truths, especially in areas like relationships or politics.

• Confront and Overcome Fear: Face fears directly to transcend their hold on you. Use courage and self-awareness to move past limiting beliefs and expand your capacity for personal growth.

• Engage in Trauma Healing: Reframe painful stories from your past to uncover their wisdom and gifts. Use therapeutic practices like journaling, guided visualization, or professional therapy to heal emotional wounds and release negativity.

• Undertake Shadow Work: Explore your subconscious mind to recognize and integrate hidden or suppressed aspects of yourself. Acknowledge your shadow side as a source of potential strength and wisdom.

• Practice Meditation: Meditate regularly to calm the mind and gain control over your thoughts. Use mindfulness techniques to become more present, reduce mental chatter, and achieve inner peace.

Insights

By embodying the Jaguar, we learn to navigate the complexities of the mind. This journey requires courage to face our inner shadows and the wisdom to understand that our stories do not define us.

The wound is the place where the Light enters you.”

— Rumi

Level Three: The Hummingbird

The Hummingbird embodies the level of the soul. Just as the body is guided by the mind, the mind is informed by the soul.

At this level, the language shifts to images, poetry, and music—the expressions of the soul.

Visualization becomes a key tool, as it reflects the soul’s intentionality. This level reveals absolute truth, not relative perceptions. Unlike the shifting morality at the Serpent level, morality at the Hummingbird level is constant and universal.

Examples include the universal truths behind justice, such as the abolition of slavery or women’s rights.

The Hummingbird masters stillness even in motion, teaching us to still the mind, transcend the ego, and embrace the sacred journey.

By aligning with the Hummingbird’s wisdom, changes cascade effortlessly to the lower levels of Serpent and Jaguar.

Application

• Align Actions with Soul Purpose: Discover and connect with your true purpose. Ensure that your actions, decisions, and goals align with your inner calling and the values of your higher self.

• Express Creativity: Use art, music, poetry, or other creative outlets as a way to communicate the language of the soul. Channel emotions and spiritual insights into these forms to foster connection and joy.

• Practice Intentionality: Cultivate a clear vision for your life by focusing your intentions. Understand the power of directed thoughts and emotions to shape your reality.

• Utilize Visualization Techniques: Engage in guided imagery and visualization to connect with the desires of your soul. Create vivid mental pictures of your goals and intentions to manifest them into reality.

• Pursue Joyful Passions: Dedicate time to activities that bring you joy, fulfillment, and a sense of flow. Whether it’s a hobby, skill, or meaningful work, pursue what resonates deeply with your soul.

• Cultivate Meditative Stillness: Develop the ability to quiet your mind through meditation and mindfulness practices. Embrace stillness to listen to your soul’s guidance and uncover deeper truths.

Insights

At the Hummingbird level, we learn that reality is shaped by our intentions and the images we hold in our minds. By mastering the art of visualization, we can align ourselves with our highest potential. As Ibn Arabi, the great Sufi master, said,

“God is a mirror in which you see yourself, and you are a mirror in which God sees His attributes.”

— Ibn Arabi

Level Four: The Eagle

The Eagle symbolizes the highest level of reality, the realm of pure energy and unity consciousness. At this level, individual identities dissolve; there is no “I” or “you,” only the oneness of existence.

It is an entry into the quantum field, where one becomes both the witness and the witnessed, experiencing a profound sense of unity.

This state aligns with the Turiya described in the Upanishads—a state beyond waking, dreaming, and deep sleep, representing pure awareness and transcendence.

The language of the Eagle is pure energy, and it offers extraordinary vision and power. The Eagle invites us to see beyond the material and mental planes and embrace the infinite potential of existence.

Application

• Expand Unity Consciousness: Recognize and embrace the interconnectedness of all things. Shift your perspective from individual identity to a collective, universal awareness that transcends duality.

• Transcend Ego: Let go of attachments to personal narratives, roles, and labels. Surrender the “I” to experience the deeper reality of oneness with all existence.

• Practice Deep Meditation: Engage in meditation techniques that focus on transcending thought and entering states of pure awareness. Explore practices like non-dual meditation or mindfulness to dissolve the boundaries of ego.

• Harness Vision and Insight: Develop the clarity and foresight to see life from a broader, higher perspective. Use this elevated awareness to make decisions and create harmony in your life and community.

• Engage in Energy Work: Explore practices such as Reiki, Qi Gong, or breathwork to connect with and move energy through your body and the quantum field. These techniques help align your energy with the universal flow.

• Surrender to the Quantum Field: Allow yourself to witness and become one with the infinite field of possibilities. In this state, co-create with the universe by letting go of control and trusting in the natural unfolding of reality.

• Serve the Greater Good: Act selflessly to benefit others and contribute to the collective evolution. Through service, embody the Eagle’s vision of unity and interconnectedness.

Insights

By soaring to the Eagle’s perspective, we gain a broader vision of reality. This level is about embracing the mystery of existence and recognizing that we are both the observer and the observed. As Rumi beautifully said,

“When you lose yourself, the beloved fills you. When you lose yourself, everything becomes Him.”

— Rumi

Integrating the Levels

Understanding these four levels allows us to navigate our personal evolution consciously. Each level corresponds to different aspects of the psyche and stages of personal development.

To integrate the four levels of creation—Serpent, Jaguar, Hummingbird, and Eagle—one must consciously address each layer of existence while recognizing their interconnectedness. Here’s a brief summary for integration:

• Serpent (Physical): Ground yourself by caring for your body. Practice mindfulness, eat healthily, and connect with nature to establish a solid foundation for higher growth. Physical activities help anchor the ego self in the present.

• Jaguar (Mind): Examine your thoughts and emotions. Heal unresolved traumas, reframe limiting beliefs, and transcend fears. Engage in practices like shadow work and meditation to cultivate emotional intelligence and clarity.

• Hummingbird (Soul): Align your actions with your higher purpose through creative expression and visualization. Use the language of the soul—images, music, and poetry—to connect with your inner truth. Seek stillness to hear the soul’s guidance.

• Eagle (Spirit): Expand your consciousness to embrace unity with all existence. Enter the quantum field of pure energy through deep meditation and surrender. Let go of ego and individuality, and witness the infinite oneness of reality.

Integration begins with intentionality and a commitment to evolve through each level. By embracing the lessons of each stage, you create harmony within and align with the greater universal flow. This balance empowers you to co-create your reality with clarity, purpose, and unity.

The Shaman’s Four Levels of Creation offer a roadmap for personal and spiritual development. By understanding and working with each level, we can transform our perception of reality and our place within it.

This journey encourages us to heal, grow, and ultimately realize our potential as co-creators with the universe.

Embracing these levels isn’t about abandoning one for another but integrating them to live a balanced and fulfilled life. As we heal ourselves, we contribute to the healing of the collective consciousness.

The journey through the Shaman’s Four Levels of Creation invites us to explore the mind’s role in perceiving, interacting with, and shaping reality.

By understanding and integrating the Serpent, Jaguar, Hummingbird, and Eagle, we gain the power to consciously co-create our reality.

By aligning body, mind, soul, and spirit, we embark on a sacred journey toward unity and enlightenment, enriching not only our own lives but also existence itself.

“When you realize how perfect everything is, you will tilt your head back and laugh at the sky.”

— Buddha

By integrating these levels of reality, we honor the interconnectedness of all things, embracing our role in the grand design of the universe.

This path leads us to a profound understanding that by healing ourselves, we indeed contribute to the healing and elevation of the entire collective consciousness.

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The Four Levels and Quantum Physics

The Shaman’s Four Levels of Creation—Serpent, Jaguar, Hummingbird, and Eagle—can be profoundly understood through the lens of quantum physics.

While these levels stem from ancient wisdom, they align seamlessly with modern scientific principles, particularly the quantum view of reality.

Both shamanism and quantum physics explore how consciousness, perception, and energy shape the world we experience.

“Everything we call real is made of things that cannot be regarded as real.”

— Niels Bohr

The Serpent: The Realm of the Observable

The Serpent represents the physical plane, where everything is perceived as tangible and measurable. This corresponds to the classical physics view of reality, where objects and events are governed by cause and effect.

At this level, reality is deterministic—what you see is what you get.

In quantum physics, however, even the seemingly solid world of the Serpent is not as it appears. Subatomic particles, the building blocks of matter, do not have fixed locations or paths until they are observed.

This is the principle of the observer effect, which states that the act of observation influences the behavior of particles.

Quantum Insight: Physical reality emerges from a deeper quantum field of probabilities, and observation plays a key role in its manifestation.

“Atoms or elementary particles themselves are not real; they form a world of potentialities or possibilities rather than one of things or facts.”

— Werner Heisenberg

The Jaguar: The Realm of the Mind

The Jaguar level explores the mind’s power to shape reality, resonating with quantum principles of potentiality and intention.

The quantum field exists as a sea of probabilities, with possibilities becoming defined through interaction, such as measurement or observation.

This is where the role of consciousness in shaping reality becomes evident, as our awareness and observation influence how potentialities manifest into specific outcomes.

Experiments such as the double-slit experiment have shown that whether light behaves as a wave or particle depends on how it is measured, demonstrating that the observer and their intentions influence outcomes.

This mirrors the Jaguar’s realm, where reality is fluid and shaped by deeper mental and emotional currents.

Trauma and subconscious narratives at this level can be likened to quantum interference—unresolved energy patterns that distort our ability to manifest desired outcomes.

By healing and focusing our mind, we refine our interaction with the quantum field, aligning intentions with clarity.

Quantum Insight: The mind acts as a filter and creator, collapsing infinite possibilities into tangible outcomes through intention and attention.

“The universe begins to look more like a great thought than a great machine.”

— James Jeans

The Hummingbird: The Realm of the Soul

The Hummingbird level represents the soul’s connection to the larger reality and aligns with quantum non-locality and entanglement.

Non-locality refers to the phenomenon where two particles, once entangled, remain connected regardless of the distance between them. Changes in one particle instantly affect the other.

This interconnectedness reflects the soul’s ability to transcend space and time, connecting deeply with universal truths.

Visualization and intentionality at this level parallel quantum coherence, where energy becomes harmonized to manifest a unified outcome.

Just as entangled particles are inseparably linked, the Hummingbird reminds us that our thoughts, emotions, and intentions ripple outward, influencing the entire web of existence.

Quantum Insight: At the soul’s level, separation is an illusion, and intentional focus creates coherence that influences the quantum field.

This is the realm where the mind becomes still, allowing the subtle energies of the quantum field to flow freely and harmonize with the soul’s intentions.

At this level, quantum coherence emerges as the energies of the soul align, influencing the mind to create clarity and focus.

In turn, the mind directs these harmonized energies to the body, shaping physical outcomes through the interconnectedness of the quantum field.

“Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one.”

— Albert Einstein

The Eagle: The Realm of Pure Energy

The Eagle represents unity consciousness, the ultimate level of reality where all distinctions dissolve, and everything is experienced as one.

This corresponds to the quantum field—the underlying fabric of reality where everything exists as a sea of pure energy and potential.

In quantum physics, this is known as the quantum vacuum, a state of infinite possibilities from which all matter and energy emerge.

At the Eagle level, distinctions between observer and observed dissolve, mirroring the Eagle’s perspective of oneness.

The Eagle teaches us to transcend individuality and merge with the universal flow, becoming both creators and witnesses of reality.

By surrendering ego and personal narratives, we become co-creators with the universe, aligning with the flow of pure energy and unity.

Quantum Insight: The quantum field underpins all existence, uniting matter, energy, and consciousness into a single, interconnected reality.

“The field is the sole governing agency of the particle.”

— Albert Einstein

Quantum physics and shamanism converge in their acknowledgment of consciousness as a fundamental force shaping reality.

By integrating this understanding, we become active participants in the co-creation of our existence, aligning ancient wisdom with modern science.

“The day science begins to study non-physical phenomena, it will make more progress in one decade than in all the previous centuries of its existence.”

— Nikola Tesla

The journey may not always be easy, but it unfolds just as it’s meant to, guided by unseen maps and markers. When you embrace the path and trust the process, each step becomes lighter.

Take a deep breath, let go of doubt, and know with confidence—you are exactly where you’re meant to be, moving steadily toward your highest purpose.

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Ancestral Jaguar Meditation

The Jaguar walks with purpose, aligning actions with clear intention and resolve. It moves with integrity, where every step is deliberate and meaningful.

To embrace Jaguar energy is to commit to growth, directing your energy and focus to feed the new self while releasing the old.

The past no longer requires your attention. What you nurture with your focus grows, and the Jaguar teaches you to choose wisely.

This energy is not for everyone. It is powerful, intense, and seeks those who are ready to honor its wisdom. To work with Jaguar energy is an honor.

Integrity is essential—the state of being whole and undivided forms the foundation for handling this sacred energy. Without it, the path remains closed.

The Jaguar calls for singularity, a unity of thought, focus, and purpose. It requires presence and practice. The mantra OM helps anchor your mind in the rhythm of creation.

As the ancient wisdom reminds us:

“We are like the spider. We weave our life and then move along in it. We are like the dreamer who dreams and then lives in the dream.”

Jaguar energy sharpens your focus and awakens your inner vision. It opens the third eye and demands deep concentration, a quiet mind, focused energy, and clear intention.

Trust the magic of the universe. Feed the new self, not the old. Let hope replace fear. The Jaguar reminds you that fear has no place here. Step forward with courage, trust, and an open heart.

“As fire burns and transforms everything it touches, so does the inner fire of knowledge burn away ignorance and liberate the soul.”

— Brihadaranyaka Upanishad

Find a dark, quiet space where you will not be disturbed. Light a single candle and place it in front of you.

Sit comfortably, either cross-legged or in a chair, with your back straight and your hands resting gently on your knees. Allow the flickering flame to become your focal point.  

Take a deep breath in and slowly exhale, letting your body relax with each breath. As you settle, bring your attention to the candle’s flame. Imagine it as the fire of transformation, burning away all that no longer serves you.  

Close your eyes briefly and envision the old version of yourself, your fears, doubts, and limiting habits. See these aspects as shadows emerging from within you.

As you open your eyes and gaze at the candle, imagine these shadows being drawn into the flame. Feel them dissolve and burn away, leaving only light and clarity behind.  

Say to yourself:  

“The old cannot enter the new. I release the past and feed my energy into transformation.”

Now, call upon the spirit of the Jaguar. Visualize its presence around you, strong and protective. Feel its energy guiding you to focus on your third eye.

Gently strain your awareness to this point, allowing all dual thoughts and logical thinking to fade away. Let the power of singularity take over, a complete unity of mind and purpose.  

Take a deep breath, drawing from your belly, and vibrate the mantra OM. Let the sound resonate deeply within, reverberating through your entire being. Repeat this several times, feeling the vibration align you with the ancestral wisdom of the Jaguar.  

After a few repetitions, fall into silence. Sit quietly, with no thoughts, only awareness. Let the ancient energy flow through you, healing you in ways beyond words.

Feel the presence of your ancestors, guiding and supporting you in this sacred moment of transformation.  

When you feel ready, slowly open your eyes. Gaze at the candle once more and take a deep breath. With a gentle but deliberate motion, blow out the flame.

As the candle extinguishes, visualize the breath of your old self leaving you completely.  

Whisper to yourself:  

“With this breath, I release the past. I embrace love, peace, and transformation.”

Sit for a moment in gratitude, feeling light, whole, and renewed.

Reintegrate into the material realm with clarity and strength, guided by the deeper wisdom of your Self, the eternal Atman, and honor the intuitive messages through mindful action.

“You are the infinite, unchanging light within, untouched by fear or darkness. Know this, and be free.”

— Katha Upanishad

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Call of the Jaguar

“Earth hums… roots entwine…”
“Breath deep… steps align…”
“The journey awakens… body alive…”
“Ahhh… ooooh… laaa…”

“Flow… rise… transform…”
“The call is here… the path reborn…”
“Ahhhh… laaa… free to soar…”

“Shadows whisper… fear dissolves…”
“Jaguar prowls… strength evolves…”
“Stories crumble… Self remains…”
“Haaahhh… tch-tch… ooohhh…”

“Soul ascends… stars ignite…”
“Stillness hums… wings take flight…”
“Light spills… truth reveals…”
“Laaa… eeehhh… oooohhh…”

“One with all… vast and wide…”
“Vision clear… energies collide…”
“Infinite sky… pure and whole…”
“Ahhh… ooooh… looo…”

“Body grounded… mind aligned…”
“Soul ignites… spirit unbinds…”
“Unity calls… free to be…”
“Ahhhh… oooohhh… laaa… free…”

“Looo… ahhh… infinite flow…”
“Ooo… ahhh… journey home…”
“Ahhh… ooooh… laaa…”