The World is full of meaning – or is it?

Yes there is a Goat on the roof of my car!

How did this happen you may ask?

Let me explain…

A few weeks ago I set off on a 5500 km road trip and along the way I picked up my good friend Peter Bowden (also known as Growling Bear) who I recently did a couple of podcasts with (see The Sacred Path School on Apple, YouTube etc). If you’ve listened to the podcasts you will know that Peter is an indigenous man who has spent over thirty years learning, practicing and experiencing shamanism.

One of the key teachings in shamanism is that the world is alive with meaning – and I would suggest consciousness – that an encounter with a bird or an animal has meaning imbued within it. That the plants have spirits, that the rocks represent our ancestors, that the world is inter-connected and inter-related.

This view interestingly enough, relates very closely to some of the most recent thinking on consciousness that suggests that the universe is alive with consciousness and that we, as humans, are simply like a radio receiver and are channelling consciousness. Think big bang here and that if everything started off as one and split apart then all of the elements are indeed inter-related and interlinked – and from a quantum physics perspective they are quantum entangled. Hence we are simply fractals of the whole – and as fractals we are trying to re-know ourselves as the whole and hence some part of us is constantly pulling things towards us that we need to see and experience to be able to evolve closer to our higher selves or who we truly are in a complete state.

You may note here too that this relates to the story I shared about my experience in South Africa about how one split into two to be able to know itself ( see https://open.substack.com/pub/acping/p/participating-in-the-evolution-of?r=15zae&utm_campaign=post-expanded-share&utm_medium=web )

Anyway – so I go to see my friend Growling Bear and one of his many talents is that he has been taught how to string traditional medicine drums but he struggles now to make them because due to a series of strokes he is almost blind. So I offered whilst I was there to make some drums with him – a skill he taught me many years ago and something that I am eternally grateful for as it is an amazing meditative practice and an enlightening experience.

Whilst sitting making drums we talked about many things including meaning in life and you might imagine that someone who had walked a medicine path may ask what the meaning is of having multiple strokes and losing one’s sight – and here’s where the ‘Walk a sacred path’ gets interesting – his answer in a nutshell – “I don’t know and I don’t need to know – I just need to trust that there is meaning and to be grateful for the experience”

OK

So whilst in a good place the whole pain of ‘Oh poor me’ is subverted, and whilst in a bad place – which is easy to get to when you’re learning how to navigate the physical world without the use of sight – the task is to reset and realign to the faith and belief that got you into the good place in the first place. Hence – state awareness followed by action.

So we made drums – we made Deer drums, Kangaroo drums, an Elk drum and yes I made a Goat drum.

Fast forward to our road trip – Growling Bear wanted to sit under the stars by a fire and play his flute and smoke the Peace pipe so I’d booked places where we could do that. The first place was at Lightning Ridge which we enjoyed immensely because amongst other things there is an Artesian Bath there which is over 40 degrees in temperature. The water comes up from about 1200 metres below ground and has healing properties. The daily ritual for the locals – many of whom are opal miners – is to get to the baths before sunrise and then sit in the hot water until the sun comes up – another spiritually enriching experience.

Which brings me of course to the Goat on the roof of my car.

So we left Lightning Ridge and travelled to Silverton – the place where they filmed the Mad Max movies. I’d booked a place on Air BNB which looked great but when we arrived there the ‘stand alone’ cottage was actually right next to the main house and was surrounded by discarded farm equipment. The place wasn’t ready as it was still being cleaned so they suggested we talk a walk around and see the animals.

First an Ostrich tried to pick up and kill a bay Emu which we rescued. Then a goat tried to skewer Growling Bear’s private parts. The 22 dogs started a turf war. A Camel tried to eat my hair. Then an Emu pecked the shiny zipper on my jacket whilst another couple of Emus chased a lone Emu which they apparently didn’t like. In other words CHAOS!

Growling Bear declared that he didn’t want to stay there – it had a bad vibe he said – I assured him that it was fine – we could just close the door and all we needed was a bed to sleep in.

So, then the cottage was ready – on entering I was surprised to see that it looked not much like the Air BNB photos – there was a dog kennel on the porch and stray goats and dogs running around - then our host said that a Camel may come in and wake us in the morning but not to worry as there were no Tigers – WHAT??

So, I go inside and she says that it would be better for me to sleep downstairs due to the stairs – what stairs?? – oh yes the second bedroom was in the cellar under the main bedroom – no windows…

So, then I thought Growling Bear was right – bad Ju Ju !! and went upstairs to tell our host that this was not going to work – but upon looking out the door I see a black Goat lying down on the roof of my car with the roof pushing in under its weight.

“There’s a Goat on the roof of my car”, I tell her.

“Oh that’s just Buddy”, she replies nonchalantly

“Well can you get him off, he’s denting my car”, I say

She walks outside and tells Buddy to get off the car but instead of jumping off he rears up on his hind legs and thumps his front legs down on the roof.

At this point I have my head in my hands worrying about the damage to my car.

“Don’t move”, she says “if you come closer he will do that again – I will go and get some food”

So she goes to get some food and starts shaking the bag of food to entice Buddy to get off my car – but despite every other Goat coming to the food Buddy defiantly remains on the car roof.

Annoyed she gets an empty plastic drink bottle, walks up to the car, throws it at Buddy and yells “Buddy! Get off!” to which he slides down the windscreen onto the bonnet and jumps off.

“Don’t let him get back on!” she yells

Roger that!!!

So, yes then of course I tell her that this is not going to work – I help Growling Bear back into the car and we escape the mad farm…

So, the moral of the story? and the meaning? Maybe the Goat knew there were two Goat drums in the car? Maybe the Goat was extracting revenge? Maybe the Goat just liked the car?

Who knows? Maybe the world is full of meaning? Maybe it isn’t?

In peace and love always