The Owl, The Sheep, and The Lion's Roar

The barn owl looked down from the tree. He looked down on the rest of the animals, both literally and figuratively. He thought to himself, “there are too many of these dumb animals, they do not know what I know. I know the realities of this Universe, all they know is what is directly in front of them. And yet, I am included as their equal. I am seen as just like them, an oblivious animal. I am too wise for this, I have too much knowledge to deject myself to such a lowly class. I must come up with a plan, a plan to exert control over these lowly animals, so that I must never work for anything”

The owl decided he must fly over all of the land, and observe the way of every sort of animal, so as to devise the perfect plan to enact control over them. He lifted from his perch and flew over hills and valleys, jungles and desserts, ice capped mountains and blue oceans. He flew over every terrain so as to observe every sort of animal, and after many days of journeying he made it back to his own perch. Below his perch was a gigantic herd of sheep. He sat and watched them, closely. He observed that if only one sheep broke pattern, every other sheep would follow suit. He realized in this moment, they were his perfect minions to enact his plan of domination, such obedient followers they were.

As he had flown over all of the terrains of the earth, he had discovered that there was one other animal with wisdom equal to his. These were the Lions. However, it appeared the lions had no desire to dominate or control other animals, rather the lions ensured that a balance and harmony, a full circle of life, was maintained throughout their terrain. They were protectors, way-showers, and lead by example to the other animals in the desert terrain. The owl knew he would be unable to enact his plan unless these lions were fiercely oppressed. And so, he devised a plan to use his new minions to bring the lion into captivity, and to destroy the natural harmony of the earth.

He went into his barn, and created for himself a suit of a wolf. He was so intelligent and crafty that the wolf suit he created bore every resemblance of a real wolf. He slipped this suit on, and said, “So the plan begins.”

He prowled out of his barn, appearing as no different than a real wolf. And, as the sheep around his perch grazed, he sprung upon them. He grabbed on lamb in his furious teeth, and growled, “unless you become like me, I will kill you.”

The lowly sheep, bleeted, “All I want to do is sit and graze this grass, and enjoy the sunshine on the earth’s surface, what do you want from me?”

The wolf growled back again, “Become like me, or I will kill you, call me Master and Lord.”

“Yes, Master” the sheep cried.

The wolf dropped the lowly sheep, and starting to walk around the herd of sheep. Whenever he made eye contact with one, they would bow down and say, “yes, Master.”

The Owl, in wolf’s clothes, went back to his barn and collected a multitude of wolf suits, and demanded his new minions to put the wolf suits on. He demanded that they line up in single file, and he began to preach to them.

He proclaimed, “You are no longer lowly sheep, you are now powerful wolves. You hear me? You are the most powerful animals in the kingdom, and any animal that threatens your power, you must conquer.”

He would repeat this to the sheep every day. In time, the sheep in wolf’s clothing had lambs. Immediately these lambs were garmented in the wolf clothing. In fact, these sheep grew up never even knowing they were sheep at all! They grew up being told that it was their job to exert their wolfly power upon the rest of the animal kingdom, and that if anyone could possibly challenge them, they were to control and dominate them. The Owl in wolf’s clothes then devised and created unnatural weaponry, to ensure that his wolves would be able to captivate whomever they wanted. Fortunately, most of the surrounding animals were naturally submissive, and easily took on to what was the “new norm”, this unnatural, disharmonic way of living. They all slowly lost their connection to the earth, and instead used the owl’s unnatural tools to survive.

The owl finally knew that his level of control and domination had reached the critical point necessary to bring the lions into captivity. He came to his wolfy-sheep, and announced, “There is an animal, in a far land who is such a deep threat to our power. In fact, they are so unruly and uncontrollable, that we must not waste another minute. We must go and take them under our control, so that they will not ruin your power and domination of this earth.”

“Who is this mighty animal?” the wolfy-sheep asked.

The owl retorted, “They are the lions. And in fact, they are not even animals. They are below animals, and they are so dangerous we must go capture them.”

The sheep who thought they were wolves became so enraged that there was a sub-species of animal willing to challenge their control and domination. They liked their status as rulers, and any possible threat to this had to go. And so, off they went, on the long journey to capture the lions.

The Owl left his wolf suit and flew ahead of the pack of wolves to the terrain of the dessert. He approached several of the lions who lived on the outskirts of the dessert. He spoke to them, and said, “there is the most powerful species you have ever seen coming this way to capture all of you. They have tools that blow fire, and there is no way for you to escape. However, if you go and collect your fellow Lions, maybe, the master in his great mercy, will spare you from captivity. The Lions did not know what to do. They had never been lied to. The harmony of their world had been maintained to such beauty that they had no idea how to process any sort of unnatural event. They thought to themselves, “We love our lionesses and our cubs so much. We could not bear to see our lioness in captivity, and so we must go to collect the Lions from other terrains for these powerful animals.”

And, this is exactly what happened. The lions fought back at first, but when confronted with weaponry of unnatural, unearthly origins, they felt they had to submit. The wolves became even more blood thirsty and power-hungry than before, and found excitement and pleasure in abusing these powerful and harmonic animals. The wolves returned to their homeland where they sold the lions to other wolves as a simple work force. All the while the wolves ensured that these lions were kept under such fierce and domineering captivity that the entire earth shuddered in disgust, anger, and heartbreak.

Eventually tools were developed so that these lions were no longer needed for their work force, and so they were set free. However, the wolves still ruled the land and continued to treat these powerful lions as sub-animals, beating them down just the same as ever.

The lions began to gather amongst themselves. They would remind themselves of where they had come from, although it was so long ago, they could hardly remember. However, when they would speak of their home terrain, and the powerful kings and queens they used to be, they felt in their hearts a light, and a strength rise up. This light and strength gave them the ability to hold onto their pride. They began to speak out about their truth, and who they knew they were deep down. At the same time, slowly, the great Earth started to penetrate the hearts of the sheep buried deep within the suit of the wolf. The sheep slowly started to realize what they had been doing - how much they had damaged and hurt the earth and all the animals in it, especially the lions. Few and far between, sheep started emerging from the wolf suits, and giving space for lions to speak their truth and their wisdom. However, these sheep barely remembered how to be sheep, they had integrated so much of the identity they had been taught that they barely remembered how to allow other animals to be in their natural state.

But, slowly, slowly the lions began roar. And, slowly, slowly, their roar became louder and louder. It became louder and louder and louder and louder. Over time, it became so loud that there was not a place on earth that it did not resound. It became so loud that every sheep dressed as a wolf was suddenly stripped of their costume, and their true identity as a lowly sheep was revealed. It became so loud as to reach the heart of every animal in the entire kingdom, and no one was left questioning the true spirit and power of the lion.

At this point, the owl did not know what to do. He had lost his minions. He had lost his ability to control. The lions had stepped back into their power, what could he do? Nothing. In their great wisdom, the lions knew that the owl had instigated the entire perversion of the kingdom of earth, but they did not kill him as he deserved. Instead, they gathered around the owl and roared their fiercest roar. The owl felt he was dying, he hated this earth, he hated the animals on it, and most of all, he hated these lions. The roar was so crippling, the owl fell to his knees and then to the earth. He finally bowed to the lions, in submission, and at that very moment, he felt something within him he had never felt before. He felt his oneness with everything. His heart cracked open, and he realized what he had done, and what was true; that he was simply another animal. It felt good to be an animal alongside all these other unique and gifted animals.

And so the Lions were exalted back to their natural place in the animal kingdom, and the sheep, realizing they were sheep, and as such, were born followers; decided to follow the way of the Lion in bringing back harmony and balance to the Earth.