The Judas Goat

The Judas Goat

"The Judas Goat is used to get sheep to walk peacefully and unknowingly to their own slaughter."

• Jeffery Smith
  

There is one sure sign of the Fall Season where I live. It's when a large herd of sheep arrives and begins to devour the last growth of alfalfa in the fields. It's a picturesque scene to be sure; mostly white sheep, with four or five bits of pepper seasoning the flock, combined with a Sheppard's rolling home; the whole panorama guarded by sentinel llama.

One year, with the llama looking on, my friend Jeff Smith stopped to meet the Sheppard. He asked him about the flock and how he could keep count of all the sheep. "That's easy," He said. "All I have to do is count the five bits of pepper and then I know." Sheep will follow another animal without question or thinking individually. Those that own and watch over the herd know that and use this information to their advantage in two ways.

The first way is that they can keep an eye on them quite easily as a whole through the "Principle of Contrast." It's hard to count a thousand sheep when they all look alike, but when you throw in the pepper they simply need to count to four or five and they'll know that the other thousand sheep are all there. Contrast is the first Sheppard's Tool.

The second Sheppard's Tool is the "Principle of Headship" and they use it when it's time for the herd to go to slaughter. They know the sheep will follow each other so they insert a "Headship Conspirator" goat into the herd. Such a goat is trained to walk from the holding pen through a shoot to the slaughter house. The sheep follow the goat into the long narrow enclosure only to be trapped into moving forward to their death, while the goat exits to fulfill his traitorous role again and again. The goat is referred to as a "Judas Goat."

I find it instructive that the sheep live a life based on two simple principles they don't understand and that they could use for their improvement if they could only recognize how to apply them in different ways. They could use the Principle of Contrast to see that there is good and evil so they could choose to embrace the good. They could use the Principle of Headship to select someone they know to be of sound experience and good character to lead and mentor them toward increased life and happiness. But, they're too busy being sheep to make such beneficial changes!

Are you living the life of a sheep? Are you using your heart and mind to use the Principles of Contrast and Headship in ways that will allow you to make beneficial changes to your life? I know you can do it if you'll simply set an annual mark in your mind.

When you see the leaves and weather begin to change each Fall Season let them act as a reminder that you're going change as well. Let the contrast awaken you to changes you want to make in your life. Then assume the role of Headship to blaze the way to doing something new and wonderful in the world. Use this mark again and again to engage these two important principles so you'll remember one simple thing. We're not sheep!