Animal Dreaming in Byron on Sunday

Last Sunday in went for a drive to Byron Bay.
There was only three things I had planned for the day.
First was to stop for a coffee at the Brunswick Heads Hotel, second was to have lunch at the Buddha Bar in the Byron Bay Brewery (which I had never been to before) and third was to pick up a deck of Animal Dreaming cards from Scott Alexander King's shop  
Animal Dreaming in Byron Bay.

People who know me will see the significance of this cup  
(and it's not because I'm a cock-head, either;-)

The first thing I did upon rising was to drink coffee out of my Abraxas Brew coffee mug. 
I do most mornings anyway, but because I was going to Byron Bay and my favourite little metaphysical bookshop, Abraxas Books resides there, I thought this would put me in the right mood.

Not that I was planning on going there today, which I didn't anyway.
It just puts me in the mood for random weirdness to happen ... and it did.

Brunswick Heads Hotel

As we drove into Brunswick Heads to get coffee I remembered last time we drove past the picnic grounds, there were roosters loose in the picnic/BBQ area.
I thought it was just some chickens that had runaway the first time I saw them, but 3 months later and they are still in the picnic area running loose.

Rooster wandering at Brunswick Heads BBQ area

I said to my brother that I would like to stop at the picnic grounds and get a photo of the roosters walking around. 
So we did stop, but some tourists had let their dog go to chase the chickens, and I wasn't too sure how friendly the dog was, so I took the photos from the car window.

Rooster and Ibis near graves in the BBQ grounds

 And what I first thought was a BBQ turned out to be some graves.
But the weird thing was that this is a picnic/BBQ area that just happens to have these graves here, as well as BBQs tables and chairs, etc. 
It is not a graveyard except for this group of graves here.
I tried to get a picture of the words written on the graves by using the maximum zoom on my cell phone, but the photo below was the best I could do.

It looked like it was going to come out alright when I looked at my little cell screen, but downloading it to the computer showed it to be unreadable. 
Next time I'm down there I'll find out more about them.

The funny thing about the graves was this Ibis walking back and forth along the brick wall at the back of the headstones.
I was there for a good five minutes and the bird never once looked like leaving the wall.
It was happy just acting like a guard.
We left for the Byron Bay Brewery saying to each other how creepy that experience was, with graves in a picnic spot being guarded by roosters and an Ibis.
Then I walk into the Buddha Bar at the Brewery and up on the bar-room wall is a flying Buddha.

Buddha Bar, Byron Bay Brewery

I don't remember the last time I saw a flying Buddha, but it seemed appropriate that he was hovering over the exit;-)  
There was also an Aboriginal painting just above our table as well.

Painting above our table in the Buddha Bar, Byron Bay

I love those spirit faces in the sky of that painting and the Rainbow Serpent curling into what looks like to me, a golden spiral or number 9 (see post below).

I loved the beer and the atmosphere in this bar, and it be a place I will be coming back to for sure, now I know about it.
It even has a cinema attached to the bar called  
Pig-house Flicks and the movie that was showing the day we were there was Red Dog.
Red Dog and the Sacred Kingfisher/Tree/Owl Synchronicity
I thought  about seeing if my brother wanted to see it, but that would have been my forth time in about 3 months, so we gave it a miss and headed for Animal Dreaming, so I could pick up a pack of Scott's  Animal Dreaming cards.

Some of Scott Alexander-King's
Animal Dreaming cards

I did buy a deck of Animal Dreaming cards, but my eye was caught by a little ceramic rooster crowing in a frozen stance.

A wake up call?
I also found the shells that I mentioned in the post below, plus a cute little bird painting by this lady here; http://www.sharonmcleod.com/

I love the owl on her homepage.

When I got home I looked up the meaning of the rooster and Ibis in Scott's book Animal Dreaming.

For rooster it said; 
Rooster /Hen (Resurrection)
"Rooster symbolizes the hero, the guardian and protector of the people.
It inspires hope and promise. 
When invoked with pure intent, Rooster Dreaming holds the potential to bring any dream to fruition (legend says that the Rooster could find an earthworm in the desert)."

For Ibis it said;

Ibis (sacredness)
"Ibis Dreaming nurtures the the search for wisdom and the keys to 'real' magick.
It literally coaches us as we probe the ancient mysteries for the secrets to our own purpose.
Ibis opens the gates of awareness by illuminating our inherent spiritual strengths and abilities, while confirming our once imagined past-life experiences as true."
There is a lot more written here about the Ibis ... but that might be for a future post, as I'm too tied to write much more tonight and this subject could take up a post all to itself.
So maybe more on the Ibis at a later date?                

 I remember all the hassle we had turning against traffic to get into the picnic area just to get a picture of a chook (chicken). 
At one point I was going to tell my brother to forget it, because the traffic just wouldn't stop coming from the other way long enough for us to get across  the road. 
The situation reminded  me of a t-shirt design I made a few years ago based on the old "Why did the chicken cross the road?" riddle (above).
I was asking myself that question too.
Why are we crossing the road just to get a picture of a chicken? 
But it led to me getting a great shot of the Ibis which has put me on the path to looking into the Ibis and the mythology surrounding that bird. 
A subject  that I probably would not have looked into if I hadn't of crossed the road ... so sometimes it just pays to tell the rational mind to stop asking so many questions, and just go with the flow. 
                                                                                                                                
Update: November 25th, 2011

I finally found some information on the graves while poking around on Google;

Brunswick Heads Memorial Park Cemetery

Tells you who is buried here, ages, etc.

Brunswick Heads Pilgrim
Memorial Park Cemetery