Where is the end of a circle?

This is the time of year that people tend to reflect on death. We do this as a group. We do this across boundaries both social and physical. As the Earth slumbers and the ground becomes as cold as a corpse we reflect on the death we see all about us. We reflect on the end of all time. We see famine. We are cold. Life takes its final steps in that cycle.

We look to spring. We take green trees into our home to remind us that life will return. We burn heavy slow burning woods and find ourselves around tables full of the bounties of the year before. We break bread with people and share in collective harvest. We are drawn into the warmth, and no fields to tend so we share more time with those people. When we gather together we share tales and news of what happened before when we were outside in warmth of the sun. We were preoccupied with the life around us, and our work we had to do. Now that work is unable to draw us away. We are entertained by the tales of our neighbors and families.

We told tales of humor, and shared the experiences of our house. We also shared tales of the dead. Some isolated places heard of what was going on, who lived, who died, how many children were born, who married whom, and this is how and when some of our ancient families stayed connect before Facebook and blogs. It was during these dark times that we first socially shared what is now referred to as seasonal depression.

It is here were man interpret their divine guidance. Of course during depression we fixate on the negative and they talked about the end of times. It was then they developed a dark tinge. It was then our cultural mind set was spread. It is based on pessimism to the extreme. The majority of cultures and religious beliefs share an image of the end of the Earth. This is a shared mean of fear that traps us though. It is not something I subscribe too.

In one year there will be a great buzz about the country in regards to the end of days. This end of days is based on a calender of ancient peoples who's faith is not even a small part of a percent of modern culture. On any given week you can see at least one special on TV concerning the Apocalypse, Armageddon, Ragnarok, or what ever name you have for the end times. The world will be consumed with war, fire, plague, polar shifts, nuclear war, or a comet falling from the sky. It is summed up as the war of good and evil in more narrow minded spiritual views, but to me its just another cycle. People of course want to fixate on the selfish. That selfish fixation is the end of them, or the end of what they know.

In each of the end time stories I see something though that is reoccurring. It is not about the end, but about a new season. It is our ego that says that nuclear war will end the Earth, sorry to say it people but it will not. If we nuke the piss out of each other, yes we as human will most likely not survive. When the smoke clears and the dust settles the Earth will still be there. Satellites will have no one to send pictures of its burnt husk, but that sacred third rock will still spin around Sol. It will have gone through a cosmic hydroxycut diet, and the fat will be burned off. It will still be there though.

So in looking at these end of days theories, stories and myth, I see change. I see the end of one season, but also the beginning of the next. In Ragnarok there are people that hide in the great world tree to emerge later to begin life on this world anew. There is evidence in these saga's and edda's that this is not the first time either. Most who study Norse Mythology see Odin as the All Father. Yet Tyr who is rarely mentioned as the binder of Fenrir has a name that literally means God. It is hinted he was the leader of the Gods and the primer of war and wisdom before the world was recreated.

In the Mayan faith there is a talk of a great change. Yes fire and earth shall rise against those that live upon it. The wicked and the just will die hand in hand. The Earth will restore a balance and enact a forceful change. Though things will be forever changed, I can not see anything that says things will cease. It is about change and a shift that those less adaptable will survive without the help of luck or divine intervention.

Even the more popular monotheistic faiths say that it will be a horrible change, but not the end. It is the beginning of eternity. Yes it will be through fire and great war of good and evil. It is the pure concepts of good and evil, which I think we often misinterpret. This is the battle of chaos and form, or creation and destruction if you will. This is a shared theme in both creation and end of day beliefs. Creation must succeed, therefore it does in the stories told.

So that being said I say do not fear the change, but prepare for it. The world will not end, just the global community as we know it will. The reset button is hit, and only the flexible will survive. Only the resourceful will survive. Only the honorable will remain human, and not succumb to being beast free of moral beliefs and higher thought. Part of humanity will survive in honoring those dead we left behind and wait for us on the other side. So why fear change, its going to happen regardless of how you feel about it. What measures you as a person is how you adjust and deal with those changes, and how much of your humanity you can hold onto in the process.