Myths for Surviving the Apocalypse
Ancient Stories for Modern Emergencies
Every election season, the apocalyptic drums can be heard across the land. Events like elections and massive political change have real world consequences. They are also archetypal moments of change and transformation, which can feel like the end of the world.
But in mythology, the world never really ends. Rather, one world ends, and the next world begins. Stories of apocalypse are stories of death and rebirth. Even the most fiery cataclysm contains the seeds for the world’s renewal.
On an ecological, archetypal, mythological, and psychological level, this is the deal: death contains the seeds for new life. On both sides of the political spectrum, the manic attempts to grasp onto any perceived symbols of safety, comfort, tradition, and ideology are attempts to resist the tide of transformation.
For as long as there has been a world to live in, there have been stories about its end.
With that in mind, and with the news of the US election, we are entering this bizarre hall-of-mirrors that promises either utopia, dystopia, or some mysterious third thing, depending on what ideological eye one chooses to see through. Is it not strange just how many people truly believe that Trump’s return to power is “God’s will,” that there is indeed some spiritual or religious element here? The depth psychologist in me cannot help but lean in and wonder.
The point is that, on an archetypal level, every apocalypse, every ending, holds the seeds for its own renewal.
To my friends who are struggling, in deep grief, rage, and all-out trauma responses: I’m with you. But I’ve written this article to provide a mythic counterpoint to the narrative that it's all downhill from here. Let us not overlook the mythic fertility of this moment, the black fertility of decay, the everlasting promise of the winter sun.
Come gather around this fire for a moment, and listen to these tales that are more true than truth can tell, and older still…
Ragnarok
The Norse myth of Ragnarok is a cautionary tale full of looming consequences. The Völuspá, as it is traditionally known, is at once a creation myth, a chronicle of collapse, a battle saga, an apocalyptic prophecy, and a promise of rebirth. Through a series of betrayals, violence, and natural disasters, the world tree, Yggdrasil, is set aflame as the world is submerged beneath the churning sea. It is a frighteningly accurate myth for our times, which are fraught with greater polarization, public violence, and increasingly vivid encounters with ecological destruction.
It is a deeply unsettling tale precisely because we are witnessing it play out before our eyes.
Take this passage for instance, extracted from my book, Psychedelics and the Soul: