Words are powerful. Many people have been using the word apocalypse to describe the times that we are living in; a global pandemic, climate crisis, social reckoning, economic devastation, and political turmoil.
Apocalypse means: 1. an event involving destruction or damage on an awesome or catastrophic scale. 2. the complete final destruction of the world, as described in the biblical book of Revelation; a prophetic event. 3. a large, disastrous fire: inferno. Apocalypse comes from the Greek apo (meaning the prefix “un”) and kalyptein (cover or conceal). Thus, an apocalypse means, to uncover, to reveal or to disclose. The word was eventually adopted by the Catholic church and translated into Latin in which it took to mean revelation.
The roots of the word revelation comes from Old French, or from late Latin, revelatio(n- ), from revelare and means to “lay bare.”
There is symbolic imagery all around us, whether we read into it from Bible stories or look out our windows and actually see the landscape shrouded in smoke and flames. This is a time of great reckoning and “wreckoning.” The land is being stripped bare, and metaphorically, so are we.
As hard as these times are, this is a sacred time. This is liminal time. We are deeply involved in processes beyond our conscious knowing. As humans we are being stripped bare, revealing our nature and how we have been living as a species. This can be vulnerable. We are living mystery, and we are in a collective rite of passage.
A rite of passage is a ceremony or event that marks an important stage or transition in a person’s life, or in this case, the story of humankind. Rites of passage have been intentionally held by peoples and cultures the world over. Acknowledging change is a human practice, and Betsy Perluss, Ph.d and psychotherapist says, that this process “is encoded onto our psyche by the natural world and the seasonal cycles of death and rebirth.”
We don’t always choose the rites that are presented to us. Sometimes, life thrusts us into the depths, in which we are confronted and changed, often through much strife and discomfort, such as with the diagnosis of a serious illness, death of a loved one, or a life changing accident.
Perlus continues to express that, “rites of passage are not about fulfilling one’s unmet needs, but instead, to awaken one’s consciousness to act responsibly toward self, other, mystery, and the sacred. To help create the new story, longing to be told.”
What is this new story longing to be told? What is your vision for yourself, community and world? As systems, organizations, and even ways of life are on the verge of collapse, as secrets are revealed, as land is stripped bare by fire and flood, may we become more clear. As people, may we find our raw nature, and recognize the bigness of this moment.
May we broaden our view of our experience and the experience of our fellow beings. May we live every moment within the view of the sacredness that it is. May we recognize that we are part of something greater that we may not understand. May we both surrender to and meet this apocalyptic moment.