Our Earth is degenerate in these later days. There are signs that the world is speedily coming to an end, bribery and corruption are common, children no longer obey their parents, every man wants to write a book and the end of the world is evidently approaching.

So said an unnamed Assyrian scribe about 5,000 years ago. Humanity had just learned to write. and what's one of the first things we punch into clay?

A cuneiform prophecy of doom.

Which for me is one more thing that gives perspective to the 2012 media frenzy. I say media frenzy because among my own friends and associates, the Mayan calendar's ending next December is not something we worry about. We tend to focus more on pollution and global climate change.

I do know a few optimistic types who think the 2012 "ending" means that we'll move into a higher state of being. Which would be nice. I'm just not counting on it. I think moving to a higher state of being requires a lot of steady spiritual practice, work and self-discipline, and I doubt that the majority of people are making the effort necessary for a mass migration to a higher plane. God/dess knows I miss the mark as many days as I make it, and I'm actively trying.

There is an astronomic phenomenon behind the Mayan calendar's end. The Earth's orbit and the Milky Way's orbit are aligning in a way that they haven't for about 6,450 years; the 2012 date is within the 18-year alignment period of 1998 to 2016. One of the astrological interpretations of this is that the two alignments are forming a representation of the World Tree, which shamanic cultures like the Mayans viewed as a portal between the worlds. Astrologer Gary Caton wrote about the 2012 event recently. I am absolutely not enough of an expert to critique his interpretation, but did find it interesting reading.

I hadn't planned to write about 2012 at all--even though there's a blockbuster movie out by that name. But today, Neil Conan, bless him, put the phenomenon in context for us when he interviewed Jerry Walls for Talk of the Nation. Walls is senior research fellow at Notre Dame University's Center for Philosophy of Religion, and editor of the Oxford Handbook of Eschatology. Eschatology is the branch of theology that deals with the end of the world.

The fact that there's even a branch of philosophy dedicated to the common forms of "Repent! The End is Near!" stories amuses me.

Walls pointed out that while Christian, Jewish and Islamic theology all share a belief in the end of the world, Hindu and Buddhist philosophies do not. He didn't mention Pagan thought on the End of Days.

Norse mythology is one of the few I'm aware of that has an apocalypse story, but they lived in an uncommonly harsh environment. And even Ragnarok was as much beginning as end. There's a battle. Many of the Gods are destroyed. The Earth is submerged in water. But afterward, the Earth re-emerges, green and fertile. The surviving Gods meet. A pair of humans repopulates the world. As with the annual seasonal cycle, death is followed by rebirth.

Heathen author Diana Paxson and a group calling themselves The Teal Party have developed a modern interpretation of Ragnarok. They believe there is danger of it happening through the mechanisms of climate change and environmental degradation, and promote a combination of personal and political action to avert it.

Call it what you like--working for a cleaner, more sustainable civilization to stave off the end of the world sounds good to me whatever year it is. We've made it for 5,000 years past the first recorded apocalyptic prediction. Here's hoping we have the commitment to make it at least 5,000 more.

By Kathy Nance
www.stltoday.com