“[A]n age of the axe, an age of the sword,
An age of storms, an age of wolves,
Shields will be cloven.
Before the world sinks in the sea,
There will be no man left
Who is true to another.”
~ Voluspa 44, “The Poetic Edda: Stories of the Norse Gods and Heroes” Translated and Edited, with Introduction, by Jackson Crawford
Myth is a fascinating framework through which to approach the world; a prism that can reveal hidden patterns and deeper meanings when held against reality. Myth contains memory in many cases, reshaped but recognizable if you know where to look. Myth contains lessons, instructions, and ideas that transcend the boundaries of time. The myth at the center of my thoughts these days is Ragnarök.
Ragnarök is an “end of the world” story found in Norse mythology. The most detailed account of it is told in the Völuspá, a story from the Poetic Edda. The word Ragnarök translates roughly to “Doom -” or “Twilight of the Gods” depending on the etymology you’re looking at. It is a tale of destruction: a parade of natural disasters, the burning of the world, known reality sinking into the sea, the death of most of the gods, and an eventual return of life. Cleansed by the destruction, the cycle of creation begins again after the darkness passes. Embedded deeply in the story is a larger theme of breakdown: relationships torn asunder, bonds and oaths broken, communication shattered. And it is this deeper theme that historian of religion, author, and teacher Rune Hjarnø Rasmussen posits a fascinating question about:
What if Ragnarök is not the end of the world, but a cyclical curse triggered by a breakdown in relationships?
We stand at the precipice now. Our broken relationships with the natural world triggered a mass die-off event that continues to unfold. We’re losing species left and right and continue to treat nature as a commodity rather than a web of interconnection that includes us. Human-influenced climate change is triggering ever more destructive weather phenomena: vast fires, powerful storms, drowning rains, droughts, and more. The story of Ragnarök speaks of the Fimbulwinter: three years of winter without summer. The shape of this environmental nightmare may not be ice for us, but a burning world is no more fertile than a frozen one.
Here in the United States, it is all too easy to see the breakdown in human relationships as well. The language used for anyone deemed “other” reduces people to caricature villains, objectifying them into faceless targets and enemies. The rhetoric used to describe our transgender and immigrant siblings is horrifying. Indeed, we are no longer true to each other at even the most basic level.
“Brothers will fight one another
And kill one another,
Cousins will break peace
With one another,
The world will be a hard place to live in.”
In Norse mythology, Odin, the leader of the gods, spends much of his time, focus, and energy on trying to stop Ragnarök. He travels widely, prizing knowledge and magic over more tangible wealth. He knows that the dark days are coming but still tries to prevent the pattern from fulfilling itself.
What if he knew? What if trying to stop the destruction with knowledge was simply the latest approach he was bringing to bear against a cycle that had already spun through more than once? What if this curse can be averted? What if it already has at various points in history? And if that is true…
What can we do to stop the cycle of Ragnarök now?
The other thread present in my thoughts a good deal at the moment has to do with culture. Specifically, with building Pagan culture. At its best, culture tells us about who we are, what matters most in life, where to find meaning, and how to find our place in the world. It explains the deep patterns that our questions seek answers to: why are we here? What is my purpose? How can I help?
The culture of capitalism is a shallow one. It tells us that our purpose is to hoard wealth – to become a good worker so we can buy more resources. Capitalism tells us that the only way to support and protect our families and communities is to remain an obedient cog in a machine that ultimately leaves our minds and bodies spent and frequently broken. It reduces everything, including people, to a commodity that can be bought, sold, and discarded.
To prevent Ragnarök we must transform a broken world, and a broken culture. We must reenvision what community looks like to include non-humans. We must reimagine our place in this world not as its dominant species but as one of its caregivers. We must find ways to reach each other, to begin to dial back the division that sets brother against brother. We must set down the axe and the sword. Somehow, we have to find a way to build relationships again.
I don’t know what the solution is in order to get from here to there. But I have some ideas I want to try.
Let us practice building relationships with our natural allies. In addition to being Heathen and Pagan, I am a Unitarian Universalist. Unitarian Universalism is a faith path not characterized by beliefs but by shared values. I share the values of justice, interdependence, pluralism, equity, and more with people who believe very different things than I do. Being a Unitarian Universalist has taught me ways to find common cause, and friendship, with folks I might not otherwise ever come into contact with.
It’s time to practice bridge-building and we can begin with people who share our goals with us. This means joining democracy efforts, organizations protecting trans and queer people (especially trans and queer youth), organizations that support and protect immigrants, teams that work to dismantle systems of oppression, and more. Choose one area of broken human relationships to start with and find people working on that focus. Practice getting along with people who are different from you but whose vision and values are shared. This is step one towards truly mending human relationships.
Let us practice environmental harm-reduction. Here in the United States, we are largely calcified into a system that makes it impossible to simply step out of the cycle of destruction. That said, we can choose less harmful paths when presented with the option. We can choose to purchase goods from companies that focus on lowering their environmental impact or that support environmental initiatives. We can choose to generate less waste with what we buy, to use less fuel where we can, and to consume fewer resources.
It is time to begin changing our relationship with the “things” we interact with. To learn to see the world as a web of relationships. This means rethinking how and what we buy and consciously choosing the less destructive path. It will not always be available to us, but we must try.
Let us practice applying knowledge well. We know so much more about everything now – human behavior and communication, community building, and conflict management. We know about environmental systems – what does the most damage, of course, but we’re also starting to learn best practices for restoring our world. Odin valued knowledge more than anything else and we have an embarrassment of riches on that front.
It is time to take real responsibility for our knowledge: to gain more where it is lacking, to apply it well and with wisdom, and to prize and celebrate new breakthroughs and information that helps us build the world to come.
Let us practice small acts of healing. The non-human beings and spirits that make up the rest of the world are right to be skeptical of us. We must begin to earn their trust not just with reducing our harm but with supporting their healing. One more section of stream can be cleaned up. One more pollinator-supporting native plant can go in the garden. One more bucket of finished compost can be added to the earth.
It is time to take on the very real labor of healing everything from the microbiota in our overtaxed soil to expanding the wilderness for our non-human brethren. We begin with small acts of remediation and the knowledge that small acts are still acts, and scale does not negate their power.
Let us practice new (and very old) forms of relationship with non-human beings. A roadmap exists in more than one pre-Christian culture for building connectedness with the spirits we share our world with. We must reclaim the animism that capitalism destroyed. We must find our place, our kin, and our spiritual polyculture.
This begins with the spirits we live and work near. The trees we pass every day. The spirits of the buildings and in the buildings where we stay. The waters that flow in our region. The mountains we see from our windows. It is time to open the conversation once more. To make offerings of gratitude and healing, and listen for the response that rings just outside of human hearing.
Let us try to stop the Ragnarök. Like Odin, we must do what we can. We must focus not just on what we are running from but what we are running toward: what culture will avert this curse? How do we become that culture? What are the first steps in building a path to that world? How do we rebuild our relationships?
This will take all of us. It will take small acts and large ones. Every new bond, every new healthy relationship, every choice that reduces harm to the ecosystem is one step back from the precipice.
I do not know if it will be enough, but I am going to try.
I hope you will, too.
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