Apocalypse - what’s in the word?

What comes to your mind when you hear the word “apocalypse”? Nothing pleasant, that’s for sure. The films we came to associate with this word always portray destruction, drama, end of the world, and just an overall negative scenario that induces fear. There is usually one hero somewhere in the middle of all the chaos, who saves the day, gets the girl and lives happily ever after - a dynamic which serves to reinforce the tendency of humanity to expect a saviour in the likes of messiahs and politicians.

Then there is the last book of the New Testament, also called Revelation. The book consists of several prophetic visions of upheaval and destruction prior to the Second Coming of Christ. At some point, in English language , apocalypse was extended to mean “any revelation or disclosure.” Only in the late 19th century, the term came to associate with “any disaster or cataclysm”.

However, the origins of the word apocalypse stem from Greek language (ἀποκάλυψις, apokálypsis), which means “revelation, an unveiling or unfolding of things not previously known and which could not be known apart from the unveiling".

Language and its meaning are never random, and mirror the attitudes, the consciousness of the era . I suppose as the 20th century was approaching, on some level the humanity was entering the territory of less curiosity and more fear, thirst for knowledge was overshadowed by greed and desire for more power. And while this narrative does not correspond with that of the incredible progress and advances in science and technology that followed, you only need to look a bit deeper to see what exactly some of those advances were aiming for. More advanced military technology, various weapons, eventually nuclear developments aka atom bombs - those inventions are about power and self-preservation instinct. At any cost. The two world wars of the twentieth century that followed almost back to back, were supported by this technology, and have caused an innumerable amount of suffering and destruction. This is not a full picture of course, as there were always bright minds who had different values and lived in integrity. A brilliant scientist Nicola Tesla comes to mind, and there are many others. However, the very fact that we had such big scale violent events happening as recently as the last century, shows that the progress and development, just like anything else on this planet, can be hijacked and used for less than noble purposes.

Fast forward to events that started in January 2020, and have been escalating ever since, and the word apocalypse seems more fitting than ever. Yet many ancient prophecies predicted this time to be chaotic and full of upheaval, for a good reason. What we experience now, and what many refer to as a psychological or spiritual war, serves a purpose to awaken and transform the humanity as we enter a new era. It is a transition stage, when the old ways leave the scene for the new ones to enter. A tarot card that represents this archetypal process is called “Tower”, a sight of which is usually not pleasant to our eyes, just as the word “apocalypse” to our ears, yet what lies on the other side of the process is beautiful and worth it. The alchemy which is occurring within humanity at the moment is leading us to a more heart centred living, the balance between the mind and the heart. This sounds almost ironic, since the amount of fear and unsafety currently experienced by humanity - is the very opposite of living from ones heart. After all, they say that love is the opposite of fear. But I see this as an initiation, a transition we all must go through in order to be reborn and recreate a society with higher values than before.

“There are, in the history of the earth, moments of transition when things that have existed for thousands of years must give way to those that are about to manifest.

A special concentration of the world consciousness, one might almost say, an intensification of its effort, occurs at such times, varying according to the kind of progress to be made, the quality of the transformation to be realised.

We are at precisely such a turning-point in the world's history.”

- The Mother, Collected Works of the Mother

Long story short, we live in times of a “new dawn” , the end of one age and the beginning of another, this is why the chaos keeps intensifying as of late - the collapse of the old is a crucial part of building the new. Therefore, while on the surface it may seem terrifying, it is not something to fear, as the new, brighter light is slowly but surely establishing itself on the planet.