by Lupa

Hey, folks…about that Apocalypse thing….

Here’s my take on it, and you can take it or leave it as you will.

It’s really damned easy to fall into escapism with anything esoteric-related, whether it’s magic or Otherkin or whatever. Our culture lacks any sort of relevant mythology, and so we look for mythology of our own. When we discover that magic does happen, and that you can be something other than human, it’s easy to fall into grandiose storylines that make your world seem more important than it really is. It happens a lot. It happened to me–when I first discovered therianthropy in college, I was friends with people who were trying to find the Four Horseman so the Apocalypse could be stopped (or maybe it was started)–apparently one of them lived in Wisconsin. I and my friends, for our part, were always “at war” with a rival group of Otherkin (whom, of course, we never met in person).

Eventually I figured out that this was just my way of compensating for being stuck in a small town, living at home while I went to college, and otherwise having a rather mundane life. It’s one thing to have an imagination and to use it to escape everyday reality for a while. It’s another thing to lose the fine line between imagination and physical reality on a long-term basis.

The thing is, there’s plenty of magic and wonder in our world, and there are plenty of enemies to fight. They may not be magical beings, but there are still challenges to be met. You want to talk possible Apocalypse? Think about the impact we’re having on the environment. Think about the possibility of nuclear war. These things are very real threats that have an immediate impact on us, right here, right now. Preparing for a cosmic battle at some unknown point in the future does nothing to stop these threats in the here and now. You want an enemy to fight? Go and research political, environmental and social issues, find where you stand on those issues, and then work to support what you feel is right.

People have been predicting the end of the world for centuries. Here’s a list of over 60 of them that never came true. Chances are that others will go the same way.

I found magic yesterday. It was the first time I ever went to an ocean in this life; we drove out to the Pacific in northwestern Washington. I walked up the path to the beach, and as I rose up over the ridge that led to it, I saw huge waves splashing across pebbles and rocks and pieces of driftwood, and then trickle back into the huge basin that is the Pacific. I ran down the beach and met the next wave as it crashed against my knees, soaking my boots and my socks and my pants–and that was how the ocean made itself known to me. I felt the powerful pull of the wave as it sank back into the depths, and knew that this was a phenomenon much greater and older than I would ever be.

I walked along the beach, picking up smooth, rounded stones that had been polished by years and years of salt water; these stones had once been a part of a shoreline that extended further out and rose higher in the air than the one I stood upon. I thought about what that must have looked like, gazing out upon the few chunks of the old shore that jutted above the waves wearing away at them.

I sat on a piece of driftwood that had one been a tree; it was at least 6-7 feet in diameter at the root, and had probably towered around 100 feet high. The ocean had taken it one day, pulled it into itself, stripped away the branches and smoothed it, then tossed it back up on the shore like a toy. I sat on that old trunk and watched the waves continue inward.

I realized that the ocean had been doing exactly what it was doing now for millions upon millions of years. The landmasses changed, as did the creatures in the ocean–but the waves continue their relentless washing upon the beaches.

I thought about what it must have been like wayyyy back when, before life began, before a few proteins got together and formed a chain, when it was just water and earth. I listened to the sound of the waves….and realized I was listening to one of the oldest sounds in the history of our world. I felt the power in the age of that phenomenon, and all the magic I had ever created was as nothing before the crashing of the waves and the wearing away of the earth.

That reaffirmed my commitment to working against the human forces that threaten the delicate balance of life as we know it. The magic of my experience infused me with a reminder of what I have *chosen* as my purpose. I’m not some great cosmic warrior sent to save the world from destruction. I am one human being who is also a wolf, and I have chosen to make decisions to try to reverse the damage that has been wrought upon what I find to be sacred–nature. I am but one person, and I cannot change the world myself. Neither can anyone else.

There will be no huge groups of angels and demons fighting in the sky to battle for the soul of the world, though there are already planes from rival countries dropping bombs and shooting at each other. There will not be four horseman galloping across the plains, though there are already soldiers with tanks and guns, epidemics raging across Third World countries, famine killing thousands of people daily, and death takes its own regardless of what we do. There are no invisible forces psychically attacking us, though there are people who drain us every day with bigotry, hatred, injustice and assault. The Four Horsemen, the battles in heaven–don’t wait for them. There are causes to fight for enough as it is. Don’t escape from the struggles of today waiting for a fantasy of tomorrow.

There are no monsters here–only people, people who can make decisions. We have all the power we’ll ever need in our ability to choose.