The Beautiful Apocalypse

"O see the darkness yielding, that tore the light apart

Come healing of the reason, come healing of the heart."

- Come Healing, lyric by Leonard Cohen

The word 'apocalypse' has come to mean a widespread, violent and calamitous event. In Jewish and Christian literature it refers to the ultimate destruction of evil and the triumph of good. However, its original meaning was simply a disclosure or revelation.

‘The Beautiful Apocalypse’ is the cumulative effect of individuals awakening to the fact that we are all one in spirit. It is a realization that we have the means and the power to right the wrongs on which our society is structured. It refers to a grass-roots overhaul of that structure through non-violent means, through increased awareness of the real roots of global problems. It is a transformation from a society of oppression and conflict to one of co-operation and peaceful coexistence; a society in which the "one-percent" find legitimate, productive and satisfying work to do; while at the same time the contributions to society of it's most destitute are being recognized.

This awakening of mankind is the revelation of a vision; one of the love within each of us (often buried almost too deep within some of us) which leads to understanding which leads to lasting peace and true happiness. This beautiful apocalypse, this maturation of the human spirit is being wrought by your own, personal experiences of enlightenment as well as by mine, his, hers and everyone else’s, because each of us is born with that exact, same, unadulterated human spirit in our metaphorical hearts — whatever and wherever those may be.

This vision for the most part has not been consciously recognized yet, because it is not a political event, but a spiritual one. It comes from the inside, not the outside.

But, though frustratingly slowly and almost imperceptibly, it is becoming momentous. It is not the province of any religion, but it can be nothing else than the spiritual enlightenment of humanity. Having no leaders or authorities other than individual spirit and conscience, it can be seen to be a collaborative work; helping one another to cast off the many dogmatic chains, both political and religious, by which we are bound. At its core it is beyond democracy, beyond politics, beyond science and religion, even beyond civilization. It is the strongest and purest form of personal freedom.

The Beautiful Apocalypse is under way, and gaining momentum, but it is subtle. Usually we don’t notice it, because the sudden, ugly, and painful apocalypse indicated not only in certain books of the Bible, but in prophetic writings from almost all other cultures and religions, seems imminent as well. What that means with regard to Biblical prophecy or prophecy in general is debatable, but that particular discussion is a luxury in which we can’t afford to indulge right now. We don’t have much time to spare any more. There’s no doubt that we’re in for a whole pile of trouble, unless mankind quickly comes to its senses — meaning, of course, those senses beyond the five physical ones that we seem to be mired in as deeply as some prophecy analysts seem to be mired in their own bog.

One ultimate result of the Beautiful Apocalypse will be to incapacitate the Pirates who have been running (and ruining) the world since time immemorial.

That incapacitating process has been under way for some time now, but it seems to be accelerating noticeably in recent times. Witness the identification and nascent awakening of the '99 percent'. Witness the increasing awareness and popularity of a co-operative approach to management and problem-solving. Witness the development of an Internet that has thus far managed to maintain a reasonably workable level of intellectual freedom, with a real though as of yet barely noticeable increase in what may best be described as the enlightenment and growth of mankind.

The Pirates have been pirates since the dawn of mankind, since the development of capitalism, militarism and other forms of exploitation and subjugation – not to mention countless other -isms and -ations.

We each have a bit of the Pirate in us. Pirate-style behaviour is innate to nature, related to both desire and survival.

The Hollywood image of a pirate is of an independent, free-thinking individual who answers to no one, but in reality, 'pirate' is really just a romanticized term for 'sociopath'.

Present-day Pirates have literally become "Big Brother," as foreseen by George Orwell in his classic novel, 1984. They now have total control of most aspects of everyone's lives, and a great deal of influence over the remaining ones.

Yet, slowly but surely, this will change. It's already changing.

After millennia of oppression, technology has brought us to the point at which the voice of the '99 percent' can be almost a hundred times stronger than that of the 'one percent'! But we must reach out beyond that ninety-nine to include the Pirates, Pirate-wannabes and anyone else we may have missed. The one percent, however gleeful or miserable their financial or social status, must be acknowledged as being part of the hundred-percent, which will be another quantum leap in human spiritual development.

We humans need to come to our senses, and quickly.

The best way would be to heed the advice proffered in the Youngbloods song, Get Together: “C’mon people, smile on your brother. Everybody get together, try to love one another right now.”

If we somehow managed to do that we could get back to having a future.

Image: jplenio on pixabay

(originally published on Dec. 13, 2014)