Starting with the sense that the contemporary world is uncertain and fragmented, troubled with tragedy and sodden with inauthenticity, mythologist Michael Meade seeks for hints of renewal amidst the rattling and the rubble. At a time when people expect the world to come to an end because of global warming or nuclear nightmares, at the hand of wrathful deities or the prediction of ancient calendars, Meade offers surprising tales of renewal as well as an in-depth treatise on the psychology and mythology of the end of an era.
In place of simple apocalyptic scenarios, he follows a knowing thread back to ancient notions of “apocalypsis” as a liminal period marking the passage between one era and the next. Apocalypsis involves eruptions in nature and disruptions of culture, but also makes possible revelations of unifying principle and guiding force in each life. Apocalypsis uncovers the hidden unity of all of life; but only after the surface of life cracks and the expected patterns fail.