“First of all, a winter will come called Fimbul-winter [mighty or mysterious winter]. Snow will drift from all directions. There will then be great frosts and keen winds. The sun will do no good. There will be three of these winters together and no summer between.”
Like many of the world’s myths, Norse mythology is full of stories about the adventures of the gods and the creation of the cosmos and its beings. But there is one Norse myth that is uniquely told in future tense: a prophecy about the end times waiting to be fulfilled. Or, as we are about to discover, it is being fulfilled right now.
The story of Ragnarok foretells a series of apocalyptic events, including a final battle. All the world, including the humans’ realm, will suffer disasters, be burned and destroyed, then finally renewed. “Ragnarok” means “The Final Destiny of the Gods” or “Twilight of the Gods.” The story was primarily recorded in the 10th century as a poem titled “Völuspá,” now part of the poetry collection titled “Poetic Edda.” In “Völuspá,” meaning “Prophecy of the Seeress,” Odin seeks knowledge about Ragnarok from a volva (seeress). Another major recording of this prophecy is the book “Prose Edda,” written by an Icelandic poet and historian named Snorri Sturluson in the 13th century. Let’s begin our exploration with the first sign that Ragnarok has come: the prolonged “Fimbul-winter.”
“First of all, a winter will come called Fimbul-winter [mighty or mysterious winter]. Snow will drift from all directions. There will then be great frosts and keen winds. The sun will do no good. There will be three of these winters together and no summer between.”
Scientists have recently linked the harsh Fimbul-winter with a real catastrophe that took place around the year 536. There was a dramatic cooling of the Northern hemisphere, likely because of volcanic eruptions that sent dust into the atmosphere, blocking the sun. At the same time, a plague struck Europe. As a result, half of the population in Norway and Sweden appear to have died.
The number of coronavirus infections around the world now exceeds 100 million and more than 2 million people have died. When we hit these big numbers, it is worth just remembering always that this is the lower estimate. Countries across the globe are struggling with new variants of the virus and vaccine shortfalls. Fimbul-winter could also be happening in our time, as extreme winter weather has been reported in many regions due to climate change. Etc…
Furthermore, research has found that global warming could destabilize volcanoes more easily, triggering eruptions around the globe. This means we could suffer more dangerous and prolonged atmospheric cooling in the near future. Etc…
The Ragnarok prophecy continues to say that the Sun and the Moon will finally be caught by the wolves Skoll (“One Who Mocks”) and Hati (“One Who Hates”), throwing the world into darkness. Etc…
Also, Yggdrasil, the world tree that connects the various parts of the cosmos, will shake violently, causing a violent earthquake. Then comes Jörmungandr, the enormous Midgard serpent that dwells at the bottom of the ocean and encircles the whole human world (Midgard). He will thrash his way up to the surface, and in doing so, the oceans will surge up all over the lands. Could these stories be predictions of today’s earthquakes, tsunamis, and coastal floods, which have been worsened by climate change? Etc…
In addition, it is said that the Midgard serpent will spray poison to fill the skies and seas. We wonder if this could be the potent, heat-trapping methane gas that is being released due to global warming (and thus speeding up the warming). Alarming quantities of methane are now coming out from the melting Arctic ground into the skies, and from the ocean floor into our seas.
Supreme Master Ching Hai has often warned about these methane ticking bombs. “Potent methane gas, once frozen beneath the Earth, has become a ticking time bomb due to rising temperatures in the Arctic and is now set to trigger runaway climate change. We are living the worst-case scenario and the scientists are crying out for us to hit the emergency brake now, and hard. However, the solution that we are proposing, like focusing on reducing fossil fuels, won’t give a fast enough result for us. Because carbon dioxide, once released into the atmosphere, stays for centuries or more. Scientists are now saying that we must take advantage of shorter-lived emissions like methane, which heats the atmosphere 100 times more than CO2 but disappears quickly, in 9 or 12 years. So it’s the emergency brake that we need, and the place to start is the livestock industry. Because the livestock industry, animal raising, generates the largest human-made source of methane. So if we stop the livestock industry, then we will stop global warming – fast and simple.”
Meanwhile, fire too will be part of the destruction of Ragnarok, as the wolf Fenrir runs rampant while emitting flames. In recent decades, our planet has witnessed increasingly intense wildfires, again due to climate change. Etc…
