Despite lots of hysteria in some circles over Comet Elenin as a harbinger of doom, and more predictions by evangelical preacher Harold Camping that the world would erupt in flames on October 21st – we are still here.  Comet Elenin broke down into small pieces as it zipped by Earth, and with the disintegration of the comet the theory that Elenin was actually Niburu, the lost planet disintegrated as well.  And Mr. Camping’s prediction that the apocalypse would occur yesterday appears to have been incorrect – for the third time.  Now that is persistence!!

We seem to be in the midst of more “end of the world” hysteria than at any time since the Millenium.  Perhaps this is because as word spreads of the end of the Mayan calendar on the Winter Solstice 2012 it becomes tempting to frame the concept of “the end of the world” in our own reality.  For Christians perhaps it’s the Rapture; for conspiracy theorists it is the return of our brethren from space.  For followers of New Age spirituality it’s Ascension into other dimensions.

There’s no doubt that there is an acceleration of energy as we hurtle more completely into the Age of Aquarius.  The shift of Uranus, ruling electromagnetic energy, into Aries which is so dynamic and initiatory has intensified the experience of human life.  It’s impossible to deny that Something Important is happening on the planet, but the experience is larger than anything we can hold in our human brains.  But still we try.

I could be wrong, but I don’t believe that the world will end on the Winter Solstice next year.  But I do believe that life as we know it, and civilization as we have understood it, is undergoing a major transformation.  For many people, having lost their jobs and their homes, the world as they know it has already ended.  And now something new must take its place.

The next three years are an important time for humans on planet Earth under the influence of the square formation of Uranus and Pluto, just as the 1960s were during the conjunction of those two transformational forces.  Not one of us will be left unchanged.  But is that the end of the world?  For some perhaps – but it is also a new beginning.