The End of World

How do we make sense of endings—personal, global, spiritual? In this episode of the None But Curious Podcast, we explore one of the most enduring and dramatic themes in human storytelling: apocalyptic myths.

Across cultures and centuries, we've told stories about how the world might end. But these tales aren't just about destruction—they're about renewal, moral reckoning, and transformation.

In this episode, we cover:

• Why stories of the apocalypse appear in nearly every culture

• Common themes in end-of-world myths: destruction, rebirth, and cosmic justice

• The Norse myth of Ragnarok and its cycle of fire, frost, and renewal

• The Hindu concept of Kali Yuga, a dark age leading to restoration

• The Christian vision in the Book of Revelation, from chaos to the New Jerusalem

• How these myths reflect societal fears and hopes—then and now

• What apocalyptic stories can teach us about personal change, identity shifts, and transformation

• A reflection on how we each face endings in our own lives

These aren't just ancient stories. They're mirrors—offering insight into how we understand loss, change, and what's possible after everything falls apart.

Whether you're spiritual, agnostic, or just deeply curious, this episode is a powerful reminder that endings are also beginnings.

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Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Welcome to the None But Curious podcast.
We're all about finding inspiration in life's uncertainties.
Whether you're still figuring things out, questioning your
beliefs, or just curious about the world, come
hang out with us as we celebrate the
beauty of not having all the answers.

(00:24):
Hey, how are you doing?
Really, how are you?
Have you done anything recently to calm your
nervous system?
Yeah, I've been neglectful too.
So this serves as a reminder to do
that after you listen to this episode.

(00:45):
Because today we're diving into one of humanity's
most powerful, dramatic, and strangely hopeful fascinations, the
end of the world.
Think about it.
Nearly every culture throughout history has told stories
about how the world might end, from the
icy fjords of Scandinavia to the sacred texts
of India, from ancient Mesopotamia to modern Hollywood.

(01:08):
The apocalypse looms large in our collective imagination.
But why?
Why do we keep telling these stories?
What is it about destruction that compels us?
Is it the spectacle?
The moral reckoning?
Or maybe it's that each ending contains a
whisper of a new beginning.
So today we're going to explore the deep
themes that run through the apocalyptic myths, destruction,

(01:31):
rebirth, and moral reckoning.
We'll also look more closely at three mythic
visions of the end, the Norse Ragnarok, the
Hindu concept of Kali Yuga, and the book
of Revelation from Christian tradition.
Along the way, we'll consider what these stories
say about the societies that created them and
what they still mean to us today.
So settle in and let's unravel the end

(01:53):
of the world together.
Now, before we jump into specific stories, let's
talk about the themes that show up over
and over again in apocalyptic myths.
First, there's destruction.
Apocalyptic stories are by nature about the collapse
of something, sometimes the whole universe, sometimes just
the moral order.
But that destruction is rarely random.

(02:15):
It's purposeful, often acting as a cosmic cleansing,
a way to burn off what has gone
wrong.
Second, there's rebirth.
These stories don't usually stop at the end.
They offer a glimpse, sometimes hopeful, sometimes haunting,
of what might come next.
A new world, a new order, a chance
to rebuild.

(02:36):
Third, there's moral reckoning.
Apocalyptic myths tend to be ethical stories and
they ask hard questions.
What kind of people are we?
Have we lived justly?
Do we deserve redemption or judgment?
And finally, there's a structure of time.
Some traditions view time as linear.
It has a beginning, a middle, and an

(02:56):
end.
Others see it as cyclical.
Ages rise and fall only to begin again.
Both offer different kinds of comfort and different
kinds of warning.
With these threads in mind, let's get into
the stories themselves.
Now, imagine a world locked in ice, lit
only by fire and lightning.

(03:16):
A place where gods walk among mortals, where
monsters lurk just beyond the edge of vision,
and where every battle feels like it could
be the last.
This is the world of Norse mythology, and
at the end of it all waits Ragnarok.
The word itself means fate of the gods
or sometimes twilight of the gods.
It's not just the end of a story,

(03:37):
it's the final act in a brutal, beautiful
cycle of time.
It begins with signs.
A great bitter winter that lasts not one,
but three years, with no summer to break
the cold.
The world fractures.
Brothers turn against brothers.
Parents against children.
The very fabric of society begins to tear,

(03:57):
and then the boundaries break.
The giant wolf Fenrir bursts free from his
chains.
The world serpent Jörmungandr rises from the ocean,
spilling venom into the sky.
The trickster god Loki escapes from his punishment
and marches at the head of a ghostly
army of the dead.
The gods know what's coming.

(04:18):
They gather at the planet of Vigrid, not
to win, but to meet their fate with
honor.
Odin, the wise all-father, is swallowed by
Fenrir.
Thor slays Jörmungandr, only to take nine poison
steps before collapsing.
Heimdall and Loki face each other and fall,
locked in a death's embrace.

(04:38):
The sun is devoured.
The stars vanish.
Fire giants cross the rainbow bridge of Bifrost,
shattering it behind them.
The world burns.
The seas rise.
Everything, everything is undone.
And then silence.
From the ruins, a new world emerges, green,

(05:02):
fresh, alive.
Two humans, Lif and Lifthrasir, step out from
the sheltering branches of Yggdrasil, the world tree.
A few gods return.
The sun is reborn, now the daughter of
one that was lost.
And slowly, slowly, life begins again.

(05:22):
In Norse myth, there are no guarantees, no
promised salvation.
The gods can die.
The heroes can fail.
But what matters isn't avoiding the end.
It's facing it with courage, with grit, with
honor.
Because even in destruction, there's the hope of
renewal.
After fire and frost, the world blooms again.

(05:42):
Now let's shift to the east, to the
vast cosmology of Hindu tradition, where time isn't
a straight line, but a great wheel.
A wheel that turns through four immense ages
known as the yugas.
First comes Satya Yuga, the golden age, a
time of harmony, wisdom, and virtue.
Then Treta Yuga, where truth begins to slip.

(06:04):
Next, Dwapar Yuga, with growing confusion and imbalance.
And finally, Kali Yuga, the age of darkness.
It's the age we're in now, according to
most sources.
In Kali Yuga, things fall apart.
Truth becomes fragile.
Morality erodes.
Greed, rage, and deceit rise to the surface.

(06:25):
Leaders grow corrupt.
Spirituality decays into hollow rituals.
People lose their connection, not only to the
divine, but to each other.
It's not hard to see parallels in our
own world.
Social fragmentation, ecological collapse, a sense that we've
drifted from something vital, that we have forgotten
something sacred.

(06:46):
But here's the twist.
This isn't the end.
It's part of the pattern.
Because after the darkest night comes renewal.
In this tradition, the god Vishnu will return,
this time as Kalki, his final avatar.
He will ride forth on a white horse
wielding a flaming sword, not out of vengeance,
but to restore dharma, cosmic balance.

(07:09):
He cuts through illusion.
He clears the way.
And with that, the wheel turns again.
A new Satya Yuga will begin.
The golden age returns, not as a memory,
but as a future.
It's a powerful vision that decay is not
just collapse, but preparation.
That even when the world feels like it's

(07:30):
unraveling, something is quietly developing beneath the surface.
The message is sobering, but strangely hopeful.
The end of one age is the seed
of the next.
So, maybe the chaos we feel isn't just
destruction, it's transition.
And our third story takes us to the

(07:51):
Christian tradition, to one of the most haunting
and enigmatic texts in the Bible, the Book
of Revelation.
It was written by a prophet named John,
exiled on the rocky island of Patmos.
Isolated, far from the world he knew, John
received a vision, vivid, otherworldly, and urgent.
What he wrote down wasn't a simple prophecy.

(08:12):
It was a dreamlike revelation charged with symbols,
mysteries, and meaning.
It begins quietly, doesn't it always?
Letters to seven early Christian communities, words of
encouragement, warnings, reminders to stay faithful in the
face of persecution.
But then the vision expands, wider, wilder.

(08:33):
A scroll appears in the hand of God,
sealed with seven seals.
And as each seal is broken, the world
begins to unravel.
The four horsemen ride out.
Conquest, war, famine, and death, ushering in an
age of suffering and fear.
Plagues sweep across the land.

(08:54):
The sun turns black.
Stars fall like shattered glass from the sky.
A monstrous beast rises from the sea, bearing
the number 666, a symbol that is echoed
through centuries.
A dragon, vast and terrible, tries to devour
a child destined to rule the land.
It's not just destruction, it's cosmic conflict.

(09:15):
The forces of good and evil, light and
shadow, gather for the final confrontation, Armageddon.
But, and this is important, beneath all the
fire and all the fury, there's a heartbeat
of hope.
Boom, boom.
Boom, boom.
Chaos is not without purpose.

(09:36):
The pain is not without end.
The faithful are remembered.
The righteous are protected.
Justice is not only coming, it is inevitable.
Babylon, the great symbol of corruption and excess,
is brought down in ruins.
Evil is held to account.
And then, just when the world seems lost,

(09:56):
comes a promise.
A new heaven.
A new earth.
No more sorrow.
No more death.
A holy city.
New Jerusalem descends from the sky, radiant with
gold, adorned with precious stones, glowing like something
from beyond time.
In this renewed world, God walks among the

(10:18):
people once again.
There is no temple, for the divine is
everywhere.
No need for sun or moon, because the
light of God fills everything.
Revelation isn't just a warning about the end,
it's a vision of fulfillment.
It tells us that history is not random
or meaningless, that the arc of time bends
toward justice, that even through suffering, something greater

(10:41):
is being born.
It speaks to the deepest human longing, not
just for survival, but for redemption, for wholeness,
for peace, for love that triumphs in the
end.
So what ties these three stories together?
Well, they all begin with chaos, but they
don't end there.

(11:01):
Ragnarok births a greener world, Kali Yuga resets
the cycle, and Revelation ushers in a new
creation.
They all ask us to examine ourselves.
Are we living in balance with others, with
the earth, with the divine?
Are we prepared to face what we've created?
And they all suggest that endings, while painful,

(11:24):
are not final.
They can be a doorway.
But these stories aren't just relics of the
past.
We see echoes of them today in our
fears about climate change, pandemics, the political upheaval,
in dystopian fiction and disaster films, in personal
crises, divorce, job loss, identity shifts, when everything

(11:46):
we know falls apart.
Apocalyptic myths give us a language for those
experiences.
They tell us you're not alone.
This has happened before.
There is a way through.
Psychologists like Carl Jung believe these stories tap
into the collective unconscious.

(12:06):
Universal patterns are minds used to process deep
change.
And for those who identify as agnostic or
non-religious, these myths don't have to be
taken literally to be meaningful.
They can be metaphors for inner transformation, the
end of old beliefs, the beginning of something
truer.
Here's the big takeaway.

(12:27):
Apocalyptic stories aren't just about doom.
They're about transition.
They remind us that destruction can be a
precursor to growth, that chaos often precedes clarity,
and that moral reckoning is part of any
meaningful transformation.
Whether it's the gods falling in fire, the
wheel of time turning again, or the trumpet
sounding across the sky, these stories all challenge

(12:50):
us to reflect.
What are we building?
What are we leaving behind?
And what kind of world do we want
to emerge after it all?
As you go about your day, I invite
you to consider this.
How do you navigate the endings in your
life?
Whether it's the end of a relationship, a
career, or even just a belief that no

(13:12):
longer fits, what is the story that you
tell yourself about what comes next?
Thank you for being here today with me.
I know I sound differently.
I don't have my microphone.
My voice is hoarse.
I've been packing and cleaning and preparing for
this out of state move.
So I appreciate you being patient with me

(13:35):
and riding along with me in this journey.
And if you enjoyed this episode, please make
sure to subscribe to the None But Curious
podcast.
Share it with someone who loves myth, meaning,
curiosity, and then send me your thoughts.
I'd love to hear what this sparked for
you.
And as always, until next time, stay curious.