Everyday Apocalypse

It doesn't matter what side of the political fence you stand on, it is undeniable that our world is a mess right now. But take a look at these facts:

In the 18th century, the US was involved in four major wars and two major rebellions. Around the American slave trade claimed an estimated 10,000,000 lives. The Seven Years War likely claimed another 1,300,000 lives, though estimates range greatly.

In the 19th century, wars involving the US claimed over a million lives. The Battle of Antietam is known as the bloodiest single-day battle in American history and claimed 22,717 dead, wounded, or missing. That was just one day.

In the 20th century, a site I have been pulling information from (corroborated with other more notable sources), prefaced with the following:

"Elsewhere, I defined the Hemoclysm as that string of interconnected barbarities which made the Twentieth Century so fascinating for historians and so miserable for real people. Here, I have listed the sources for determing the body count for the biggest of these, the events that probably killed more than 5 million apiece."

And those were just the major events...

History classes around the world now make a point of teaching us the past in order to hopefully avoid a repetition in the future. So it is no wonder that our modern imaginations are fascinated by constructs of the apocalypse, natural and man-made.

Now we have a fascination with the end of days. Scientists believe we have sped up the natural process of global climate change more than 170x normal. BBC's Nicholas Barber wrote an article published in 2014 about why the enigma of zombies just won't die! Hollywood has continued to play on our fears by dramatizing and visualizing the worst that may yet to be: AIs taking over and destroying their creators, aliens deciding we are too destructive to exist, our own screw-ups leading to our demise, or even just the universe giving up on us.

It is no wonder that we have so many shows now that are post-apocalyptic.

But if you look at our current social climate, it is also no wonder we are so focused on the end of days being a fantasy instead of reality. We hold in our hands, and have for several decades, a means to destroy not just our enemy but also ourselves. During the Cold War, a nuclear winter was a very real possibility.

Now it is a psychological need to disassociate our end with our current status. Our political structure is decaying, our infrastructure has not been brought up-to-date and is showing age, our culture has become so web-based that we have forgotten how to communicate face-to-face...

Have you ever considered that maybe this is the apocalypse in slow motion?

I Am an Epic Water Chicken!

When given the choice between blog topics for the week, flood or zodiac, going over my astrological-ness sounds like a lot more fun.

So Jan 26th began the fifteen day celebration of the Chinese New Year. Welcome to the year of the Fire Rooster. Babies born in this year will likely grow up to be resourceful and creative people.

The year of my birth, 1993, was also a rooster year, as was 2005. But recently I learned that are another two whole layers that make up the zodiac calendar that I had never heard of: element and yin/yang. '93 falls into the water element. That was easy enough to find. But finding out the yin or yang of your year (the final piece that creates a 60 YEAR CYCLE) is really hard to find! 

After an exorbitant number of google searches trying to get my full reading, I landed on a wonderful site that you plug in your name and birth date and it gives you all three of your Chinese Zodiac and your Western Astrology sign information, Druidic info, and birth year information, too! *

Turns out I am as follows:

 (things in italic parentheses are my opinions)

Rooster:

It is the first to rise in the morning (yup), often believed to have the power of divination. According to Greek mythology, the rooster can 'feel the future.' Because of this, we roosters are considered the gods' ambassadors. We like to think more and like to have a plan. But we are also creative problem solvers.

"The people under the Rooster sign are warm, generous, diligent, sociable and very capable speakers (yup, yup, yup, yup, and double yup!). They have quick wit and think fast. So sometimes they are impatient. When talking, they may stammer as their mouth couldn’t catch up with the brain. To change this, they need to think slowly. The men born in the year of the rooster usually pay great attention on his appearance. They dress well no matter in casual clothes or suit. The women also are beautifully dressed with a variety of colors. As they attach great importance to the attire, they look upon with disapproval to those who dress casually (not really…) and don’t like to communicate with them. Therefore, they usually leave an impression of coldness to others.” **

Water:

 We tend to be very gentle, smart, and competent as well as frank and have good memory (no, I don’t).

Turns out there are two types of water: flowing and still. I fall much more into the flowing attribute with an active personality, an aggressive habit, restless and impatient and always busy. (That fits me to a T!) We are “tender, inactive, uncompetitive, alturistic, and always win others by virtue.” **

Yin:

Yin is the black area and means ‘overcast’ or ‘negative.’ It represents dark, cold, negativity, empty, even number, female, etc. (Even in my darkest moments, I don’t think this fits. There must be more info somewhere else.)

It is important to remember that each side has a seed of the other in it. One is not itself without the other.

Cool Facts:

• The Rooster is the only bird in the Chinese Zodiac.
• The Tibetan Zodiac replaces the rooster with a more generic term- bird- but still use the image of a rooster. 

* www.myspiritualprofile.com

** http://www.yourchineseastrology.com/zodiac/