Legends about the end of the world. End of the World Lore Generic name for end of the world myths

It just so happens that in all religions the end of the world is spelled out in one way or another.
According to VTsIOM, about 10% of the Russian population believes in the end of the world. People are just tired of worrying and thinking about tomorrow. To call what is happening mass psychosis is an exaggeration; it is rather an information virus organized by the media to attract attention both to themselves and to trade, speculating on mass psychosis. In order to achieve your personal reset, the end of the world is not necessary. Looking for strength to live without fear of the end is the self-organization of society at a higher moral and spiritual level, which we do not have now, as well as the family.

One of the options for the end of the world is played out in the series God of Gods Mahadev (Part 3)- episode 528, when Parvati absorbed her husband Mahadev (Shiva), being in the incarnation of the Goddess Kali, thereby disrupting the balance of the Universe.

Watching Parvati consume the Universe, Vishnu says: “This is the end of the Universe.”

Parvati swallows the Universe

And only Vishnu, with his Divine song, was able to break into Parvati’s consciousness so that she would finally remember who she is and what her responsibility is to Nature.

When Brahma is awake, the so-called “day of Brahma” begins, the creation of the world occurs. The period when Brahma sleeps is called “the night of Brahma,” at which time the world collapses into a point and all development ceases. Brahma's day and night last 24,000 years. The Hindus call this period of time “kalpa”. “Kalpa” is divided into world periods or “yugas”, in each of which humanity is at a certain level of spiritual development.

The first period is called Krita Yuga in Sanskrit - this is

"golden age"to Earth Yes, it lasts longer than all the others. People obey the laws of supreme justice, honor the gods, lead a righteous lifestyle and strive for self-improvement. Therefore, there are no wars, poverty, grief or disease in the world, and every person has everything they need for prosperity and well-being.

The second period is Treta Yuga, this is already

"silver age" . The world is not as ideal as in the first period; humanity is divided into classes, each of which has not only its own merits, but also some vices. Religion begins to turn into a tool for controlling people, used for the purpose of acquiring power and wealth.

In the third period, these negative processes continue to develop. Dvapara Yuga or

"Copper Age", is characterized by a decline in morality in society, a loss of connection with the gods, and the transformation of religion into a series of magnificent rituals, behind which emptiness is often hidden. Natural disasters and diseases strike people who have lost their moral guidelines.

And finally, the shortest world period begins - Kali Yuga or Yuga

"iron". The name speaks for itself here, since it is difficult to compare simple iron with pure gold. Likewise, the people of Kali Yuga differ significantly from their ancestors who lived during the “golden age”. The true divine laws have been forgotten, they have been replaced by the laws of force, money and power. “He who is stronger is right,” as the proverb says. The rulers do not try to educate and develop their people, because they themselves indulge in laziness and debauchery. Kali Yuga is translated from Sanskrit as “black” - this is one of the names of the wife of the god Shiva. Kali, in Hindu mythology, is the goddess of death. The corruption and degradation of society goes so far that the only way out of this situation is the destruction of the old, outdated world. The beginning of Kali Yuga falls on February 18, 3012 BC. From this date the countdown to the end of the world begins.Now, according to Indians, we live in the last, Iron Age, at its very beginning.
The negativity of this time is now clearly visible throughout the world. In India, for example, the lack of spirituality of the upper strata of the elite has reached such a climax that they are completely indifferent to the misfortunes of their own people, they simply do not notice their troubles, floods, and poverty. Apparently, therefore, in order to somehow spiritually influence the soulless rich layer and strengthen the spirit of the poor layer of the population, spiritual and moral series began to be produced in India and this is an order of the Indian government in order to attract young people to the sacred scriptures and distract them from bad thoughts and actions - for example, the series Mahabharat, the series God of Gods Mahadev (Shiva)

Vishnu and his divine play (lila) are the creation that supports and destroys countless worlds. The main functions of Vishnu are maintaining dharma and destroying evil. In order to punish evildoers and protect virtuous people, Vishnu periodically descends into this world in the form of avatars. The Puranas contain a description of the ten main avatars of Vishnu, nine of which had already appeared on Earth and completed their mission, and the last one is the tenth avatar of Kalki, in this avatar he is depicted as white on a black horse or vice versa - black on a white horse, holding a flaming sword in his hand , with which he exterminates enemies, destroys the world and restores dharma. Dharma is the observance of norms and rules that are necessary to maintain cosmic order; also, depending on the context, dharma can mean “moral principles”, “religious duty”, “universal law of existence”, etc.
The tenth avatar of Vishnu is Kalka must descend at the very end of Kali Yuga. Kali Yuga is the fourth and final era in the Hindu time cycle. Characterized by a decline in morality, as the good in the world is reduced to one quarter of its original state. Variants of interpretation of the name: “age of the demon Kali”, “iron age”, “age of discord”. Indian literature gives different dates for Kali Yuga. According to the Puranas, Kali Yuga began at midnight on January 23, 3102 BC. e. (according to the Gregorian calendar). The duration of the Kali Yuga era is 432 thousand years. (Note: so people will have to suffer for a very, very long time).
The Mahabharata (chronicle chapters 186 - 189) describes that this is the worst age, when the life expectancy of people decreases to 100 years, when general economic and spiritual degradation sets in, when people show the most terrible and disgusting qualities. Their courage, intelligence and strength weaken. People's behavior begins to be controlled by anger, envy and ambition. People become deceitful and keep only the appearance of sacrifices, gifts and vows. Brahmins stop praying, retreat from making sacrifices and reading the Vedas, forget about funeral sacrifices and eat whatever they can. The loss of moral values ​​and oblivion of duty ultimately turns against the very carriers of evil and vice. The rulers who became tyrants in this era are unable either to keep people in obedience or to protect their peoples from the attacks of other peoples who have fallen into a state of barbarism, forgetting virtues and making sacrifices to the gods. Kali Yuga ends when evil and violence fill the entire world, which then collapses - pralaya (a period of inactivity in the Universe). Thus, the Maha-yuga (Manvantara) ends, and the circle of eras resumes.
However, it would be wrong to call Kali Yuga a complete dark spot on world history. Even in this “age of the demon” there is a short (by the standards of Kali Yuga) period of “golden time”. In the Brahma Vaivarta Purana, Krishna tells Ganga devi that 5,000 years after the onset of Kali Yuga, a special time will come - the Golden Age of Kali, which will last 10,000 years. And this is great news for us living today: after all, given that it is now 5117 years since the start of Kali Yuga, we have been living in the “golden age of Kali” for 117 years.
Special hopes are placed on this period, up to the cancellation of the coming apocalypse. If in 10 thousand years all the light forces can recognize each other and unite, then perhaps the decisive battle between Sri Kalki and Kali will not happen, and the world will move on to a new era in a soft and painless way.

The end of the world will begin when god Shiva performs his dance of destruction, and the Sun will send its rays to the earth, which will burn all living things. The material world will disintegrate into primary elements and the “night of Brahma” will begin, which will last 12,000 years. Then Brahma will awaken again and a new cosmic cycle of creation will begin.

Unlike Zoroastrians, Indians operate over much longer periods.
According to their ideas, the duration of the existence of the Universe - a day of Brahma - is 8,640,000,000 years. This day consists of 2 thousand mahayugas (major yugas - periods). One Mahadaga or period of Manu is 4,320,000 years. This great yuga, in turn, is divided into four ordinary yugas:
1) Satyayuga - golden age of 1,728,000 earth years;
2) Tretayuga - Silver Age 1,296,000 years;
3) dvaparayuga - copper age 864,000 years and
4) Kadyuga - Iron Age 432,000 years.
This means, according to their calculation and representation, There are still four hundred thousand years until the End of the World.

Buddhist predictions about the end of the world.
The ideas of the end of the world in each religion have similar features and each religion describes the apocalypse differently.
Buddhism today is practiced not only in India, but also in other parts of the planet. Adherents of the Buddha predict the end of the world for all humanity and claim that the world was created by Higher powers, and will be destroyed by them. Buddhist predictions indicate that human civilization will have to face serious challenges three times, putting its survival in jeopardy. These three tests - three periods in Buddhism - are called kalpas and have their own characteristic features.

The first kalpa is the period of creation. During this period, people only learn about the world around them through creation and try to understand the laws according to which the world develops.

The second kalpa is the period marking the flowering of human civilization, where people make great discoveries and amazing inventions.

The third kalpa is the period of decay. During this period, the collapse of the lower worlds begins. The whole world, like a sheet of paper, folds up, and after a while it unfolds, but after that there is nothing living left on it. During the period of collapse, only the higher worlds, the gods of Brahma, will not suffer.

Buddhism teaches that the end of the world will come when the entire earth is engulfed in fire. The emergence of fire will be facilitated by the appearance of seven suns. They will burn and evaporate everything, and life will arise in this reservoir, which will mark the beginning of a new civilization.

Buddhism says that the change of civilizations occurs due to the fault of humanity. People destroy themselves, and they cannot explain why they do it.

Buddhism does not give an exact date for the end of the world, however, there are some signs of when it will happen. So, according to Buddhist belief, a thousand Buddhas should come into the world, and only with the death of the last one, human civilization will cease to exist and the end of the world will come. At the moment we are experiencing the reign of the fourth Buddha - Shikya Muni, and

We have at least another thirty-nine billion years to wait until the end of the world!

Terrible natural disasters and earthquakes reminiscent of the End of the World have already occurred several times in the distant past. Information about alternating catastrophes is found in the Hindu holy book “Bhagavata Purana”, the Buddhist treatise “Visuddhi Magga” (chapter “World Cycles”), the collection of sacred books of Zoroastrianism “Avesta”, the collection of ancient Norse songs “Edde”.

There are descriptions of terrible disasters in the legends of the Incas, Aztecs and Mayans, in Mexican codes, Chinese chronicles, the works of the ancient Greeks and Slavs - that is, in almost all the peoples inhabiting the Earth. According to most historical sources, we live in the age of the seventh Sun (age). Each change of eras is accompanied by global destruction: floods, earthquakes, hurricanes and fires, during which almost the entire population of the Earth perishes.

Plato in the text of the dialogue “Timaeus” mentions the Egyptian priests of the goddess Neith in Sais, who claimed that the terrible cataclysms that occurred in ancient times destroyed almost all the inhabitants of the planet. He received this information from the great-grandson of Dropidas, Critias the Younger. Dropidas was a relative and friend of the “wisest of the seven sages” of Ancient Greece, Solon, who told him this amazing story. Solon, in turn, heard it during his 10-year journey through Egypt from the Egyptian priests.

“You are all young in mind,” he (the priest) answered, “for your minds do not retain in themselves any tradition that has been passed down from time immemorial from generation to generation, and no teaching that has grown gray with time. The reason for this is this. There have already been and will continue to be multiple and various cases of death of people, and, moreover, the most terrible ones - due to fire and water, and other, less significant ones - due to thousands of other disasters... in fact, bodies rotating in the vault of heaven around the Earth , deviate from their paths and therefore, at certain intervals of time, everything on Earth dies from a great fire..., (or) is flooded... with waters...

Whatever glorious or great deed or generally remarkable event may happen, whether in our region or in any other country about which we receive news, all this is recorded from ancient times in the records that we keep in our temples; Meanwhile, among you and other peoples, whenever writing has time to develop, again at the appointed time, streams fall from the heavens, like a pestilence, leaving all of you only illiterate and unlearned. And you start all over again, as if you were just born, knowing nothing about what happened in ancient times in our country or in your own country...

The Jewish philosopher and theologian Philo of Alexandria wrote:
Due to the repeated destruction caused by water and fire, later generations did not receive from previous generations the memory of the order and sequence of events.
Disasters on our planet occurred with a certain frequency.

The Aztecs, one of the most ancient peoples of the New World, counted eras by the names of the Suns, and, accordingly, cataclysms in which almost the entire population of the Earth perished. They were called Sun-Water (with a period of 4008 years), Sun-Earthquake (4010 years), Sun-Hurricane (4081 years) and Sun-Fire (5056 years).
The era of the first "Sun" began 17,141 years before this legend was told to the Spaniards. We live in the era of the “fifth Sun”; the Aztecs called it the “Sun of Movement” and believed that during this period a certain “movement” would occur, from which the whole world would perish.

Our ancestors undoubtedly possessed esoteric knowledge about the causes of cataclysms that occurred in the distant past. It is not for nothing that the pentagram is used in occult sciences to protect against Satan, whose possessions are in the underworld. When he breaks free (leaves the confines of the pentagram), the world faces terrible devastation.

The daily and annual displacement of the core depends on the position of the night and daylight relative to the Earth. Korovyakov expresses fears that the planet’s center of mass may shift. And then, as a result of the “bell effect” (mutual collisions of the inner core and solid rocks of the mantle), the Earth’s poles can shift towards the equator, and the magnetic field can disappear for an indefinite period.

The reason for the displacement of the inner core is most likely the Moon. Its mass is only 81 times less than the mass of the Earth. The Earth–Moon system is unique in the Solar System in terms of its mass ratio. Under the influence of the Moon's gravity, the core of our planet periodically shifts from the axis of rotation and, as a result of the influence of centrifugal force on it, gradually moves away from the center of the Earth, overcoming the resistance of the viscous outer liquid core. There are no forces that would return the inner core to its original state. There is only one possibility to return to a state of stable equilibrium - a displacement of the Earth's rotation axis.

Myths and legends of different nations mention similar events. The ancient Sumerian “Myth of Erra” tells how “the statutes of heaven and earth” were canceled, “the heavens shook, the constellations shifted” and “did not return,” and then a flood fell on the land. The ancient text contains specific indications of the reason for the displacement of the Earth’s rotation axis: “Erkallum trembled” and “the shell” of the earth became thinner. "Erkallum" is translated as "the underworld" or "the lands below the earth", that is, the inner core of our planet. The myth also indicates the approximate date when this cataclysm occurred - during the transition of the zodiacal house of the Bull (Taurus) to the zodiacal house of the Ram (Aries), that is, around 2300 BC, according to the modern dating of the change of zodiacal constellations.

The sacred books of the Zoroastrian priests speak of a time of great catastrophe caused by the “king of darkness,” who lives underground and periodically rises to the surface to destroy all life. Azhi-Dahaka is a dragon chained and suspended in the volcanic crater of the sacred Mount Damavand. Before the end of the world, he will break free and reign on Earth for a short time.

Among the goddesses of Ugaritic mythology, the cruel and bloodthirsty ruler of the underworld, Anatu, is known. Rising to the heavenly gods from her abode, she literally breaks through the bowels of the earth:
I will go... to the far-living god... I will pass through the thickness of the earth from the ground waters, I will rise up through the layers of the earth.
Enraged, the goddess causes earthquakes in palaces and destroys peoples on the surface of the Earth:
She threw chairs at brave men, threw tables at warriors, benches at mighty heroes... She crushed Anatu in the valley of her enemies and exterminated the people. She struck the townspeople and people who came from the sea, and destroyed those who came from the East.
Under the mythological guise of the goddess Anatu, the very real earth's inner core and its displacement from the center of the planet are clearly visible.

The Old Norse Description of the Earth III mentions similar catastrophic events:
When Peaceful Frodi ruled the state, there were such good harvests that the arable lands were sown on their own, and there was no need to prepare them for the winter... One day, when Frodi was (already) old, great thunder and lightning broke out. Then the sun disappeared from the sky, and the earth shook so that the mountains fell from their place. Then a mountain rose from the ground, and all the predictions were violated...

The myths of the Nenets and Selkups tell about the support of the Earth, located in the underground world. In ancient times, a shaman descended underground and, after seven days of travel, ended up in the iron dwelling of the Master of the Earth, where he remained forever - he holds a certain stone in his hands and maintains the inviolability of the world. If a shaman drops a stone, great misfortunes will befall people - flood, cold, hunger and disease.

The beliefs of the African Ganda tribe feature the earthquake god Musisi, who lives in the center of the Earth. When it moves, the earth's crust begins to shake and crack.
According to the legends and myths of most peoples of the world, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and tsunamis occur as a result of the movement inside the Earth of various animals - whales, snakes, etc. For example, the Hurons believe that Onniont lives inside our planet - a giant snake with a horn on its head, which periodically shakes the surface of the Earth. The Aztecs believed that the cause of earthquakes and other disasters was the giant Coyote.

The tales of the Edda warn of the dangers threatening the ash tree Yggdrasil (World Tree), thanks to which our Universe and Earth exist.
People don't know
What adversity
At the ash tree Yggdrasil;
Nidhogg eats the roots,
Top of the head - deer
The trunk is dying from rot...
A fool can't understand
How many snakes crawl
Under the ash tree Yggdrasil;
Goin and Moin -
Gravvitnira children, -
Grabak and Gravvollud,
Ofnir and Svafnir, -
They constantly gnaw on ash trees.

The famous Russian historian and folklorist A. N. Afanasyev in “Poetic Views of the Slavs on Nature” mentions the “Pigeon Book,” which, according to the beliefs of the ancient Russians, fell from the sky. It also contains data on the movement of the nucleus in the bowels of our planet:
Wherever the beast wants, he goes through the dungeon,
Like the sun in the sky,
It happens all the white stone mountains,
Clears streams and grooves,
Passes through rivers and icy deposits:
Wherever the beast goes, the spring is boiling.
When this beast takes over,
Like clouds across the sky,
The entire universe (Mother Earth below him) will shake.
When this beast (horn) turns,
All underground springs will boil.

There are references to a catastrophe associated with increased seismic activity of the earth's interior in Scandinavian and German mythology:
The mountains began to tilt. The earth began to lose its appearance. The stars began to float from the sky... The universe has turned into a huge furnace. Flames burst from cracks in the rocks, steam hissed everywhere. All living creatures, all vegetation were destroyed. Only bare earth remained, but it, like the sky, was all covered with cracks and crevices.

The astronomical tables compiled by the Indian Brahmins show the general deviation of the stars from their present positions. According to some sources, the Earth moved away from its normal position at a distance of up to 900 km.

The Indian myth "Strengthening the Earth" says:
...in those days the earth shook, as if under the blow of the wind, like a lotus leaf, from side to side... and the gods had to strengthen it.

In Egypt (Fajam) A sundial was discovered that is suitable only for a country located at latitude 150. At the same time, Egypt is located at latitude 25 0 - 30 0. The error in incorrect division of the scale reaches a whole hour. Thus, the clock is suitable for measuring time in a country located about 1000 km south of where it was found.

Ancient astronomical tables indicate that Babylon must have been located much further north than the modern ruins. The Arab scientist Arzakhel drew attention to this discrepancy back in the Middle Ages. Johannes Kepler also knew about this amazing fact. Research by the American geophysicist A. O. Kelly showed that before the last shift of the earth's axis, the North Pole was located at 60 0 s. sh., that is, as much as 30 0 south of its current position.

In the Rig Veda it speaks of the Big Dipper standing directly overhead and the Sun rising once a year.

Zend-Avesta explains, which forced the Aryans to move to India - as a result of the displacement of the axis, their ancestral home found itself beyond the Arctic Circle and cold weather set in:
Summer lasted two months, and winter lasted ten... The sun, moon and stars rose above us only once a year, and the year seemed like one day and one night.

Plato described the movement of the earth's axis of our planet this way:
Forward and backward, and again to the right and to the left, up and down, wandering in all six directions... [The Earth's axis] turned over once, then tilted and returned to its original position again... When this devastation happened, things were going like this for the people: all around was a vast, terrible desert, a huge mass of land, all the animals died, only here and there a herd of cattle and a tribe of goats accidentally survived. These herds initially provided the shepherds with meager means of subsistence...

You can also read about the disruption of the planet’s rotation and the displacement of its rotation axis from Plutarch:
The dense air hid the sky from view, and the stars were lost from their path from random flashes of fire and smoke and frantic gusts of wind. The sun did not follow an unchanging and constant path so as to distinguish between east and west, and did not return the seasons in the right order... The pole acquired a rotation or tilt.

Diogenes Laertius wrote:
The earth... tilted towards the south because the northern regions became hard... due to the snowy and cold weather that prevailed there.
Anaxagoras believed that the pole had completed a revolution and the world began to tilt south. Ovid argued that the earth sank a little lower than it should.

Jesuit missionary Martinius, who lived for many years in China and studied ancient Chinese chronicles, wrote the book “History of China”, which talks about the displacement of the Earth’s axis and the flood as a consequence of this cataclysm:
The support of the sky collapsed. The earth was shaken to its very foundation. The sky began to fall to the north. The sun, moon and stars changed their path. The entire system of the Universe has fallen into disarray. The sun was eclipsed and the planets changed their paths.

The Karelo-Finnish epic “Kalevala” tells:
... terrible shadows ... covered the Earth, ... and the sun sometimes left its usual path.
The Icelandic Voluspa contains the following lines:
She (Earth) did not know where her home should be,
The moon didn't know what her home was
The stars didn't know where to stand.
Then the gods restore order among the celestial bodies.

Displacement of the Earth's core is confirmed by numerous myths and legends of various peoples, and in all sources the same characteristic feature appears - this cataclysm was accompanied by an underground rumble and the rapid disappearance of the Sun beyond the horizon.

A myth recorded on the islands of Micronesia says that the catastrophe was preceded by a sudden darkness (when the planet's axis shifted, the Sun went below the horizon). Then the flood began.
The natives of Tierra del Fuego (the extreme south of South America) tell a legend that the Sun sank into the sea, and the waters rose noisily over the highest hills. The entire land was flooded except for one of the highest mountains, where a few people were saved.

The South American tribes of Paumari, Abederi and Cataushi, living near the Purus River in the Amazon basin, also have a description of the flood:
One day people heard an underground rumble and dull rumbles of thunder. The sun and moon began to take on red, blue, and yellow colors, and wild animals began to fearlessly approach people. A month later, thunder rumbled again, thick darkness rose from the ground to the sky, a thunderstorm broke out, and it began to rain. It was as if daylight and land had never existed. Some people found themselves unknown where, others died unknown how, for unimaginable chaos reigned everywhere. The water rose so high that the entire earth was under it, only the tops of the tallest trees still rose above the water. In some places people fled, not knowing where to hide, in others, having climbed into trees, they died from cold and hunger, for the darkness and rain did not stop all the time.

The Araucans (Chile) preserved the legend of a great flood caused by a strong earthquake, which was accompanied by volcanic eruptions. The few survivors escaped on the high mountain Tegteg (“thundering”, “sparkling”) with three peaks and capable of floating on water.

The Dakota Indians, who once lived along the banks of the Missouri, have the following laconic legend:
A mountain spitting fire, then a flood, and finally, after the flood, the first people.

The Chinese book Mencius reports about the great flood during the reign of Emperor Yao: During the time of Yao, the waters turned back and flooded all of China. Snakes and dragons settled everywhere, and people had nowhere to live. Those who lived in the lowlands built nests, those who lived in the mountains settled in caves.

The Eskimos, living along the coast of the Arctic Ocean from Cape Barrow in the west to Cape Bathers in the east, as well as in Greenland, tell of several floods that periodically destroyed almost the entire population. One of the floods was the result of a hurricane wind, which drove sea waters onto the land and turned it into a desert. The few survivors then escaped on rafts and boats. Another flood was caused by a terrible earthquake. Another flood was caused by a huge tidal wave:
A long time ago, the ocean suddenly began to rise higher and higher until it flooded the entire earth. Even the mountain peaks disappeared under water, and the ice floes beneath them rushed downstream. When the flood stopped, the blocks of ice gathered together and formed the ice caps that still cover the mountain peaks. Fish, shellfish, seals and whales were left lying on the dry ground, where their shells and bones can still be seen.

The Popol Vuh, a book by the K'iche Indians who lived in central modern Guatemala, states that one of the floods was caused by the "Heart of the World", that is, the core of the Earth.
From the ancient Indian epic it is known that in the past the Sun rose in the west and set in the east, that is, the direction of rotation of the Earth was reversed. People could have received this information from previous civilizations that died as a result of various disasters. From these same sources it follows that modern humanity is already the fifth generation of intelligent beings living on Earth.

The sacred books of the ancient Indians say that the cataclysm on our planet was caused by the god Hayagriva, who lived in the abyss. They describe the contact of the inner core with the mantle of the planet:
At the first sound, heaven and earth moved, seas and rivers turned back, mountains and hills shook on their foundations... Heaven and earth thundered, mountains and hills moved.
The Psalter speaks about this catastrophe:
The voice of the Lord is over the waters;
The God of glory has thundered...
The voice of the Lord is strong, the voice of the Lord is majestic.
The voice of the Lord breaks the cedars;
The Lord breaks the cedars of Lebanon
And makes Lebanon and Sirion gallop like a calf -
Like a young unicorn.
The voice of the Lord cuts out the flames of fire.
The voice of the Lord shakes the wilderness;
The Lord shakes the desert of Kadesh.
The voice of the Lord releases the burden of the deer and strips the forests bare...
The Lord sat over the flood, and will sit...

Many historical sources mention terrible sounds and roars. For example, Chinese legends tell about a terrible cannibal:
In the center of the Earth, a red man-eating bull, Yayu, with a human face and horse legs, is rampaging, making sounds that resemble the cry of a child. The mere appearance or sound of his voice makes people run away without looking back.

Pliny wrote that an earthquake is preceded (or accompanied) by a certain terrible sound.
Ovid also mentions the sounds of trumpets in Metamorphoses:
Nevertheless, undoubted signs of future sorrows are revealed:
The black clouds began to thunder, they say, like weapons;
A roar was heard in the heavens and terrible sounds of trumpets, -
They proclaimed sin...

The Book of Moses says:
On the third day, when morning came, there were thunder and lightning,
And a thick cloud over the mountain, and the sound of a trumpet was very strong...
Mount Sinai was all smoking because the Lord
came upon her in fire;
And smoke rose from it like smoke from a furnace, and the whole mountain
I hesitated a lot.

Homer describes the same phenomenon:
The endless expanses of the earth and the heavens above them sounded like the voice of a trumpet.
In Voluspa there are these words:
The whole world is burning in the sounds of the horn...

The ancient Egyptian Ipuwer Papyrus states that a tectonic cataclysm, accompanied by the rumbling of the Earth, continued for several years. This time is called “The Year of Noise”: And there is no end to the noise…. Oh, if only this earth would stop rumbling and make no more noise.

Among different peoples, the “groan of the Earth” is described almost identically - Yau, Yao, Yahwe, Io, Zhao, Yayu. According to the Bible, the Apocalypse will also begin with the “voice of God” that we will all hear.

The Great Sphinx is called by the Egyptians “Father of Terror and Fear”; There is a belief that when the Sphinx laughs, the world will shake. And then, most likely, there will be a shift in the Earth’s rotation axis.

The first sign of an approaching catastrophe, according to various sources, will be the appearance of bright auroras in southern latitudes, caused by changes in the strength of the magnetic field of our planet, and an anomalous glow of the atmosphere.

The ancient Roman poet Virgil Publius Maro wrote in the Aeneid:
A flickering light flashed high above the ground, and suddenly
There was a roar all around, as if the vaults of the ether had collapsed,
The roar of the Tyrrhenian trumpet filled the sky,
Again and again a deafening roar sounded above them.
They looked up: where the sky was not covered with clouds,
In the scarlet glare, swords and spears clashed noisily.

According to the Lapland cosmogonic legend, the displacement of the core occurred relatively recently:
When human anger intensified, the center of the Earth trembled with horror, so that the upper layers of the earth collapsed, and many people fell into these caves to die there.
These disasters were accompanied by bright aurora:
His terrible anger flared up like red, blue and green fiery snakes, and people hid their faces, and children screamed in fear….
The heavenly god Yumbel said:
I will change this world. I will make the rivers flow back; I will force the sea to gather into a huge wall, like a tower, which I will bring down on your evil earthly children and thus destroy them and all life.
And he kept his promise:
Yumbel caused a gale to blow
And angry air spirits...
Foaming, fast, rising to the sky
The sea wall came, crushing everything.
Yumbel with one strong blow
Made the Earth turn over;
Then he leveled the world again.
Now the mountains and hills
Cannot be seen by Beike (Sun).
Filled with the groans of dying people.
There was a beautiful land, the home of humanity.
Beike no longer shines in the skies...

Undoubtedly, the displacement of the core of our planet must somehow manifest itself, but due to the huge angular momentum of the Earth (compared to the inner core), these changes will be insignificant. First of all, this should affect the slowdown in the rotation speed of our planet. In 1991, the length of the day increased by 1 second, in July 1992 an amendment was made to the daily time by another 1 second, and in 1993 a full two seconds were added. Due to the displacement of the center of mass of the “Earth-core” system and the change in the position of the rotation axis in the body of our planet, a slow shift of the north geographic pole in the direction of Greenland is currently observed, the amplitude of the movement of the instantaneous pole increases, the daily nutation of the rotation axis increases, and significant fluctuations occur geographic polar latitude.
Magnetic pole shift registered since 1885. Over the past 100 years, the magnetic pole in the Southern Hemisphere has moved almost 900 km and is already in the Indian Ocean. The Arctic magnetic pole is moving towards the East Siberian world magnetic anomaly through the Arctic Ocean; from 1973 to 1984 its movement amounted to 120 km, from 1984 to 1994 – more 150 km. The drift speed of the north magnetic pole increased from 10 km/year (1970s) to 40 km/year (2001).
In the direction of the displacement of the inner core between Australia and Antarctica, the magnetic field strength increases, today it already reaches 0.7 oersted (almost the same as at the pole). On the opposite side of the Earth, in the South Atlantic Ocean, the magnetic field strength, on the contrary, decreased by 10%. In the future, changes will occur more and more intensely.
As the core approaches the Earth's mantle, the number of earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and tsunamis will increase, especially in the area of ​​the Indian and Pacific faults of the earth's crust (Indonesia, Philippines, Japan, Kamchatka), in southeast Asia (Pakistan, India, China), as well as in west coast of South America.
Seismic stations constantly monitor the “trembling” of the Earth, recording even minor vibrations of the subsoil. Statistics show that earthquakes on our planet are occurring more and more often. In the period from 1900 to 1930, only 2000 earthquakes were recorded; from 1940 to 1982, about 1000 vibrations of the earth's crust were recorded annually (!). In 1983, 300,000 tremors were recorded (that is, more than 800 per day), and since 1984, the number of recorded earthquakes has been 1,000 per day. At the same time, since 1994, the number of long-focus earthquakes, that is, coming from the depths of the Earth, has doubled. The number of tectonic disasters is also increasing. In the first half of the 20th century, there were only 33 of them, and in the second half there were already 95. Some of them claimed hundreds of thousands of human lives.
The threat of a tectonic cataclysm caused by the displacement of the Earth's inner core is quite real. The consequences of this disaster could be the most terrible. As the “sleeping” prophet E. Cayce stated, if it seems to you that something is moving and rumbling in the bowels of the Earth, then the displacement of the Earth’s inner core has begun. According to him, the earth’s axis began to “slip” out of its gravitational grip already in 1936.

The causes of future catastrophes are called very different: global warming, the fall of an asteroid, the approach of the hypothetical planet Nibiru, increased activity of the Sun, a parade of planets, a quantum transition, a change in the level of consciousness, etc. What are the true causes of the (possible) cataclysm? And will it actually happen? Let's try to understand this confusing and pressing problem.
In order to predict future events, it is necessary to establish what cataclysms and disasters occurred in the distant past of our planet and determine the likelihood of their recurrence. Information about strong earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and floods is contained in myths, legends and traditions of many peoples of the world. Information about alternating catastrophes that periodically occur on Earth is available in the sacred book of the Hindus “Bhagavata Purana”, the Buddhist book “Vizuddhi Magga” (chapter “World Cycles”), “Avesta”, “Edda”, and the codes of the Indians of South America. According to most historical sources, we live in the era of the fifth, seventh or ninth Sun. Each change of eras is accompanied by global destruction: floods, earthquakes, hurricanes and fires, which kill almost the entire population of the Earth.
Plato in the text of the dialogue “Timaeus” mentions information received from the Egyptian priests of the goddess Neith in Sais, who claimed that terrible cataclysms that occurred in ancient times destroyed almost all the inhabitants of the planet. He received this information from the great-grandson of Dropidas, Critias the Younger. Dropidas was a relative and friend of the “wisest of the seven sages” Solon, who told him this amazing story. Solon, in turn, heard it during his journey for 10 years in Egypt from the Egyptian priests, who conveyed this information to him: “You are all young in mind,” he (the priest) answered, “for your minds do not retain no tradition, passed from time immemorial from generation to generation, and no teaching that has grown gray with time. The reason for this is this. There have already been and will continue to be multiple and various cases of death of people, and moreover, the most terrible ones - due to fire and water, and others less significant - due to thousands of other disasters... in fact, bodies rotating in the vault of heaven around The lands deviate from their paths and therefore, at certain intervals, everything on Earth dies from a great fire..., flooding it with waters."... No matter what glorious or great deed or generally remarkable event occurs, be it in our region or in any other country about which we receive news, all this is recorded from ancient times in the records that we keep in our temples; Meanwhile, among you and other peoples, whenever writing has time to develop and again at the appointed time, streams fall from heaven like a pestilence, leaving all of you only illiterate and unlearned. And you start all over again, as if you were just born, knowing nothing about what happened in ancient times in our country or in your own country...”
Aristotle, the ancient Greek philosopher and scientist, wrote: “The same places do not always remain land or always sea. The sea comes where there was land before; the land will return to where we now see the sea. Moreover, one must think that these changes follow one after another in a certain order and represent a certain periodicity.”
Philo of Alexandria (1st century AD) mentioned in his writings: “Because of the repeated destruction caused by water and fire, later generations did not receive from previous generations the memory of the order and sequence of events.” In his book “On the Eternity of the World” he writes: “I attribute the destruction of things on earth, not all at once, but in large quantities, to two most important reasons, the sudden onslaught of fire and water. These two calamities are said to befall us after a long succession of years. When the time comes for a fire, the fire sent from the sky falls from above, spreads in streams over many places, and covers vast expanses of inhabited lands.”

Xenophanes of Colophon(c. 570 - c. 470 BC) - ancient Greek philosopher and poet, argued that “the land is mixed with the sea, and over time it is freed from moisture<...>All people perish whenever, plunging into the sea, the earth becomes mud, then again it initiates birth, and such an alternation happens in all worlds.”
In the book by E.P. Blavatsky’s “Isis Unveiled” mentions periods of catastrophes on our planet: “At the end of each “Great Year,” called by Aristotle - according to Censorinus - the greatest, which consists of six saros (Saros), a great physical revolution occurs on our planet.

The polar and equatorial climates gradually exchange places, the first slowly moving towards the equator, and the tropical zone with its luxurious vegetation and teeming animal life is replaced by the harsh deserts of the icy poles. This climate change is necessarily accompanied by cataclysms, earthquakes and other cosmic convulsions. As the ocean reservoirs shift, at the end of every ten thousand years and one Neros there will be a semi-universal flood similar to the legendary Noah's flood. And this year is called Heliacal in Greek; but no one outside the walls of the sanctuaries knew anything definite about its duration or other details.

The winter of this year was called the Cataclysm or Flood, and the summer was called Ekpyrosis. Popular tradition teaches that during these alternating seasons the world will alternately be burned and flooded. This is what we learn, at least, from the Astronomical Fragments of Sensorius and Seneca. Regarding the duration of this year, all commentators express themselves very uncertainly - so uncertainly that none of them, with the exception of Herodotus and Linus, who attributed a duration to this year - the first 10,800 years, the last - 13,984 - came close to the truth.
Disasters on our planet occurred with a certain frequency. The Chinese call past eras “kiss.” At the end of each “kitty” “in the general shudder of nature... everyone perishes, and ancient traces are erased.”

Aztecs They counted eras by the names of the Suns, and, accordingly, cataclysms in which almost the entire population of the Earth died. Global disasters recur on our planet with an average period of 4288 years. They were called Sun-Water (with a period of 4008 years), Sun-Earthquake (4010 years), Sun-Hurricane (4081 years) and Sun-Fire (5056 years). The era of the first "Sun" began 17,141 years before this legend was told to the Spaniards.

The first sun is the Tiger Sun (Ocelotonatiuh):“The god of the night sky, Tezcatlipoca, the Smoking Mirror, was the first to become the Sun. Thus began the first era. Other gods created giant people who did not work or cultivate the land, but only ate fruits.
But the Sun did not move in the sky as it should, at noon it was already night, and the tigers devoured the people. Cold and darkness enveloped the earth.

God of the West, Quetzalcoatl (Feathered Serpent) hit Tezcatlipoca with his staff, and he fell from the sky into the water. In the water he turned into a tiger, came out to land and devoured all the giant people. So the earth again became uninhabited, and the universe was left without the Sun, and this continued for 676 years. Thus ended the first era in the history of mankind - the era of the First Sun. This happened in the fourth year of Ocelot, or Tiger (4 Ocelotl).”

The second sun is the Sun of Wind (Ehekatonatiuh):“Then Quetzalcoatl, the Feathered Serpent, god of the West, became the Sun, and the second era began. The earth was repopulated by people. And there was peace on Earth for some time.
Then Tezcatlipoca turned into a tiger and threw the Sun to the ground with one blow. And again the earth was left without the Sun.

A terrible wind arose and knocked down all the trees. Everything that was on the ground was blown away by the wind. Most of the people died. Those people who survived turned into monkeys. This lasted 676 years. Thus ended the second era - the Sun of the Wind. This happened in the fourth year of the Wind (4 Ehecatl).”

The third sun is the Sun of Fire Rain (Kiahuitonatiu):“Then the gods made Tlaloc, the god of rain and heavenly fire, the Sun. Thus began the era of the Third Sun. This lasted 364 years. And then Quetzalcoatl made fire rain fall from the sky.
Fire fell from the sky in the form of lightning. Volcanoes opened their craters and fire devoured the earth. Sand and hot stones fell from the sky. Most of the people died, and those who survived turned into birds.
Thus ended the third era - the era of the Sun of Fire Rain. This happened in the fourth year of the Rain (4 Quiahuitl).”

The fourth sun is the Sun of Water (Atonatiuh):“Then Quetzalcoatl made Tlaloc’s sister, the water goddess Chalchihuitlicue, She Who Wears the Green Stone Skirt, the Sun. Thus began the era of the Fourth Sun, which lasted 312 years.

Tezcatlipoca made sure that the rain did not stop. It rained for many days and the land was flooded. The water carried away plants, animals and people. Those people who survived turned into fish. Thus ended the era of the Fourth Sun. This happened in the fourth year of Water (4 Atl).
It rained so hard that the sky fell to the ground. The earth could fall apart at any moment. Then the four main gods gathered again to raise the sky. Tezcatlipoca and Quetzalcoatl turned into large trees, and the other gods helped them put the sky in its place.
Four times the gods tried to create humanity, and four times the world was destroyed due to the enmity between Tezcatlipoca and Quetzalcoatl. It was cold and dark again and there was no sun.”

We live in the era of the “fifth sun”, which the Aztecs called the “Sun of Movement” and they believed that there would be some kind of “movement” from which the whole world would perish. The Indians left behind calendars that state that the era of the “fifth Sun” should end on December 21, 2012.

What is this “movement” that repeats itself with an average period of 4288 years? According to numerous prophecies, before the End of the World there will be a tectonic catastrophe caused by the displacement of the Earth's inner core. The harbingers of this destructive earthquake are already reminding us of themselves. At the end of November 2004, earthquakes continued in Japan for almost a month. In the Indonesian region, thunderous sounds were heard, which were initially mistaken for explosions caused by terrorists, and were also explained by the fall of large meteorites, but all these assumptions were not confirmed. A week later (December 26), a powerful earthquake with an amplitude of 8.9 occurred west of the island of Sumatra, which caused a movement of the earth’s crust and a powerful tsunami up to 10 meters high, killing about 220 thousand people and causing significant destruction on the island of Sri Lanka, Indonesia, India, Malaysia, Thailand, Bangladesh, the islands of Oceania, the east coast of Africa. As a result of this cataclysm, according to media reports, the Earth's rotation axis shifted - so far only slightly by 2.5 centimeters and the Earth's rotation speed increased. The island of Sumatra has shifted almost 30 meters from its original location. The seismic wave circled the globe several times.

Seismologists warn that the 2004 tsunami began another period of tectonic activity that will last several decades. Scientists have found that tectonic shifts lead to changes in the direction of coral growth. This data allowed them to delve into the distant past for many centuries and, by analyzing the structure of coral reefs, gain insight into previous earthquakes in the eastern Indian Ocean. It turned out that in the last 700 years, every two centuries this region has been shaken by a series of strong earthquakes, which are repeated with a certain periodicity. The last increase in tectonic activity occurred in this area in the first quarter of the 19th century.

The true cause of such a destructive earthquake has never been clarified. And this is only a harbinger of the approaching tectonic cataclysm. Let's consider this issue in more detail.
At the end of the 19th century, based on temporary variations in latitude changes, astronomers discovered a global phenomenon - the movement of the axis of rotation in the Earth's body. This phenomenon was studied by the President of the Royal Society of Great Britain J.G. Darwin (son of Charles Darwin) and the Japanese astronomer Kimura.
J.G. Darwin writes: “The Japanese astronomer Kimura drew attention to the following strange conclusion that he received from observations: ... the latitudes of all six observatories of the Geodetic Association change simultaneously by the same amount, and they simultaneously decrease or increase, and this change has an annual period. Now it turns out that we must add a small movement of all observation sites immediately to the north or immediately to the south, having a period of a year. Such a movement could be caused by the alternating movement of the Earth's center of gravity north and south along the polar axis...

It is so difficult to comprehend the idea of ​​​​moving the Earth's center of gravity that many tried to explain Kimura's result solely as a fictitious consequence of various inaccuracies in astronomical observations. But if these were only fictitious results, then the observatories of the southern hemisphere could not give completely opposite changes. Both hemispheres, of course, must be diametrically opposed in this respect. Observations were specially organized at the southern observatories for two years and the result was that the southern observatories gave exactly the same readings as the northern ones. The reality of this strange kind of oscillation of latitude, therefore, seems to be well established... and hitherto we must accept this fact as an as yet unsolved mystery.”

Perhaps the cause of tectonic cataclysms that periodically repeat on our planet is our night star. Under the influence of the Moon's gravity, the Earth's core is displaced from its axis of rotation and, as a result of the influence of centrifugal force on it, gradually moves away from the center of the Earth, overcoming the resistance of the viscous outer liquid core. There are no forces that would return the inner core to its original state. There is only one possibility to return to a state of stable equilibrium - to shift the Earth's axis of rotation.

According to ancient legends, the Moon appeared in the sky relatively recently. From numerous historical sources we can conclude that our solar system is visited by a massive celestial body, presumably a neutron star (Typhon), with a period of 12 thousand years. In our Galaxy, according to astronomers, there are about a billion neutron stars, which, with small sizes - 5-10 km and a mass of 0.01 - 2 solar masses, have a strong magnetic field (about 1011-1012 Gauss) and a huge rotation speed around its axis.

The mass of this celestial body is greater than that of Jupiter, but less than the solar one. According to numerous information contained in ancient legends and traditions, this massive body is accompanied by 11 satellites and an extensive gas and dust plume. Object color is black. During accretion (fall of matter onto its surface) and release of kinetic energy, its color changes to red or dazzling white.
Our ancestors called this object Typhon (Set), Tiamat, Serpent Apep, Red-Haired Dragon, Rahab, Hurakan, Matu, Garuda, Humbaba, etc. This massive object, when passing through the solar system, with its gravity caused catastrophic destruction to celestial bodies, disturbing the orbits of the planets and their satellites. Based on the information contained in the myths and legends of ancient peoples, a neutron star has already visited our solar system four times.

During one of these visits, Typhon borrowed from Jupiter one of its satellites, that is, the future Moon. Indirect evidence of this event is available in one of the myths of the Akkadians and Babylonians, which is called “When Above” and describes this cosmic cataclysm as follows: “At the sight of Marduk (Jupiter), fear took possession of Kingu - (the dragon). The army of dragons created by Tiamat (neutron star) fled. But she herself withstood Marduk’s gaze and stood firm. Then Marduk threw his net over Tiamat, which was stretched by the winds. Tiamat opened her mouth to swallow the daredevil, but Marduk deftly pulled back. Violent winds were sent straight into Tiamat's mouth (capturing part of Jupiter's atmosphere). They filled her womb and swollen her so much that she could not move. And then Marduk placed an arrow (lightning) on ​​the arc of his huge bow, pulled the string, and the arrow, escaping with a whistle, pierced her heart.... Then he defeated the other gods and all the evil spirits that Tiamat had created against him.... Then he created the Moon, entrusting it with the night. He gave the moon a crown so that he could measure time with its horns and teeth.” The myth “When at the Top” mentions that after this battle Marduk could not find his home (orbit) for a long time. Interestingly, the tablet recording the myth ends with the admonition: “The teachings that the ancients spoke in times past are written down and intended for teaching in the future.”

A more ancient version of the Sumerian myth about the origin of our planet’s satellite says that the Moon “got to the Earth” from Tiamat. According to Sumerian cosmogony, this celestial body had 11 satellites - “dragons”. The largest of them was Kingu:
Crowded together, they marched next to Tiamat.
Enraged, they plotted intrigues day and night,
Ready for conflict, seething with anger and raging.

As a result of the “Celestial Battle” between Marduk (Jupiter) and Tiamat, gravitational capture and a change in the orbits of one or more neutron star satellites occurred. Having lost their “leader,” they left the solar system forever or were captured by other massive planets. It is possible that in such an unusual way, the Earth “acquired” the Moon.

Ancient Sumerian cylinder seals contain images of the celestial battle between Marduk and Tiamat, where Jupiter is shown throwing lightning at a winged dragon. Twelve stars around the planet are perhaps the largest satellites of Jupiter. Between these celestial bodies there is an image of the Moon in the form of a crescent, which confirms the myth about the appearance of a satellite in Earth’s orbit as a result of a grandiose cosmic catastrophe that occurred in ancient times in the solar system.

In Greek mythology (“Typhonia”, Nonna) there is information about the influence of Typhon on the Moon during its last appearance in the area of ​​the earth’s orbit. At the same time, the Earth’s satellite recorded incredible evolutions in the sky:
Several times with his boastful hand he struck the detached
To them from Selene's yoke of bulls that staggered and lowed,
And stopped these similar animals
Or he directed all the harnessed oxen in reverse,
Their white collars are a sign of the deity - tearing
And spilling the destructive whistle of a poisonous echidna.
But Titanide Luna did not yield to her attacker:
Resisted the Giant with the same exact horns,
The bull's horns were sharpened by luminous curves...
Moving with a roar, a chorus of motionless and unshakable
It overtook the stars, opposite the wandering ones (planets); echoed
Through the heavens in the void, piercing to the middle, straight
Firmament axis; looking at the beast, Orion, like a hunter,
He took his sword out of its scabbard, and when he armed himself with it,
The light ribs of the Tanagra blade sparkled in the sky.
From its fire-breathing mouth, emitting radiance,
The starry throat of the thirsty Dog was terribly worried,
He galloped with a fiery bark, but his growl was not familiar
I met hares, and steam from the teeth of Typhoean monsters.

In the mythology of the peoples of Asia and South America, a neutron star was depicted as a dragon with a long writhing tail - a gas and dust plume of a star. The Aztecs associated the appearance of the Moon in the sky with the dragon. The Aztec Codex contains a depiction of this event. The Moon Goddess Tlazolteotl, to emphasize this fact, specifically points her finger at this terrible monster.
The Slavic “Kolyadov Tales” also indicate that the satellite of our planet, after a long “battle,” was caught by Perun’s net and has since been rotating along its star path: “And then Perun and Devan (Moon) came together in an open field. They fought with spears and clubs, cut themselves with swords. But their spears, swords, and clubs broke. She turned around, Devan as a Lioness, and Perun as a Leo. And Leo overcame the powerful Lioness.
Then Devana turned into a Magur bird, and Perun - an Eagle. And again the Eagle fought the Magur bird. Then Devana turned into Whitefish. Perun called upon the goddess of fate Makosh for help, and she, together with Dolya and Nedolya, tied a frequent net. And Perun caught Devan with this net.
Here Devan submitted to fate and bowed to Perun.”
"And since then the Moon has been in the blue sky
walks along the starry path.
Grows again, but a mighty god (Semargl)
again he cuts it with a sword (phases of the Moon).”
“The Book of Kolyada”, X b.
According to Slavic legends, Devana (Moon) “gave birth” to two children from the god Semargl - Van and Lyuta: “From the blow of Ognebogov, the powerful son of Semargl Svarozhich, Van, was conceived in the womb of Devanushka, together with his sister Lyuta...”
Perhaps our planet in those ancient times had several satellites. An astronomical map discovered in a cave on the island of Youth (Cuba) shows three satellites of the Earth. On the hieroglyph of the Mayan Indians in a stylized form denoting the Moon, you can also see three circles, which can symbolize the former satellites of our night star. On a vase of the Peruvian Mochica tribe, who lived in Peru long before the Incas, there is an image of the Moon with three satellites drawn in the form of dots with diverging rays that end in balls. The stars in this picture look like circles with regular straight rays. The dragon against the background of the Moon is a symbolic image of a neutron star, which was very often depicted, especially in Southeast Asia, in exactly this form.

This event, when the Moon first appeared in its orbit, occurred approximately 25-26 thousand years ago. When approaching the Earth, Typhon caused significant changes on the surface of the planet, which were accompanied by powerful volcanic activity and earthquakes. At this time, huge expanses of land in the area of ​​the Sea of ​​Japan and the South China Sea sank under water. The land bridges that previously connected Asia with the Japanese Islands and Indonesia have disappeared. Around the same time, the Indochinese ridges and mountains of Central Asia became 2000 meters higher, and in South America Lake Titicaca, in the vicinity of which seashells, silt and algae remains were found, rose 4 km from sea level!
Despite the fact that these events happened a long time ago, legends about those times have been preserved among some peoples. The Indonesian Nias tribe had two supreme deities, Lowalangi and Lature Danyo, who opposed each other. Lawalangi (Sun) is associated with the upper world; it embodies goodness and life, its color is yellow or gold, its symbols and cult signs are a rooster, an eagle, light. Lature Dane (Typhon) belongs to the lower world; he is the embodiment of evil and death, his color is black or red, his emblem is snakes, and his symbols are the moon and darkness. From the myth we can understand that the appearance of the Moon in the earth’s sky is associated with the deity Lature Dana.
In the folklore of the Indians of South America, there is such information about our night luminary, allegorically describing the appearance of the Moon: “He had three names - Bochika, Nemketeba and Zuhe.... He brought his wife with him, and she also had three names - Chia, Yubekayguaia and Hawtaka (satellites). But only the beautiful Chia was a very evil woman - she always and in everything went against her husband, and he wished only good for people. Chia bewitched the Fansa River, and it overflowed its banks, flooding the entire Bogotá valley. Many residents died during this flood. Only a few managed to escape; they climbed to the tops of the surrounding mountains. The angry old man drove Chia away from the earth, and she became the Moon. Since then, Chia has illuminated the earth at night.”
The Chibcha-Muisca tribe from Brazil has a legend: “In ancient times, even before the moon began to accompany the earth, the people who inhabited the Bogotá plateau lived like real savages: they walked naked, did not know how to cultivate the land, and they did not have no laws, no rituals." A white man with a black beard, Bochika, “sent by God,” came to their land and taught them how to dress and build cities. This was in “those ancient times when the moon had not yet accompanied the earth.”

In the ancient book of the Mayan Indians, known today as the Codex de Paris (translated by R. Keyser), it is repeatedly mentioned that in time immemorial there was no moon in the night sky: “The Lord created this day. It was a very, very long time ago - during the second Age of Creation, when the gods made a prediction. It was long, long before August 12, 3114 BC, when the gods prophesied that they would discover the secret of how to create beings who could call them by name. These are the people they will create from the dust. Wooden people were cracking.

The gods sent giant streams to wash away their mistakes. But the wooden people swam and lived as Monkeys to this day. It was so long ago when this happened that there were still no Baktuns (centuries), Katuns (decades), Tuns (years), Vinals (months) or Kinov (days) that could be counted. There wasn’t even a moon”; “... when the First Father sailed in his alligator canoe across the void to fan the First Fire in the Hearth of Heaven. The moon had not yet been created"; “... when the First Fire was fanned, and the Great Orion Nebula was illuminated for the first time.

From this ashes and smoke the God of Maize himself arose. He rose up from the back of the amphibian. Itzamna, the Sky Lizard, watched over his revival. The moon was not yet born when this happened"; "... when the First Father set the Zodiac in motion... when the stars began to move, the Horned Deer appeared from the East.... The high and full Moon followed on his heels."
G. Wilkins in his book “Lost Cities of South America” writes: “The Indians of the high plains of Colombia claim that before the catastrophe (flood) struck the Earth, the vault of heaven was not illuminated by the Moon!”
In the oral traditions of the African Bushmen, there is information that after a terrible cataclysm that occurred in time immemorial, when darkness and smoke on Earth dissipated, two Moons appeared in the sky, where there had been no night luminary before!

The ancient Indian epic "Mahabharata" says that at the beginning of time the gods tried to extract the liquid of immortality - amrita - from the ocean. They churned the ocean (churning), lowering there from the sky the giant serpent Vasuki, who held Mount Mandara in his mouth. And from the raging waters of the ocean for the first time “the Moon appeared, clear, like your closest friend. It emitted rays and shone with a cool light.”

Long before the Greeks, the Palazgian tribes lived on the land of Hellas, and in the south of the country there was the legendary country of Arcadia. The Greeks called their predecessors the Palazgians and Arcadians “below the moon.” It was a long time ago, when the moon had not yet shone in the sky. A flood struck their ancient land as the Moon appeared in the sky.

Apollonius of Rhodes (3rd century BC)- the keeper of the Library of Alexandria, half a million of whose manuscripts were burned and lost to us irretrievably, having access to such a huge amount of information, argued that the Moon did not always shine in the earth’s sky. In his work “Argonautics”, he refers to the “Constitutions of the Phygeans” - Aristotle, who has not survived to our time: “... when not all celestial bodies were circling in the sky, the race of the Danaans was still unknown, and the sons of Deucalion did not yet rule the country of the Palazgi. It was then, as they say, that only the Apian Arcadians lived here in the mountainous part of the country, eating acorns, as in those days when there was no moon in the sky.”

Anaxagoras, a Greek philosopher, astronomer and mathematician (5th century BC), based on more ancient sources, mentioned in his works that the Moon appeared in the sky later than the Earth itself was formed.
The Indians of British Guiana told the famous scientist A. Humboldt, when he traveled to this region of the world in 1820, that their ancestors lived here before the appearance of the Moon.

The Moon, approaching the Earth, caused huge tidal waves in the seas and oceans with its gravity, creating another flood. Among the legends of the Yagans living on the Tierra del Fuego archipelago, there is a legend about our night companion, which says that many centuries ago the Moon fell into the sea and a large (tidal) wave arose, flooding everything: “Many centuries ago the Moon fell into the sea. The sea waves rose like water in a bucket when you throw a large stone into it. This caused a flood, from which only the lucky inhabitants of this island, which broke away from the seabed and floated on the sea, escaped. Even the mountains on the mainland were flooded with water. ...When the Moon finally emerged from the depths of the sea, and the water began to subside, the island returned to its place.” From this saved island people populated the entire Earth.”

The flood, during the appearance of the red Moon surrounded by a “veil of clouds,” is spoken of in the legends of the Irish, which are borrowed from more ancient Celtic legends. The heroes of the myth are Bit and Birren and their daughter Caesar. During the flood, the whole family boarded the ship, and thanks to this they were saved. But “soon after the flood a new catastrophe occurred. The red Moon rose, surrounded by a veil of clouds that scattered and fell to the Earth, causing destruction. As a result of another disaster, “Bit’s family died, and the country was left without people.”

An African tribe living in the lower reaches of the Congo River has a myth when, “the sun and the moon met one day, the sun covered the moon with dirt and obscured its light; for this reason, part of the moon remains in shadow from time to time (moon phases). During this meeting there was a flood."
The Caribs, Indians living in the Orinoco River basin, claim that there was no moon in the sky before. Its appearance is associated with the outbreak of a catastrophe that killed many people and burned forests to ashes.

Taiwan, Philippines. Tsou people. Previously, the sky was close to the earth and two suns were shining. People were dying from the heat at this time. The hero of Oadzyma struck one sun with an arrow; his blood became like a sea, the sky rose, both suns disappeared; the second sun began to emerge, first for a short time, and then - as it does now. The wounded sun became the moon; the blackness in its center is where the arrow hit.

Bashkirs. In ancient times, two suns shone in the sky; when one set, the other rose. People suffered from their blinding light. Bai promised a daughter to the one who struck one of the suns. Ural Batyr split one sun with an arrow; The moon was formed from one part, the other fell and turned into the Ural-Tau mountains rich in treasures. When the arrow hit the target, the people shouted: “Ay.” That's what Luna is called now.
Udege people. In the distant past, there were two suns and it was very hot. The man Gangt had a son, Namik. When he grew up, he killed the second sun, hitting him with the thirty-third arrow. The Moon appeared in the place of the dead star. The sky rose and people multiplied on the earth. At this time, the flood began and only Namika and her sister escaped on a high mountain.
Many more similar legends can be cited, and almost all legends say that one of the heavenly bodies, probably one of the satellites of a neutron star, became the Moon.

In the past, the Moon was in an orbit closer to Earth. In the ruined city of Tiaguanaco, on the famous “Gate of the Sun” there are symbols of solar eclipses, which occurred 19 times a year, i.e. The moon blocked our star 19 times, and at this time a solar eclipse occurred. Researchers of this ancient calendar, A. Poznansky and E. Kiss, calculated that the disk of the ancient Moon was 14 times larger than the modern one, and its distance from the Earth was 5.9 Earth radii. In addition, they established that the nearby complex of structures - Kalasasaya ("Standing Columns") is the oldest observatory.

Studying the landmarks of the column sights and the angles formed by the observation lines. Posnanski concluded that they suggested a significantly greater tilt of the Earth's axis in the past than at present - 23.5 degrees.

During excavations, archaeologists find Stone Age calendars on which lunar years are marked in the form of holes or dashes. The finds date back to 15-20 millennium BC. For example, in France, in the town of Abri-Blanchard in the Vézère Valley, a calendar was discovered carved on bone, with clearly defined four alternating lunar phases in the form of holes of various shapes. There are 33 marks on the bone that can indicate how many times during one normal year the Moon orbited the Earth. Our night star, in this case, should be located approximately three times closer to our planet than at present, and the lunar month would consist of 11 days. The same number of days in a month is indicated by a complex spiral-shaped lunar calendar found during excavations of a Stone Age settlement in the vicinity of Achinsk, carved on a mammoth ivory. On its surface, in the form of spirals and holes, the three-year alternating lunar cycle is marked and there are marks with 11 daily or multiple dates, that is, 22 and 33 days. Doctor of Historical Sciences V.E. Larichev, who studied this find, came to the conclusion that the calendar indicated the length of the year - 360 days, the value of the lunar synodic month, year, the number of days from the spring to autumn equinox, the repetition period of lunar eclipses, etc. It is hard to believe that savages living in caves, dressed in animal skins and with a club on their shoulders, could create such a complex and accurate calendar. But these conclusions are confirmed by other artifacts. Based on other information about the chronology of lunar years in ancient calendars, we can clarify that in that distant time, a month consisted of 10.8 days, and in a solar year there were 33.33 lunar years.

In the mythology of different peoples, it is mentioned that, indeed, the Moon was located much closer to our planet, and then it moved to a higher orbit. The Bulgarian legend speaks of the “evil woman” Moran, who “killed many people” and threw a dirty veil over the silver moon, which became covered with dark spots and, frightened, began to walk above the Earth much higher than before.

The unusual movement of the Moon is also mentioned in the ancient beliefs of the Armenians: “Lusin (the Moon) used to walk across the sky during the day, with her brother the Sun. But Lusin fell ill with smallpox and, ashamed of the ugly rowan trees that covered her, she appears only at night, under the cover of darkness.” The night star was much closer to our planet, since the ancient Armenians were able to see lunar craters (pockmarks) even with the naked eye.
On the surface of the glaciers covering Antarctica, meteorites have been discovered that are not like the rest. Their study showed that their chemical composition is similar to the rocks of the lunar “seas” and “plains”. Moreover, they came to Earth relatively recently. According to various estimates, the time of the fall of lunar meteorites on our planet ranges from 12 to 25 thousand years ago. Most likely, these fragments of the Moon fell on our planet as a result of its appearance in Earth’s orbit and cataclysms caused by a neutron star, which, with its gravity, tore out part of the surface of the night star.

Based on the foregoing, it can be argued that the Moon appeared in its current orbit relatively recently, that is, during one of the passages of a neutron star through the Solar System. After the Moon began to shine in the sky, periodically recurring catastrophic earthquakes began on Earth.

The next time a neutron star or other massive object appears in the Solar System, a situation may arise in which Typhon, with its attraction, can change the orbit of the Moon. Under unfavorable circumstances, it will approach the Earth, and then, having passed the Roche limit, (at an altitude of 3 Earth radii) will collapse into separate fragments that will collapse on our planet. After this terrible cataclysm, humanity will no longer survive. Still, it’s unpleasant to have such a huge cobblestone over your head, which hangs over us like the sword of Damocles, and may someday collapse to the Earth.
To conclude the chapter, I will cite a Sumerian cuneiform text-prophecy, which is dedicated to the Earth’s satellite:
O Moon, you are the only one who sheds light,
You, who bring light to humanity...
All the great deities lie in the dust before you,
For the fate of the world rests in you

All contemporaries have long come to terms with the prospect of the end of the world. Whether it is played out by a director in a movie, a science fiction writer or publicist in the next bestseller, or the leader of a religious concession in front of his flock. The popularization of this grandiose topic has led people to discuss endless options for the “end”, leaving aside the most important thing - the reasons for this, everyone expected event. Understanding the impenetrable jungle of versions, we will go through all the significant options, from the most ancient to those now filmed.

As a rule, after any significant natural phenomenon, thoughts about the grandiose and unknown force of nature, a force beyond the control of man, flash through everyone’s head. An understanding comes that man is unable to influence, much less curb, Mother Nature. Only by completely assimilating with the laws of the universe can one achieve harmony at all conceivable and inconceivable levels. Our distant, distant ancestors knew this truth; it was they, warning the future generation, who left us prophecies, ancient myths about the onset of the “end of the world,” in their opinion the most important information. On one level people laugh and deny, but on a deeper level everyone knows that something different, unique and very important is going to happen. Now there is a science - Eschatology - the doctrine of the End of the World. The basis of the teaching is most religious systems, including the Christian faith. It is noteworthy that all versions of legends about the End of the World have similar features.

Almost always, the onset of the End of the World is associated with the arrival of the Messiah - Jesus Christ, Saoshyant (in Zoroastrianism), Maitreya (in Buddhist mythology), Mashiach (in Judaism), Emperor of Emperors Falun (Falungun). The Messiah comes to defeat evil and carry out the Last Judgment. The background of the Last Judgment is a world catastrophe - the destruction of the world, a flood, a world fire, etc. After purification, the world is reborn again. The versions described below are: Zoroastrianism, Sumerians, Mayan Indians, Isaac Newton, Ancient Indians, Scandinavians, Muslims.

Mayan Indians

The leaders of discussions and interpretations remain the Mayan Indians, a mysteriously disappeared civilization that inhabited the current territory of South America. According to the ancient Mayan calendar, which counts eras in approximately 394-year periods known as baktuns, the end of the 13th baktun (i.e., the end of the world) falls on December 21, 2012. The number 13 is sacred to the Mayans of this tribe. The calendar shows that on this day time “expires” and the year of the end of the world is supposed. The ancient myths of the Mayans did not tell people the reason for these changes. One thing is clear: the End of the World in 2012 does not mean any disaster; on the contrary, it implies a spiritual transition to a new civilization with a new holistic understanding of the Universe. The Mayan calendar, despite its antiquity, is surprisingly accurate.

The most interesting thing is that according to the ancient myths of the Mayan Indians, the year of the end of the world is 2012; the Mayan calendar even knows exactly the day - December 21st; according to their prediction, a parade of planets is inevitable. Saturn, Jupiter, Mars and Earth will line up. Actually, similar parades of planets have happened before. How does the parade of planets in the year of the end of the world differ from previous ones? The fact is that on this day not only the planets of the solar system will line up, but also the planets of other star systems, forming a line from the center of the galaxy. And this is a completely different matter. The process can be compared to the hands of a clock when the clock hands move to the 12 o'clock position. This combination will mean the transition of the universe from one system to another. According to one version of scientists, the Indians inherited the calendar, writing and exact sciences from a previous, more highly developed civilization.

Isaac Newton

Isaac Newton, the world famous scientist who laid the foundations of modern physics, astronomy, mathematics and optics, calculated the exact date of the Apocalypse. It is interesting that in 2012 the Mayan calendar also promises unprecedented global cataclysms for humanity.
One of the manuscripts, the original of which was presented at the Newton Mysteries exhibition in Jerusalem, contains a forecast that the end of the world will come in 2060. This terrible event will occur 1260 years after the formation of the Holy Roman Empire by Charlemagne in 800. In his calculations, Newton used the mysterious Book of the Prophet Daniel, which predicted the date of the coming of the Messiah. Newton was convinced that ancient texts concealed special knowledge.

The mysterious document dates back to 1704. Newton's manuscripts were sold in 1936 at Sotheby's in London. Since 1969, they have been kept in the safes of the National Library of Israel in Jerusalem and have been accessible only to a few specialists. Newton believed that the Book of Daniel covered the pre-literate history of the world and that the divine purpose of the scientist was to decipher it. The end of the world will be preceded by destructive wars and global epidemics. Then the Messiah must descend to earth, who will rule the planet for a millennium

Sumerians

About 6,000 years ago, in the Mesopotamia region, a highly developed civilization appeared (from nowhere) with all the attributes that speak of its high organization: a monarchy, a bicameral system of elected deputies and civil councils, judges and juries, laws of correct behavior, concepts and beliefs that form how This is not surprising, the foundation of our modern culture.

It turns out that the Sumerians knew what our solar system looked like from space. They described all the planets in detail, down to the color of each. So, between Jupiter and Mars, the Sumerians placed another planet, which they called Nibiru. According to their description, it was a huge planet that rotates in the opposite direction to other planets; it has an extremely elongated and inclined elliptical orbit and passes through our solar system every 3600 years. The Sumerians believed that the planet Nibiru was inhabited by conscious beings - the Niphelims, or Anunaki. Their lifespan was 360,000 Earth years. They were real giants: women were from 3 to 3.7 meters tall, and men from 4 to 5 meters. Now Nibiru is 40 million kilometers from Earth, and this is the same distance as to Venus, that is, very close. People observed it with the naked eye in the form of a reddish disk. Based on modern science, the appearance of another planet in our solar system is an inevitable natural disaster, the “end of the world.”

Zoroastrianism

The most ancient texts of predictions about the End of the World are given by the Avesta, the sacred book of the ancient Iranian religion of Zoroastrianism. Zoroastrianism was subsequently supplanted by Islam in Iran, but it is still an active religion among the Parsi people in India. Zoroastrian eschatology and the doctrine of the confrontation between the forces of good and evil had a great influence on similar teachings, which became an integral part of Christianity, Islam, and Manichaeism.

According to the teachings of the Zoroastrians, the supreme creator god Ahuramazda determined the existence of the Universe at 12,000 years. In the first three thousand years, Ahuramazda created the spiritual world and light. At this time, Angro-Manyu - the Zoroastrian Devil did not come into contact with the spiritual world, he existed outside of it. Then evil came into the world, then Angro-Manyu appeared. The universal confrontation between the forces of good (Ahuramazda) and the forces of evil (Angro-Manyu) began. Zoroastrians divide the remaining 9 thousand years into three eras of struggle between these original forces of creation.

The last three-thousand-year period begins with the preaching of Zarathushtra. According to the Avesta, during these 3 thousand years, three messiahs Saoshyanta - the sons of Zarathushtra - will come successively in a thousand years: that is, if we take into account that Zarathushtra lived in the 10th century BC, the coming of the messiah was predicted for them in the 1st century AD. (Christ?), and then after a thousand and two thousand years. The end of the world was predicted by the Avesta around 2000 AD. There is no need to take this too seriously - this calculation is based only on the magical meaning of the number 3: three eras, multiply 10 by 10 three times and we get a thousand years. Three eras are known to all peoples of antiquity (Golden, Copper and Iron Ages), but the duration of these eras was determined differently by all religions. The era of the struggle between good and evil of Ahuramazda and Angro Mainyu, according to the Avesta, must end in disaster. Then a monstrous winter will come, the end of the world, the dragon Azhi-Dahak will rule over the world, and then, after the Earth perishes and is cleansed in fire (and sinners will be tortured with molten bronze that will rain from the sky for the last three days), the world will again will be reborn and acquire asha - an unshakable principle and order.

Ancient Indians

The religious texts of the ancient Indians also speak about three eras. Indians believe that the Universe changes three times during each world period (kalpa): it passes from a state of creation and formation to a state of continued existence and then destruction. But unlike the Zoroastrians, Indians operate with much longer periods and dates for the end of the world.

According to their ideas, the duration of the existence of the Universe - a day of Brahma - is 8,640,000,000 years. This day consists of 2 thousand mahayugas (major yuga periods). One Mahayuga, or period of Manu, is 4,320,000 years. This great Yuga, in turn, is divided into four ordinary Yugas: 1) Satyayuga - the golden age of 728,000 earthly years; 2) Tretayuga - Silver Age 1,296,000 years; 3) Dvaparayuga - Copper Age 864,000 years and 4) Kaliyuga - Iron Age 432,000 years.
Now, according to Indians, we live in the last, Iron Age, at its very beginning. This means there are still four hundred thousand years until the End of the World.

Scandinavians

The prophecy about this end of the world was made by a dead seer named Velva, who was temporarily revived by the supreme god of the Vikings, Odin, especially for this purpose. It begins with a monstrous earthquake. The rebel god Loki is freed from the yawning depths and leads his squad into the last battle. The giant wolf Fenrir swallows the sun, another wolf steals the moon. The dead ship Naglfar, made of nails, sails from the kingdom of the dead. The giant Surtr approaches from the south with a sword that is “brighter than the sun” (fire).

From the depths, throwing giant waves onto the land, the world serpent Jormungandr will emerge. Stars are falling from the sky. The ground is shaking. Ragnarok begins - the battle of gods and monsters, in which both die and at the end of which Surt burns the whole world with fire. But the death of the world, the end of the world, will be followed by its revival, two people - Div and Livtrasir - are saved by hiding in a grove, they will again give rise to the human race...

Muslims

The last days, the end of the world, will be preceded by times of godlessness and decline in morality. “Whoever enters the mosque will not perform prayer, the shopkeeper will weigh and measure, keeping dogs will become a more attractive occupation than raising a child,” “Drunkenness and usury will become commonplace,” etc. Then a descendant of Allah will appear with a cloud over his head. And an angel from this cloud will announce: “This is the Mahdi! Follow his commands!” Then the false prophet Dajjala will appear (short height, crooked legs, curly hair, one damaged eye) and call himself a god.

Then there will be signs - the sun will rise from the west, the earth will be enveloped in fog, from which the infidels will swell to death. After this, people will hear the sound of a trumpet. The Archangel Israphael will sound the trumpet. This sound will kill all living beings, and a terrible storm and strong earthquake will occur on Earth. All mountains will be destroyed to the ground. Then the archangel will blow the trumpet a second time, and then everyone will be resurrected and will be called to the Court of the Most High, where everyone will be judged according to their deeds.
What did our ancestors want to tell us when they left us warnings about the end of the world? A huge variety of “ends” converge in a single reason. Godlessness, low morality, environmental disaster - nature gets rid of garbage. Anyone who thinks about this once changes their life once and for all.

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Most of the myths of New Guinea, Mesoamerica, Indians, and other archaic and primitive cultures, telling about the End of the World, assume a cyclical structure: the world is destroyed by God due to some ritual violations or due to old age and fatigue of the world itself, but beyond the global, more often of everything natural, a catastrophe, a new creation follows. According to the beliefs of the Aztecs, for example, the world had already been destroyed three or four times, and a fourth (or fifth) destruction is expected in the future, associated with the disappearance of the Sun and a total flood, after which, however, one pious couple of people will survive. And the Choctaw Indian tribe believed that the world, which had already undergone a flood, would be destroyed by fire, but the souls of the dead would return, the bones would be overgrown with flesh, and resurrected people would again find themselves in the places of their former habitat 2 . You can find a similar myth among the Eskimos: people will be resurrected, finding life from their bones (a belief characteristic of hunting tribes). Let us also remember the ancient Egyptians, who so carefully created mummies: they preserved each organ of the deceased in separate jars, inserted eyes, painted anthropomorphic sarcophagi - and all this so that the soul would not get lost after death and would return, recognizing and reviving its owner.

Archaic myths in different versions represent an idea inherent in the worldview of their era. This is the idea of ​​​​renewing natural cycles, renewing the life of the earth, cleansing the human race from accumulated sin. Myths, legends and traditions talk about the destruction of humanity (partial or complete); they carry the positive idea of ​​​​the infinity of existence, because after death there is a return to square one: after the death of the old world, a new one will be born. The poetics of myth involves thinking by analogy: just as a human being is born, grows up, grows old and dies, so the world goes through a similar vital cycle. Most often, after the End of the World, which comes as a flood or other global catastrophe that destroys people, a couple survives, a man and a woman, from whom the human race begins again, or the deity himself creates a new world.

The oldest myth about the destruction of humanity by a flood was recorded in writing in the Sumerian-Acadian culture long before the appearance of the Bible. By 3 thousand BC. e. refers to a partially surviving clay tablet from the city of Nippur, telling about the Flood 3: a certain deity (most likely Enki, the deity responsible for the earth and waters) informs the other gods of his desire to preserve humanity, hoping that those who survived will erect temples and make their own cities religious centers. With the exception of one ruler - Ziusudr, the Sumerian prototype of the biblical Noah - the whole world was mired in sin, without honoring the gods. At the instigation from above, Ziusudra builds a ship on which he escapes from the flood: “All the storms raged with unprecedented force at the same time. And at the same moment the flood flooded the main sanctuary. For seven days and seven nights the flood covered the earth. And the winds carried the huge ship through stormy waters. Then Utu (the sun god), the one who gives light to heaven and earth, came out. Then Ziusudra opened a window on his huge ship. And Utu, the hero, penetrated the huge ship with his rays. Ziusudra, the king, prostrated before Utu. The king killed a bull for him and slaughtered a sheep” 4. ABOUT The flood is also told in the Sumerian-Akkadian-Babylonian “Epic of Gilgamesh” - one of the oldest surviving literary works in the world, the earliest fragments of which date back to 2 thousand BC. e.

In India, the doctrine of the destruction of the universe has been known since Vedic times (2000–1500 BC). In the commentaries to the Vedas (Brahmanas) and ancient epics (Puranas), the idea of ​​four generations of the world - yugas - was developed. In its first generation (Kritayuga) the world is more perfect than in subsequent ones. With the advent of subsequent yugas, a person becomes smaller spiritually and physically: the world order regresses, the mind and body become frail, and life expectancy is shortened. The divine day, lasting 8.64 billion years, consists of the “day of Brahma” (kalpa: kalpa in Sanskrit – “order”, “law”) and the “night of Brahma” (pralaya: pralaya in Sanskrit - decay, dissolution). Mahakalpa (life of Brahma: 100 divine years) and the accompanying mahapralaya (Sanskrit mahapralaya - great decay) develop into a more grandiose cyclic revolution. At the same time, the great decay is not final and is inevitably replaced by a new birth (sarga: Sanskrit sarga, from the root srj - to release from oneself, to emit).

Buddhism assumes a similar cyclical nature of time, a gradual regressive extinction of the universe. The Buddhist period of Mahakalpa gives way to the destruction of all worlds, including the world of people. The collapse of the worlds occurs from the lowest to the highest. First, the most “long-term” and terrible hells decay and collapse (there is a theory according to which these destructions will occur due to the fact that no one will be born in hells anymore, since there will no longer be “malicious” violators of karmic laws in the universe). Following the lower worlds, the worlds of people will begin to collapse. When they too turn to dust, the worlds of gods and demigods will also begin to perish, and eventually even the palaces of the celestials will collapse. With the completion of the cycle, the entire universe is destroyed. Then, after a huge period of time, the universe unfolds again. The series of mahakalpas is considered in Buddhism to be endless and without beginning.

The myths of Ancient Egypt also tell about the destruction and rebirth of the human race. But the unique monuments of this culture were the “Pyramid Texts” (Ancient Kingdom – XXIV–XXII centuries BC), “Sarcophagi Texts” (Middle Kingdom – XXI–XVII centuries BC) and “Book of the Dead” (New Kingdom - XVI-XII centuries BC), telling not about universal, but about individual death. Initially, funeral texts, which were supposed to provide the king with a blessed life behind the door of the tomb, were read aloud, then they began to be transferred to the sarcophagi of courtiers and nobles and, finally, to papyri decorated with drawings depicting burial scenes, funeral rituals, and posthumous trials. This is how the “Book of the Dead” appeared - a complex religious and magical collection that was formed over the centuries. Sacred texts, where ethical teaching was intertwined with ancient magic, included various works related to the afterlife cult. The famous 125th chapter of the “Book” describes the posthumous judgment of Osiris over the dead, which turned into images on the walls of tombs, and then on sarcophagi, and gradually became the plot of the ancient Egyptian iconographic canon. Crowned Osiris, the king and judge of the other world, was depicted sitting on a throne, with a rod and a whip in his hands - signs of royal power. The gods sat above him. In the center of the courtroom there are scales on which the gods Thoth and Anubis weigh the heart - a symbol of the soul of the deceased. In chapter 30, the dead man asks his heart not to testify against himself in court. So, on one side of the scale there is the heart (soul, conscience) - light or burdened with sins, and on the other - the truth in the form of the feather of the goddess Maat or her figure. If a person led a righteous lifestyle on earth, then his heart and feather weigh equally; if he sinned, then his heart outweighed. The acquitted deceased was sent to the afterlife paradise, the sinner was eaten by the monster Amat (a creature with the head of a crocodile and combining the features of a lion and a hippopotamus). The defendant gave a long acquittal speech to his judges and peculiar jury: “Here I have come to you, Lord of Truth; I brought the truth, I drove away the lies. I did not do injustice to people. I did no harm. I did not do what is an abomination to the gods. I didn't kill. He did not reduce the bread in the temples, did not reduce the food of the gods, did not extract funeral gifts from the dead. I did not reduce the grain measures, did not reduce the length measures, did not violate the field measures, did not increase the weights, did not tamper with the arrows of the scales. I'm clean..." 5(see Fig. 1).

Rice. 1. On the left is depicted how the god Anubis (with the body of a man and the head of a jackal) leads the deceased to trial, indicated by scales, then the defendant appears with his word of acquittal before Osiris. The composition of the court vaguely resembles Christian iconography, but it is difficult to judge direct borrowing: although the “Book of the Dead” was known in the Middle Ages, its contents could only be deciphered in the 19th–20th centuries. Hunefer Papyrus, 1310–1275. BC e. London. British Museum. EA 9901.

The history of the decline of humanity is also told by the myths of Ancient Greece, integral to Western European culture. Hesiod, in his poem “Works and Days,” presents the world as a gradual degradation occurring over five eras. The first era - the “golden age” under the titan Kronos - was a kind of paradise: people lived long, never grew old, and their existence seemed similar to the existence of the gods, but then humanity moved downwards: the silver, copper, heroic, iron ages. With the advent of each new century, life, and this seemed natural, worsened. Hesiod believed that he was not living in the best era of the old age of the world: heroic times had passed, the world, which had once received impetus, had spent its energy, and Zeus would destroy this world when children were born gray. Heraclitus believed that the world should eventually be destroyed by fire. Plato in the Timaeus suggests the destruction of the world by flood as an alternative.

Not only in the fertile south, but also in the north, humanity thought about the End of the World. In German-Scandinavian mythology, which is so attractive for film adaptations, a vivid eschatological image is presented in pictures of battles on a universal scale described in the Eddas. The dead seer Völva, summoned by Odin from the grave, predicted the last day of the world's existence - Ragnarok. Before its onset, a violation of tribal norms, bloody feuds between relatives, and moral chaos will begin. The Speeches of Vafthrudnir, the Elder Edda and the Younger Edda also mention the three-year “giant winter” that precedes Ragnarok. According to the prophecy, on the day of Ragnarok, the monstrous wolf Fenrir will free himself from his shackles, swallow the Sun, plunging the world into darkness - and then the sea will overflow its shores, and the world serpent Jormungandr will emerge from the depths. These monsters will be joined by the fiery giant Surt with a flaming sword that scorches the earth, the mistress of the underworld Hel and the insidious god of fire Loki along with the giants. The ship of the dead will arrive. The army of the sons of Muspelheim will ride across the rainbow Bifrost Bridge, which will collapse. All the aces, led by Odin, will oppose the army. In the final battle, both Odin and Fenrir will die, Thor and the serpent Jormungandr will fall, and everyone else will also die, since evil and good cannot defeat each other. Then the giant Surt will destroy the earth with all his fire power, thus ending the battle of Darkness and Light. But the death of the world will be followed by its revival: the sons of Odin and the sons of Thor will survive and settle in the valley of the gods (in the center of Asgard). The woman Liv and the man Livtrasir will survive, hiding in the grove, and will again give rise to the human race.

Last December, the whole world waited with trembling for the end of the world, because according to the ancient Mayan calendar, December 21 was supposed to be the last day of life on Earth. Fortunately, the apocalypse did not happen, and mass psychosis gradually faded away.

However, for a hundred years now, humanity has been waiting for the beginning of the end and arguing about how it will happen. Aliens or a nuclear explosion? Let's try to figure out how realistic it is to destroy all life on the planet from certain threats. We present to your attention the 9 biggest myths about the apocalypse.

1. A giant asteroid will turn the Earth into a fireball

65 million years ago, a meteorite changed the climate on the planet and destroyed dinosaurs, and a century ago another cosmic rock destroyed part of the Siberian taiga. Threats from space are not as illusory as they might seem at first glance, and another confirmation of this is the recent incident in Chelyabinsk.

It is believed that the asteroid, upon entering the atmosphere, will burn everything in its path. However, it is much more likely that a giant cosmic body will simply punch a hole in the Earth’s atmospheric layer, which will be the beginning of the so-called nuclear winter: the temperature on the planet’s surface will drop sharply, and a greenhouse effect will arise in the upper atmosphere.

2. Humans are doomed to extinction

Another common myth is that humans as a species will one day reach an evolutionary dead end and die out, like mammoths.

It's unlikely. In fact, man is a very tenacious creature. Like sharks, ancient animals that adapt well to environmental changes, humans are not at risk of mass extinction.

First of all, there are 7 billion of us. That's a lot. We live in almost every corner of the planet - from the Arctic to the jungle. Secondly, we eat anything. Of course, we prefer steaks, but if necessary, we can also eat a worm. So it is more likely that in the future people will evolve into a new, more advanced species than die out.

3. Global climate change is a deadly threat in the next century

The extinction of animals and the disappearance of plants is one of the most terrible apocalyptic scenarios: if 75% of the flora and fauna die, the planet will die.

The decline in populations of flora and fauna most often occurs due to climate change, that is, changes in weather parameters under the influence of natural and anthropological factors; however, the disappearance of one or another species of plants and animals does not occur instantly. According to the most conservative estimates of scientists, this process takes 100–200 thousand years.

So there is no need to fear a mass extinction of all living things for this reason in the next hundred years - climate change is much more dangerous in the form of natural disasters.

4. People can anticipate global threats

Seismologists observe vibrations in the earth's crust, so they can predict an earthquake several hours in advance. Meteorologists monitor temperatures and winds to warn of impending storms and storms. With the current pace of development of technology and technology, you can be sure that scientists can predict other types of hazards, for example, meteorite falls. Forewarned is forearmed. Such research is very important from the point of view of human safety: the sooner we know about an impending disaster, the greater our chances of surviving and saving our property.

5. Less people - more oxygen

Many people believe that if humanity goes extinct, the problems will disappear. The planet will return to its virgin state: there will be no wars, cataclysms and disasters, paradise will reign on Earth.

Alas, this is not true. There will still be temperature swings, floods and droughts. Bloody wars will not go away, the only difference being that it will not be people who attack each other, but animals. Diseases and pandemics will also not fade into oblivion. But we will have to fight viruses not with chemicals, but with natural means.

Yes, human economic activity causes colossal damage to nature, but who said that the world would be better without us?

6. Hunger is a normal factor of natural selection

As has already been said, there are many of us - over 7 billion. In this regard, some representatives of homo sapiens believe that famine in underdeveloped African and Asian countries, which claims thousands of lives, is not a problem, it is just one of the factors of natural selection: the survival of the fittest. Otherwise, the planet faces overpopulation.

Fortunately, this cynical myth was destroyed by the Indian economist, Nobel Prize winner Amartya Sen, who proved that hunger is unnatural and is the result of inefficient distribution of resources. The causes of hunger are not natural, but economic. Inflation and depreciation of money lead to rising food prices, causing 13% of the world's population to go hungry.

7. You can survive a supernova explosion

According to recent scientific research, supernovae produce active isotopes of aluminum, the decay of which creates hard radiation. At the same time, ordinary people are convinced: radiation is not scary, because you can hide in a bunker! A couple of meters underground - and you're safe. Of course, you will have to live in underground tunnels for quite a long time, going out only occasionally to get food, wearing special protective suits, but who thinks about the inconveniences after a space disaster?

Although such reasoning sounds funny, it is not without logic. After all, deep-sea marine animals survived the explosion of a radioactive star 45 million years ago.

8. Zombie

Zombies are fictional characters found only in films and literature. They are very popular in modern popular culture, but have absolutely nothing to do with reality. So there is nothing to worry about: an uprising of the dead certainly does not threaten the Earth.