A Wiccan Bible - Exploring the Mysteries of the Craft from Birth to Summerland

Liber ab Mortuus (Book of the Dead)^267

1. How one lives does not matter because one will surely die.


2. How one lives is the only thing that matters because one will surely die.

You were born of Summer and Winter

Then reborn of Earth and Sky

This is your blessing and your fate

That one day you will surely die

The Death of the World

1 – 1 = 0

Thinking about the end of days is so distasteful that, to date, I do not recall ever

reading of such matters in a book about Wicca. As Pagan lore is filled with such matters

and as Wicca sees a beginning, middle and end to all things, one would think mention

of the end of the world might be included. After all, if we do not recognize that as a

potential, why would we fight against it? If one does not believe we may one day cause

the extinction of all living things on this earth, why bother to fight against that eventu-

ality? So then, incorporated into our lore we do see and end of all days just as surely as

we see an end of our days.

Ragnarok (Also known as Gotterdammerung or ‘Doom of Gods’)—Northern European

From the time of Ash and Elm, the Valkyries, Choosers of the Slain, have circled

the world for the Einherjar, those who in life battled the Outsiders and in death have

gone bravely. The Valkyries find these brave souls and bring them to the hall of Odin.

Called Valhalla, the Hall of the Slain, it is not a place where the brave will live forever

as the movie adaptation of the Norse Prayer suggests. It is a place where the Einherjar

train for Ragnarok, the doom of the gods. It is a place where the brave are brave, not

because they are promised immortality but because that is what they do and that is

what they will do until the very end.

The Winter Fimbulvetr will mark the beginning of that ending. It is the Winter of

all Winters, lasting three years with no summer between. All the earth will be blan-

keted with ice and snow. Battles will break out between nations as well as between kith

and kin. Everywhere there will be war. A wolf named Skoll will consume the sun. His

brother Hati will devour the moon. The stars will dwindle away, fading to sky that is

nothing but black. Day will become as night, and night will become darker than any

man can remember. The morning will be known only by the crow of three cocks. The

cock named Fjalar will wake the Outsiders, those who have challenged the gods and

lost. The cock named Gullinkambi will wake the Gods and a third cock will wake the

dead.

The Outsider Jormungand, the great serpent, will rise from the sea and move to-

wards land. In his wake, the oceans will swell, letting slip the ship Naglfar. In his wake

will the land quake, letting slip the bonds of Fenrir. The Earth and sky will turn to

poison in Jormungand’s wake. Hymir will sail the Naglfar, the ship of the Outsiders, to

y WB Chap 16.p65 267 7/11/2003, 6:04 PM