The Raven’s Warning: Prepare for the Flood
The raven prepares for the disaster to come. It's time that we heed his guidance.
Several months ago, I had this peculiar dream. The image of it still stirs in my mind now, months later. In it, I see a raven calmly using his bill to carve out a hollow in a decently sized piece of wood. The wood looks like a log cut in half, about the size of my thigh. Little by little, the raven uses his beak to carve out a concave depression, like a large bowl. In fact, it would serve quite nicely as a bowl and I have seen many just like this utilized for this purpose at primitive skills gatherings. Yet, I know it’s not a bowl. It’s a boat. An ark, like in the story of Noah’s Ark. I can’t help but wonder, is this raven preparing for something?
This is the dream that I awoke to some months ago. It has lingered with me ever since. In Norse mythology, it is two ravens that bring Odin knowledge from all the four corners of the earth. Ravens have an uncanny ability to survive anywhere in the world. As well, they are considered the most intelligent of all bird species. They are so intelligent, in fact, that they elude the efforts of even the most dedicated scientist to study them. What does it mean, then, to have a dream of one of these birds as he calmly and diligently builds an ark for himself? I can’t help but feel this is a warning of some sort. The raven knows something it seems I do not. A flood must be coming. What sort of flood, though? What sort of ark do I prepare?
It seems increasingly likely to me that we will see the downfall of civilization in our lifetime. Fifty or sixty years of civilization's continued survival seems a seriously optimistic prognosis to me. Tensions are dramatically rising at the current moment, who knows what this tension will bring. The war in Ukraine seems to have this on everyone's mind. Even beyond this, there are chaotic forces rising in all elements of life right now. Perhaps it is these forces we will soon find ourselves flooded by.
I find myself thinking of great revolutions. What is it that happens in such a time? It’s as if some under-worldly energy rises to the surface, demolishing the stories, narratives, and structures that had once kept people entrapped. Looking out at the world, it’s hard not to imagine such plutonic energy rising into the collective today. There is some sort of unrest, some hidden dissatisfaction, some sublimated rage that is rising in the population. It defies any attempts to control it, only becoming more chaotic whenever the “powers that be” tighten the reins.
Perhaps if global power structures would surrender some of their need for control, things could relax and the sea would subside. Though I don’t expect that, and likely you don’t either. Thus, we must prepare for these waters to rise.
No one can say when these floodgates will open—when the final levee breaks and chaos is thrust upon our world. It may be this year or it may be in ten years, both options seem as likely as the other. Regardless, the flood will be upon soon. It seems best we follow the lead of the raven.
The problem is, I’m not sure we know how to create our own lifeboats or arks at this time. These waters are no simple waters—they are the essence of chaos and fear. How do we prepare ourselves for the unknown that is certain to come?
I’ve found myself contemplating the idea of security lately. For all our culture’s obsession with it, it seems we are all terribly insecure. I mean this not in an emotional way, but an existential way. We feel insecure in our presence on this earth. This is probably a very functional response to things if the raven’s warnings turn out to be true. If the world does erupt in chaos, most of us won’t know what to do. Where will our food come from if industrial supply chains break down? How will we stay functional if we lose our electrical grid? What will we do if the media or the internet no longer is fed into our homes?
This should no longer be an idle fear of ours. We’ve seen these problems arise in real-time over the past year. Just over a year ago, a sudden cold snap caused some people in Texas to die. It’s tragic to think how disastrous the results of that cold winter were, yet how simple the cause.
The issue in Texas is that the infrastructure was not built to withstand such cold temperatures. One cold winter and the whole system went down. The entire state of Texas relied on one system to keep all its people warm. Yet, Texas is in the best situation. For most of the country, a single electrical grid covers multiple states.
What the situation in Texas might teach us (among other things), is that our large-scale systems to provide people their daily necessities are extremely vulnerable to unpredictable pressures. These pressures can bring a whole system down. Then what are the alternatives? Many in Texas didn’t know.
How many of us are in any different of a situation now? Do you know where your food comes from? Do you know how many thousands of miles someone traveled to deliver it to you? Do you know what you would do if you suddenly lost access to that?
These are the questions we ought to be asking ourselves now: before it’s too late to prepare for them. I suppose the preppers among us are all smiling smugly right now. They may not have been so crazy after all.
I recall a story recounted I heard once on a podcast. The story was a personal experience of a certain American man. He was in a small village in Africa when he was invited over to a family’s house for dinner. Graciously, he accepted but discovered in horror that this family was giving him just about all the food they had. They were quite impoverished economically and lived by the food they could afford day by day. Yet here he was, a wealthy American, being offered their best bounty. Of course, he had to accept their gifts, lest he offend his generous hosts.
We might think these people foolish for giving so much of themselves, but this obscures a deeper inquiry that may enlighten us more urban folks. I struggle to find the generosity to give food to homeless people in the streets. So what does this family possess that I so clearly lack? What gives them the confidence to express such generosity? They must have a form of security that I clearly don’t possess.
Whether I think about it or not, I know that I’m not connected to the source of most of my food. I know that the electricity that enables my lifestyle is being produced and transported to me from thousands of miles away. I know that I am oblivious to the complex processes that lead to me having fresh water when I open the tap. The only thing that enables me to have access to any of these things is the abstract concept of money. Yet money has no inherent value. It would all mean nothing if the economy goes caput. Even more so, I lack any relationship with the people and places that keep me alive.
This, I believe is what this African family had that I (and probably you) lack. There is an intimacy and an immediacy to their relationship with the world. They are personally in contact with the people and the land that provides them with life. There are no hidden processes. They draw their sustenance from their immediate community.
If there is an ark for the coming flood, I can only imagine it is this: building robust communities that are connected to the land. We may still enjoy the technologies and global systems that fill our life with ease—but when we are connected to the landscapes and the individuals that keep us warm, we need not live in fear of the moment the electrical grid goes down. A strong community with local resources for water, food, shelter, and warmth will survive and endure countless disasters.
I admit that I am far from living this kind of ideal. As I write this, I’m seated in an SUV eating food in plastic bags shipped from God-knows-where. It’s possible an event in China would affect my comfortable situation here. Yet I do see the need for it. The raven tells me to prepare.
If we come together, I trust we can build that kind of land-based community. That, then, will be our ark. Then we can thrive through the coming flood.
If you're interested in joining me for this, do reach out. The time has come to prepare.
What a beautiful thought.. all encompassing !