On a ho-hum day some 12,800 years ago, the Earth had emerged from another ice age. Things were warming up, and the glaciers had retreated.

But at some point, out of nowhere, the sky was lit with fireballs. This was followed by shock waves. Fires rushed across the landscape, and dust clogged the sky, cutting off the sunlight. As the climate rapidly cooled, plants died, food sources were snuffed out, and the glaciers advanced again. Ocean currents shifted, setting the climate into a colder, almost “ice age” state that lasted an additional thousand years. Finally, the climate began to warm again, and people again emerged into a world with fewer large animals and a human culture in North America that left behind completely different kinds of spear points.

This is the story supported by a massive study of geochemical and isotopic markers published in 2018 in the Journal of Geology.

“The hypothesis is that a large comet fragmented and the chunks impacted the Earth, causing this disaster”, said one researcher. “A number of different chemical signatures […] all seem to indicate that an astonishing 10 percent of the Earth’s land surface, or about 10 million square kilometers, was consumed by fires”. (1)

A new cosmos. Regenerated from the ashes of the old one.

We are afraid of destruction.

We are afraid of death.

But everything we see is the child of death.

All creation is the result of destruction.

Don’t be afraid of the dark.

You are part of it from the very beginning of existence…

Don’t be afraid of death.

You were molded in its bosom…