Graffiti in the Grass: Worldbuilding and Soul Survival Through Image, Immersive Myth, and the Metaxis

Abstract

Mythmakers are worldbuilders. We are living in a time when the world, as we know it, feels painfully unrecognizable, and increasingly dangerous. War and violence are raging all around us, pandemics claim the lives of millions, and the planet is burning. Ancient future visions of apocalypse permeate the visual landscape and the stories we tell—from the reality of our everyday experience to our wildest dreams and imaginary worlds. It is times like these—End Times—when the archetypes of religion resonate deeply and paths to salvation are eagerly sought after by the human race, by any means necessary. From mythic and ecological perspectives, apocalypse is not the ultimate end but a timeless process of change. It is a recurring pattern of transformation inherent to the phenomenology of life itself. It is a cycle of birth, death, and rebirth that nature, the cosmos, and all existence are fated to face time and time again.