Ray, Thank you for these points, which are immensely helpful. It is about application of statistics to physics including planetary cycles which can be plotted as wave functions and compared. I suggest the SSB shows all the different planetary cycles resolved together into a systemic wave effect, so suggest it is a useful starting point to analyse the structure of time. It can however be compared to other astronomical wobble studies.
Space.com says about the exoplanet Gliese 581 c: “The scientists discovered the new world using the HARP instrument on the European Southern Observatory 3.6 meter telescope in La Sille, Chile. They employed the so-called radial velocity, or "wobble," technique, in which the size and mass of a planet are determined based on small perturbations it induces in its parent star's orbit via gravity.” http://www.space.com/scienceastronom...exoplanet.html and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gliese_581_c
The recent discovery of this exoplanet in the habitable zone is illustrative for the method I am applying in this thread. Compared to other star systems, we know vastly more about the dynamics of our own solar system, including accurate measurements of barycentres and precessional rates. We have accurate data, and do not need inference from radial velocity http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radial_velocity Noting Ray Tomes’ recognition that there are good reasons why cycles are sometimes divided in 12, I am suggesting there is scope for much more detailed and complex empirical speculation about the effects of the various wobbles that we are subject to. Notably, that major events separated by one age are causally linked by harmonic cycle. I would hope enough data can be assembled to use Fourier Analysis.
We know there is a 178.9 year solar system barycentre (SSB) cycle. I have suggested this may be related to precession because it is exactly 25764/144, providing direct physical analogs for the Great Year, the Cosmic Age and the Houses of the Age. These terms may look mystical but I am using them in purely physical way, ie that the house is just the SSB cycle.
Cursory visual inspection of the SSB graph I posted from JimP at #61 in this thread shows the very high correlation between the last two SSB cycles. Hornblower has pointed out that the drift of planetary alignments over multiple periods would throw out this cycle compared to the precession. I do not know if he is right, and would be grateful if some one could help me look at SSB ephemera from JPL Horizons over long time period so I can look in to it more. (Apologies I have had trouble working out how to access JPL myself). The test would be to match the variance in each successive pair of cycles to assess whether the SSB could be a part of a deeper systemic rhythm against which the earth’s precessional wobble is also entrained.
The link between these themes, the SSB and precession, is the Gaian hypothesis that our planet obeys deeply imbedded cosmic rhythms reflecting the organic unity of the solar system. How would we go about corroborating it? A first step is from the mathematics in the last paragraph. If that falls down then I am back to square one regarding the mechanism of a precessional ecology. If that is confirmed, we can look for corroborative examples in history.
The claim is that earth’s ecology is adapted to these matched cosmic rhythms. However, we know the influence of this rhythm is very weak, approaching homeopathic levels, as it is clearly not visible to superficial examination. For example, we know the Sorbonne occupation happened precisely 178.9 years after the storming of the Bastille, and therefore at the precise same moment of the SSB cycle, but that looks like a cherry-picked one off. And yet, this correlation is of more than coincidental interest, because we can use it in looking at our planet from a cosmic level.