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Originally Posted by Jens
Let me just offer a few sort of universalistic critiques. On this first point, I don't think that all languages necessarily have those distinctions, so it's not a universal human phenomenon. Japanese does not have native words for "will" or "analyze" or "believe." They are all borrowed from Chinese. So those are probably not universal concepts.
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Thanks Jens. What is universal is the cycle of the year and the great year. These cycles contain a linked emergent logic, against which the symbolic descriptions in various cultures can be assessed and compared. The fact that the Japanese needed to borrow these concepts shows their universality.
A good example where this mythology is universalised is in the Bible.
Rev 21.19, according to main orthodox commentaries, says the twelve foundation stones of the holy city symbolise the twelve signs of the zodiac in reverse, from Pisces to Aries. This is a clear, though coded, reference to the position of the sun over the ages of precession of the equinox. This knowledge has been heavily repressed due to its naturalistic links.
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Here again, the four seasons of the temperate zones are not universal human phenomena either. There are places on earth where you have the rainy seasons and the little dry season and big dry season.
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Living in Australia, where the seasons are reversed, I feel like an outsider looking at the dominant planetary cycles of the north. I agree with you that other climatic patterns are important. However, considering the evolution of human culture, the northern temperate climate is dominant, and the temperate cycles have a good claim to be considered the main ones.
It is noteworthy that, for example, the 'Age of Pisces' when the sun precessed through the constellation Pisces at the March equinox is equally the Age of Virgo, as the September equinox has precessed through the constellation Virgo. A symbolic rendering of this Pisces-Virgo polarity is in the Biblical parable of the loaves and fishes. Bread is the symbol of Virgo and fish is the symbol of Pisces. Presented as a main theme as the equinox was precessing into Pisces and Virgo, the loaves and fishes can be interpreted as symbols of the universal abundance available from cosmic wisdom.
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And here, I think you are talking about cycles, but I think the evolution of culture is much too complicated to be able to fit into a pattern. While it's true that there are events that stand out, often it's biased. In the West, people often see the Roman empire as a big deal, but don't look too carefully at what was happening on the Indian subcontinent or in China, which in terms of population were just as important. So while I applaud the effort, I think it is probably a very difficult quest.
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My argument shows a continuity between Indian and Western thought, with the Vedic Yuga cycles matching the western Great Year. This continuity derives from common observation. I agree with you that evolution of culture is complicated, and it is very hard to see long term trends. However, zooming in to the present, my diagram above suggests the planet is now nearing the end of an age dominated by belief, and over the next centuries will move into an age dominated by knowledge. This seems to me to have an elegant match to main cultural and political trends, while also presenting a systematic interpretation with capacity to bridge diverse ways of thought.
It could well provide a framework for science fiction, thinking of the next 2150 years as the Age of Knowledge, followed by Ages of Use and Vision, as a period of planetary stability coming out of the present conflict between belief and knowledge. This to some extent matches what Doris Lessing presents in her
Canopus in Argos series.