The Universal Pattern• Cyclic Energies
• Highs & Lows
• Yin & Yang
Quarters: Seasons of Change• 1st Qtr. Foundation
• 2nd Qtr. Improvement
• 3rd Qtr. Review
• 4th Qtr. Alternatives
• Crossovers & Chaos
• Overview
THE UNIVERSAL PATTERN
By the Law of Periodical Repetition, everything which has happened once must happen again and again — and not capriciously, but at regular periods, and each thing in its own period, not another’s, and each obeying its own law . . . the same Nature which delights in periodical repetition in the skies is the Nature which orders the affairs of the earth, Let us not underrate the value of that hint.
Cyclic Energies
form a triad. Physical, Emotional & Intellectual Energies are essential parts of any complex living system. Inasmuch as a nation is a complex living system like a person, it can be viewed as having a body, a heart, and a mind like a person. Through the body, heart and mind of a nation, which is the triad of a group self, come our energies.
Physical energy is creative. It changes the strength and passivity of our nation. Emotional energy is subjective. It changes our hopes and fears. Intellectual energy is objective. It changes our learning and interests. This is our triad of energies.(1) We move together en mass like a single life force with dynamic energy. Changing energies bring changing times. The energy creates the motion, the motion comes in rhythms, and the Rhythms bring a confluence of changing energies that move in harmony.(2)
- A Nation Has a Body, a Heart, and a Mind that Move with Harmony.
The universal pattern of Rhythm can be seen with recourse to nature. Changes of day and night, tides in the sea and the change of seasons all contain a basic pattern that is found throughout a world of Rhythms. They may serve as a model for understanding ourselves in changing times. Cycles are known to have Highs and Lows, Seasons of Change, and times of Chaos or Crossovers. By identifying the Cycles, how they affect us and how long they are, we can understand where we are in the changes.
A Physical Cycle of 28 years long contains the universal pattern of Highs and lows, Seasons of Change and Crossovers.
An Emotional Cycle of 36 years also follows the universal pattern.
An Intellectual Cycle of 44 years follows suit.
Cycles in the triad of energies move to the universal pattern that is common to all.(3)
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Highs & Lows
form sine wave motion as energy changes. In a symmetrical Rhythm, half the Cycle is High, and half the Cycle is Low.(4) Physical, Emotional, and Intellectual energies ebb and flow in such tides that mirrors the passing of night and day on one scale,(5) and the change of seasons on another. This is the basic motion between yin and yang,
Physical, Emotional and Intellectual Highs & Lows are in Rhythm that we can see.
A 28-year Physical Cycle is High of 14 years, and Low for 14 years. During the 14-year High, strength increases in construction, industry, military, sports, health, fitness, and acrobatic dance. For 14 Low years we lessen these energies. In the 1970s and 1980s, for instance, the trend was “Physical” with jogging, health spas, sports gear, disco music, and yuppy-style materialism, (Physical High 1971 – 1985, see KalaRhythm chart). By the early 1990s, more people were selling their exercise equipment, sports legends were not as revered, and the industrial sector of our economy was in recession, (Physical Low 1985 – 1999). Cycles change.
The 36-year Emotional Cycle comes with 18 High years, and 18 Low years. The 18- year High increases faith, hope, dreams, worship, idealism, romance and arts. For 18 Low years we lessen our enthusiasm. By looking back over one hundred years can recognize a pattern. The “Gay” 90s of the last century was an Emotional High (Peak 1892). This was followed by reform and “muckraking” after the turn of the century (Trough 1910). The “Roaring Twenties” came afterward, (Peak 1928). A Great Depression followed as all three Cycles became Low. We rose out of that into the “Fabulous Fifties” and “The Sixties” (Peak 1964). Less gregarious and more inward times followed in the 1980s (Trough 1984). A wavelike pattern has been in the Emotions of America. We rose with the Gay “90s and declined after the turn of the century. Another rise came in the Roaring Twenties followed by the Great Depression. Then came the Fabulous Fifties and The Sixties, after which the heart of the nation went to sleep. Waves have been consistent, and we are approaching an Emotional Peak in 2000.
During the 44-year Intellectual Cycle, 22 years are High, and 22 years are Low. The 22 High years bring new ideas to science, education, invention, commerce, literature, and finance. For 22 Low years thereafter our interest decreases. In the Intellectual High of the 1960s (1951 – 1973), we elected John Kennedy as an idealistic intellectual from New England for president, students were at their best, college enrollments expanded, SAT scores peaked one year after the 1962 Intellectual Peak, and the space program headed for the moon. Afterward, a disinterested mood brought the so-called “Me Generation” of the 1970s and “Generation X” of the 1980s, teachers complained of short attention spans in students, and sectors of the economy declined (Intellectual Low 1973 – 1995).
Yin & Yang
show how motion between opposites has been seen before. Yin is perceived as dark, negative, soft, magnetic, receptive, female, and so on. Yang is perceived as bright, positive, hard, electrical, assertive, male and so on. No end is completely void of the other, however. Yin always contains some yang, yang always contains some yin. That is why it is symbolized by white dot in black space, and a black dot in white space. Energy moves between dark and light, negative and positive, soft and hard, magnetic and electrical, receptive and assertive, female and male, and more. It comes from an element of duality in the universe.
Yin and yang exist within a Cycle between its Highs and Lows. When a Cycle approaches the Trough of a Low, it nears yin. When a Cycle approaches the Peak of a High, it nears yang. Equal forces of yin and yang exert influence on all things. This creates Rhythmic motion in the balance,(6) one Cycle of yin and yang is Tao,(7) and the Rhythm is in perpetual motion.(8)
Since energies are in constant motion, the three Cycles can produce combined Highs, combined Lows, and times when Highs and Lows are mixed. Their changing and contrasting relationships create the spirit of the times, see Chapter VII: Polyrhythms. It comes from combined Highs and Lows in Rhythm.
Quarters: Seasons of Change
Quarters progress with the Highs and Lows of a Cycle. Rise and fall in creation develops in stages. History repeats itself with the influence of repeating patterns. These patterns come with four Quarters, or seasons of change, in the Cycle.(9) A Cycle begins with an upward Crossover. The First Quarter of the Cycle “Spring” is a time for the foundation of new beginnings. This is followed by the Second Quarter “Summer” when we improve and refine our beginnings. The Third Quarter “Autumn” is when we review and cut back. In the Fourth Quarter, “Winter,” we search for alternatives and abandon the past. This search will lead to a new Cycle, a new First Quarter, and a new Spring. The beat goes on.
Each stage of development lasts for 1/4 of the Cycle’s duration. A 28-year Physical Cycle has Quarters of 7 years each. The 36-year Emotional Cycle has Quarters of 9 years each. A 44-year Intellectual Cycle has Quarters of 11-years each. They are in simultaneous motion. A Physical Cycle, for instance, will have 7 years of Foundation, or Spring, then move onto seven years of Improvement. While this is happening, the Emotional Cycle can be in another Quarter. If the Emotional Cycle had just gone through a downward Crossover, for example, it would be in a 9-year Third Quarter Review, or Autumn.
Simultaneously, the Intellectual Cycle could be in a 4th Qtr., or Winter, for 11 years, exploring alternatives. All follow the same pattern in their own time. Cycles of different lengths and common pattern move together in harmony.
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1st Quarter Foundation
1st Quarter Foundation begins the Cycle. The First Quarter is a genesis that comes after an upward Crossover brings the birth pangs of a new era. Generated here are unifying precedents that will last through most of the Cycle and provide a basis for change. Many of our aged institutions, foundations, and methods date their origins back to one First Quarter or another in the Cycles. This is where we form our standards and cohere to them. United we stand, forging anew, building toward tomorrow. The Now looks to the Future.
All that’s old shall be new again.
Both the Emotional and Intellectual Cycles were in the First Quarter at the same time in the 1950s and early 1960s, (Emo-Intellectual double 1st Qtr. 1955 – 1962, see KalaRhythm chart). This produced a strong influence for foundation, precedents and unification. The Civil Rights Movement unified people across the nation as a force to be reckoned with after 1955. The space program began with the establishment of NASA and our first satellite went up in 1958. National projects like the Peace Corps were founded. Music set big precedents with Rock “n’ Roll and the Motown sound. Major art forms like Pop Art emerged. New ideas swept the America. Urban suburbia sprang up with look-alike houses lined up in uniform rows inside standard neighborhoods of conformity. Businesses offered more jobs to executives in flannel suits who fit the mold. Major churches merged to form unified bodies like the United Church of Christ in 1957, the United Presbyterian Church in 1958, and a merger of the Unitarian and Universalist Churches in 1959. Americans read basic standard periodicals like, Time, Life or Readers Digest. Television consisted mainly of just the three networks, ABC, CBS and NBC. The times found more people uniting behind new standards and foundations.
A new double First Quarter began in America in 1995. A First Quarter will last in the Emotional Cycle from 1991 to 2000. An Intellectual First Quarter will last from 1995 – 2006. They will both be in the First Quarter from 1995 – 2000, (Emo-Intellectual Dbl. 1st Qtr. 1995 – 2000). This is a strong First Quarter affect. A Double First Quarter will continue after this as the Physical Cycle enters the First Quarter in 1999 to join with the Intellectual First Quarter that lasts until 2006, (Physo-Intellectual Dbl. 1st Qtr. 1999 – 2006). It will be a string of First Quarters. America is already showing new and cohesive tendencies that will span the period of 1995 – 2006. A powerful influence is bringing new ideas and precedents. We are coming together.
2nd Quarter Improvement
2nd Quarter Improvement comes after the Cycle has peaked. A decline in the High half begins now and we focus on refining our achievements, rather than venturing further. Creations come to fruition, spin-offs abound, and variations on the theme are everywhere. “New and improved” methods bring eclectic version of First Quarter Precedents. Second Quarter branches come off of First Quarter trunks with elaborate and embellished leaves. The Now has met the Future.
If I have seen farther it is by standing on the shoulders of Giants.
Fruition comes after the peak. This “flywheel effect” of motion comes from momentum. In nature, the hottest part of the day comes after noon, the coldest part of the night after midnight. The hottest part of the year comes after a summer solstice, the coldest part of the year comes after a winter solstice. More happens in the 2nd Qtr. as we stay where we are and improve.
Both the Emotional and Intellectual cycles were in the Second Quarter at the same time in the mid 1960s to early 1970s (Emo-Intellectual 2nd Qtr. 1964 – 1973 see Kalarhythm chart). This produced a strong influence for improvement, expansion and variation. Products everywhere were sold as “New and Improved.” Computer advancements mushroomed with the improved MOS computer chip in 1964. Space exploration expanded from orbiting the earth to a moon landing in 1969. Worship went beyond standard religious practices to explore eastern religions and philosophies like Yoga, Hinduism and the I Ching. Major news sources decentralized as a variety of other sources increased their market share in the form of local papers, weekly publications, television and growing radio stations. Rock and Roll spun off into various forms of “Rock” and super concerts. Rhythm and Blues evolved into Soul and Funk. Pop Art spun off into Op Art, Psychedelic Art, and the Mod Look of a new era. The times branched out with a myriad of variations in High energy.
We shall reach new Second Quarters after the turn of the century. An Emotional Second Quarter will come from 2000 to 2009. Both the Physical and Intellectual Cycles will enter the Second Quarter in 2006. A Triple Second Quarter will be in affect from 2006 – 2009 for the first time in our history since just after the American Revolution! It is fated to be an explosive time of High energy. This is important. No time has ever been like this. We are coming into an amazing era. The string of Second Quarters will be the High tide. Improvements, expansion and variation shall flourish.
Following this High, the Emotional Cycle will cross down in 2009, and a Physo-Intellectual Double Second Quarter will remain High until 2013. That is when the Physical Cycle crosses down. An Intellectual Second Quarter will remain until a Downward Crossover in 2017. Then we well be in a Three-way Low until 2027. New Highs will follow.
3rd Quarter Review
3rd Quarter Review begins when the Cycle crosses down into the Low half. We neither advance nor seek improvements at this time. Things settle down and we look back. We sort out what has been done in the previous High and separate the good from the bad.(10)This is the time for Review, Regression, and Reform. We live in the Past. As we move through the Third Quarter, we recall previous Quarters, year by year respectively, in a great review. In addition to recalling the previous High, we may look further back to earlier times and previous revolutions of the Cycle. The Now reflects the Past.
One must wait until evening to see how splendid the day has been.
Both the Emotional and Intellectual Cycles were in the Third Quarter at the same time in the mid 1970s to early 1980s, (Emo-Intellectual Dbl. 3rd Qtr. 1973 – 1982, see KalaRhythm chart). The Physical Cycle followed this with a Third Quarter from 1985 to 1992. This string of 3rd Qtrs. produced a strong affect of review, regression and reform. We were watching reruns of top ten television programs like “Happy Days,” “Laverne and Shirley” and “M*A*S*H.” At the same time we were ushering in political reforms like ABSCAM and breaking up monopolies like AT&T. As we cherished the good with nostalgia, memorabilia, and Americana, we bought all our favorite golden oldies in CD box sets, took old clothes out of the attic that came back in style, and purchased antiques at record prices. As we reformed the bad, amendments, abatements and judication came with a great cleaning out period(11) that established judicial review, as we did in the Third Quarters of the Jefferson administration, we broke up trusts and monopolies, in a manner reminiscent of Third Quarters under Teddy Roosevelt, and reformed the Nixon administration with Watergate. The Third Quarter is a powerful force.
America was regressing after a long period of expansion. The space program ended manned missions to the moon by the beginning of the double 3rd Qtr. in 1973. The double 3rd Qtr. began with a double downward Crossover. This brought the “Recession of 1973/74” and the energy crisis in 1973. Cut-backs, layoffs, downsizing bankruptcy and business reforms followed across the business sector. New York City faced the threat of bankruptcy in 1975, then Cleveland defaulted in 1978 – becoming the first city to do so since the Great Depression. President Ford cut taxes in 1975, Congress passed the Tax Reform Act in 1976, California voters cut property taxes with proposition 13 in 1978, and President Reagan cut income taxes in 1981. It was a time of cutting back.
The farther backward you can look, the farther forward you will see.
New Third Quarters will begin in America at the end of the next Decade. The Emotional Cycle will be in the 3rd Qtr. from 2009 to 2018. A Physical Third Quarter will follow from 2013 to 2020. These will combine their affect, (Physo-Emotional Double 3rd Qtr. 2013 – 2018). The Emotional Cycle will leave the Third Quarter in 2018, but the Intellectual Cycle will be in a Third Quarter from 2017 to 2028. This will join with the Physical Cycle to continue a Double Third Quarter, (Physo-Intellectual Double 3rd Qtr. 2017 – 2020). This string of 3rd Qtrs. will produce a strong influence that will bring Review and Reform after the coming High of the Next decade.
The string of Third Quarters will heavily review the
preceding string of First Quarters that we are now (1991 – 2006). As all three Cycles will run through First Quarters in this string, all three Cycles will run through Third Quarters from 2009 to 2028. Actions of today will be reflected upon.
4th Quarter Alternatives
4th Quarter Alternatives come after the Cycle has bottomed out and rises anew. The past that was both revered and revised in the Third Quarter is now abandoned. We cut the tow ropes and simplify. A search for alternatives begins. The search itself is no longer just a means, it becomes an art form. In a progressive shift toward the future, pioneers reach into the void for new ideas. We hunger for other shores. The avant garde produce embryonic designs that are identified by what they seek to be. Methods are new, different and unusual. From the formless point limit of creation come nebulous origins of all that is new.(12) It is from here, the Golden Embryo of pre-dawn creation, that things are born.(13)
History is bunk.
Times in the Fourth Quarter are iconoclastic and transcendental.(14) The absence of style becomes the style as we depart from tradition. The experiment is more important than the results, as long as it is onward and upward. In this Low but ascending Cycle, the Phoenix is rising out of the ashes. It is a renascence.
It may be hard to describe the Fourth Quarter and its defined more by what is it not, than what it is. However, if you can imagine being the only one doing transcendental meditation, before an abstract expressionistic painting by Jackson Pollock, hung in a hall designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, while listening to the progressive jazz of Miles Davis on a pair of headphones, and wearing mismatched socks, at 3:00 a.m. on a winter night, not remembering how you got there, and wishing you were somewhere else – you’ve got it!
The 1980s and 1990s came with a string of Fourth Quarters. The Emotional Cycle led this procession with a Fourth Quarter from 1982 to 1991, see Kalarhythm chart. The Intellectual Cycle ran a Fourth Quarter from 1984 to 1995. For six years both Cycles were in the Fourth Quarter, (Emo-Intellectual Dbl. 4th Qtr. 1984 – 1991). The Physical Cycle entered the1992 – 1999 Fourth Quarter one year after the Emotional Cycle left its Fourth Quarter. This combined with the Intellectual Fourth Quarter, (Physo-Intellectual Dbl. 4th Qtr. 1992 – 1995). This string of 4th Qtrs. has produced a strong influence for alternatives, experimentation and progressivism. President Bush lost his bid for re-election in 1992 during a Double Fourth Quarter. Bush was identified with the previous Reagan years, a Physical time, and he led us to victory in the Persian Gulf War. Unlike 1988, however, Bush could not win a landslide victory as we abandoned the past. His popularity fell just before the election. President Bush didn’t change, the times changed. The string of Third Quarters came to an end after almost two decades of Review. Alternatives were then sought in the new string of Fourth Quarters. Dark horse candidate Bill Clinton won the election. Clinton’s message of hope for tomorrow proved more powerful than Bush’s successes of yesterday, (Emotional High – Physo-Intellectual 4th Qtr.)
Third Party candidate Ross Perot made a surprise showing during the 1992 election, even after dropping out of the race for a time. Perot took 19% of the vote, the most ever received by an independent candidate for president. The last significant effort by an independent candidate before this was John B. Anderson’s bid for the presidency in 1980. None of the Cycles were in the 4th Qtr. in 1980, however, and Anderson took only 5.5 million popular votes and no electoral votes. A powerful third party bid came before that when the Progressive Party formed just before the presidential election of 1912. A Double Fourth Quarter was at play at that time and Progressive candidate Teddy Roosevelt made it a three way race by opposing incumbent president William Howard Taft and Democrat challenger Woodrow Wilson, (Physo-Emotional Dbl. 4th Qtr. 1910 – 1915). Roosevelt made an historic third party showing by winning more than a quarter of the popular vote and 88 electoral votes over Taft’s 8 electoral votes. The presidency went to the other alternative, however, as Woodrow Wilson gained 435 electoral votes. The incumbent still came in third place in the 4th Qtr. race.
Finally, mid-term elections of 1994 produced historic turnovers. Democrats had dominated Congress and held majorities in the House of Representatives, the Senate, and the states houses. In one election, all that changed. Republicans edged majorities in the House, the Senate, and state governorships across the land to end some forty years of control by the Democrats. No incumbent Republican lost re-election while numerous Republican challengers were sent to Washington as freshmen elect. What happened? The 4th Qtr. happened.
The search for alternatives is everywhere. Old institutions are departing from traditional standards. The Princeton Educational Testing Service announced in 1986 that it would spend $30 million over 15 years to develop an alternative style of testing based more on what one knows than on absolute scores. The national speed limit of 55 mph was dropped in November of 1995 to let states set limits for themselves. Welfare reform in 1995 decreased eligibility to entitlement programs and emphasized the need for alternatives. A more laissez faire policy has come toward business, there is less regulation over the states, and styles are headed in new directions. This trend of deregulation, trimming excess, and casting off ties to the past will run through the string of Fourth Quarters. Experiments are leading to major precedents with Fourth Quarter breakthroughs into First Quarters and new Cycles that will lead us into the new century and the next millennium.
In the end is my beginning.
Crossovers
Crossovers play a regular role in change. While change usually comes through stages of gradual development, it will sometimes come suddenly and without warning. To us, that is crisis. In the natural order of things, it is encoded.(15) Just as in nature, tropical storms come in Spring when the direct vertical rays of the sun cross up at the equator, and in Fall as the direct vertical rays of the sun cross down. In all three Cycles, the year that the Cycle crosses from High to Low, or, from Low to High, is the Crossover year. When the sine wave motion of a Cycle crosses the axis, or mid-point, in either direction, there is turmoil. This is the critical year that can seem like the birth pangs of a new era when crossing up,(16)or the fall of an empire when crossing down.(17)
A Crossover year in either direction is critical because stress and momentum are neither up nor down. The Cycle is in transition. At this point a nation is subject to chaos. In Cycle harmonics, Highs and Lows are motions that exert themselves in pendulum-like waves. A Crossover presents a period of transition without trend-like motion. The energy is switching gears, as it were, as the Cycle goes from Low to High, or from High to Low. In this brief period of vulnerability, we may be surprised by industrial recessions, rioting, or falling stock prices, but they appear like clockwork. Just looking at the post-war economy, for instance, we had economic dips or stock declines in the Crossover years of 1951, 1955, 1957, 1971, 1973, 1985, 1991 and 1995.
A Crossover year begins on the first day of Spring and lasts for one full year until Spring of the following year, see Chapter III. C. “Timing.” A Crossover will in happen in one Cycle or the other on an average of about every seven years. A simultaneous Crossover of two Cycles at the same time, a Double Crossover, will happen about once or twice in a century. Triple Crossovers are too rare to mention.
Math can decode mysteries. The Physical Cycle crosses over every 14 years. This can cause industrial recessions, strikes, or violence. The Emotional Cycle crosses over every 18 years. This can bring hasty reactions, market panics, or riots. The Intellectual Cycle crosses over every 22 years. This can bring questionable decisions, crisis in leadership, or falling stock values. The multiplicity of beats pulse on.
- Chaos and Order are Not Separate Existences, They are Different Points of Time in the Same System.
Although regularity is encoded in Cycles, more than one Cycle is at play so they are rarely predicted. Each Cycle exerts its own influence, moves at its own rate, and comes into chaos in its own time. Calculating only one would be easy. Finding it when it is one of many is different. Here is what
forecasting can be like:
Imagine if you will, hearing a drummer tap out a beat that is simple to follow, like, 3 – 1, 3 – 1, 3 – 1. Now imagine another drummer tapping out another Rhythm, perhaps, 2 – 3, 2 – 3, 2 – 3. Then imagine a third drummer, tapping out a simple beat, like, 4 – 2, 4 – 2, 4 – 2. If all three drummers were to tap out their beats simultaneously, the individual Rhythms might seem lost, but the cacophony would be an interaction of Rhythms.
| Chinese symbol for “crisis”
An unstable condition, as in political, social, or economic affairs, involving an impending abrupt or decisive change.
pronunciation: wei jee |
Now, imagine if each drummer were to occasionally miss a beat. That missed beat would represent a crossover, a brief period of chaos. If each drummer were to a miss a beat at regular intervals, and the intervals for each drummer were different, the missed beats would seem syncopated. In two dimensional linear analysis, we find interruptions every so often, but don’t know why. We could count durations between them, not knowing they come from different Cycles. We might try to find a single Cycle between them, and say, depressions may occur every so often, wars happen after so many years, and so on. This is not a true cycle. It is an average between events with different causes. Multiplicity is involved when three Cycles are in simultaneous motion. Different Cycles, affecting different aspects of an interconnected society, mean that different Cycles come into crisis at different times. All are in motion.
In the multitude of Rhythms, two Cycles may occasionally crossover at the same time. This is double trouble. If a nation’s Cycles are in conflict, it can make a Crossover year even more critical. If, for example, a nation’s Emotional Cycle were near a peak, while its Physical and Intellectual Cycles were crossing down, as in 1929, the nation would be set for disaster.
Enthusiasm ran wild, while strength and common sense were set for chaos. This left the country set for disaster.
Joseph Alois Schumpeter, a US economist and sociologist who was widely known for his theories on business Cycles, believed that the Great Depression had been created by a major conjunction of numerous Cycles. Kalarhythms are evidently these Cycles. The depression that followed the double downward Crossover in 1929 came with a three-way decline in the Cycles. The
preceding “Roaring Twenties” came as all three Cycles Peaked within a ten-year period, (1919 – 1928). That was a post-revolution-era precedent. The Depression came as all three Cycle hit a Trough within a ten-year period (1936 – 1946). That was unprecedented. While 1929 is a dramatic example, Crossovers also precede things that benefit us.
There is the bright side to crisis. Crisis brings change. Change brings growth. Growing pains affect the life of civilizations just as they effect the lives of the individuals who make them up. It is all part of the same process. The Chinese symbol for “crisis” is a composite of two symbols. One is the symbol for “danger,” and the other is the symbol for “opportunity.” As the East is catching up with the West, the West may be catching up with the East. We may also be heading toward a future where we catch up with past messages of what was learned long ago.
- Chaos is not Random, Therein Lies the Pattern of Change.
Overview
A Cycle Overview puts parts of the puzzle together. Here is a review of a Cycle’s revolution, from beginning to end. It is complete with the Quarters, Crossovers, Peaks and Troughs in the order that they occur. The Universal Pattern is found over and over again in the myriad of things. A few of them are compared below in figure #2-10 that shows a Kalarhythm, the Seasons of the Year, and the course of a Day.
Creation is Replete With the Universal Pattern of Change:
Upward Crossover: A Cycle starts with an upward Crossover, the birth pangs of a new Cycle. It is the shake up and brief chaos that disturbs the old order and lets new things begin.(18) Now the Cycle is crossing the midpoint into the High half, and the beginning of a new Cycle of creation. At the sunrise of a new day, comes a transitional crisis arises.
1st Quarter: The Cycle rises with emphasis on the new. We live in the present with all eyes forward, unified in building for the future. What we build here will set the trends and the way for much to follow. It is Spring and the seed of life has broken ground to form the trunk of a tree from which all things will branch.(19)
Peak: Now the Cycle which has been rising for two successive quarters stops its climb as it is at the Peak. Here, while the energy level is very high, the Cycle pauses at high noon for a moment before beginning its downward motion.(20) Emergence of the new relents as newness has a chance to catch up to itself. The future comes with new tools to work with.
2nd Quarter: The downward trek of the Cycle starts with the Second Quarter and High energy. We ride high on what we have built in previous quarters, then vary things and bring them to fruition. This produces elaborate or eclectic forms. Emphasis is on the new and improved as we live in the here and now, and improve what we have done. Creation comes to its greatest form during this time, more so than at the peak. Summer is in full bloom and branches are full of life.
Downward Crossover: In the midst of productivity comes surprise, the downward Crossover. Brief chaos follows, the mighty may fall and empires crumble if not careful. The Cycle is crossing the midpoint and entering the lower half with a transitional crisis. It is neither day nor night now as transition comes in the twilight.
3rd Quarter: Decline comes in the Third Quarter, as the Cycle is now in the lower half. It is a time of cutting back and turning inward to reflect on what has been. We put more emphasis on evaluating, then on doing. This is the Autumn of the Cycle. Trees lose their leaves in the Autumn and focus underground instead to grow roots that replace what has been lost in the previous twelve months. We wane our actions and become more inward in the 3rd Qtr. as we pull up the drawbridge and remember the past to cherish the good and replace the bad.
Trough: We reach the bottom of the Cycle in a trough. A momentary still in the dead of night. The end of the cleaning out period of Third Quarter Review has gone, and with it, the end of the past. The unproductive, superfluous and the unneeded are left behind to adapt or perish. No longer is there plenty. As nature has a way of keeping a herd strong by way of attacking wolves and scarce food supplies, only the fittest survive here as well. This judgment by experience can be as trying as a crisis. For here, the future sorts out whom it will have.
4th Quarter: The decline of Cycle has ended. A rise begins with new pioneers who have survived the Trough. The past has been thoroughly reviewed now, so we cut the tow ropes and leave it behind. A progressive shift moves forward with experimentation. In this iconoclastic time, sometimes what it is not, becomes as important what it is. It is a period of gestation, the second half of winter. Developing from the abstract nebulae are the embryonic forms of tomorrow. The tree of life casts off all its dead wood, and seeds now lie beneath the ground, germinating until the come of Spring.
Upward Crossover Another Crossover, another shake up, and a new day meets the sunrise.(21) With it comes a new Cycle, and the process continues.(22) As T. S. Eliot said in the East Coker poem of the Four Quartets, “In the end is my beginning.”(23) The universal pattern of Cycles is found in many things. Know this pattern, and you’ll know where you are in each Cycle, and where the nation around you is going.
1. Lao Y&39;zu, Chapt. XLII: Out of Tao, One is Born; Out of the One, Two; Out of Two, Three; Out of three, the myriad things.
2. Ibid., 3.27-8: All action take place in time by the interweaving of the forces of nature, but the man lost in selfish delusion thinks that he himself is the actor. But the man who knows the relation between the forces of Nature and actions, sees how some forces of Nature work upon other forces of Nature, and becomes not their slave.
3. Works of Chuang Tzu of Taoist Scripture: Spring and summer precede autumn and winter: such is the order of the seasons. In the constant production of all things, there are phases of existence. There are the extremes of maturity and decay, the perpetual tide of change. And if heaven and earth, divinest of all, admit of rank and precedence, how much more man?
4. Rig-Veda: One-half of day is dark, and bright the other: both atmospheres move on by sage devices.
5. Torah, Book of Genesis 1:3: God said, ‘Let there be light,’ and there was light. God saw that the light was good. God divided the light from the darkness, calling the light Day, and the darkness Night. And there was evening and morning, the first day
6. From the Works of Chuang Tzu of Taoist Scripture: There is nothing on earth which does not rise and fall, but it never perishes altogether. The Yin and the Yang, and the four seasons, keep to their proper order…such is the law of creation.
7. Hsi T’zu: One Yin and one Yang constitute what is called Tao.
8. T’uan: The Tao of Heaven and Earth is constant and unceasing.
9. New Testament, Book of Ecclesiastes 3:1: To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven.
10. New Testament , Book of Ecclesiastes 3:17: And I said to myself, both the just and the wicked God will judge, since there is a time for every affair and on every work a
judgment.
11. Ching, Ch’ien hexagram: The dragon in extreme will have cause for repentance.
12. Torah, Book of Genesis 1:1: In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep; and the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.
13. Rig-Veda: All that existed then was void and formless: by the great power of warmth was born that unit.
14. New Testament, Book of Ecclesiastes 3:11: There is no remembrance of former things; neither shall there be any remembrance of things that are to come with those that shall come after.
15. Rig-Veda: Darkness there was: at first concealed in darkness this all was undiscriminated chaos.
16. Lao T’zu, Chapt. XXV: There is a thing evolved from Chaos, Which existed before Heaven and Earth, Formless and boundless, It stands alone and never changes; It pervades and endures. It may be conceived as the mother of the world.
17. Mahabarata, Anushasana Parvan, 45.313. [370]: You [Shiva] are the
origin of the worlds and you are Time, their destroyer.
18. Clemintine Recognitions, Chapt. 30: Orpheus declares that chaos first existed, eternal, vast, uncreate, – it was neither darkness nor light, nor moist nor dry, nor hot nor cold, but all things intermingled.
19. New Testament, Matthew 10:31: The Kingdom of God is like unto a grain of mustard seed, which a man took and cast into his own garden; and it grew and became a tree, and the birds of the heaven lodged in the branches thereof.
20. From the Works of Chuang Tzu of Taoist Scripture: When water is still, it is like a mirror, reflecting the beard and the eyebrows. It gives the accuracy of the water-level, and the philosopher makes it his model. And if water thus derives lucidity from stillness, how much more the faculties of the mind? The mind of the sage being in repose becomes the mirror of the universe, the speculum of all creation. Repose, tranquility, stillness, inaction, – these were the levels of the universe, the ultimate perfection of TAO.
21. Works of Chuang Tzu in Taoist Scripture: Birth is not a beginning; death is not an end. There is existence without limitation; there is continuity without a starting-point.
22. Chief Seattle of the Suquamish (1786 – 1866): There is no death. Only a change of worlds.
23. The T’uan, on the 32nd hexagram of the I Ching (Heng): “When there is an end, there is a beginning.” “When we see how they are constant, the nature of Heaven, Earth, and all things can be seen.”