Cyclicalism

"Cyclic conceptions of time belong to the oldest and universally spread myth of mankind. Let us remember the Indoeuropean tale about the golden, silver, copper and iron age as mentioned by Hesiod or Indian Atharvave- da. Stoics believed, that at the end of each “great year“ there comes an ekpyrósis, universal conflagration, in which the world is going to be annihilated and regenerated. These ideas have been especially popular during the time of Roman Empire and were treated by many like Heraclitus, Plato, Zeno, Seneca. Analogical conceptions can be found in the mythology of India, Iran, the Maya and the Aztecs. During the Middle Ages it was Albertus Magnus, Thomas Aquinas, Roger Bacon, Dante and many others, who believed, that cycles and periodicities of world history are controlled by astral influence. A survey of cyclic conceptions can be found in Eliade (1969).
Cyclic theories of sociocultural processes experi- enced a revival again at the beginning of the 20th cen- tury. Well known became the vision of Spengler (1922), who constrained each civilization to roughly 1000 years of existence, the Western civilization being close to the decline of its cycle. Toynbee (1970) and Sorokin (1962) dealt with civilization cycles of unequal length. Many historians of art at that time proposed that there seem to be certain uniformities in the sequence of arts un- folding within each cycle (Deonna, 1912; Ligeti, 1931; Petrie, 1911). Lee (1931) counted the number of inter- necine wars and revolutions according to all known chronicles in the history of China since 221 B. C. He intuited a periodicity of 800 years in Chinese history. But two and half periods only do not enable to discern coincidental repetition from genuine regularity. Finally Kroeber (1969) concluded, that all hypotheses of this kind have been so far too vague and no perspicious reg- ularity, periodicity or rhythm in cultral dynamics has been in fact proven."
== Media ==
«500-year periodicity of political instability in the history of ancient Egypt and China. Androgens at work?». Submitted: 2008-06-18. By Emil Páleš 1 and Miroslav Mikulecký Sr.
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Authors: Spengler; Guénon; Evola; Yockey; Eliade 
Generation; Era; Aeon
Category:Concepts