Wheel in the Sky Keeps On Turnin'...

I'm sure most of us have learned about the seasons and the season cycle when we were in the elementary years of our education..then, after that, middle school, and the water cycle. High school, college, the carbon cycle, and other higher advanced cycles in the universe. Did you ever wonder about why they happen? From our studies we have learned how they happen, but never why they happen. Science doesn't always ask why..but we will. On our little journey through life we will become like the little cartoon character Mindy from Animanics, and never cease to seek the truths until we know them.

Of course, we know that seasons happen because of the movement of the earth around the sun, but then, why does the earth revolve around the sun? We know that it does because of gravity. But why does gravity exist? In fact, why do we exist?

This endless set of questions can be tiresome after a while. We as finite beings are not equipped with infinite patience, or infinite life......or are we? Some cultures believe in reincarnation...a cycle...life, death, rebirth.

Geometry Lessons

If you look at nature, you'll find many different shapes there, not only on a physical level, but on a more abstract sort of metaphorical type of level. Two of the ones I seem to notice the most are circles and triangles. Circles are the cycles of the universe (metaphorically speaking, of course. Triangles are a symbol of balance, which we'll discuss in another issue.

With a circle, you have no specific beginning, and no specific end, and wherever you do decide to put your beginning, the end comes right before it. Seem confusing? It's really not. Look at it this way: pick a point on a circle O then travel clockwise around until you get to your beginning, again. There's your ending, as well. Like a clock, which only goes to 12, or 24 depending on your time mode, everything starts over after you pass over that mark. It's a cycle.

Time: Round or Straight?

Well...if a clock's motion is cyclical...then is time cyclical? Not exactly...according to most scientists, time is linear traveling in one direction: from the past to the future. Cycles exist in this linear motion. If you were to look down the length of time, a cycle would look like a big corkscrew. Of course, all cycles are of different lengths, and many exist at the same time. There can be cycles within cycles. There can be cycles that last only a short moment, and there are cycles in the universe that we cannot even fathom, much less live to see.

Most people know about Haley's comet. It comes back to visit us every 76 years. That's a cycle. The average lifespan for a human male living in the U.S. is only 75.5 years...which means, we men will only get to see it, once in our lifetimes. Some people are lucky, like Mark Twain...he got to see it twice.

I've Got This Strange Feeling I've Been Here Before....

Everyone is familiar with Deja Vu. Feel like you've been there before? Maybe you have. Maybe not even in this lifetime. Maybe you visited it in your unconscious. It's a cycle, all right...it has a beginning...the first time you were there, even if you're not sure you remember that....and an end..when you feel like you've been there before. Deja Vu escapes a complete understanding, mostly because of lack of facts, but if we can conclude that Deja Vu is a cycle, then we can also conclude that it originated somewhere, and the answer to the riddle of it all might just lie at that beginning.

But how to get back to the beginning? Deja Vu is usually a once off cycle for people, never to be experienced again in the same way. Perhaps if we could delve deep into our memory...through meditation, or hypnosis, or something like that, then maybe we can see where the connection between beginning and end occurs. It would certainly help us to understand the phenomenon, and maybe even help us to understand ourselves and our universe better.

Back Where We Started, Here We Go 'Round Again

They say that if we aren't careful, history will repeat itself. I say that it doesn't matter what we do. We as human beings are too arrogant in presuming that we are complete masters of our fates. As far as cycles go...we have no divine power to change them....look at fads...the 70's came back...bell bottom jeans, platform shoes, and all sorts of gaudiness returned. I'm sure there are more than a few people that didn't want to relive their polyester past. Does it mean that in the next decade the 80's will come back? I sure hope not...I couldn't stand to use all that hair spray. Uh...not that I did, before, mind you.

Some cycles of life we can't change...maybe we can alter the course of a few, but it's still a cycle...you can't iron out the curls....and even if we shift the beginning, it will still come back to you in that spot. Of course, cycles aren't malicious, they're not benevolent, either cycles are just a natural occurrence in the universe. The more we recognize them, the more we will begin to understand how they work, and the more we will begin to understand our place in the universe.

Siwrnai dda