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Metaphysics of the coming age | 236 comments (236 topical, editorial, 0 hidden)
Vedic Yugas (4.00 / 2)
Thanks for the links.  

Good question.  

I don't really know.  The first stage would be to see what those numbers might correspond to in the sky.  Generally, I have been looking at much shorter time-frames.  

The longest cycle I have encountered so far is (one fifth of) 25 800 years (the cycle of precession of the equinoxes) and at this point I can not really justify this--because I do not have an explanation for the one fifth.  And the longest cycle that I have come across that is sure is a 112-year eclipse cycle (actually 1385  months) in an account of the markings on a brass bowl recovered from Arabia and dating from Mohammedian times or possibly earlier (brass is hard to date).  The 56-year cycle of the Dragon against the year can be confidently adduced to the ring of hollow stones at Stonehenge.  This is not an eclipse cycle, but is instead relevant to the elevation of the Moon's path in the sky.  

The Fates are kind.

by Gaianne on Wed Jan 2nd, 2008 at 06:20:12 AM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: Vedic Yugas (4.00 / 4)
Is there a link with the fact that the earliest agricultural systems could have cycle of up to about 50 years between two cultivating of the same field ? We tend to forget some earlier societies did think in the long term - a long term we have forgotten the use of.

Un roi sans divertissement est un homme plein de misères
by linca (antonin POINT lucas AROBASE gmail.com) on Wed Jan 2nd, 2008 at 07:20:51 AM EST
[ Parent ]
Agricultural cycles (4.00 / 2)
A good point.  Agricultural cycles can exist, and I have no way of finding these, unless they are ALSO linked (by the agriculturalists) to the sky.  But then the sky makes a very useful way of marking.  

On the other hand, while I may know the meaning in the sky, I won't know the meaning on the ground!  So I definitely miss part of what is going on.  

One of my friends is studying mythological structures, and sometimes our results dovetail perfectly.  But that is a study that is even murkier than what I am doing.  At least to me.  ;)  

The Fates are kind.

by Gaianne on Wed Jan 2nd, 2008 at 07:41:06 AM EST
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Metaphysics of the coming age | 236 comments (236 topical, 0 editorial, 0 hidden)
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