Tuesday, June 12, 2012

75-year cycles ~ Firdar ~ Is it Time Again?

A piece at Common Dreams yesterday morning caught my attention. I felt fairly sure it would be possible to relate its content to some astrological cycle:

Said piece is by Paul Buchheit, War or Revolution Every 75 Years. It's Time Again.
He begins:
When Charles Dickens wrote "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times" to begin "A Tale of Two Cities," he compared the years of the French Revolution to his own "present period." Both were wracked with inequality. But he couldn't have known that 75 years later inequality would cause the Great Depression. Or that 75 years after that, in our own present period, extreme inequality would return for a fourth time, to impact a much greater number of people. He probably didn't know that the cycles of history seem to drag the developed world into desperate times about every 75 years, and then seek relief through war or revolution.
It's that time again.
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times; it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness; it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity; it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness;it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair; we had everything before us, we had nothing before us; we were all going directly to Heaven, we were all going the other way. -- CHARLES DICKENS
Three cycles (225 years) ago, in the years before the French Revolution, inequality was at one of its highest points ever. While it's estimated that the top 10% of the population took almost half the income, as they do today, the Gini Coefficient was between .52 and .59, higher than the current U.S. figure of .47. The French Revolution began a surge toward equality that lasted well into the 19th century.

Two cycles ago, in Dickens' day of the 1860s, European inequality was again at a nearly intolerable level. It took the second industrial revolution and the U.S. Civil War to start correcting the economic injustices.

One cycle ago was the Great Depression. The New Deal, World War 2, and the laborious process of war recovery put an end to this third period of extreme inequality.
Now, nearly 75 years after we started World War 2 production, we again feel the agony of a wealth gap expanding, like grotesquely stretched muscle, to intolerable limits...................
Mr Buchheit ends his piece like this:
In our 'civilized' times people aren't being run down by noblemen or forced to eat grass. The aristocracy has learned a lot about suppressing crowds in 225 years. But they need to fear the growing revolution. They need to fear, as Dickens put it, "the remorseless sea of turbulently swaying shapes, voices of vengeance, and faces hardened in the furnaces of suffering until the touch of pity could make no mark on them."

Although I could sniff astrology here, 75-year cycles didn't immediately ring an astrological bell for me. Uranus' cycle is nearest, but almost 10 years adrift (84years).

Research brought to light something I'd studied years ago and forgotten: Firdar. From HERE
Derived from the mixed Arabic and Persian "al firdar", the alfridaria, or alfridaries, are a system of planetary periods of Persian origin first described as far as we know by Abu Mashar. Originally intended for the long term forecasting of historical events, they can also be used in predicting for individual charts.
If I were to attempt to explain the method of calculation things (and I) would be likely to rapidly fall into disarray! Enough to say, and passing readers will have to trust me on this, the full cycle is of 75 years!

From an explanation by Stephen Birchfield A.M.A. HERE
It will be useful for us to examine this teaching at the source, Abu Ma’shar -
“Each of the seven stars, and the Ascending and Descending Nodes, has certain determinate times, and each star administers to the native in accordance with its proper firdar. The firdar of the Sun, then, is 10 years; of Aphrodite, 8; of Hermes, 13; of the Moon, 9; of Kronos, 11; of Zeus, 12; of Ares, 7; of the Ascending Node, 3; of the Descending Node, 2 – altogether, they are 75.
Another full explanation of Firdar by one of today's best (in my opinion) astrologers, Robert Hand is HERE

Firdar establishes that a 75-year cycle does exist in astrology - ancient astrology. Whether this relates to the 75-year cycle seen by the author of the article first quoted is a matter worth pondering. My vote would be a "Yay". Astrology is all about time waves, and the cycle indicated by Firdar seems, to me, to represent something of a tide-turning, time-turning wave.

6 comments:

R J Adams said...

Somehow I can't see civil war or revolution coming soon to America, even if the seventy-five year cycle Buchheit refers to is correct. Let's face it, when a state votes back into power a governor like Walker, it's obvious the population have no stomach for revolution, in any form. These days, I find Common Dreams aptly named - it's written by dreamers.

Anonymous said...

GP: Firdar cycle/75 years may not necessarily work (or not) just for the US. Not taking a parochial view.

Spain, soon Italy will probably go the way of Greece. To be followed by the rest of the EEC mess. 1936-7 (75 years ago) was the hight of economic stress in Europe - and the entry in force of the fascist troubles which led to WW II.

To be hoped that Firdar cycle does not work this time.

Twilight said...

RJ Adams ~~ Revolution seems unlikely in the USA, though not as unlikely elsewhere. War (Iran?) seems more likely for the US. But wars, somewhere, have been ongoing, so that wouldn't really validate a 75 year cycle theory, unless it spread into something worldwide.

Only time will tell whether there was any kind of turning point at the 75-year point this time around.

Re Common Dreams - agree RJ - they sometimes dream too many dreams, but it's the one place I can go and not throw things at the monitor after 5 minutes.

If you haven't already read Prof D.M. Green's latest on CD, it's on his own website at Regressive Andidote - link is in my sidebar in the same section as your blog's link.Article is called
"Broken Shards of the Heart"
HIGHLY recommended!

Twilight said...

Anonymous/Gian Paul

Agreed, GP - we must not forget that astrology and Firdar relate to everywhere, not only the USA.

There's stuff going on in the Middle East and Europe which has the feel of "something about to break".....at some point in the near future.

I also think that the 75 number isn't an exact end/beginning, more likely just a pointer towards something.

We shall see......or not.

R J Adams said...

Thanks for the link. David Green is one of the better writers, though, as I said in my own blog (I appreciated your comment) they're all only preaching to the converted. It was a good piece, though I'm even more pessimistic than he is.

Twilight said...

RJ Adams ~~ I've read D.M. Green's articles regularly for a few years. It's sad how he has gradually reached the sadness about the USA he displays in the recent piece. Many of us, who like me are far less informed about US politics, must match his slide into disillusionment.

As for "preaching to the choir" - I agree. That's what happens when the country is sharply divided.
What's the point of trying to convince "the other side" that there might be a different way of looking at things. They. Don't. Want. To. Know. At least in talking to the choir it gives them the feeling of being less alone.
:-(