As the consciousness of the individual rests on a sea of night into which it descends in slumber and out of which it mysteriously wakes, so, in the imagery of myth, the universe is precipitated out of, and reposes upon, a timelessness back into which it again dissolves. And as the mental and physical health of the individual depends on an oderly flow of vital forces into the field of waking day from the unconcious dark, the continuance of the cosmic order is assured only by a controlled flow of power from the source.
The cosmogenic cycle is normally represented as repeating itself, world without end. During each great round, lesser dissolutions are commonly included, as the cycle of sleep and waking revolves throughout a lifetime.
Aztec - each of four elements terminates a period of the world
Water - flood
Earth - earthquake
Air - wind
Fire - flame
Rishabhanatha
Jaina - first of 24 world saviors
72 sciences
64 accomplishments of women
100 arts
Men & women born as wedded couples, two miles tall, lived countless years.
Each generation before were twice as big, twice as happy.
Jains concieve of time as an endless round. A wheel with twelve spokes, or ages, classified in two sets of six. First set is descending (avasarpini).
Fifth age (522 BC) will last 21,000 years, no savior born.
Gradually intensifying evil.
Ascending (utsarpini). Padmanatha.
Four ages of Hindus.
Bliss, beauty, perfection - 4800 divine years (1=360)
Lesser virtue - 3600 divine years
Virtue/vice - 2400 divine years
Evil - 1200 divine years
432,000 years
Then wiped clean and held in stasis for the length of the entire process
Three planes of being
Waking experience: cognitive of facts of outer
Dream experience: cognitive of fluid interior
Deep sleep: dreamless, blissful
Instructive experiences of life, digested and assimilated, all is known unconsciously and enjoyed.
AUM
Waking consciousness, dream consciousness, deep sleep. Silence is unknown "the Fourth".
Myth remains, necessarily, within the cycle, but represents this cycle as surrounded and permeated by the silence. Myth is the revelation of a plenum of silence within and around every atom of existence. Myth is a directing of the mind and heart, by means of profoundly informed figurations, to that ultimate mystery which fills and surrounds all existences. Even in the most comical and apparently frivolous of its moments, mythology is directing the mind to this unmanifest which is just beyond the eye.
Zohar - collection of esoteric Hebrew writing, 1305, Moses de Leon
Simeon ben Yohai, Galilee, 2 AD
Hokmah or nistarah
Hidden wisdom of Moses
Esoteric lore studied by Moses in Egypt
First four Pentateuch
From which it can be extracted by a proper understanding and manipulation of the mystical number-values of the Hebrew alphabet.
Cabala. (Qabbalah - received or traditional lore)
From God to Angels to Adam to Noah to Abraham
Abraham let some slip in Egypt
Makroprosopos "the Great Face" in profile, hidden side never known, white beard, eye always open, I AM.
Uncreated uncreating.
Mikroprosopos "the Little Face" face on, blinking, black beard, GOD. Uncreated creating. Cosmogenic round.
