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The Law of Periodicity

(AKA. Periodic Recurrence / Alternation)

The Process of Constant Renewal

The 1957 Morris Isis

A Great Car for 1957

Repeated manifestation without progress is pointless

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Blavatsky states that what she termed the Law of Periodicity is one of the basic laws governing existence. It states that for every period of activity there is a corresponding equal period of rest. This period of rest is followed by another span of activity.

The Law of Periodicity stresses the need for Constant Renewal. Without this renewal forces would exhaust themselves (Burn-out). Through this process of Constant Renewal everything is evolving cyclically on an eternally ascending spiral. Repeated manifestation without progress is pointless.

The operation of this law is observable in the nature of night & day, the flow and ebb of tides, waking and sleeping etc. At a more esoteric level the manifestation (Manvantara) and subsequent non-manifestation (Pralaya) of a universe, a planetary system or a planet. Physical science has observed periodicity in all departments of nature.

Our universe is one in a great cosmic chain of universes just as today is one day in a person’s life. Nothing can be considered in isolation from what has gone before or from what follows after.

The universe itself is an organic living whole and everything in it expresses life. When discussing the universe Theosophists are usually speaking the totality of the cosmic process. space in the esoteric sense is dimensionless. The ultimate units of life are defined as Monads.

Cycles and the Cyclic Nature of Evolution

The element of cycles is an integral part of evolution as processes constantly repeat themselves with the progress made often being imperceptible but definitely present. There are also great cycles involving long periods of time and cycles within cycles. The evolutionary drive is always upwards.

Theosophists usually apply the principle of cycles to evolution in nature or at a cosmic level but it can be found in civilizations and everyday human activity.

History is cyclic and some good examples of this are illustrated in Winston Churchill’s “This Sceptred Isle” which covers British history from Roman times to 1900 and has been serialized on BBC Radio 4. It is notable how often the same political situations and paradigms come round again and again throughout history and although some progress must have been made, we clearly are not moving very quickly.

Cycles can also be observed in fashion and popular music which burn out if not renewed and which often repeat themselves. Cycles were also discernable in the plagues of the Middle Ages which would die down only to return with a vengeance decades later.