The Axial Age

1. The Axial Age Identified by Karl Jaspers in his book “The Origin and Goal of History” Popularized by Karen Armstrong’s 2006 book “The Great Transformation” The Beginning of our Religious Traditions According to the Axial Age Theory, the philosophy behind the world’s major religions sprang from a six-hundred year span of time in the first millennium Before the Common Era (BCE) 8th century BCE (7 hundreds) to 3nd century BCE (2 hundreds) BCE=Before the Common era (was BC); CE= Common era (was AD)

2. Abraham to Jesus: 18 Centuries Between 2 settlements 2nd Temple 2 kingdoms First Millennium BCE MOSES ABRAHAM DAVID JESUS 8th Egypt Exile Axial Age ZOROASTRIANISM CONFUCIANISM HELLENISM MYSTERIES BUDDHISM HINDUISM JUDAISM TAOISM Red Consciousness: Egocentric, Bold, Violent 1ST ISAIAH AMOS HOSEA MICAH PROLIFIC 2NDTEMPLE WRITING Blue Consciousness: Authoritative, Ordered BCE CE RED TO BLUE BC AD

3. The Axial Age8th to 3rd Century BCE Evidence strongly indicates: that during certain rare intervals in history there have been major advances in the world's political, philosophical, and religious systems. The Greatest of these in history is called The Axial Age The 6th century BCE, in particular, was a period of radical changes in basic religious concepts and the emergence of new ideas. which became the source of TODAY’S philosophical and religious traditions.

4. The Countries of the Axial Age In the years centering around 600 BCE, great advances occurred independently and almost simultaneously in China: Confucianism, Taoism India: Hinduism, Buddhism Middle East: Judaism, Zoroastrianism Greece: Hellenism, Mysteries Spiritual foundations were laid in dialectic antitheses which humanity still use today. These were times of social upheaval and political turmoil, a new elite became the carrier of cultural and social order; Great religious leaders rose to prominence attracting a mass following. :

5. Two of the Major Locations of the Axial Age • In India: Hinduism was experiencing no fewer than three revolutions: • 1.The Vedic period was coming to a close; the Veda’s • polytheism, ritualism, and sacrifice were being • 2. displaced by a new interest in mysticism and philosophy – the Upanishads • 3. the new religion of Buddhism was gathering followers and opposing in many ways both the traditional Vedas and newer Upanishads. • In Persia: Zoroastrianism was spreading through Persia and nearby lands. Although Zoroaster is now known to have lived in the 12th century BCE, a pre-Axial Age, his religion blossomed under the 6th century Achemenid king, Cyrus the Great

6. Two Other Major Locations of the Axial Age In Israel: Under the harsh conditions of exile and return, the Jews were beginning to transform their tribal tradition into what became Judaism, a greatly modified Hebrew Religion through syncretism with Hellenism and Zoroastrianism. In Greece: the Homeric world-view with its Olympian deities was radically challenged, and would soon be displaced by a philosophical tradition that was generating remarkable new ideas and science, art and architecture; and new more accessible deities offering personal salvation such as theEleusinianmysteries.

7. One More Major Location of the Axial Age In China: In the turmoil of great principalities warring against one another, and the flourishing of new technology, and explosion of population, two contemporaneous spiritual masters were laying the foundations, amidst large movements of social discontent and rethinking of ancient “truths”, for what would later be known as Confucianism and Taoism.

8. Early Hellenism in Greece In Greece, developments were both philosophical and spiritual. Three philosophers, Thales, Xenophanes, Heraclitus regarded all existence to be in a state of flux -– “one cannot step in the same river twice”. Parmenides, discoursed on the nature of permanent ‘being’ as opposed to ‘becoming’ Democritus, devised the first atomic theory

9. Classical Hellenism in Greece The early philosophers subsequently influenced the Classical philosophers Socrates: Plato: Socrates’ student Aristotle; Plato’s student What all these thinkers had in common was a thirst for discovering the fundamental principles of existence and the implications they had on human life and behavior. A major break-through from pre-axial beliefs involved their recognition of the great chasm between the transcendental / cosmic order, and ordinary human existence.

10. Platonism • Its chief features are the following: • A strong distinction between two levels of reality; the intelligible world (God and the ideas – transcendent models of which the things of this world are images and constitute the contents of the Divine Mind); All is eternal, unchanging, and perfect. and the sense perceptible world. • A belief in the immortality of the soul (especially the rational part) and reincarnation, possibly into animals as well as other human bodies. • A moderately ascetic ethics, which had the aim of separating the soul as far as possible from the influences of the body, though Aristotelian ethics was generally accepted by the end of the classical period. • In epistemology, a prejudice against the evidence of the senses, in favor of the processes of pure reason. • In logic an acceptance of the substance of Aristotle’s discoveries.

11. Aristotelianism Aristotle emerged as Plato’s star pupil, to become a thinker more comprehensive and balanced, and much less skeptical of the actual, though he never altogether rejected his master’s teaching, he departed from Platonism in fundamental ways. Aristotle was a great classifier and collector of data with a special interest in biology and did not reject sense experience as did Plato. He sought both firm knowledge and happiness in the world of experience. Aristotle rejected the notion of universal ideas; rather he argued inductively from facts to general laws. He was so rich a thinker and interested in so many sides of experience that his historical influence is as hard to delimit as that of Plato. What he wrote provided a framework for the discussion of: biology, physics, mathematics, logic, literary criticism, aesthetics, psychology, ethics, and politics for two thousand years.

12. The Good and the Beautiful The achievement and importance of Greece comprehended all sides of life the politics of the city-state, a tragedy of Sophocles, a statue by Phidias. Greek Historians: The invention of history was a major achievement. Two masters emerged: Herodotus and Thucydides made enquiry about events in time and wrote the first extensive prose works. Poetry and drama: Greek poets consciously addressed the problem of justice and the nature of the gods thus confirming that of literature was for more than enjoyment. Tragedy: Only thirty three plays of 300 produced survive of the works of Greece’s great tragedians; Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides. Comedy: Aristophanes manipulated people and events for others’ amusement giving striking evidence of the tolerance and freedom of Athenian society. Sculpture and Architecture: Artistic quality and the presence of good stone, and the influence of oriental and Egyptian models, created the world’s greatest art for arts sake and standards of beauty.

13. Mystery Religion in Greece The mystery religions were secret religious cults: they involved worship of deities from Greece, Anatolia, Egypt, Persia and Syria. Commonly originating in ancient fertility rituals they emphasized salvation for individuals who chose to be initiated into the mysteries. And thereby feel close to each other and to the divine. Unlike official, public religions, in which people were expected to show outward allegiance to the gods and goddesses of the institution the mystery religions stressed an inwardness and privacy of worship within groups that were frequently close-knit and egalitarian.

14. “Mystery” and the Mysteries Aristotle concluded “that initiates into the mysteries did not learn anything but rather had an experience and were put into a certain state of mind.” In fact, the word “mystery” derives from the verb myein “to close”, referring to the closing of the lips or the eyes. The closed nature of the mysteries may be interpreted in two ways: a person who has experienced a mystery was required to maintain closed lips and not divulge its secrets. The initiate also participates in the closing of the eyes to remain in darkness until the eyes are opened to see the light. Also the highest stage of initiation was designated as “beholding”. One who attained a high initiatory status was called a “beholder”.

15. The Eleusinian Mysteries The most influential and popular of the Greek mysteries were the Eleusinian mysteries. These mysteries focused on Demeter, the “Grain Mother” and Kore, the “Maiden”. From early time an agricultural cult at Eleusis observed rituals commemorating the fertility and life of grain. The later Eleusinian mysteries employed similar rituals but directed particular attention to transformed life of people. Hippolytus would observe, “That among the ‘things shown’ in certain Eleusinian mysteries was a single head of grain that was beheld in silence as a manifestation of the life in grain and in all things.” Cicero wrote, “we have learned from the Eleusinian mysteries the fundamentals of life and have grasped not only the basis for living with joy but also for dying with a better hope.

16. Ideas Common to All in the Axial Age Each culture questioned and reinterpreted their previous cosmologies. Believers sought the supremely and eternally "real" that was believed to lay beyond the world of senses and understanding. The rapid change in beliefs then stabilized and the implications unfolded. This became the source of lasting cultural traditions, most of which endured to the present time. Note that complete rejection of all beliefs in gods, like complete rejection of all contents of myths, was practically unknown in the ancient world. What was actually rejected was the earlier concept of gods being nothing more than larger-than-life human beings.

17. The Mystery of the Concurrent Axial Age The closely timed changes in China, India, Palestine and Greece -- countries that are widely separated from each other – seems too remarkable to be dismissed as accidental. The only example of intellectual communication among these countries appears to be the conjecture that in the 6th century BCE the Greek poet Alcaeus may have known the prophecies of Isaiah.

18. The Fact of the Concurrent Axial Age The rapid transformation cannot be satisfactorily explained by any acceptable theory of causation. Most of the new doctrines, and values, eventually became organized as religious systems. While many of mankind’s traditional rituals and beliefs have been incorporated into these new religions, it was not a question of reformulation and development of old religious teachings; it was very much a fresh beginning.

19. Teilhard’s Ideas on Historical Concurrency It was the Catholic Jesuit priest, Father Pierre Teilhard de Chardin , who proposed the existence of the NOOSPHERE. He wrote in his book “The Phenomenon of Man” (p182 ) “The recognition and isolation of a new era in evolution, the era of noogenesis, obliges us to distinguish correlatively a support proportional to the operation – that is to say, yet another membrane in the majestic assembly of telluric layers. Telluric: from Latin tellus earth; (earthly layers such as Lithosphere (earth’s crust), Hydrosphere (earth’s water), or Atmosphere (earth’s air). Noosphere from Greek nous thought – therfore noosphere is the thought sphere around the earth.

20. Teilhard’s Ideas (continued) A glow ripples outward from the first spark of conscious reflection. The point of ignition grows larger. The fire spreads in ever widening circles till finally the whole planet is covered with incandescence. Only one interpretation, only one name can be found worthy of this grand phenomenon. Much more coherent and just as extensive as any preceding layer, it is really a new layer, ‘the thinking layer’ which since its germination at the end of the Tertiary period, has spread over and above the world of plants and animals. In other words, outside and above the biosphere there is the noosphere. End of Tertiary: 500,000 years ago; a very early beige consciousness; Teilhard has probably dated reflective thinking too early, but maybe not.

21. Other Ideas on Historical Concurrency There are today many efforts using scientific methods that are seeking to know more about interconnections between human to human animal to animal biochemical to biochemical human to mechanical all possible combinations Some recommended reading is: Lynne McTaggard’s “The Field” Ruppert Sheldrake’s “The Rebirth of Nature” “Dogs That Know When Their Owners Are Coming Home” Dean Radin’s “Entangled Minds” Larry Dossey’s “Reinventing Medicine” Bruce Lipton’s “The Biology of Belief”

22. 6th 3rd 1st CE 4th 2nd 1st BCE 2nd 3rd 4th Maccabees 2nd Temple Era Timeline & SYNCRETISM 5th EXILE JUDAISM Judea JESUS HEBREW REVELATION & PAUL GOSPEL WRITERS PERSIA ZOROASTRIANISM GREECE HELLENISM HELLENISTIC MYSTERIES ROME CHRISTIANITY An explosion of Religious Ideas: Wisdom Writing, Pseudepigrapha (65 Books) New Testament Apocrypha (76 books) THE DARK AGE The Axial Age