Cycles

As we approach the end of November, there's only a twelfth of the year left, less than that if you count to the winter solstice rather than the 31st December.

The cycle of each day is obvious and in my face. Since coming to understand the phases of the moon and their effect on us better, I'm quite attuned to her 28-day cycle, but it's hard to raise my head above the immediate.

Year end, solstices, equinoxes all allow for a slightly higher perspective. The old quarter days (when accounts had to be settled) are mostly lost to us now. But within the year it can always be instructive to look back over a quarter or six months.

I think different people think differently. Some only use the calendar to plan what they're going to do next. Some are more moderate and use it to review what's been done and plan ahead having learned something. And then there are people who are only ever reviewing. That's me. I seem to be stuck in looking back at what was happening six months, 6 years, 12 years ago and applying it to my present day experience if I can, but I rarely plan very far ahead or make use of what I've learned to consciously change how I behave.

I think it's really interesting to see that I seem to have had several six-year cycles of expansion and contraction (well a set of 12 year cycle I suppose). And then astrologers tell me that Jupiter makes it round the zodiac in roughly that amount of time.

"There are more things in heaven and Earth, Horatio than are dreamt of in your philosophy"