Religion cycle – from Caesar to Mohammed

 

I wonder how many readers will lose their minds by me presenting a theory of cyclicity of religious beliefs.

Before I begin I must give credit to Martin Armstrong who discovered the cycle of religion. My independent research regarding the cycle is based primarily on his research and on this blog:

https://www.armstrongeconomics.com/world-news/religion/the-decline-fall-of-religion/

What I have understood is that the religious cycle is a cycle that drives human society from one set of beliefs to another. Every 309.6 years a new cycle of religion gears up, radically changing human society. What this cycle really means is still under my research but few facts are certain:

the cycle concerns whole humanity, no region nor culture is excluded

• the new cycle decides what is holy, therefore is it sacrilegious to speak and act against it

• the cycle has 4 peaks: the start, a setback, golden age, and final peak

• the setback is 57.2 years after the new cycle starts, the golden age is 154.8 after the new cycle and the final peak is 212 years after the cycle started

• the setback is a temporary setback that is noticeable, but not really dangerous to the fresh cycle, golden age ends to anarchy, but the cycle is recovered before the final peak. During the final peak, the cycle is at its brightest before it comes crashing down from the heights, making room for a new cycle.

• in short, after every mentioned date the next collapse is always more serious than the previous until the cycle ends and new begins

Better to highlight this now: most of the religious cycles have not been founding of the new religions, but making a political power holy. Ancient Romans worshipped their republic. This is why Brutus assassinated his adoptive father Caesar – a very heinous crime in his time. In an era when states are weak humans found new organizations and treat them as holy, Crusader orders are an excellent example. The cycle of religion therefore is the history of states and organizations.

The starting years of new cycles are:

I begin my case with the Roman Imperial cult.

In year 3.1 AD a new cycle started. Curiously 3.1 AD is too early for Jesus, but not for John the Baptist who more likely was active at that time. But what this cycle was, wasn't at all about Christianity but Imperial Cult.

In 3.1 AD Augustus Caesar appointed Tiberius as an heir, thus starting a new religious tradition, later Augustus was deified like his adoptive father Caesar.
In 60.3 AD the setback came as the year of four Emperors took place and the traditional senatorial elite lost the privilege of deification. Nothing serious in the long run but definitely annoying to the capital elite.
157.9 was the Golden time of the Roman Empire, five good Emperors ruled the Empire until Marcus Aurelius, the famous philosopher emperor, died. His son Commodus quickly run the Empire to the ground and the notorious year of five Emperors began.
In 215.1 AD Elagabalus peaked the Imperial Cult. He attempted to create a holy dynasty by marrying a Vesta virgin. One of his most notable acts was the transportation black stone of Emessa to Rome. There the stone was worshipped. His God was one true God, Solar Invictus, and like every other God-Emperor, he was assassinated starting the crisis of the third century which almost destroyed the Empire.

The next cycle is about Christianity.

The next religion cycle began 312.7 AD, 309,6 years after 3.1 AD. Constantine the Great defeated his rivals and legalized Christianity. Around this time Armenia also became Christian with no connections to the events in Rome.

A bit early from this cycle 369.9 AD Emperor Julian the Apostate attempted to restore Paganism as favored religion, but his reign was too short so his reforms died with him. A definitely terrible event for Christians at that time but in the end, nothing came out of it.
467.5 AD was the golden era and the council of Chalcedon was held in 451 AD, it was the largest and most important of Christian ecumenical councils which is the foundation of both Catholic and Orthodox Christianities. The downside of the council was the Chaldean schism which alienated both Copts of Egypt and Nestorians of Syrian.
In 524.7 Justinian, the future Emperor married Theodora who seemed to be the real power behind the throne. Justinian began eagerly his attempt to reconquer the lost western provinces of the Empire. However, both the Justinian plague and Sassanid Persia thwarted his ambition and only a century later Romans would lose 2/3 of their territory to the raising new faith: Islam.
The hidden but equal serious consequences of Justinian's reconquest was the seed of Great Schism that would unfold 1054 AD.

Then we reach the third cycle of religion that I will present here: Islam

Year one in the Islamic calendar is 622 AD, and in year 622.3 AD begins our new cycle. Around this time Mohammed migrated from Mecca to Medina and lanched raids against caravans of his persecutors. Eventually, Mohammed succeeded and returned to Mecca which has been the holy city of Islam ever since.

The setback is year 679.5 AD and about a year later famous battle of Karbala was fought between followers of Ali and followers of Husayn. Ali, a grandson of Mohammed, was killed and the Umayyad family took over control of the Caliphate. Followers of victorious new Caliph are today known as Sunni Moslems and followers of Ali as Shia Moslems. Never again would all Moslems recognize a single Caliph as head of Islam, and their unity was broken forever.
777.1 AD was the golden age of the Abbasid Caliphate, who had overthrown the previous Umayyad Caliphate with help of Shia Moslems. Two decades earlier Abbasid forces had defeated the Tang-Tibetian army in Kazakstan. In Anatolia Abbasids defeated the Byzantine army and forced Empress Irene to pay heavy tribute. Capital Bagdad became the most populated city on earth and the house of wisdom was established – the most important university of the Islamic world. The Caliphate peaked under the rule of Harun al-Rashid, and like Louis the Pious The Caliph decided to split his realm among his sons. The result was the Great Abbasid civil war. The major outcomes of this civil war were provinces become larger and the position of governor becoming hereditary. Old families were outlined and the Turkish slave-soldier system was introduced, and like Germanic foederati in the Roman Empire, these Turkish soldiers would cause disintegration of the Empire.
But eventually, everything good must end, and so came the time of Abbasid Caliphate. Around 834.3 AD the Islamic cycle peaked and after the peak, Abbasid started to fracture permanently. During the peak, Caliph al-Mu'tasim personally lead an army against the Byzantine Empire and sacked Amorium – the birthplace of the ruling Byzantine dynasty itself. Despite the religious conflict between Byzantines and Abbasids, kaftans and turbans were the fashion in Constantinople and Christian Emperor himself built a Bagdad-style palace near the capital. It is from this era Mihna was proclaimed – a religious orthodoxy similar to inquisition later in Europe. After the death of al-Mu'tasim Turkish slave-soldiers' influence grew steadily destabilizing the Empire. The infamous period of anarchy at Samarra was the final straw that broke the back. Moslem dynasties began increasing distance to the capital and eventually formed new states, Caliph lost all real power and ended up as a puppet of various factions.

As you can see, dear reader, history never stops. When there is disunity there will be unity and vice versa. Any institution, be it political or religious, is doomed to become corrupted over time as its original founding ideas will be forgotten. More often have treachery and corruption destroyed states than foreign invaders.

This is the cycle of religion and I have traced it back all the way till bronze age collapse to the modern era. I am sure I could dig deeper all the way till ancient Sumer but lack of time has been my main obstacle. I don't claim to fully understand every cycle, and this is why I wrote about these three cycles. They are very well documented and everyone can see clearly the same periods repeating over and over again in three cycles of 309.6 years.

This is how we humans are and will be.