The Seasons of the Ages

Spring - The age when society is young and expanding. People live an organic life close to the rhythmns of their environment. Typically people live in small villages which are culturally isolated and economically self-sufficient, and the morality tends to encourage the activity, growth and strength of the self and community.

Summer - The age when society is mature, and people come together in cities and build empires. Intellectual culture is systemic rather than organic. Morality stresses the needs of the whole of life as against the selfish and parochial. People have broad horizons and the greatest achievements of cultural development are made.

Autumn - The age of decay when the patterns of life no longer seem to be working for the common benefit, and things seems to be breaking down. Earlier signs of progress are being reversed. There is a reduction in public spiritedness, and nobody seems to be taking care of the common good. Standards of education and behaviour drop. This is an age of increasing fear and disorientation.

Winter - The age when the conditions of a civilized life are withdrawn. The complex patterns of economic life built up in earlier ages break down and many are left without means of subsistence. The law is the law of the jungle, where violence pays, and there is no protection except from counter-violence or physical isolation. Most of the population die during this Age, whether through violence, starvation, disease or poisoning. Most forms of cultural life come to end, and are never revived again. Some however are taken captive by dominant powers and may gain a tolerable existence as slaves to do needed work. Others who are taken captive may be killed immediately, tortured or abused for the pleasure of the capturer or put to work in unbearable conditions.

However some people made preparations for the Winter age during Autumn time. They gathered a community together who were mindful of the future. They found a protected spot, and stored provisions there. They learnt the arts of community life and practical survival in a harsh environment. If luck goes their way these people may survive through the Winter and come out into the Spring-time, when the harsh conditions ease and in the new emptier world they find the potential for new life with growth and happiness. They will be the seeds of that new life, the seeds that carry the memory of the past, so that the people that were are not forgotten out of history, and the struggles they went through were not in vain, but bear fruit into the future.