cyclicism

…natural order refers to the continuous reversion of everything to its starting point. Anything that develops extreme qualities will invariably revert to the opposite qualities: “Reversion is the movement of the Tao” (Laozi). Everything issues from the Tao and ineluctably returns to it; Undifferentiated Unity becomes multiplicity in the movement…

Dialectical dualism ordinarily implies a cyclical, or eternally repetitive, view of history. Eschatological dualism—i.e., a dualism concerned with the ultimate destiny of humanity and the world, how things will be in the “last” times—on the other hand, conceives of a final resolution of the present dualistic state of things, in…

…vitality is seen in the cyclical effects of causing things to grow and wither. Moreover, because of its dominance of the world, the sun is often seen as all-knowing, and thus sky gods of various cultures tend to be highly powerful and knowledgeable, if also sometimes rather remote. The sky…