So what are a few core patterns and trajectories we can distill out and learn from?
The forces of human Consciousness, Creation, and Creator interacted in unique ways according to unique timelines across all the nations and peoples of the earth, however the patterns of development were similar and moved inextricably towards increasing interconnection, complexity, and inter-existence over time.
The basic pattern that unfolded in unique ways around the world was one: Human beings awakened. Awakened beings began to cultivate the world around them. Agriculture enabled the first permanent settlements to arise. Advances in sophistication led to increasing divisions of labor, divisions of labor to increasing divisions of wealth, power, and class, and the creation of increasingly large and structured stationary settlements and towns. Increasing complexity gave rise to the basic writing and accounting methods required to administer the complexity. Settlements evolved into cities, cities into city-states, city-states into nation-states, and nation-states into empires.
The universal urge to grow, develop ourselves, and find meaning found its voice through spiritual prophets and teachers. The urge to organize, to accomplish and to gain power found its voice through rising leaders. Teachings and human organization transformed into religion and politics, religion and politics into institution, institution into monarchy, monarchy into oligarchy, oligarchy into empire.
Empires, institutions, and oligarchies rose and fell and warred as they used their growing wealth and power to exploit their world and perpetuate their positions and their power. Far too often, position and power depended on the poverty, oppression, and slavery of others and the earth.
A wide array of types of civilizations and experiments in human organization occurred.
When we behaved in accordance with the Universal Law / Will Of Heaven, things went well for us and we flourished in harmony and abundance.
When we departed from the Way, a Fall was always at hand, that often took generations to recover from.
No matter how noble or good our intentions were at the beginning, we always seemed to forget, and we always seemed to fall. Two steps forwards, arrogance, one fall back.
The entire issue of history seems to be how to REMEMBER AND NEVER FORGET how to rightly be and rightly relate to one another as a species on planet earth so that we flourish and live to the greatest extent possible, and do not suffer and die any more than is strictly necessary.
Forward to 8.12 A Few Ancient Milestones - 10,000 BC to 500 BC - Domestication and Prehistory
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