While at one level the new arises at every moment, it is evident that history provides key moments when the radically new is birthed. These key moments occur most powerfully both at the mid and three quarter point, or second threshold, of a 2,100 year long Age, when the initial seeding or conception takes place, and at its finale/inception, when the new impulse which has been germinating (or gestating) bursts forth in far greater fullness.

The second threshold of Aries provides a potent and clearly visible example. Within the space of three hundred or so years virtually all of the great world religions and philosophical traditions are seeded, and some fully fleshed out (along with radical new scientific and political notions). This period signals:

The rise of Taoism and Confucianism in China

The flowering of Hinduism in the Upanishads, and the rise of both Jainism and Buddhism in India

The consolidation of Zoroastrianism in Persia and Babylonia

The period of the major Jewish prophets and the emergence of formalised Judaism

The flowering of a great period of philosophy, poetry and drama in Greece, India and China

The culmination of a great period of ‘lawgiving’ and the emergence of both democracy and ‘empire’