Our life is a long road. When you’re young, it seems endless, and you live with a feeling that everything is ahead of you and that you have plenty of time, so much so that you don’t even know how to use it and what to fill it with. At the end of life, when you have already traveled most of this road, you look back and see that the years have passed in the blink of an eye. You realize that there wasn’t really that much time, and there is very little left.
A person builds their own long road of life according to patterns determined by nature and destiny. These patterns of the road foresee periods of action and rest, countless possibilities, tasks, and temptations offered by each stage in order to, first and foremost, allow the traveler to improve and grow. What a person will make use of from all of this and what the ultimate outcome of this journey will be depends on their own strength and desire to understand why and in the name of what they are building it. This is a philosophical approach to the topic we are discussing.
Life cycle stages
In philosophy, a certain stage of life is one of
Periods, stages, or cycles in human development. The beginning of each stage is accompanied by physiological changes in the organism, but that is only the visible part of the iceberg. What is much more interesting is what is happening simultaneously on the psychological and mental level and how it affects the way a person lives. For philosophy, another key question is: what happens in the spiritual development of a person in each cycle and what impact does it have on their fate and life role.
Understanding age can be very concrete, but at the same time, it is relative. The meaning a person gives to it depends on what they consider important in life.
If we consider age to be the number of birthdays, we find confirmation in the fact that our physical body gradually but continuously ages, which is a natural process. If we see our happiness in looking young and beautiful for as long as possible, we have nothing to rejoice about because our happiness will be short-lived – even the best plastic surgeons eventually become helpless in front of the powerful laws of nature.
Perhaps we belong to those for whom there are two stages of life: “youth,” which lasts as long as we are free, live for ourselves, carefully avoiding responsibilities, efforts, temptations, and decision-making; and the “end of youth,” when “happy” life ends because various responsibilities, problems, and serious life tasks appear, which become the cause of chronic depressions and dissatisfaction with oneself.
In that case, it seems that we simply refuse to grow up. Some psychologists refer to such people as old children… Not at all commendable, especially since others do not consider us young, but rather touchingly helpless or funny, even if we are not very old.
Or perhaps we primarily associate the notion of life stages with the state of the soul and consciousness, rather than with physiological changes in the human body. In that case, our standpoint is deeply philosophical.
A person is young who, regardless of age, has a lively heart, a vibrant and exploratory mind, someone who nurtures the youthfulness of the soul. Their life is filled with meaning that dictates Thanks to constant searching and efforts, deeply experiencing everything that happens to him, both strong and subtle, thanks to the richness of his inner world. A man ages too quickly, regardless of his age, if his heart is hardened, his soul and mind numb, and his life lacks meaning.
A person stays young if they don’t recognize and overcome the obstacles and limitations that hinder the expression of the best qualities of the mind, soul, and heart. A person becomes old when they fall into the trap of such limitations and circumstances.
According to many ancient and contemporary philosophical and religious teachings, as well as astrological and psychological concepts, a person’s life is organized similarly to the life of nature and the universe. It is just one big cycle of existence within other, even larger cycles of the mysterious process of evolution that the limited human mind cannot comprehend.
Ancient philosophers spoke about seven important seven-year life cycles (starting from birth), and in each of them, there are opportunities for the development of one of the seven planes of human existence. N This method allows a person to gain all the possibilities for a comprehensive and versatile development of their spirit, mind, and body throughout their life.
Modern astrology, particularly the school of humanistic astrology by Swiss astrologer Alexander Ruperti, significantly expanded this ancient concept. Ruperti refers to the age of a person as fertile ground in which deep experiences mature and the individual’s consciousness awakens. The riches of their soul are discovered as they go through the natural stages of their development. He emphasizes that the same event often takes on a completely different meaning in various age cycles: its significance changes, as do the person’s reactions, the lessons to be learned, and the qualities of the soul and mind that need to be uncovered.
Astrologer Dane Rudhyar finds an interesting connection between the complete cycle of a person’s comprehensive development throughout their life and the complete eighty-four-year cycle of the planet Uranus.
Astrologers divide Uranus’ cycle related to human life into different stages: they talk about seven cycles of twelve years, twelve cycles of seven years, and three cycles. After twenty-eight years, they usually examine twelve cycles of seven years each. Rudhyar advises studying the first ten seven-year cycles from birth to the age of seventy because after that, repetition of what has already been accomplished begins at a different level.
“Years of examination”
If the Uranus cycle is divided into three periods of twenty-eight years each, then the crucial years for a person’s development become the year of birth, the twenty-eighth, the fifty-sixth and the eighty-fourth year of life. They are called critical, pivotal in the deepest sense of the word because it is during these years that the strongest trials are experienced which underline and conclude what has already been lived and achieved. In these years, the Hamlet question “to be or not to be” is most profoundly addressed.
Whether these life exams are passed or not will determine whether a person’s destiny will undergo a fundamental change, whether they will embark on a new life or remain in the old one, condemning their soul to a slow, even if imperceptible, death.
From birth to the age of seven
A little child, just born, is not yet adapted to the new conditions of life in matter, and that is why, as the legends say, destiny gives it a friend and helper, an otherworldly being – a guardian angel. According to ancient traditions, every child has their own guardian angel until the age of seven. The angel protects the little one from all the dangers of life until they become independent and, most importantly, helps them maintain a connection with the heavenly world, from where the child came, and with the world of their own soul. If the child’s attention is not completely occupied by material things and passions, if their soul does not become hardened and if they preserve spontaneity and purity, then the connection with the guardian angel can be the beginning of forming their inner world. And so, the first questions about the meaning of life, about the mysterious and magical, arise.
All of this is reflected in the child’s games, drawings, and stories, and from them, parents can gain valuable information about the other, hidden side of their little one’s life.
Such inner senses … Sensitivity, the ability to see with the eyes of the heart and feel that the soul exists and is real, reaches its peak at the age of five and then rapidly decreases, and after the age of seven, it completely disappears if it is not firmly established in the child’s consciousness by the beginning of school age.
Everything else is not as important, with one addition: do not indulge your child’s defiance! even before school, the child needs to understand that they are not the center of the universe. If we fail to instill in them a basic understanding of what is allowed and what is not, it will be very difficult to handle them afterward, and emotional blows can last a lifetime.
The period until the age of seven is extremely important because what happens during that time will have an impact on the rest of their life. For example, if there is a lack of calcium in a child’s diet at this age, their body will suffer later on. If a child’s life lacks love, warmth, parental authority, companionship, and understanding, then the person will feel deprived throughout their entire life and will struggle to build relationships. From the age of seven to fourteen, a child begins to clearly identify their inner self and separate themselves from their environment. At the same time, an important need gradually awakens within them: to assess, reason, behave like an adult, and strive to be perceived as such by others.
That is why the role of parents and adults, such as teachers and educators, is particularly important at this age. An educator whose authority should not be based on extreme punishment or rewards, but on deep mutual trust, where the one who knows more is an example, a kind of ideal, and the one who knows less is the one who recognizes and follows that example.
In this stage of life, the child’s main energy resources and potentials awaken – that is why they become very active, dynamic, and mobile, with their mind and inner world becoming equally active, dynamic, and mobile. Few adults notice the intellectual hunger that awakens at this age, the growing thirst for knowledge. The child is interested in everything, from the order of the world to the structure of cars. Their curiosity is burning, sincere, infectious. It provides significant opportunities for parents as well – to act as they once did, to return to their youth, to feel an unusual, genuine interest in everything that is happening. And the most beautiful thing of all is when we suddenly stop discerning who inspires whom to discover – the child with their childlike curiosity and capacity for astonishment, or us with our guidance, care, and support. With the enthusiasm of an adult in whom the soul of a child has been revived.
By missing this chance, we may condemn our child to an unremarkable life.
From fourteenth to twenty-first years
Every life cycle has its own problems, but the crisis of adolescence is different from all the others. In terms of its scale, drama, and the number of people going through it, it resembles a true tragedy – whatever Shakespeare!
On one hand, there are turbulent reactions, whims, emotions, unpredictable behavior and thinking, romantic infatuations and serious enthusiasm for one thing or another, and at the same time, depression, passivity, laziness, closedness, and experiencing newly discovered complexes, all marking the teenage years.
All this is raging because our hero, despite rapid growth, physiological maturation, and visible external changes, is still in many ways a child – naive, restless, and deep down, eager for us to take care of him, protect him, and defend him from the hardships of life. difficulty. On the other hand, he fully understands that childhood is over. In his own eyes and, what is particularly important, in the eyes of others, he must see that he is already a grown man. If the child prevails in the teenager, the grown man in him immediately tries to free himself from that child, trying to hide it.
All of this becomes the cause of confusion and insecurity in oneself. Trying to hide this and wanting to appear confident, the teenager goes from one extreme to another and behaves unnaturally.
The perception of oneself becomes idealized, and the demands on oneself and on the environment become exaggerated. This primarily concerns one’s external appearance, which becomes the main object of concern.
At this age, he is particularly troubled by a sense of inferiority regarding sexuality. What suddenly is wrong with me? Similar questions are often asked by teenagers, and attempts to answer them give rise to additional complexes and suffering: fear, shyness, awkwardness, fear of not measuring up, apprehension that the disharmonious proportions and flaws of their bodies will stand out. ridicule…
At this stage of life, parents must not leave their child without support and allow them to fight their problems alone. Indifference will not help overcome such crises. Calm, serious conversations will calm the teenager, help them navigate through a multitude of questions, and, most importantly, prevent them from being trapped in a cycle of similar experiences. Parents need to show that there is something else in adult life that is more important, interesting, and exciting… Otherwise, we risk raising a neurotic and self-obsessed individual.
To help the teenager discover new horizons, we don’t need to invent anything: their inner world will constantly enrich itself and be filled with various interests, subtle experiences of beauty, romantic fantasies, and dreams. Adults just need to help them discover the richness of their inner world. They are essentially incorrigible romantics and idealists at heart. They experience elevated feelings and raptures, so if they sometimes feel… To have the power to move mountains, one must allow it.
The soul of a teenager is fertile ground in which the first sprouts of authentic abilities, talents, aspirations, and discoveries grow. Later on, they will shape their inner essence and the meaning of life.
And most importantly: if in the previous stage the child needed a parent-teacher, now they need a parent-friend. They need someone who can be a mirror of their feelings and experiences, someone to whom they can confide every secret. A teenager reveals themselves only to someone who has touched the subtle strings of their soul, their inner world. With others, they will behave formally, delicately sensing hypocrisy and insincerity, sometimes perceiving attempts at closeness as attacks on themselves… The result is alienation, which can turn into rebellion. Parents should treat teenagers as adults, not forgetting that they need to approach them slowly, sincerely, and without demanding anything in return.
As a rule, everything ends happily. At eighteen, nineteen years old, one reaches adulthood. Ahead of the young man and young woman is a new task – to become independent, both physically and mentally, especially in relation to parents and family.
From the age of twenty-one to twenty-eight
It is believed that at this age, a young person can fully take responsibility for their actions. They can get married, vote, choose a profession and occupation, work and support themselves, live independently. Here comes the long-awaited freedom: I choose who I want, I do what I want, I become the master of my own destiny and control it with my own decisions; if I want to, I will do foolish things, if I don’t want to, I will control myself, nobody stands over me, I don’t have to explain myself to anyone! All of that is true, but there is a little “but.”
At this age, the complex process of becoming a “full-fledged member of society” reaches its peak. Society no longer treats the young adult with kid gloves, it removes all masks and becomes visible that ruthless laws reign. Not even the jungle, and there are really only two paths ahead of him: either to adapt to these laws, accept them as a necessary evil if a person wants to live peacefully and happily, or to fight for their own individuality and moral criteria, knowing that at any moment those same laws can destroy him.
That is the essence of the crisis of the life cycle from the age of twenty-one to twenty-eight, that is the most important task of a great maturity test – to survive in some way, but not to lose one’s soul. In this struggle for survival, two basic life principles collide face-to-face: material and spiritual. The further fate of a person depends on which of them will prove stronger, which will prevail. Our destiny can be decided by a flash of intuition, an act by the command of the heart, but at the same time, we can destroy it with our own hands if our intuition, our soul, and heart “do not work” at the crucial moment.
At this age, we resemble people who are preparing to build a house. Everything that happens to us in this stage, every And our efforts, discoveries, and realizations become the “building material” that we collect in grains. The construction of the building itself begins only in the next cycle of life, but we do it precisely from this material that we have collected between the ages of twenty-one and twenty-eight, which is important to understand. After that, it will be much harder to find the missing elements.