Theos-Talk Archives (September 1996 Message tl00127)

Richard Ihle writes>>
>>Secondly, modern dietary or other hormonal-affecting aberrations may have
>>screwed up the significance of precise ages altogether.  I have read that
>>around age 14 used to be a quite common time for the onset of menses; now,
>>one hears about even 8- and 9-year old girls getting their periods.  I have
>>no idea what is going on, but it certainly diminishes any predictive value
of
>>the Doctrine of Seven-Year Cycles based on strict age-related
considerations.

Alan Bain writes>
>One *hears* about these things more often now, that's all.  Cases of
>what is medically described as Precocious Puberty have been known for
>centuries.  Sooo ... nothing unusual is going on.

RI>
Thanks goes to Alan for catching me in some fuzzy thinking.  Not only is what
he says above quite plausible, but upon reflection, I also don't see why I
previously thought that the sequential unfoldment of new psychogenetic
possibilities would necessarily have something to do with physical maturation
(e.g., when individuals go through puberty) at all.  Certainly, I have run
into many girls who were physically mature but yet psychologically still
little girls like others of their cycle.

Maybe the specific ages delineated by the "Doctrine of the Seven-Year Cycles"
are more reliable than I am usually willing to aver.  At least I should
probably follow my own advice about not confusing physical and/or cognitive
maturation with "psychomaturation"--which, after all, is only concerned with
the ~I am~ (specifically, the sequence in which potential egoic delusions
become available to it) and not with the developing attributes of its
physical and mental "vehicles."

I think my confidence level about the specific age thresholds could be
improved quite a bit if someone more knowledgeable in astrology than I am
could suggest some planetary or other "triggering feature" which might
operate according to a regular seven-year pattern.  (Know of anything, Ann?)

Anyway, thanks again to Alan.  I hereby authorize anyone who may wish to use
me in the future as his or her Indefectible Source for Master-derived
~T~heosophy to destroy the entire incriminating "puberty paragraph" I wrote
previously. . . .

Godspeed,

Richard Ihle