Universal Cycle
Definition
Cycle II in the larger-cycle framework: the cycle of an individual universe considered as one operating system. Our universe was born at the Big Bang, expands toward a peak point, then begins to contract; once fully contracted, it is reborn through another Big Bang. The cycle hosts countless planets and is bounded above by the Cosmic Cycle (the multiverse). Frequency range approximately 10^-18 to 10^43 Hz.
Literal meaning
The cycle of a single universe. Our universe is presently expanding, with the rate of expansion gradually slowing; at some point it will reach its peak point of expansion and begin to contract. Once fully contracted, the cycle's renewal occurs through another Big-Bang event. The Universal Cycle hosts many planets, each with its own lifespan, some populated by life to varying degrees of advancement. The cycle builds upon the Planetary Cycle in that countless lifeforms are organized within the universal body.
Esoteric meaning
The Universal Cycle is the operating-system within which the Net's threads weave at the cosmic scale. The cycle's expansion-and-contraction rhythm is *Sa'Teth* (Pillar 10) operating at the universal scale; the cycle's internal-recalibration is *Tek'Ur* (Pillar 6) operating across the lifespan of the universe. The cycle's vast frequency span (10^-18 to 10^43 Hz) encompasses every possible vibration from the gravitational-wave bands at the lowest end to the Planck-frequency at the highest, with all the developmental-cycle frequency-bands operating somewhere within this range.
Allegorical meaning
A great breath taken by an even greater being: the breath has been drawn for billions of years, the breath will release for billions more, and the next breath after this is what the next universe is.
Extended meaning
The Universal Cycle's expansion-and-contraction is the cosmic-breath that the present cosmological observations document at galactic-distance scales. The accelerating expansion observed since 1998 (the dark-energy discovery of Riess and Perlmutter) is the *Sa'Teth* expansion-phase operating now; the eventual contraction (in cyclic-cosmology models like Penrose's Conformal Cyclic Cosmology and the loop-quantum-cosmology Big Bounce models) is the contraction-phase that completes the cycle. The cycle hosts countless planets with their own Planetary Cycles operating within. Some planets are populated by life in various stages of cycle-progression: most are in the lower cycles (cellular, multicellular, zoological), some host advanced conscious life at the Anthropogenic Cycle, and rare planets host post-Anthropogenic conscious life that has not yet fully ascended to the Aethereal Cycles. The Universal Cycle is bounded above by the Cosmic Cycle (Cycle III, the multiverse) and within the broader Chaos Cycle (Cycle IV) that holds both material and aethereal cycles together.
The Universal Cycle is bounded above by the Cosmic Cycle (Cycle III) and below by the Planetary Cycle (Cycle I).
Usage
A practitioner encounters the Universal Cycle in cosmological study and as the structural articulation of the cosmos as one operating system. The cycle is the immediate larger-context of the present universe in which the practitioner is incarnated.
Comparative tradition
Hindu *Brahmā's day and night* (the cosmic cycle of *kalpa* and *pralaya*) in the *Mahābhārata* and the Purāṇic literature; the closest comparative articulation. Buddhist articulation of *kalpa* (the cosmic age) in the Pāli canon. The Mesoamerican Long Count's articulation of cosmic cycles. The biblical articulation of *the heavens and the earth* in *Genesis* with its broader cosmic-cycle implications.
Science correspondence
The Big Bang cosmology (Georges Lemaître's 1927 hypothesis, the COBE/WMAP/Planck observations confirming the cosmic microwave background). Roger Penrose's Conformal Cyclic Cosmology (*Cycles of Time*, 2010). The Big Bounce loop-quantum-cosmology models (Martin Bojowald, *Once Before Time*, 2010). The 1998 dark-energy discovery (Adam Riess and Saul Perlmutter, Nobel Prize 2011) confirming accelerating expansion. The broader cosmological-research-tradition's investigation of the universe's lifespan and ultimate fate.