Talk:Lifecycle (religion)

Scope and title

I provisionally moved this article here from Lifecycle, since the latter required disambiguation. I am unclear about the scope of this article, since I am very unfamiliar with uses of this term in religious contexts, and I can imagine that much of the content here would fit well into reincarnation or related pages. There is also a bit of overlap with the biological concept of a life cycle. While the story in the article flows, I would not call this a narrative as of now. As for spelling, I have kept the composite word here, but used "life cycle" for the other entries on the disambiguation page. --Daniel Mietchen 21:50, 3 August 2010 (UTC)

In the current draft, the idea is portrayed as being entirely European, but I doubt whether this would be a correct way to put it for any period of time — many cultures across the world then had (or still have now) similar sets of belief in some cyclic aspects of life and supernatural beings, which should probably be noted. --Daniel Mietchen 22:26, 3 August 2010 (UTC)

This article was for me an "object trouvé" while studying social history. It was just one of the strangest and unexpected things I found. And I found it in more than one place, so I trust this popular belief realy existed. Therefore I wanted to give this belief a broader public. But there are indeed some difficulties.

1. Title: I was and I am worried about the title but could not find a better name. First I thought of: "eternal return" or something. It might be difficult to find a name for something that does'nt exist anymore. I am very open to suggestions.
2. Reïncarnation. I have given that many thoughts: is "lifecycle" just some kind of reïncarnation? I don't know. With reïncarnation the soul goes to any newborn human (or even animal), here the soul goes to the offspring. I am open to suggestions.
3. Worldwide? Yes, probably this kind of popular belief did not only exist in Europe. But I have only sources for this belief existing in Europa from 600-1650. If anyone has a reliable source that shows that comparible ways of thinking existed out of Europe, I would suggest: add it! Improvement is (in my opinion) always welcome. As far as it is improvement, of course. I mean: it would bother me if

1. 1. The source would be a speculative popular-science-book or a hobby-website.
   2. The addition is in fact unrelated to the existing text.

1. Germans. As it is not still mentioned, I will do: did this belief existed already earlier in time? Again; if you have reliable sources: add it. I just don't hope someone is coming up again with good old Margaret Murray and her speculations, as I developed an allergic reaction to her.

Regards, Ed Jussen 08:32, 5 August 2010 (UTC)