It is beautiful to contemplate the circle. This simple little form – an expanded point – describes much of the
universe and much of what we experience in life. Note the circle. It has no beginning and no end. It is a
good symbol for Eternity. The wedding band is supposed to symbolize the eternal nature of a marriage. It
is a plain circle of gold (usually).

Our lives are encompassed by circles. The rotation of the earth is a circle. Day, night, sunrise and sunset
are merely different points on this circle. The year, the earth’s revolution around the Sun, is a circle – not
an exact one, but close. Our 4 seasons also mark different points in this circle. A circle is the archetypal
pattern for a cycle. In fact circle and cycle are really synonyms.

Our lives are a circle. We are born, we grow, mature, decay and die (and then, as the Hindus say, we are
reborn and start the circle again. Relationships are circles – they have a beginning, a growth stage,
flowering stage and ending.

The circle teaches us that there is no death. When one day “dies” a new day immediately begins. When
an old year dies, the new year immediately begins. When one lunar cycle ends – at the New Moon – a new
lunar cycle begins.

My teacher used to say that the science of psychology should really be called “cycology” 1 – the study of
cycles. Things that are right and normal – healthy – at one stage of a cycle, can be pathological at another
stage. The attitudes one has at the beginning of a cycle – the tendency to look forward, to dream of the
future, to have hope and optimism – are usually absent at the end of the cycle, where one has achieved
the dreams and one has nothing left to look forward to. At the end of a cycle one is usually digesting the
past.

Every planet has its cycle and much of Astrology involves the study of these cycles-circles.