- Introduction
- 10:15 Second principle matters vs. first principle causes
- 15:40 What is the Law of Cycles? The seasons as teacher
- 21:35 Cycles ensure continuity and regeneration at all levels
- 32:25 Our systems are tuned to planetary and universal systems
- 39:51 Life enables life, so what does human life enable?
Throughout history, civilizations have observed, honored, and celebrated the turning of the seasons. In these recurring rhythms, humanity has recognized patterns fundamental to life. Learning to live in harmony with the seasons is also learning to develop an intelligent relationship with change.
Science explains the mechanisms that produce the seasons. A deeper inquiry asks what each season expresses in its essential nature, and what these qualities may reveal about enduring truths and higher governing principles.
In this conversation, Aviv and David explore the distinction between second-principle thinking, which can leave us preoccupied with effects and appearances, and first-principle logic, which seeks to penetrate the deeper purpose and intelligence of cyclic processes.
What can cycles teach us about the economics and logic of the universe?
Much of the modern economic system appears to strive for an eternal summer: continuous growth, production, consumption, and profit, with little accommodation for rest, replenishment, release, or renewal. Yet nature offers no such model. Every flourishing system participates in cycles of investment and emergence, growth and fruition, release and restoration.
What, then, are the laws by which natural systems invest, thrive, produce, harvest, withdraw, and renew? And what might human beings, organizations, and societies discover by learning to participate more intelligently in this cyclic economy?
Human wellbeing can diminish when we live persistently at odds with our organic and energetic systems. These systems did not develop in isolation. They are nested within and responsive to the larger rhythms of the planet, the solar system, and the universe.
We may be largely unconscious of these relationships, yet their patterns and influences permeate the flourishing of life: plant, animal, and human, extending even into the rhythms and endeavors through which we create, work, build, and evolve.
The invitation is to rediscover the wisdom of the seasons not merely as changes in weather, but as expressions of a deeper cyclic intelligence: a living architecture of emergence, growth, harvest, release, rest, and renewal that may reveal something fundamental about how life, and perhaps the universe itself, is designed to flourish.
This conversation is part of the continuing Portals discovery into what is emerging on the frontiers of human experience in this time of profound change. Information about upcoming special events can be found on the Events page. Also visit and subscribe to our YouTube channel.
One of the ways the universe establishes its economic pattern is through cycles. Because cycles prevent exhaustion, because they require and demand that there will be a rest. They prevent stagnation because they insist on change, and they produce resilience through that cycle of renewal. And with certain cycles, it's more evident than with others, that the cycle is actually not a closed loop… it's a spiral.
David Price Francis
David Price Francis helps individuals, couples, and groups understand and improve the quality of energy in their personal lives and relationships using techniques and strategies that he has successfully developed in private practice working with clients for over forty years. He is the author of Go With The Glow: From Psychological Pain to Spiritual Happiness; Partners in Passion: How To Positively Transform the Energies in all Your Relationships; The Tales of Dr. Woo: A Journey into Truth; and a 10-part online course, “The Human Aura: A Practical Introduction To Your Personal Energy Field.”
Visit: EnergyWorlds
Aviv Shahar
Aviv serves as the Portals' sherpa. He curates transformational journeys and is a storyteller of the epochal evolution culminating at this time. Aviv is the Founder of Aviv Consulting, helping leaders unleash strategic innovation, and is the author of Create New Futures: How Leaders Produce Breakthroughs and Transform the World Through Conversation.
Visit: Aviv Consulting
