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)

Spelling

Wouldn't it be better to change the title into Life cycle (religion)? That's still unambiguous in relation to Life cycle (biology). As far as I know, composite words written together are common especially in Dutch and German, but not in English. Stefan Olejniczak 08:10, 19 August 2010 (UTC)

With me it is okay. Only should all the other lefecycles then also be split. And maybe it is even still better to change the title into Life cycle (popular belief) because this was a popular beliefe and not a real religion (which is an institution). Regards, Ed Jussen 08:47, 19 August 2010 (UTC)