Lifespans

Lifespans

   I’m pretty sure you’re all pretty well-versed in the knowledge that the folks who came before us supposedly lived for many, many, many years and I mean many. That’s got to puzzle you, right? Why did they get to live that long and not us?

   Lifespans and longevity are among the strongest shared memories we have on Earth. This pattern shows up in every culture, even cultures that have supposedly not even come close to being in contact with each other. I think we may be missing something that they may have understood back then from a philosophical standpoint. See, back in ancient times and throughout just about every myth that I have come across, moving forward was not necessarily progress to their understanding as we see it today. See today, as we progress, we see it from a societal standpoint, for example, finding cures for diseases and viruses that have plagued the world or finding salvation through our religions. From a more personal standpoint, getting that new job and a raise, or finding peace and comfort in your soul. Almost like finally coming out of the dark ages of humanity, right? But throughout the ancient myths and history, their standpoint and view were more like the thought that we actually fell from the light. Now, not exactly saying fall from the light and into darkness, that’s not what I’m saying,  just more like we didn’t rise from any darkness, we just simply fell from the light and into the in-between. You find a pattern when looking through ancient myths of the first humans living way longer lives, while also being physically closer to the gods. For instance, the Greek golden age, when humans lived next to the gods and time was not yet linear, Adam and Eve in the garden, where god visited them often, or Ziusudra in the Epic of Gilgamesh, where Enki actually held a physical relationship with him. So we essentially call this age the Golden Age, where humans lived among the gods worry-free, a physical paradise where everyone and everything lived in harmony, no suffering, no pain, no labor. So, let me let you in on a huge specific that I noticed and you may have to. The text throughout most mythology and ancient history does not say every human lived longer lives than the expected life expectancy, just specific ones that are named as specific figures with a close link to divinity. In many traditions, most of the time, the individuals linked to extra-long life are semi-divine, kings, patriarchs or heroes, suggesting that a long lifespan was more tied to status rather than biology. So, let's take a deep look into the archetypes and just an fyi if you do not know, an archetype is the original model, the origin from which the rest are made. They show up in almost every civilization as the bridge between the divine and human realms. The first archetype is usually represented as the first king, first teacher or first human or first human after catastrophe. 

Mesopotamia

   In Mesopotamia, we have the Sumerian King’s list, where kingship was believed to be descended from the heavens, with figures like Alulim, who was the first king on the list to rule the city of Eridu after kingship descended from heaven and he ruled for 28,800-36,100 years before the great flood happened. 

   Now, as you move down the King’s list, you will see that after the great flood, their reigns start to become shorter and shorter periods, such as the very popular Gilgamesh, who only reigned for 126 years. 

   And we can not forget Ziusudra, who was the chosen survivor of the flood, who went on to gain immortality.

Hebrew

   If we go on to biblical or Hebrew, we see figures like Adam living for 930 years, Enoch living to 365 years until he was taken by god because Enoch is actually a special case described as actually never dying. After all, god took him and removed him from Earth as the text emphasizes “he walked with God” and we have Methuselah who holds the record for 969 years.

   All of these figures were before the world was washed away in the great flood when the divine relationship was thought to be closer/ 

   Then we have figures like Noah, who is the survivor chosen by God, so Noah lived before and after the great flood and his lifespan was 950 years. As time moves on after the flood, we can see the lifespans start to decline, for example, Terah, who lived only 205 years and of course, Abraham, who lived 175 years.

   You can see the clear downward slope of lifespans.

   And the biblical tradition is amazing because it literally gives clear ages and also a clear linear genealogy. 

   Now let’s hop off of the floods and go into the traditions and myths that don’t so much correlate with lifespans linking to a disaster

 

Egyptian

   Looking into Egyptian history, they preserve the history of divine and semi-divine rulers before humans had any play into this, and it is called Zep Tepi The First Time.

   Zep Tepi is when gods walked the Earth and Ma’at or balance, was established, and the rulers were the gods Ra, Shu, Geb, Osiris and Horus. Egyptians viewed them as the original kings of Egypt.

   After the gods came the Shemsu-Hor, who were followers of Horus and they reigned for 36,620 years according to some Egyptian kings' lists, and they were often described as demi-gods or semi-divine beings.

   And then we finally get to the first human king, who can either be called Menes or Narmer, and he was said to have reigned for only 50 years, with no existing data about his birth or death dates, but the pharaohs were still thought to be a link to the divine, though they were human in any case.

   Now eventhough there isn’t a flood that disrupts human interaction with divinness there is a short myth, but I will let you know this is just speculation from my end because the King’s List and The Book of the Heavenly Cow are to different approaches to the reason the gods ascended to the heavens because the King’s List correlates that humanity inherited what the gods created but The story of Sekhmets destruction correlates to humanity rebelling, the gods withdrawing and balance restored.

   But anyway, humans started to rebel against Ra disrespecting divine authority, which is disrupting Ma’at, so Ra sends his eye which takes the form of Sekhmet, the lioness goddess, to punish humanity, but Sekhmet goes overboard and nearly kills all of the humans to the point that they are on the brink of extinction, so Ra stops her by brewing massive loads of beer and dying it red as if it was blood to get her drunk after this Ra decided that humans can not be trusted to live among the gods and withdraws from humanity resulting in the gods ruling from the heavens and humans staying on Earth where suffering and pain now exist.

   Like I said its two different correlations, and this is its own myth, but I wonder if this can coexist with the concept of a disaster due to human disobedience, like the other myths involving floods, which result in humans becoming further away from the divine.

   Let's cover one more because this is just some fascinating information.

Hindu

   Hindu ancient history and mythology are by far the most fascinating to me hands down. It doesn’t really associate key human figures because all humans were considered to have the same lifespan expectancy, depending on the Yuga Cycle, starting at 100,000 years and declining to less than 100 years. And there were other figures that are said to transcend lifespan like Sages and semi-divine beings.

   So, in Hindu We have the Yugas that are represented by Dharma, who is the bull of cosmic creation.

   Dharma has four legs, but each leg that is lost is a decline in the yuga cycle.

   Satya Yuga (Sut-yuh)is the start of the cycles, “the age of truth,” where Dharma is complete, having all 4 legs and everything living in harmony. It lasted traditionally 1,728,000 years and human lifespan lasted about 100,000 years.

   Then we have the Treta yuga coming right after, as the first decline, now Dharma has 3 legs. This is where divine incarnations and social hierarchy start to appear. Its duration is 1,296,000 years; humans lived for tens of thousands of years.

   Then, the Dvapra Yuga is next, where Dharma has 2 legs and war comes into play, ending in Krishna’s departure, with a duration of 864,000 years and a human lifespan of 1,000 years.

   Currently, we are in Kali Yuga, the lowest point of the cycle, where Dharma has only one leg. Do I have to explain? Given that it is described what came before, No, okay, good. The Beginning is 3102 BC, with a duration of 432,000 years, and the human lifespan is less than 100 years.

   Now there is a flood myth with Manu, who was the chosen survivor as the archetype, but doesn’t give an exact birth or death date, he was expected to live as long as humans in the Satya Yuga Cycle and 71 Yuga Cycles is 1 Manvantara. Which means a manvantara is 306,720,000 years, which doesn’t mean he had to live the whole Manvantara.

   It is also a cyclical thing, so we are said to be under the appearance of the 7th Manu type, currently, which is a whole other story that I will eventually tell, so Hindu doesn’t have that specific set of people because the expectancy was consistent across humanity, but there is an archetype that we see appointed by divinity with Manu.

   Going through these myths, we see the similarities of Life declining for certain figures and humans in general as time continues, Divinity being closer in the earlier ages, some type of event with the gods withdrawing, and a restart ancestor. Like I said earlier, it’s like falling away from the most divine times, not necessarily running to darkness. It’s like we discussed in the Divine index series about the Quinametzin, the cosmos must move on, whether it's with us or not. 

   A commonality you can’t ignore is that every culture has a break and a shift in the past that gives off a universal intuition revolving around the same pattern. What ancient cultures might be saying is, “Human lifespan reflects the state of the world.” When harmony exists, life is longer; when there is an imbalance, life is shorter. Also, trying to tell us not to forget that there is a loss of memory tied to what life was like for humans before this cycle or age began. Maybe it’s just something not meant for us to know, maybe the cosmos moves on, but also with different emotions resulting in the changing of the environment it gives off, which causes the species of it to move on with different emotions and intentions. But, on the other hand, it may be a warning from our ancestors to preserve knowledge better than they could if we have the capability. I mean, one thing is clear as day, most ancient history and mythology, if not all, has a recurring theme and intuition that only differs in tradition. So the lifespan aspect makes sense in the earlier times because if you live longer, you have more wisdom and more memory, but you might do a lot of contemplating. A shorter life means urgency, resulting in less time to gain knowledge and having a shorter memory. Throughout myth time is treated as something resulting in decay because the longer that history unfolds, the more misconstrued it becomes, along with fading memory and new priorities. The traditions link lifespans to virtues, not rewards or punishments. Beings meant for eternity, but living through time with a lust for a life we never lived that goes beyond mortality. Humans are the only species that are known to grapple with the thought of our lives as finite, while also being aware of a life that reaches to infinity.