The question of the Axial Age emerges from the discovery of many historians in the nineteenth century of a mysterious synchronism in the period of classical antiquity. This material was first summarized by Karl Jaspers in his classic The Origin and Goal of History. In a period from -800 to -200 a remarkable series of parallel innovations occur in concert across Eurasia, from Rome to China. A profusion of prophets and sages suddenly appear,  and we see large-scale cultural transformations behind them creating a virtual New Age of civilization.  Axial Ages and Eonic Observers

The extraordinary character of this data, and the difficulty of its correct analysis, has delayed its entry into public awareness. Also, the implications are such that its study has been virtually taboo in conventional scholarly circles. Theologians also tend to avoid the subject because the history of the Old Testament is suddenly seen in a broader context. There is a tendency to interpret this data as a kind of generalized age of revelation, emphasizing the birth of religion. But this is misleading, since, in any case, these religions, such as Buddhism, or monotheistic Judaism, are quite different in character, and because the total effect can easily be seen to have no intrinsic connection with religion. In Greece, for example we see the birth of democracy and the rise of science associated with the Axial interval. A broader approach to the question is needed. 

That is provided by the analysis of World History and The Eonic Effect  and this enables us to see what is going on very clearly for the first time. The case of Greece in many ways provides the clue. From there the other cases then become clearer, and we suddenly see the resemblance of the history of Israel to that of Axial Greece, as strange as that might at first seem. We can construct a special kind of 'eonic model' to study the phenomenon we discover.

This work also brings in the question of evolution itself, and this can help us to realize something about the descent of man. The Darwinian view of evolution, hence of history, simply disallows any suggestion of historical directionality, teleology, and macroevolutionary transformations. Yet our history shows us how these issues are present in our own backyard. 

Finally, the study of the so-called eonic effect extends the pattern of the Axial Age to include the birth of civilization and the rise of the modern, and this greater context resolves the enigma of the Axial interval completely. 

The work of Jaspers was seminal, although it left the issue of the Axial period somewhat ambiguous in so far as the relationship of 'sacred' and 'secular' history is concerned. In the final analysis there is no such distinction. But there are periods with a special character, which we will isolate with our analysis of the eonic effect. We can see that the Axial Age shows us the way that religion, philosophy, science, and the emergence of freedom are braided together in a single macroevolutionary process. But what do we mean by 'evolution'? That question requires setting up the apparatus of the so-called 'eonic model' which is a schema of periodization that brings out the meaning of the Axial period.

Jaspers' insight sprang from the way in which he dramatized the synchrony of parallel emergence in five different zones of Eurasia in the interval from -800 to -200. Actually, as we explore the eonic effect we will see that this interval is a bit long, and that it probably begins a bit earlier. We also see a kind of division point around -600. It is as if there is a seminal period of gestation, followed by the onset of a new series of civilizations. It is like a slingshot: coil and release. The period from about -900 to -600 shows the heightening of potential, the foundations of a new era, then after -600 we see the take-off, with a series of spectacular realizations of the new potential. 

The generation after -600 is almost spectacular in the case of Greece, and it seems as if everything is happening all at once, from the Pre-Socratics, to the beginings of science, to the birth of democracy. Then by -400 there is a rapid fall-off, and an age of empire soon appears. Thus it is not really appropriate to include the interval -400 to -200 in the 'Axial phenomenon'. Already a new character has emerged, and in fact many of the achievements are being undone. Thus Greek democracy barely survives the Axial flowering.

The text of WH&EE will give you everything you need to understand the issues of the Axial Age by showing this period to be a subset of the 'eonic effect'. Once we include the birth of civilization, and the rise of the modern, the paradoxes seem to fall away. The approach is simply to forget the 'Axial Age' and start with the eonic effect, starting with.