The Religious Cycle Poem by Mary Champion

1. Some troubled and questioning soul is rewarded for his/her efforts by receiving a revolutionary spiritual insight.

2. Supporters are recruited - drawn by the dazzling new ideas and often by the charismatic personality of the latest prophet.

3. Prophet dies and the diehards take over.

4. Revolutionary insight is preserved in aspic to be presented as the 'Final Revelation'. All questioning of received doctrine is frowned upon at best and persecuted at worst.

5. New and more complex rules and regulations are introduced by the self-appointed leaders to shore up their positions of power and privilege.

6. Splinter groups arise - led by those wishing to impose their own versions of the 'received wisdom'.

7. Anyone truly spiritual leaves - disillusioned with the whole set up and - freed from dogmatic directives - seeks further insight.

8. From time to time, one of them succeeds and the whole cycle is repeated because nobody believes that their understanding of Reality can be improved upon by anyone except themselves.