AFTER THE CATASTROPHE: NOT THE CREATION OF THE WORLD, BUT THE BEGINNING OF A CYCLE. WHOLENESS, MULTIPLICITY, AND THE FORGOTTEN MEMORY OF CIVILIZATIONS

This article examines the problem of the loss of a holistic mode of human interaction with the world in the context of long-term civilizational cycles. The starting premise is that the so-called “beginnings of the world,” recorded in spiritual and mythological texts, do not reflect moments of literal creation of reality but rather mark the commencement of new historical and cultural cycles unfolding after largescale transformations or catastrophes of previous epochs. Special attention is given to the period prior to approximately 4000 BCE, which, due to the loss of continuous cultural memory, appears as a zone of radical epistemological uncertainty. The paper emphasizes that the absence of reliable means of preserving meanings and knowledge across time spans exceeding several millennia makes it impossible to draw definitive conclusions regarding the level of development of early civilizations and calls into question their frequent characterization as primitive. The article is constructed as a multi-layered text combining conceptual analysis, philosophical reflection, an essayistic exploration of multiplicity, and an academic crystallization of key arguments. Multiplicity – including potentially conflicting interpretations – is treated not as a contradiction but as the manifestation of different modes of a unified consciousness. In this sense, the essay functions as a form of thinking capable of integrating diverse levels of experience without reducing them to a single explanatory framework. Ultimately, the article proposes an interpretation of the contemporary civilizational condition as structurally analogous to phases of past cultural ruptures and raises the question of whether it is possible to traverse a new cyclical transition without repeating the destructive scenario of loss through collapse.