Read straight through, the eight phases make a narrative shape almost every tradition recognises: begin, try, struggle, refine, arrive, share, let go, rest.

It is not surprising that the same arc keeps being found — it is the shape of any project, laid over the only natural cycle short enough to live through repeatedly and long enough to plan within. A year is too long to feel and a day too short to structure. A month is the unit a person can actually hold in their head.