Harmony of the Planes
Pythagoras of Samos was a Greek philosopher in the fifth century BCE. He is credited with codifying several systems and concepts, including Numerology.
Pythagoras observed the proportions of the movements of the sun, moon and planets, as they moved (so he thought) around the Earth.
One legend suggests that Pythagoras could hear an otherwise silent music, a
Musica Universalis, or
Harmony of the Spheres. It was this ability allowed him to discover that the intervals he perceived in the planetary circuits, like musical intervals, could be expressed in simple ratios. Plato and later thinkers incorporated these ideas into their understanding of the structure of the physical universe.
Physical
Music is present as a physical energy in other, more tangible ways. Most of us have felt rhythmic pulses as music passes through an amplifier or a bass speaker and into our body. The closer we stand to the electronics, the more corporeal the beats.
Musical palpitations cause the water in our cells to respond to the loud notes. The beat of the drum reminds us of our days before birth, when the heartbeat of mother was omnipresent.
As science expands understanding, space exploration has revealed the songs of Saturn and Jupiter and of the space in between. Music may be the very stuff of the universe.
We cannot see it, though. We can look at the notes drawn on a page, coded, holding information for the adept -- not for the uninitiated.
We can look at the players and see a neatly uniformed orchestra, the costumed popular performer, the singing face in the video. These are musicians, and not music, and yet … perhaps, in a way, they are music, for without them we might never hear the tune.
Mental
That the Music of the Spheres was a basis for philosophical theorizing is a reminder that music has a profound influence in the Mental Plane. It is here that music can inspire deep imagining, or the magic of mathematics.
Pythagoras knew that all of life is energy.
His thinking foreshadowed the concept of String Theory, which is part of the one unified theory which modern physicists have adopted.
The theories of music, as started with Pythagoras are a way to stretch the intellect and the mind. Examining the question "If the Medium is the Message, might not the Musician be the Music?" is not musical, and yet it cannot exist without music.
Emotional
Music can become the fuel of Time Travel where a song, a tune, or even a few notes, transport us to a place and a time and feeling that are long ago and far away.
The first chords of a song might evoke the emotional memory of a high-school dance, or songs sung in infancy. Christmas choirs with treble descants can leap into consciousness at the sound of a few notes, as can calls to prayer echoing from the walls of unfamiliar surroundings.
Music can stir us to feel again the loves and comforts and delights of other circumstances. We can close our eyes be somewhere else: we can even, for a fleeting instant, be someone else. Young again, in love again, touching the carefree heart we have set aside for no good reason.
Spiritual
At the spiritual level, music is a part of practice. Cantors and mu'addhin and choristers use music to assemble people. They create The Sacred so that interaction with that-which-is- greater can happen.
In 1972 the musician Ravi Shankar declared that Sound is God, no doubt referencing that around the world, the Source of All things is characterized as sound.
For followers of the God of Abraham, in the beginning was The Word. For others, the heavens and earth were created by the cry of the first Aum.A sacred elephant may have trumpeted the world into existence. Today the language of astrophysics calls the moment of our arrival a Big Bang.
Music As a Practice
While there is much to think about music, when making it there is no room for thought. Even the novice playing in a concert band knows the total consumption that is demanded.
Holding the instrument, the student is playing the notes, while reading the sheet music, while watching and obeying the conductor. They are listening to the melodies in the room, and hearing the sounds that are being made. There is no space for wondering when to finish homework, or a promised next kiss. Music is in command of every part of the player's awareness.
Life requests this kind of attention. Composer Philip Glass has written, "Listening properly becomes a kind of harmonizing of parts of our being—our intellectual center, our emotional center, and our moving center."
Nietzsche said that without music, life would be a mistake, and it is not.
Music is metaphor.
Music is existence.
I have been practising Numerology and supporting clients through life changes since the 1980s. For a consultation, or to commission a chart of your name and birthdate, we can meet in person, by telephone, or by Skype Click Here
Posted by Jo Leath. Posted In : Numerology
Jo Leath has been practising Numerology since the early 1980s.
During her career she has studied synchronicity and various ways of accessing Cosmic Wisdom.
She is a Certified Labyrinth Facilitator with Veriditas: Worldwide Labyrinth Project.
Jo meets clients in person and online, and is sometimes a featured reader at metaphysical stores in various cities.