Sacred Geometry and the Structure of Music

Legend recounts how Orpheus was given a lyre by Apollo. By playing his lyre, Orpheus produced harmonies that joined all of Nature together in peace and joy. Inspired by this Orphic tradition of music and science, Pythagoras of Samos conducted perhaps the world's first physics experiment. By plucking strings of different lengths, Pythagoras discovered that sound vibrations naturally occurred in a sequence of whole tones or notes that repeat in a pattern of seven. Like the seven naturally occurring colors of the rainbow, the octave of seven tones indeed, all of Creation is a singing matrix of frequencies that can be experienced as color, sound, matter, and states of consciousness. This correlation of sound, matter, and consciousness is important. For as Stanford physicist William Tiller has proved, human consciousness imprints the space and matter of the universe. It is our intent that gives the direction and quality to Creation. I believe that this matrix of Creation is waiting for us to sound the most harmonious vibrating chord to sound the universe itself into a perfect, idealized form. The Music of Atomic Shapes The Platonic solids, basic shapes of Sacred Geometry, are five three-dimensional geometric forms of which all faces are alike. And each platonic solid represent one of the five elements of creation, as follows:

1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

Tetrahedron Fire Cube Earth Octahedron Air Dodecahedron Ether Icosahedron Water

These five Platonic solids comprise the alchemical dance of the elements and of Creation itself. My introduction to the spiritual power of sound began with an experience of this truth. This happened many years ago, when I was studying with Michael Helios who is for me a reincarnated Atlantean wizard. Helios discovered the musical proportions and corresponding tone scales for each of the Platonic shapes. He even tuned his keyboard to specific frequencies in order to achieve exact proportions. During his presentations, he would play the scales and geometries of each shape, without disclosing to his listeners which geometric shape he was playing. Participants

meditated on each piece as he was playing it, and then described which of the shapes they had experienced. The results were extraordinary. Every Platonic solid was correctly perceived, felt, and "seen" during each of the five musical meditations. As a participant myself, this was my first experience of realizing the power of musical transmission and its potential to specifically re-order creation. This is exactly what the ancient mystics and scientists had always been telling us! The Dodecahedron, the Universe, and the Human Form When Michael Helios played his five compositions, I was most profoundly affected by the Dodecahedron. This shape can be seen to represent the order of the heavens and also the perfect mediation between the infinite and the finite the sphere and the cube. So let us look more closely at this as one example of the sacred geometric forms that permeate Creation. Through seeing the simplicity and complexity of the Dodecahedron in its relationship of shape and sound, perhaps we can intuit the rest. And through understanding our relationship to the Dodecahedron, perhaps we can begin to sense our own place within the Divine Song that is Creation. The Dodecahedron is comprised of twelve pentagonal faces. It represents the fifth sacred element, the divine potentiality known as "ether." Considering that the Dodecahedron is made up of five-sided faces, it is fascinating that quantum physics researchers in the US and France have recently concluded that, based upon measurements of cosmic waves left over from the so-called "Big Bang," the universe itself is a Dodecahedron! Besides the fact that there are five platonic solids and five corresponding basic elements of life, it can be shown that the entire human race is joined in these same basic sacred proportions. For the physical body, with the arms and legs spread, is overlaid by a pentagram, with the fifth point being at the top of the head and the reproductive organs at the exact center. And each of these points also relates to the number five: five fingers at the terminus of each arm, five toes on each leg, and five openings on the face. Additionally, we each possess five senses of physical perception. So the Golden Mean proportions of the cosmos and our body temples are closely aligned with the harmony of the musical fifth. If we can imagine the dodecahedronal-pentagonal shape of this One Song that is the

universe, together with the pentagram geometry of the human body, we find inherent in both a divine proportion and a potential for harmonic perfection. The universe and humanity ARE singing geometries. And it is we ourselves who embody the geometry of the cosmos! Phi and the Musical Fifth To follow this discussion, we first need to know that the Golden Mean and the Pentagram are closely related. For the angles of the five sides of a Pentagram are at a ratio of exactly 1.618 the Golden Mean ratio, known mathematically as phi. The fifth is the interval found in most sacred music, and has a powerful harmonizing effect on the human energy system. It is the first harmonic sounded by a plucked string, and is what gives the note its depth and beauty. Its sacred sound is the hallmark of the Gregorian chant. In fact most divinely inspired music, including some New Age music and that of indigenous cultures, is built around the musical interval of the fifth. This music-geometry connection is well stated by Goethe, who said, "Sacred architecture is frozen music." The same is true of the "architecture" of the human body. It was Pythagoras who first described the fifth interval that has come to be universally recognized for its beauty. It is "an archetypal expression of harmony that demonstrates the 'fitting together' of microcosm and macrocosm in an inseparable whole. The fifth is a beautiful sound because it demonstrates how the universe works."[1] And in building the phi proportions, along with those of the other musical intervals, into the designs of cathedrals and temples, the architects also are building in the effects of the musical intervals upon which the sacred proportions are based. These effects, immediately experienced as harmonious, powerful, and centering, can be experienced first-hand when one enters a Gothic cathedral or an ancient Egyptian temple. Being inside such a space helps us to access other dimensions of consciousness. It is the same experience that is reached through listening to sacred music. The Circle of Fifths and the Chakras By applying the principles of progression to the harmonics of the fifth, we come to the Circle of Fifths: a musical sequence that prefigures the harmonic relationships of the human energy system. For the Circle of Fifths delineates the chakra system in the human body. As we know, each chakra is a spinning wheel. Here, we will also note that each chakra comprises, in both sound and color, a literal mandala of geometries. The musical tones and colors traditionally associated with the chakras are: C (root) red,

G (throat) turquoise, D (belly) orange, A (brow) indigo, E (solar plexus) yellow, B (crown) magenta, and F# (heart) green.[2] The interweaving of the chakras that we get by applying to them the Circle of Fifths represents a more complex system than the traditional, linear progression. And it is interesting to note that in sound healing, the connections between these "chakra harmonics" reflect a strong correspondence between our issues. For example, in the Circle of Fifths progression, the root chakra (sexuality, survival, and money) is directly connected to the throat chakra (our expression; speaking our truth). And by working with these two chakras, we find that we can heal survival issues. The Circle of Fifths and the Fibonacci Sequence In the Circle of Fifths we see another way in which the musical scale is related to Sacred Geometry, for the musical progression is an exact parallel to the Fibonacci sequence. As we know, the Fibonacci sequence starts with the number 1, and proceeds by adding the two previous numbers. So the second number in the sequence also is 1, then 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55, 89, 144, and so on. And a graph of this sequence almost exactly matches the spiral graph of the Golden Mean sequence. One is finite, the other infinite. "As above, so below." Fibonnaci realized that the natural branching, flowering, and spiraling forms in Nature followed the same uniform laws found in musical scales, for his sequence mathematically predicts all of the intervals that comprise the chords of music. Note Interval A A D F E C E C# F# C# D F

root octave 4th 2/1

aug. minor aug. 5th 5th 3rd 6th 3rd 4th 5th 3rd 4th 3/5 3/8 5/2 5/3 5/8 8/3 8/5

Fibonacci 1/1 ratio

2/3 2/5 3/2

Sacred Geometry and the Chanting of Our World

Plato's Republic describes the cosmos as being held together by eight spinning "whorls," like a giant spinning wheel with eight feminine weavers sounding the fabric of Creation. Each of the whorls contains a planet. And on each planet is a siren who sings her particular note and emits her specific color. The work of German astronomer and mystic Johannes Kepler (1571-1630) focused on the five Platonic solids, their harmonic ratios, and how these shapes correlated with planetary orbits and sound frequencies. He found the musical tones of individual planets, and the musical scales of planetary movements. As Stephen Hawking reports, Kepler was even able to determine that "four kinds of voice are expressed in the planets: soprano, contralto, tenor, and bass." In finding the music of the cosmos, Kepler showed that life forms on Earth follow the same harmonic principles as those found in the stars. Temples of Sound Similar knowledge has come out of the hermetic tradition, which saw its Western resurgence in the beginning of the second millennium. During this time, hundreds of Gothic Cathedrals were constructed across Europe, all inspired by this Eastern hermetic knowledge that had just been rediscovered by the mystical order known as the Knights Templar. Excavating Solomon's Temple in Jerusalem, the Knights Templar discovered vaults of hidden artifacts and scrolls that described the alchemical sciences of sacred geometry and architecture and their relationship to sound, astronomy, and genetics. Ancient sacred relics also are said to have been found, including the Ark of the Covenant, the Holy Grail, and secrets pertaining to Mary Magdalen and a Holy bloodline.[3] Inspired by this material, the great Gothic cathedrals, including Chartres, Notre Dame, Salisbury, [Link], and Cluny, were designed and built using the principles of sacred geometry and harmonic acoustics. Chanting and Millennial Shifts Sacred music and chant is always with us. But surges in its popularity occur at the crucial millennial turning points. This was so during the beginning of the first millennium, at the inception of Christianity, and during the era of the Grail Romances, which began around 1000 AD. And now today, as we forge a new paradigm and write our "script" for the next one thousand years, chanting has again come into prominence. The sacred architecture employed in the medieval cathedrals reflected specific acoustical properties that were conducive to the constant rounds of perpetual choirs maintained by the monks. Author John Michell, who has researched the tradition of "perpetual choirs" in ancient

Britain, reports that these choirs were maintained in at least three sites: Glastonbury, Stonehenge, and Llantwit Major in Wales. Together, the sites form the rim of a circle in the landscape, with the center at an old Druid site called Whiteleafed Oak. Michel found that these sacred sites were equidistant from each other, and that their individual locations corresponded to sunrise points and sacred proportions.[4] Similarly, sacred sites in other cultures also were laid out in geometric relationship to each other, and were maintained with sacred music and chant, synchronized with the seasons and cosmic cycles. Emotion, Sound, and Form Science is only now beginning to discover these interrelationships of sound and matter. Launching the new science of cymatics, Swiss researcher Hans Jenny (1904-1972) conducted experiments showing that inert powders, pastes, and liquids, when animated by audible, pure tones, would form into flowing patterns that mirrored those found throughout Nature, art, and architecture. He showed that there was a correlation between sound and form that, in effect, the matter of the universe is a physical manifestation of vibration. And as several articles in the Spirit of Ma'at have reported, Dr. Masaru Emoto has proven over and over again, through photographing water crystals, that there is a geometrical correspondence between human thoughts and emotions and the very shape of the matter that surrounds us. Water, Emoto has shown, "treated" with love or beautiful music, undergoes molecular change into beautiful, harmonious geometrical forms. And the same happens in reverse: chaotic or "negative" thought and emotion cause the crystals of water to become unformed and unlovely. These ideas are modern reflections of timeless principles well known to all ancient and indigenous cultures. As Billy Yellow, a Navajo medicine man, sums it up: "Our task is to chant the world, chant the beauty. The world is a reflection of our chanting."

Sacred Harmonic Geometry

The study of sacred geometry was passed down over thousands of years from the ancient mystery schools. The most common geometries considered sacred are the Egyptian Flower of Life, the Hebrew Vesica Piscis and the Italian Borromean Rings (also known as the Holy Trinity), though there are

others.

The reason such geometry was considered sacred is due to their similarity to organic geometries found in life. Such geometry was described as 'emanations' by Gnostics, indicating their awareness that they were patterns formed by the intersection or interference patterns of waves. And since music travels in waves, sacred geometry became intertwined with musica universalis, the ancient theory of everything. Through musical proportions, everything could be modeled using sacred geometry.

To see how this works, consider the following musical Chromatic Ring divided into twelve equal sections according to the earlier harmonic color model. This is known as the Z/12Z cyclic ring model where Z is the set of integers 1 through 12.

The labels indicate bi-lateral symmetry between each half of the ring as divided by the Harmonic Axis through the Harmonic Center or harmonic Partial 9. Spring symbols are used to indicate the regions where harmonics share energy, namely between the tritone and tonic major third.

From the Chromatic Ring, a dual ring system can be used to geometrically represent the standard Fourier wave consisting of complementary wave components sine and cosine in phase-quadrature (out of phase by 90-degrees).

To the ancients, this interlocking ring arrangement was known as the Vescia Piscis or Mandorla (meaning 'almond'), referring to the union section of the two rings. In the Hebrew Kabbalah, all life is described as entering into the world through the mandorla interference region between the dual rings. In the most general sense, this is correct. The dual rings are a vertical cross-section of the double torus produced by the Coriolis effect - a geometry found in the formation of galaxies and our own solar system. Life too is toroidal like a hurricane, twisting around an axis, as seen in the swirl of hair at the crown of the head. When we are born, the birth canal is indeed a mandorla.

For these and other reasons, the mandorla is used to frame religion icons and deities in Christianity, indicating their origination from the creation matrix. Moving beyond religious interpretations, we can better understand the physical properties of the dual rings by separating the twelve tones into two groups of six divided between the rings - one group in the top ring to represent sine components in phase with the Harmonic Center (D for harmonic series of C) and another group in the bottom ring to represent the complementary cosine components. The two groups of tones are known as whole tone scales, of which there are only these two. Interestingly, we find that the mandorla corresponds to the so-called 'dominant' interval (e.g., {G, B} in C major), used in common practice music to create tension and resolve to the tonic. This so-called 'dominant-tonic' resolution is also used as a central element in music harmony to chain together a series of chords into what is called the Cycle of Fifths. When represented as a lattice of interlocking Vesica Piscis, dominant triads can be seen to cascade through an orbit of twelve tones.

When this same lattice progression is then transformed onto an orthogonal wave lattice using dominant 7th chords, something truly amazing happens. The Cycle of Fifths traces out the profile of a fish. In fact, the tense leading tone adds onto itself in such a way as to produce a prominent fin-like geometry appearing very shark-like. Sacred geometry indeed!

Not only is life is born through a mandorla, but harmony of form is the inevitable self-organization process of nature. As harmonic waves reflect inside round containers, they assume the same proportional shapes found in Z/12Z music harmony - a bi-lateral symmetry of harmonic proportion. Sacred geometry is nothing less than the visualization of physical musical concepts.