The Music of the Spheres - The Planets As the Lights and Sounds of Eternal Rhythm, Melody, Harmony, and Tones In The Moment

by Robert Wilkinson

This is for all you musicians, and musically inclined people out there. The planets really do show us the pulses of the Eternal dance, along with the melodies, harmonies, rhythms, and solos of human existence. And they're all playing simultaneously, throughout our lives!

Though impossible to communicate the subject fully and in depth, what I've written here are rough approximations of how I view the planets in their functions within "the Music of the Spheres." They show us both pulse and tone, rhythms and beats and key shifts and melodic structures within an ever-changing eternal song of Life. Please forgive it for sounding overly technical at times, but I'm describing a very complex set of concepts (at least they are to me!)

Each planet has its own pulse, or rhythm, based on its orbital speed. These of course all slow down and speed up at various points relative to the Sun. These are the rhythms of existence. As the planets all move through the various signs, or phases of experience, they shift their tonal expression since the signs show the filters through which the planetary energies express themselves. Shift signs, shift tone.

Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto, being slowest in planetary motion, lay down the tonal "bottom" for everything else that gets played in that "key of Life." They represent the fundamental beats going on that persist throughout the local tunes being played. Uranus is the tone (pulse) of the larger Spiritual dance, Neptune is the half-tone, and Pluto is the third tone, allowing for both the three and the four rhythmic beat structures.

Of course (and I have no idea how this relates to formal music theory!), from another angle of view it could be seen that Pluto, whose cycle is approximately 250 years, sets the base tone for the Age, as 8 Pluto cycles approximately equals one Great Age (Pisces, Aquarius, and so forth throughout Eternity.) Here Pluto sets the tone, replicating its journey about 8 times until it reaches its next great "Song of the Ages."

In this way of viewing larger pulses of cyclic changes, Pluto is the 1/8th Age tone, Neptune is the 1/12th Age tone, and Uranus is the 1/24th tone. These have both harmonious and discordant periods within a 2100 year cycle. Of course, there are unique combinations, "double harmonic" combinations, and "stand alone" beats, as well as many other specialized relationships within the larger three fold bottom tones and pulses of the Music of the Spheres across a 2100 year cycle of "song."

We now turn to another, more predictable, harmonic in Astrology. The Sun, Mercury, and Venus never get more than a relatively few degrees apart, and therefore are limited in their interrelationships, unlike all the other planets. While they each can make all the aspects with any planet from Mars out, these three are confined to aspects with each other that cannot exceed a certain number of degrees. Being the quickest in motion, they symbolize the tone(s) that are being played in the relative moment.

For example, if Sun, Mercury and Venus are all in the same sign, that lays down the general tone of what's being played in the now. If we have two in one sign tone, and one in another, then the relative inner harmonics are determined by the relative distance between the three. Are one, two, or all three in one sign, two signs, or three signs? This shows the tonal and melodic shifts within a one to four month period.

Besides what signs these three occupy, there is the issue of the aspects these three make with each other apart from the aspects they make with the other planets. For example, when the Sun is semisquare Venus (as it is for a few weeks now and then) there is a dischordant tone set up that is affected by, and affects, the various other tones of reality. That also applies to when Mercury is semisquare Venus.

When any of these are in semisextile, it offers more harmony, as do the periods when Mercury and Venus are in sextile or quintile. Here the complex harmonics of these personality influences affect us all according to what planets they impact in our chart.

That leaves us with the outer visible planets Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn. These all fill in the various rhythms, tones, and harmonics between the basic bottom rhythms, beats, and tones shown by the outer invisible Triad and the various tonalities and melodies of the ongoing moment indicated by Mercury, Venus, and the Sun.

Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn symbolize the melodies and harmonies of the ongoing social milieu within which the Sun, Mercury, and Venus play their various solos and interactions. These outer but visible planets are how the melodies and harmonies relate within the key signature and are played over the bass tones and beats of the Invisible Outer Triad of Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto.

Because these three planets (like the outer "bottom beat" Triad) lay outside the inner orbits of the Sun, these three make all kinds of aspects to all the other planets, and may make any of the aspects to any of the other planets. Unlike the Sun, Mercury, and Venus, the triad of Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn engage in all possible aspect relationships with each other.

So where does the Moon fit into the Music of the Spheres as it reveals itself in every moment that the planets are in motion? The Moon determines the exact expression of what's expressed and how it's expressed in the flowing moment.

The Moon brings the mood, the subtle variations, the feeling shifts that occur almost instantaneously in the moment of what's being expressed. It is the subtle changes from hour to hour, day to night, night to day, as we move through the eternal now.

Bringing in the one unexamined factor that is primary in Astrology, the ongoing changes in the angles and signs on cusps, and which planet occupies which house, indicate the immediate shifts in perception and experience of the outer referenced reality. This is the ever-changing field of the NOW within which all the pulses, keys, chords, melodies, and harmonies exist simultaneously. It shows which tones are prominent, which are fading, which are coming, and which are not conspicuous but still evident in the symphony.

So please feel free to meditate on these concepts, since they can open you to the inner and outer symphonies within which we move and groove and dance to the music. As we merge with the music, we lose our sense of separateness. In the music we are One.

© Copyright 2011 Robert Wilkinson

Comments

[rebekka]

Yay! awesome Robert, this is a great one! you rock. n roll.

[Cheryl]

Very beautiful - since everything is energy, frequency, vibration, I bet you're right on! Lovin' it.

[Constance Demby]

Robert this is music to my ears...!

Our world can be seen as a vast symphony
of individual vibratory sound patterns,
all interweaving to create the very substance of life, the symphony of life

Vibration is at the root of all creation.
Sound is the force which groups all things, from atoms to worlds.

Every molecule of matter is intoning its tone.
Every leaf, atom, particle, planet, galaxy,
every cell in our body is humming its own tune.
Even as we were being born,
as our bodies were being formed,
a chord was being intoned,
our own individual chord...

The whole universe is moving in perfect mathematical harmony.
And this is the music of the spheres,
the divine mathematics,
the sacred geometry of creation.

When God first spoke,
sound came forth.
Sound holds the key
to the mysteries of the universe,
the key to the creation and sustaining of our world.

Music is the word of God.

From http://www.constancedemby.com/credo.html
http://www.constancedemby.com

[Micheline]

all i have to say wow!

[Timothy]

Sri Robert, you've hit me where I live 8^).

This is a beautiful article and I think it's about time someone formulated these concepts and expressed them clearly. Thanks for that! I'm quite familiar with the inner "unstruck" sounds that can be accessed through the heart chakra... These sounds must also factor in somehow as outer space can also be accessed through the heart chakra (the whole Universe as well!).

Slightly off topic but I find the South American Shamanic traditions of each Shaman receiving divine melodies ("Icaros") from Source to be fascinating. The Shaman guides inner journeys by singing these divine Icaro melodies. The Shamanic Masters in that part of the world are also intimately acquainted with outer space.

Finally, I'm a student of Astrology and also a composer 8^) of metaphysically inclined, adventurous (and meditative) electronic music. So far I've created tracks that reflect my perceptions of the planetary Essence of Mercury, Saturn ("Shani" in Sanskrit) and Neptune. I'd like to invite any interested members of The Cosmic Cantina here to visit my Sound Cloud page:

http://soundcloud.com/folykyl

I hope it's OK to post a link here. My music can be downloaded for free from my Sound Cloud page- just click the downward pointing arrow icon above each track. The Mercury composition emerged on a day in 2008 when Mercury was stationary and about to retrograde.

Namaste~

Timothy

[C. Biscuit]

hmmm... just simply curiosity here, in regards to -the- day of 2012, the supposed day of , i wonder what the patterns of the planets would actually sound like? would it be the 'battle star galactica' theme song or would it be more of the meditative, mantra: 'om'? dunno, but curiosity's gotten the best of me.

if this itch feels like being scratched by someone other than myself: perhaps timothy or you, robert, have the skills to put it together, as i am far from harnessing such technology at present, but would enjoy the fruits of anyone's labor who could manifest such a moment in sound. it's truly remarkable the overlap of patterns, especially within the musical and astrological realms, and it's neat to think that we can create a 'moment' outside a moment that seems to hold more significance than the average day.

either way, i enjoyed the article, robert (same goes for the numerous other ones logged to the left in your archives). it's wonderful how you weave the immaterial into the material for us readers. keep it up :0)

[billow]

Wouldn't it follow that any day is part of the symphony, depending upon what we are able and willing to hear?

[C. Biscuit]

well played, dear billow, well played....

:0)