THE MUSIC OF THE SPHERES
Astrology and Music in Harmonices Vitae (1999)
Music and
Astrology have a long and honorable history together. For example, in the
Middle ages, they were both part of the essential core of knowledge of the
educated person, the quadrivium, which consisted of astrology, music, arithmetic and geometry.
And long before this, they were connected by the the Pythagorean notion of the Music
of the Spheres. This can perhaps be expressed in general
terms as an intuitive understanding that there is an overall harmony or musical
quality to the created world. This
harmony is manifested as a relatedness that extends both upwards and downwards
- downwards to the smallest
details of the individual’s life , and upwards to the largest patterns of the
stars and planets – the ancient astrological and esoteric maxim of As Above,
So Below. The influential Greek philopsher
Pythagoras (ca.600 BC) connected this with his scientific studies of musical
harmony, where he discovered that the vibration rates of harmonious pitches
were related in simple ratios such as 2:1 or 3:2. This was an idea which he
claimed to have learned in Egypt, and the connection between musical harmony,
astrological events and the hyuman soul was made evident by the underlying
mathematics. The factor common to all of these was number.
“For the Pythagoreans, both music and soul share a basis
in number. Music is demonstrably numerical, as experiments with the monochord
had shown them. In the Pythagorean tradition the soul is also made from number
because it reflects the structure of the World-Soul, whose mathematical
formulation is set out by the Pythagorean philosopher Timaeus in Plato’s dialog
of that name.”
(Joscelyn Godwin, Harmonies of Heaven and
Earth,
p.21)
And because
the “structure of the World-Soul” is read in numerous ways, among them through
the science of astrology, there is a deep and intimate connection between music
and astrology.
Inspired by
this ancient intuition, the author has devised a software program, called Harmonices Vitae, which composes music corresponding to the
astrological Transits and Progressions of a person’s life. The correspondence
is executed at the rate of one minute of music per year of life. Because of the
uniqueness of each person’s birthchart (including Rising sign) the music
produced by Harmonices Vitae is entirely unique to each person. In effect, each
person has a musical composition which is the (astrological) pattern of their
life and which is utterly unique to them (barring, of course, twins born within
a few minutes of one another). The software has been found useful to
professional astrologers as well as to lay persons, since Transits and certain
types of Progressions are made clearly evident through the musical medium. In a
way, Harmonices Vitae is a sort of scientific visualization program, simplifying and making apparent to the interested person
the complex patterns of transiting and progressing planets in a birthchart.
The software runs in
real time on a suitable Macintosh computer. For practical purposes, the music
is produced by synthesizers simulating the sounds of traditional
instruments. However, except for
the expense of hiring and recording actual musicians, there is no reason in
principle why the music might not be transcribed to traditional music notation
and reproduced by conventional (acoustic) instruments.
How to Interpret Life Music
Each planet in an
individual’s birthchart is represented by an instrument in the Harmonices
Vitae “orchestra”. For example,
the Sun is represented musically by a piano, the Moon by a Clarinet,
and Mars by a Hand drum (tabla). The other planets and their corresponding
instruments are listed in table 1.
Harmonices Vitae is
based on an energy concept of
reading a birthchart, where each planet represents an internal potential of the
individual. This potential becomes actualized at various times in the life by
the passage of another planet over the point in the Zodiac occupied by the
natal planet. This actualization
is heard as a moment of musical activity (a fragment of melody, a chord or drum hit), its duration and intensity
corresponding to that of the transit itself. It therefore becomes very easy to hear times in your life
when a certain internal energy (the natal planet) was brought to awareness by
inner or outer circumstances (the transiting planet).
For example, if you hear
drums (Mars) coming into prominence for an extended "solo" between 13
and 15 minutes on the CD display, it means that "martial" qualities
and activities (self-assertion,
strength, sports, the physical aspect of sex) became somehow important between the ages of 13 and 15.The
exact nature of the "activation" is determined by the character of
the transiting planet. Thus Jupiter acting on Mars produces a quite different
effect than does say, Saturn or Mercury.
Transits are the primary
astrological factor considered by the Harmonices Vitae software, but Progressions are also used to
determine two important musical factors.
Through the course of a person's life, the planets as they move come
into "connection" with planets in the person's birthchart. These
times of connection are known as transits. In Harmonices Vitae, transits
generate musical activity - a fragment of melody, a chord, or a drum hit. The
strength of the transit controls pitch, loudness and general musical energy.
The music becomes an audible record of the intensity of the transits affecting the person. The
instruments that are playing tell you which planets in the birthchart are being
"activated". The motions
of the progressed Sun and Moon determine the overall musical factors of key,
harmony and rhythmic style.
Natal planets produce no
sound of their own until 'activated' by a transit. The character of this
'activation' is appropriate to the transiting planet. Transiting planets (Moon
through Pluto) each have a musical theme which is heard only when they aspect a
natal planet. This theme is transposed to fit the pitch range suitable for the
natal planet's instrument, and to fit the current key and chord as determined
by the Moon's progression through the Zodiac Key Wheel (see below). Each
transiting planet theme is of a musical character appropriate to the
astrological nature of that planet.
Since the effects of the
transiting planet are only ever heard through the instrument of the aspected
natal planet, this character is modified somewhat by the character of the natal
planet's instrument. Thus, some transiting/natal combinations are more
'harmonious' than others. For example, Mars transiting Mars works well because
the martial nature of Transiting Mars' theme sounds well with the martial
nature of Natal Mars instrument (trumpet and drum) but is less effective when
transiting natal Venus (flute). Similarly, Venus transiting Mars has a rather
incongruous effect, but Venus transiting Luna is more harmonious. This
corresponds roughly to the astrological compatibility of the two planets
involved in the transit. As any astrologer knows, however, the situation
quickly becomes very complicated because there are almost always several
planets aspecting a given natal planet.
Musical Effects of Various Transits
The planets as they move
through the course of a person’s life constantly come into and out of
relationship with the planets in the birthchart. Furthermore, each planet has a
characteristic effect on the life of an individual as it progresses through the
sky. These planetary characters have been studied astrologically for at least
2500 years as documented in Babylonian horoscopes from ca. 500 BC, and possibly
as long as 6000 years with the ancient Egyptians and Sumerians. These planetary influences are related to the
mythological characters of the various pagan gods associated with them. Many of these associations have come
down to this day in common language;
thus we have words such as jovial to indicate the character of Jupiter’s
(Jove’s) influence, martial to indicate Mars’; and mercurial, saturnine,
venereal and lunatic to indicate an aspect of the characters of Mercury,
Saturn, Venus and the Moon (Luna). Note the negative connotations of the words
associated in common parlance with the two female bodies, Venus and Luna. In
the astrological tradition the influence of these planets is by no means
exclusively negative, but their negative associations in common speech is a
reflection of the devaluation of the feminine which has been under way in
Western culture for approximately 2000 years.
Transits from the inner
planets are musically very brief. The Moon for example moves through an aspect
within a beat, adding its typical rapid ornamentation of sixteenth note
triplets. Transits from Mercury, Venus and the Sun are somewhat longer lasting,
amounting to a measure or two. Transits from Mars last about 4-8 measures,
depending on whether it goes retrograde while in aspect. Jupiter and Saturn can
produce much longer periods of musical activity, up to about forty seconds for
Jupiter and 2-3 minutes for Saturn. They therefore produce significant musical
sections.
Transits from the outer
planets (Uranus, Neptune and Pluto) are very long lasting and produce the major
musical structures of the life music. They can last several minutes each and
completely alter the quality of the more rapid planets while in effect.
Aspects are positions of
relationship between transiting planets and the planets of the birthchart and
are based on the harmonic division of the circle. Because the sine wave is the
extension of the circle in time, aspects therefore are related to the harmonics
of sound. For example, the conjunction (0º) corresponds to a musical unison or
fundamental tone, the opposition (180º) to the octave or first harmonic; the
trine (60º) to the octave plus a fifth or third harmonic,etc. The precise
details of this relationship have been subject to a great deal of speculation
over the centuries.
As each transiting
planet approaches an aspect with a planet in the birthchart, its effect on that
planet increases, climaxing when the aspect is exact, and gradually diminishing
afterward. The effects of these transits will be made audible musically by
means of these musical transformations (variations) on the themes of the
birthchart. The intensity of the transformations will likewise increase, climax
and decrease through the course of the transit.
Aspects between planets
in the natal chart are clearly audible as recurring 'ensembles' of instruments.
For example, if Venus and the Moon are conjunct in the birth chart, they will
be musically 'activated' simultaneously by any transiting planet and will
always play together. Other aspects produce similar but less pronounced
results. For example, if Venus and the Moon are square one another natally, a
transiting square by Saturn to Venus means that Saturn is also either conjunct
or opposed Luna. But a trine from Saturn to Venus produces no aspect to Luna.
Musical key and chord
changes are determined by the position of the progressed Moon through the cycle
of the Zodiac. Each sign has a corresponding key and mode, as listed in figure
below, the Zodiac Key Wheel. Each sign is further differentiated into a series
of 30 chords, one for each degree of the sign. The chords remain within the
context of the overall key as determined by the sign, but their quality and
character vary considerably. For example, Capricorn, being a conservative sign
and a guardian of tradition, has a chord sequence of quite classical character,
while Gemini's chord changes are much 'jazzier'. Since the Moon progresses
through the Zodiac quite rapidly, chord changes occur approximately. every 2
bars, while the overall key changes every 2 1/2 minutes or so. At the rate of
one minute per year, the Moon progresses through the entire cycle of the Zodiac
in about 30 minutes of musical time, at which point it returns to the key (i.e.
sign) in which it began. This series of key assignments to zodiac signs is, to
my knowledge, unique. It is based on the circle of Fifths, the fundamental
acoustic relationship of the interval
of the fifth. This relationship is important because the fifth (actually
octave plus a fifth) is the first new tone to appear in the harmonic series of
a given tone. The signs of the zodiac are assigned to musical keys though a
descending Circle of Fifths, from lightest to heaviest, representing the
descent of creativity from abstract intuition (Sagittarius) to concrete form
(Capricorn). This arrangement is shown
superimposed on the circle of the Zodiac in figure 10 and
diagrammatically in table 4.
This arrangement has a
number of interesting properties:
A.Signs of like element are in closely related
keys. e.g. the three fire signs are related by fifth up or down from Leo, the
central fixed sign - Sagittarius maps to Ab, a fifth up from Leo, while Aries
maps to Gb, a fifth down. This describes the traditionally harmonious
relationship between signs of like element.
B.Signs of complementary elements (e.g. fire-air,
earth-water) are likewise in related keys, though somewhat more distant than
those in the same element, and with an inversion of scale mode (e.g. from Major
to minor in the case of fire/air).
C.Traditional Astrological relationships, known as
aspects , correspond well with musical key relationships:
i.Trines, astrologically indicating ease and
harmony, map to closely related
keys in
the same mode, related by way of dominant or sub-dominant keys.
These
relationships have always been the easiest and most harmonious of
key
relationships in music worldwide, due to its fundamental derivation from
the
harmonic overtone series. They are fundamentally the most closely
related
keys, just as the signs of like element are the most like one another.
ii.Oppositions, traditionally associated with
opposition, map to unrelated
Major-minor keys (i.e. Aries/Libra as Gb major/C minor. These keys are
always
connected by way of the tritone, diabolus in musica (the devil in
music)
iii.Squares, associated with tension and difficulty,
map to minor thirds.
iv.Sextiles, traditionally a mixed relationship
implying a positive expression of
creative
tension, map to major thirds and perfect fourths, moderately distant
key
relationships, forcing creative confrontation between the keys involved.
v.Quintiles, an aspect also known as paradox, show
up in this system as
oddly
related keys, e.g. Cancer/Sagittarius as B flat min/F# min.
vi.Every Grand Square spells out a diminished
seventh chord, a strongly
conventionalised expression of musical tension.
Rhythm and the Zodiac Style Wheel
Changes of style and
texture are produced by the motion of the progressed Sun through the Zodiac.
Each sign has an associated rhythmic/melodic style appropriate to the character
of the sign, Like the system of keys/chords the signs are further
differentiated into degrees. Because the Sun progresses much more slowly than
the Moon, major changes of rhythmic and melodic style occur much more rarely
than changes of key. In the course of a thirty minute piece (corresponding to
thirty years of life) , a major rhythmic style change will occur only once or
twice, as the progressed Sun changes sign.
