The Music of the Spheres

Frater X
From the Rosicrucian Forum, February 1951, page 88.

he allusive phrase, the music of the

spheres, has intrigued generation
after generation. In this response
from the Rosicrucian Forum, the meaning of
the phrase is considered in Pythagorean and
Rosicrucian terms.

Much in past centuries has been written

in the poetical and mystical sense with respect
to the phrase the music of the spheres. From
the scientific point of view it has been scoffed
at. However, the very phrase had its origin
in scientific speculation by one whom many
historians regard as the father of science.
The phrase is attributed to Pythagoras and is
related to his discovery that intervals of the
scale had a simple numerical relationship.
In the realm of philosophy, Pythagoras,
born on the little island of Samos in the
Aegean in the sixth century BCE, is an
enigmatic figure. His contemporaries were
divided in their opinion of him. However, all
were influenced by his thought. Some were
profuse in their panegyrics of his sagacity.
Others, either being sincere in their diverse
conceptions, or seeking to belittle him, were
unnecessarily bitter in their criticisms. Even
today there is a difference of evaluation of
him to be noted. Some modern historians,
though not acrimonious in their accounts,
will, with reluctance, admit his contributions
to both science and philosophy. Others
conversely herald him as a genius, as one
laying down the foundations of science, as
well as influencing all European ethics not
directly inherited from the East.
Any intelligent student of the life and
work of Pythagoras, at least that account
which descends to us today, will proclaim

Music of the Spheres, from the Rosicrucian Archives.

him a most illumined individual. He

combined within one person the attributes
of a mystic, philosopher, and scientist.
Rosicrucians are particularly proud to affirm
that he was initiated in the mystery schools
of Egypt from whence the Rosicrucian
Order sprang. As an initiate and master,
Pythagoras continued the doctrines which he
had learned in Egypt in the great initiatory
school which he established at Crotona. The
Rosicrucian teachings today are rooted in
doctrines which he expounded, even though
they have been elaborated upon by the great
minds of the Order since that time.
His mystical doctrines concerning the
nature of the soul and its relation to the
body are an integral part of the mystical
and occult teachings generally expounded
today. His ethics, his rules of behavior,
particularly for the attainment of spiritual
consciousness, are often taught by teachers
of esotericism without a full recognition
of their origin. What may be said to be his
scientific conceptions and discoveries became
the basis for most of his ethical, mystical, and
philosophical teachings.
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Universe Is Vibratory in Nature

Rosicrucian
Digest
No. 1
2009

Pythagoras is credited with discovering

the mathematical relationship between the
various notes in the musical scale. He is said
to have measured the lengths of a vibrating
string and found that the rate doubled for
each octave. It may be that this phenomenon
was disclosed to him by the learned
Memphite priests of Egypt where he had
sojourned and where he was initiated into the
mysteries. Nevertheless, this knowledge greatly
impressed him. He conceived that things are
numbersin other words, that each reality,
each particular which we discern is vibratory
in nature and has its special number or rate of
vibrations.
Consequently, if one knows the vibratory
rate of the essence or energy of a particular,
one will then be
able to control
its form of expressionjust as
modern physics
is endeavoring to
do now. Further,
each reality or
thing would have
a mathematical
relationship or
place in the great
universal scale.
Robert Fludd, The Divine
Just as there is
Monochord, from the History
a harmony beof the Macrocosm and the
Microcosm, Volume 1, 1617.
tween notes in
a musical scale,
Pythagoras contended that all have their
numerical or harmonious relationship in the
Cosmos. Here, then, was the first postulation
of a universe having an orderly arrangement
which made possible an inquiry from an
empirical or scientific point of view.
Pythagoras had introduced a theory which
in part, insofar as the phenomenon of sound is
concerned, was demonstrable. It was a logical
premise, therefore, to advance from that
into the realm of other natural phenomena.
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He advocated the idea that if high and low

pitches can be brought together in a perfect
attunement, it was natural to suppose that all
objects can be similarly treated. The theory of
opposites or contraries, such as hot and cold,
hard and soft, as the primary cause of change
in the forms of things, was an idea prevalent
in Pythagorass time. To him harmony meant
a balance or blending of these contraries. For
a stable reality or universe there would have
to be a blending of opposites in proportions
which could be numerically expressed.
To Pythagoras, number was the key to
the universe. If we learn the number and
proportion of all reality, we know the secret of
the universe.
Centuries later, another Rosicrucian,
known as John Dalton, who was also eminent
in science, introduced a similar idea of fixed
proportions of the elements in chemistry.
Pythagoras applied his concept to the
relative distances of the sun, moon, and
stars. He believed that there was a harmony
of relationship between them that could be
expressed numerically. It was a theory that
was also expounded in much more recent
times, but somewhat differently. Pythagoras
taught that if the sun, moon, and stars really
have vibratory rates corresponding to specific
octaves in the universal scale, then each must
give off vibrations, just as the strings of the
lyre give off sounds. In other words, if planets
are vibratory, they must propagate waves
which can be discerned, just as when one
plucks the strings of a musical instrument.
At this junction of his philosophy,
Pythagoras was misunderstood by many, or
at least misinterpreted. He did not mean that
this music of the spheres, this harmony of the
planetary bodies in motion, can be audible
in the physical sense, just as we hear the voice
of another. To his credit, we may say that he
meant that if we do not hear this music of the
spheres, it is because we are not attuned to
their vibratory ratethis hearing was not
to be conceived in the physical or objective

sense. He stated in effect that the human soul

must be brought into attunement with the
higher universal harmony of the cosmic forces
before one could hear them. The word, hear,
must be understood to mean discernment
other than auditory perception.
All Is in Continuous Motion
He taught his disciples of Crotona
that the greatest happiness is to be found
in placing ourselves in harmonythat is,
in proper relation to the universal motion
of all things. Alcmaeon of Crotona, one of
the Pythagoreans, relates, All divine things,
the moon, the sun, the stars, and the whole
heavens are in continuous motion. That in
itself was a statement which opened the door
to a scientific investigation of the unity of
all reality. Pythagoras proposed a common
property or quality of all things.
To Pythagoras, our thoughts also
must be in harmony with natural forces
and cosmic principles. Our thoughts can
advance or retrogress in the great scale of
which everything is a part. Socrates, in the
Phaedo, probably referring to Pythagorass
ideas, alludes to the harmony of the levels
of thought when he says, Philosophy is the
highest music.
Health, too, was regarded as the proper
tuning of the body. It was affirmed that
there must be a consonant of the opposites
in the bodythat is, such must be of right
proportions if health is to be preserved.
Disease was held to be a disproportionate
expansion of one or more of the contraries.
Rosicrucians should compare these
statements with what we refer to as the
harmonium of the body in our therapeutic
or healing techniques. Though modern-day
Rosicrucians go far beyond Pythagoras in the
study of the human body and its functions,
nevertheless, his idea of harmony of
proportion remains with Rosicrucians a basic
conception. He said that disease is tyranny.
We interpret that to mean that it is a condition

Spherical Conception of the Universe, based on

the Ptolemaic system.

which is tyrannical in its domination of all

of the bodys functions. Health, he said, was
the reign of equal laws. We construe this to
mean that health is a concord or agreement
of the natural functions of the body.
Mystically, this music of the spheres is
the result of a personal attunement with the
Cosmic. It is a degree of Cosmic Consciousness.
The sensations one has of such harmony
when in perfect attunement, are not always
perceived as an auditory sensationas
something actually heard. They do not
always assume the form of exquisite music
or a magnificent concord of sound seemingly
coming out of the infinite. Such an experience
may instead be tactile, as an ecstasy of feeling
or a profound peace.
Most certainly, a ringing of the ears,
which is distracting and which may occur
without any attunement of the consciousness
with the infinite, is not to be confused with
the mystical harmony to which Pythagoras
refers by his term music of the spheres.
Further, such harmony, when experienced,
no matter how realized, whether sound
or feeling, is almost always accompanied
by great inspiration in the form of mental
illumination. The experience should never be
construed as a strange sound, having its locus
within the ears. Such would most certainly be
taking the Pythagorean principle in a wholly
literal sense.
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