"There is geometry in the
humming of the strings,
There is music in the
spacing of the spheres."
– Pythagoras, 500 B.C.
Issue 93
June 13, 2019
There is an ancient view that the universe consists of nine concentric spheres revolving around the sun. The smallest is the sphere of the moon; the largest is the ninth Heaven, the Primum Mobile. It is all within the tenth Heaven, the Empyrean or Paradise, which is beyond our time and space but is the abode of God, the Creator. When the spheres revolve, there are vibrations which compose a harmony, the ‘music of the spheres.'
The planets are imbedded in the spheres and they rotate as the spheres rotate. Each planet has a ‘spirit,’ a divine force which radiates its particular influence throughout the universe. That is the basis of the idea of astrology.
The idea of cosmic vibrations is not only musical, it is also mathematical, and many philosophers such as Pythagoras brought together music and mathematics. A modern example is Einstein who claimed that if he were not a physicist, he would be a musician. If you want to go to the trouble, there are all kinds of references to the connections between mathematics and music and they tend to support the idea of some kind of universal harmony and proportion in the stars, the planets and maybe ourselves. The idea is reassuring in a way and suggests that there is something orderly and intentional at the root of everything. Whether we heard the music or not, the spheres provided for us a vision of order and beauty.
But science and time have done away with that celestial music. Astronomy has replaced astrology (almost). The spheres are gone, the planets sail along on their own in a cold, dark universe, and when we use our sophisticated instruments to look past the old boundaries, past the old myths and dreams, we see only bits of light in endless dark. Yet, though the spheres are gone, the planets stay in their orbits, order and beauty remain universal, and all point to God, the Creator.