Theos-Talk Archives (June 2002 Message tt00187)

June 28 2002

Re: Vibrations, Color, Sound,

Dear Friends:

A recent inquiry concerning colors and sounds would perhaps receive
some help from the following quotations:


MUSIC AND VIBRATION


"Everything in the Universe was framed according to the eternal
proportions and combinations of numbers. "God geometrizes," and
numbers and numerals are the fundamental basis of all systems of
mysticism, philosophy and religion." HPB Art I 504


"From Gods to men, from Worlds to atoms, from a star to a rush-light,
from the Sun to the vital heat of the meanest organic being--the world
of Form and Existence is an immense chain, whose links are all
connected. The law of Analogy is the first key to the world problem,
and these links have to be studied coordinately in their occult
relations to each other." S D I 604


"Every phenomenon in the visible Universe has its genesis in motion,
is an old axiom in Occultism..." HPB Articles, Vol. II, p. 10


"Motion is eternal per se, and in the manifested Kosmos it is the
Alpha and Omega of that which is called electricity, galvanism,
magnetism, sensation--moral and physical--thought, and even life on
this plane." Transactions 115


"...we come to regard this omnipresent Principle from the point of
view of the root or consciousness, we postulated as being--in this
aspect--absolute abstract motion, because consciousness has the
quality of motion in it and not the quality of space, since motion has
to have space in which to move." Forum Answers 41

"We believe in Fohat...his voice and Emanations...produced by an
electric shock of atoms and repercussions producing both Sound and
Light." HPB Articles, Vol. II, p. 413-4.


"...the sacred Science of the Numerals; so sacred...and so important
in the study of Occultism that the subject can hardly be skimmed..."
S D I 89


"There is a harmony of numbers in all nature; in the force of
gravity, in the planetary movements, in the laws of heat, light,
electricity, and chemical affinity, in the forms of animals and
plants, in the perception of the mind." S D II 622


"The odd numbers are divine, the even numbers are terrestrial,
devilish, and unlucky..." S D II 574


"The Spirit, which is immortal, has an arithmetical, as the body has a
geometrical, beginning."
HPB Art I 15 (see ISIS I 506-08)



MUSIC OF THE SPHERES


"...the Rosicrucian theory, that the whole universe is a musical
instrument, is the Pythagorean doctrine of the music of the spheres.
Sounds and colors are all spiritual numerals; as the 7 prismatic rays
proceed from one spot in heaven, so the 7 powers of nature, each of
them a number, are the 7 radiations of the Unity, the central
spiritual Sun." ISIS I 514


"...the Pythagorean "music of the spheres" is something more than a
mere fancy, and that certain planetary aspects may imply disturbances
in the ether of our planet, and certain others rest and harmony.
Certain kinds of music throw us into frenzy; some exalt the soul to
religious aspirations...there is scarcely a human creation which does
not respond to certain vibrations of the atmosphere. It is the same
with colors; some excite us, some soothe and please...why may we not
be influenced in the mass by vibrations acting upon a grand scale as
the effect of combined stellar influences ?" ISIS I 275


"Thus Vach, Shekinah, or the "music of the spheres" of Pythagoras, are
one...These personations may be viewed under four (chief) and three
(lesser) aspects or seven in all, as in Esotericism. The para form is
the ever subjective and latent Light and Sound, which exist eternally
in the bosom of the INCOGNIZABLE; when transferred into the ideation
of the Logos, or its latent light, it is called the pasyanti, and when
it becomes that light expressed, it is madhyama." S.D. I 431-432.



SACRED NUMBERS


"All systems of religious mysticism are based on numerals. With
Pythagoras, the Monas or unity, emanating the duad, and thus forming
the trinity and quaternary, or Arba-il (the mystic four), compose the
number seven. The sacredness of numbers begins with the great
First--the One, and ends only with the nought or zero--symbol of the
infinite and boundless circle which represents the universe. All the
intervening figures, in whatever combination, or however multiplied,
represent philosophical ideas, from vague outlines down to a
definitely established scientific axiom, relating either to a moral or
a physical fact in nature. They are a key to the ancient views on
cosmogony, in its broad sense, including man and beings, and the
evolution of the human race, spiritually as well as physically.

The number seven is the most sacred of all, and is, undoubtedly, of
Hindu origin. Everything of importance was calculated by and fitted
into this number by the Aryan philosophers--ideas as well as
localities..." ISIS I 407


"...the never manifested Monad which lives in solitude and darkness;
when the hour strikes it radiates from itself ONE, the first number.

This number descending, produces Two, the second number, and Two, in
its turn, produces Three, forming a triangle, the first complete
geometrical figure in the world of form.

It is this ideal or abstract triangle which is the Point in the
Mundane Egg, which after gestation, and the third remove, will start
from the Egg to form the triangle.

This is Brahma--Vach--Viraj in the Hindu Philosophy and Kether -
Chokmah - Binah in the Zohar.

The first Manifested Logos is the Potentia, the unrevealed Cause; the
second, the still latent Thought; the third, the Demiurgos, the
active Will evolving from its universal Self the active effect, which
in turn, becomes the cause on a lower plane."
Transactions, p. 83 ( see also: SD I-130, on the two Ones.)


"These sacred numbers [ 3, 4 & 7 ] are the sacred numbers of Light,
Life, and Union, especially in this manvantara, our life-cycle, of
which number 7 is the special representative, or the Factor number."
SD II 590



SPECIFIC EGOIC VIBRATION


"It is said that each person has a distinct mathematical value
expressed by one number. This is a compound or resultant of
numberless smaller values...When it is known extraordinary effects may
be produced not only in the mind of a person but also in his feelings,
and this number may be discovered by certain calculations more
recondite than those of our higher mathematicians. By its use the
person may be made angry without cause, and even insane or full of
happiness, just as the operator desires."
WQJ ARTICLE I 115


"In its abstract sense Theosophy is the white ray, from which arise
the 7 colors of the solar spectrum, each human being assimilating one
of the 7 rays to a greater degree than the other 6. It follows that 7
persons, each imbued with his special ray, can help each other
mutually. Having at their service the septenary bundle of rays, they
have the 7 forces of nature at their command. But it follows also
that to reach that end, the choosing of the 7 persons who are to form
a group, should be left to an expert,--to an initiate in the science
or occult rays."
HPB Articles Vol. I, p. 440-1



MUSIC AND ITS POWER


"principles of universal unchangeable harmony... "when a musical note
is struck, its vibrations will not, and cannot change into those of
another note." ISIS I 184


"Now, if the impulses communicated to the ether by the various planets
may be likened to the tones of produced by the different notes of
musical instruments, it is not difficult to conceive that the
Pythagorean "music of the spheres" is something more than mere fancy,
and that certain planetary aspects may imply disturbances in the ether
of our planet, and certain others rest and harmony. Certain kinds of
music throw us into a frenzy; some exalt the soul to religious
aspirations...there is scarcely a human creation which does not
respond to certain vibrations of the atmosphere. It is the same with
colors; some excite us, others soothe and please...If we and the
animals are affected by vibrations acting upon a very minute scale,
why may we not be influenced in the mass be vibrations acting on a
grad scale as the effect of combined stellar influences ?"
ISIS I 274-5


"Let a note be struck on an instrument, and the faintest sound
produces an eternal echo. A disturbance is created on the invisible
waves of the shoreless ocean of space, and the vibration is never
wholly lost. Its energy being once carried from the world of matter
into the immaterial world will live forever...the principle of
continuity...exists...for a floating atom...to the spirit, whose
attributes are consciousness, memory, mind, Love !" Isis I
p. 114
[ see also: ISIS I 274, 514; SD I 469, 508-9, 145; M L
60-65; ISIS I 274 top ]



"Go to your fortepiano and execute upon the lower register of keys the
seven notes of the lower octave--up and down. Begin pianissimo;
crescendo from the first key and having struck fortissimo on the last
lower note go back diminuendo getting out of your last note a hardly
perceptible sound --"morendo pianissimo" ...The first and last
notes will represent to you the first and last spheres in the cycle of
evolution--the highest! The one you strike once is our planet.
Remember you have to reverse the order on the fortepiano : begin with
the seventh note, not with the first...The one Life-principle when in
action runs in circuits even as known in physical science. It runs
round in [the] human body, where the head represents, and is the
Microcosmos (the physical world of matter) what the summit of the
cycle is to the Macrocosmos (the world of universal spiritual Force);
and so with the formation of worlds and the great descending and
ascending "circle of necessity." All is one Law. Man has seven
principles, the germs of which he brings with him at his birth. So
has a planet or a world. From first to last every sphere has its
world of effects, the passing through which will afford a place of
final rest to each of the human principles--the seventh principle
excepted..." Mahatma Letters, p. 73


"...the aggregate sound of nature is shown to be a single definite
tone, a keynote vibrating from and through eternity; having an
undeniable existence per se yet possessing an appreciable pitch but
for "the acutely fine ear" (fn.: This tone is held by the specialists
to be the middle F of the piano.)--so the definite harmony or
disharmony of man's external nature is seen by an observant to depend
wholly on the character of the keynote struck for the outer by inner
man. It is the spiritual Ego or Self that serves as the fundamental
base, determining the tone of the whole life of man--that most
capricious, uncertain and variable of all instruments, and which more
than any other needs constant tuning; it is its voice alone, which
like the sub-bass of an organ underlies the melody of his whole
life--whether its tones are sweet or harsh, harmonious or wild, legato
or pizzicato." HPB Articles, Vol. II, p. 297.
[ see VOICE OF THE SILENCE, fn p. 55-6 ]



VIBRATIONS, SOUND, COLOR AND CHELASHIP


"...the brain of a chela is attuned by training to the brain of the
Master. His vibrations synchronize with those of the Adept...So the
chela's brain is abnormal, looking at it from the standpoint of
ordinary life....the adept sees all the colors in every color and yet
does not confuse them together..." -- HPB WQJ Art I 336


"A human heart that has at its center a small spark--the spark expands
and the heart disappears--while a deep pulsation seems to pass through
me. At once identity is confused, I grasp at myself; and again the
heart reappears with the spark increased to a large fiery space. Once
more that deep movement; then sounds (7); they fade... "
A Hindu Chela's Diary, Theosophy Mag., Vol. 3, p. 360


"The light from the One Master, the unfading golden light of Spirit,
shoots its effulgent beams on the Disciple from the very first. Its
rays thread through the thick, dark clouds of matter.

Now here, now there, these rays illumine it, like sun-sparks light the
earth through the thick foliage of the jungle growth. But, O
Disciple, unless the flesh is passive, head cool, the Soul as firm and
pure as flaming diamond, the radiance will not reach the chamber; its
sunlight will not warm the heart, nor will the mystic sounds of the
akasic heights reach the ear, however eager, at the initial stage.

Fn. The mystic sounds, or the melody, heard by the ascetic at the
beginning of his cycle of meditation, called Anahad-shabda by the
Yogis." VOICE, p. 19 & fn.


"..."Mind" is manas, or rather its lower reflection, which whenever it
disconnects itself, for the time being, with kama, becomes the guide
of the highest mental faculties, and is the organ of the free-will in
physical man...." HPB Articles, Vol. II, p. 13


"Self-consciousness belongs alone to man and proceeds from the Self,
the higher Manas." HPB Articles, Vol. II, p. 9


"Vibrations limited to earth...cause is supersensuous
aura...correlations below sound and color..." S D I 514 fn


[ Listening: "The power of listening is one of the great powers of
the Mind; and, the power to speak, is a great power of the Heart. If
we can develop the power to listen, then, using the will guided by
compassion, we can guide our creative power of speech. HPB hints [SD
II 199fn] that speech was developed from the time when man developed
reason and "became one with the informing principles in [him]."
S D II 199fn


"We enter upon this great path of action in occultism mentally
disposed towards final victory. This mental attitude instantly throws
all the parts of our being into agitation, during which the tendencies
which are by nature antipathetic to each other separate and range
themselves upon opposite sides. This creates great distress...we have
evoked a force in nature and set up a current and vibration which will
go on no matter what we do...At this point of our progress we should
examine our motive and desire." Gita Notes, 35


"The condition of the soul when it lives for the life of sensation as
distinguished from that of knowledge, is vibratory or oscillating, as
distinguished from fixed...In sensation no permanent home can be
found, because change is the law of this vibratory existence. That
fact is the first one which must be learned by the disciple. It is
useless to pause (42) and weep for a scene in a kaleidoscope which has
passed." Light on the Path, p. 41-2


"...Whenever you are able to attune your consciousness to any of the
seven chords of 'Universal Consciousness,' those chords that run along
the sounding-board of Kosmos, vibrating from one Eternity to another;
when you have studied thoroughly "the music of the Spheres," then only
will you become quite free to share your knowledge with those with
whom it is safe to do so...Do not give out the great Truths that are
the inheritance of the future Races, to our present generation. Do
not attempt to unveil the secret of being and non-being to those
unable to see the hidden meaning of Apollo's Heptachord--the lyre of
the radiant god, in each of the seven strings of which dwelleth the
Spirit, Soul and Astral body of the Kosmos, whose shell only has now
fallen into the hands of Modern Science..." S D I 167


"The Doctrine of the Heart is the spiritual consciousness of the
Ego--not perceived by the brain consciousness until right thought, and
right action which sooner or later follow it, attune certain centers
in the brain in accord with the spiritual vibrations. It might be
well to read The Voice of the Silence over and meditate on its
sayings. You have much of the intellectual side; there should be as
much of the devotional; for what is desirable is the awakening of the
spiritual consciousness, the intuition --Buddhi --and this cannot be
done unless the thoughts are turned that way with power and purpose.
"You may, if you will, set apart a certain half-hour, just before
retiring and after arising--as soon as possible after--and before
eating. Concentrate the mind upon the Masters as ideals and (14)
facts--living, active, beneficent Beings, working in and on the plane
of causes.

Do not try to open up communication with beings on other planes. It
is not the time and danger lies that way, because the power of
creating one's own images, and because of the power and disposition of
the dark forces to simulate beings of Light, and render futile your
efforts to reach the goal." F P 13-14


"Before the voice can speak in the presence of the Masters it must
have lost the power to wound."..."Speech is the power of
communication; the moment of entrance into active life is marked by
its attainment." Light On The Path, p. 1, 62.


"Before the soul (divine, starry spirit) can stand in the presence of
the Masters its feet must be washed in the blood of the heart."..."The
sacrifice, or surrender of the heart of man, or the emotions, is the
first of the rules.." Light on the Path, p. 80 - 81.


"...to be able to speak is to have attained the power of helping
others."
Light on the Path, p. 22.


"...an adept may be compared to that one key which contains all the
keys in the great harmony of nature. He has the synthesis of all keys
in his thoughts, whereas the ordinary man has the same key as a basis,
but only acts and thinks on one or a few changes of this great key,
producing in his brain only a few chords out of the whole great
possible harmony...the brain of the chela is attuned by training to
the brain of the Master. His vibrations synchronize with those of the
Adept...so the chela's brain is abnormal...the adept sees all the
colors in every color and yet does not confuse them together...the
highest adepts [have raised their vibrations so as to have them the
same as those of nature as a whole]...He can produce a sound which
will alter a color. It is the sound which produces the color, and not
the other or opposite. By correlating the vibrations of a sound in
the proper way a new color is made...on the astral plane every sound
always produces a color...these are invisible because not yet
correlated by the human brain so as to become visible on the earth
plane....His astral senses may see the true color, but the physical
eye has its own vibrations, and these, being on the outer plane,
overcome the others for the time, and the astral man is compelled to
report to the brain that it saw correctly. For in each case the outer
stimulus is sent to the inner man, who then is forced, as it were, to
accept the message and to confirm it for the time so far as it goes.
But there are cases where the inner man is able to even then overcome
the outer defect and to make the brain see the difference...."
WQJ Articles, Vol. I, p. 423-426.


"...He must "see with the ears, hear with the eyes, understand the
language of the rainbow, and have concentrated his six senses in his
seventh sense." (Fn) Symbology of colors. The Language of the prism,
of which "the 7 mother colors have each 7 sons,"...49 shades or "sons"
between the 7, which graduated tints are so many letters or
alphabetical characters. The language of colors has, therefore, 56
letters for the Initiate. Of these letters each septenary is absorbed
by the mother color, as each of the 7 mother colors is absorbed
finally in the white ray, Divine Unity symbolized by these colors."
HPB Articles, Vol. I. p. 425.



DYNAMIC HARMONY


"...the aggregate sound of nature is shown to be a single definite
tone, a keynote vibrating from and through eternity; having an
undeniable existence per se yet possessing an appreciable pitch but
for "the acutely fine ear"--so the definite harmony or disharmony of
man's external nature is seen by the observant to depend wholly on the
character of the keynote struck for the outer by inner man. It is the
spiritual EGO or SELF that serves as the fundamental base, determining
the tone of the whole life of man--that most capricious, uncertain and
variable of all instruments, and which more than any other needs
constant tuning; it is its voice alone, which like the sub-bass of an
organ underlies the melody of his whole life--whether its tones are
sweet or harsh, harmonious or wild, legato or pizzicato." HPB
ART II 297


"...the Gita. All these are instinct with a life of their own which
changes the vibrations. Vibration is the key to it all. The
different states are only differences of vibration, and we do not
recognize the astral or other planes because we are out of tune with
their vibrations." WQJ LET. 39



SOUND AND VIBRATION


"...the world had been called forth out of Chaos by Sound and Harmony,
and constructed according to the principles of musical proportion;
that the 7 planets which rule the destiny of mortals have a harmonious
motion "and intervals corresponding to musical diastems, rendering
various sounds, so perfectly consonant, that they produce the sweetest
melody, which is inaudible to us, only by reason of the greatness of
the sound, which our ears are incapable of receiving." In the
Pythagorean Theogony the hierarchies of the heavenly Host and Gods
were numbered and expressed numerically." S.D., I, p. 433


"All the world is in the Swara [measure or beat]; Swara is the
Spirit itself"--the One Life or motion, say the old books of Hindu
Occult philosophy. "The proper translation of the word Swara is the
current of the life wave," says the author [Rama Prasad] of "Nature's
Finer Forces"..."It is that wavy motion which is the cause of the
evolution of cosmic undifferentiated matter into the differentiated
universe...From whence does this motion come? This motion is the
spirit itself. The word atma (universal soul)...comes from the root
AT or eternal motion;...[it] is connected with...the roots Ah, breath,
and As, being. All these roots have for their origin the sound
produced by the breath of animals (living beings)...The primeval
current of the life-wave is then the same which assumes in man the
form of inspiratory and expiratory motion of the lungs, and this is
the all-pervading source of the evolution and involution of the
universe..."

..."From the visible atom to the celestial body lost in space,
everything is subject to motion...kept at a definite distance one from
the other, in proportion to the motion which animates them, the
molecules present constant relations, which they lose only by the
addition and subtractions of a certain quantity of motion."

But Occultism says more than this. While making of motion on the
material plane and of the conservation of energy, two fundamental
laws, or rather two aspects of the same omnipresent law--Swara, it
denies point blank that these have anything to do with the free-will
of man which belongs to quite a different plane...The actual fact of
man's psychic (we say manasic or noetic) individuality is a sufficient
warrant against the assumption...Now by "psychic" individuality we
mean that self-determining power which enables man to override
circumstances..."
HPB ART II 11-12


SPEECH


"...the spoken word has a potency unknown to, unsuspected and
disbelieved in, by the modern "sages." Because sound and rhythm are
closely related to the 4 Elements of the Ancients; and because such
or another vibration in the air is sure to awaken corresponding
powers, union with which produces good or bad results..." SD I
307


"When our Soul (mind) creates or evokes a thought, the representative
sign of that thought is self-engraved upon the astral fluid, which is
the receptacle...and mirror of all the
manifestations of being.


The sign expresses the thing: the thing is the (hidden or occult)
virtue of the sign.


To pronounce a word is to evoke a thought...the magnetic potency of
the human speech is the commencement of every manifestation in the
Occult World. To utter a name...defines a Being [and] places it or
condemns it [ by the power of the Word...to the influence of one or
more Occult potencies.


The Word (speech) of every man is unconsciously to himself a blessing
or a curse; this is why our present ignorance of the properties or
attributes of the idea as well as about...matter is often fatal to
us." -- P. Christian SD I 93-4


"Words are things...Use with care those living messengers called
words."
WQJ Letters That Have Helped Me, p. 11



VOICE OF THE INNER SELF


"...Kwan-shai-Yin Bodhisattwa, the Voice-Deity, but in reality meaning
the voice of the ever-present latent divine consciousness in man; the
voice of his real Self, which can be fully evoked and heard only
through great moral purity...the merciful Bodhisattwa, the "Voice" or
the "Word" that is universally diffused, the "Sound" which is eternal.
It has the same meaning as the Vach of the Brahmans...Kwan-yin is the
Vach-ishvara or Voice-Deity of the Brahmans. Both proceed from the
same origin as the Logos of the neo-platonic Greeks; the "manifested
deity" and its "voice" being found in man's Self, his conscience;
Self being the unseen Father, and the "voice of Self" the Son; each
being the relative and the correlative of the other..."
HPB ART III 344



INDIAN AND CHINESE MUSIC

:
"But there are different ways of following it. Our musical system is
the greatest art, ... if...avoiding all artificiality is art. We do
not allow in any of our melodies any sounds that cannot be classified
amongst the living voices of nature; whereas the modern Chinese
tendencies are quite different. The Chinese system comprises eight
chief tones, which serve as a tuning-fork to all derivatives; which
are accordingly classified under the names of their generators. These
eight sounds are: the notes metal, stone, silk, bamboo, pumpkin,
earthenware, leather and wood...Of course, under these conditions they
cannot produce any melody; their music consists of an entangled
series of separate notes. Nature has no false and no artificial
notes; and man, the crown of creation, felt desirous of imitating her
sounds. In their multiplicity, all these sounds--according to the
opinion of some of your Western physicists--make only one tone, which
we can all hear, if we know how to listen, in the eternal rustle of
the foliage of big forests, in the murmur of water, in the roar of the
storming ocean, and even in the distant roll of a great city. This
tone is the middle F, the fundamental tone of nature. in our melodies
it serves as the starting point, which we embody in the key-note, and
around which are grouped all the other sounds. Having noticed that
every musical note has its typical representative in the animal
kingdom, our ancestors found out that the seven chief tones correspond
to the cries of the goat, the peacock, the ox, the parrot, the frog,
the tiger, and the elephant. So the octave was discovered and
founded."
Caves and Jungles of Hindoostan, H P B p. 284-5.



LANGUAGE DEVELOPED -- INTELLECT INCREASED


"IV. Round. Intellect has an enormous development in this Round.
The (hitherto) dumb races acquire our (present) human speech on this
globe, on which, from the Fourth Race, language is perfected and
knowledge increases. At this half-way point of the Fourth Round (as
of the Fourth Race, or Atlantean, race) humanity passes the axial
point of the minor Manvantara cycle...the world teeming with the
results of intellectual activity and spiritual decrease...."
[Language = use of sound] S D I 189 [see also S D
II 199-201 ]



ATOMS


"Atoms are called "Vibrations" in occultism; also "Sound"--
collectively...Atoms fill the immensity of Space, and by their own
continuous vibration are Motion which keeps the wheels of life
perpetually going." SD I 633




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