Playing In Tune…

By happenstance, most of my friends on Facebook happen to be musicians, not astrologers, but here’s something musical that connects. First, rhythm and harmony. Did you know that if you take two beats, like one at 60 beats-per-minute (bpm) and another at 80 bpm, basically a 3 against 4 syncopation, and double it (like you would octaves) until it rises into the tonal range, you get a perfect fifth? Other common beat combinations create harmonies as well. And if you raise the frequency/wavelength all the way up until the single octave of visible light, something similar happens. Proportions that sound good lower down look good higher up. If you do the opposite, and start halving frequencies to way down below bpm all the way to beats per day, month, or year, or century, you get the frequencies of the earth’s rotation and planetary revolutions, all of which tug on us en masse in exactly the same set of proportions. It’s like the rhythm of the planets’ push and pull are the deep, bass and rhythm track of our entire existence, echoed in ever higher sets as we reach sound and finally light. Although we seem to perceive and experience each set separately, they are all integrally part of the same stack, like nested matryoshka dolls.

Further, in each separately-perceived set, we assign the same qualities to that particular spectrum. Slow rhythms and deep tones feel more worrisome and ominous, fast and high seem more playful and less threatening. The same goes for colors, with the lower-frequency red end more hostile and threatening, the higher blue and violet happier and lighter in tone. And way down below, as any astrologer can tell you, it’s the slow, long-period outer planets that are the darker movers of difficulties (like Saturn on out), and the faster ones more positive, uplifting, and accessible (from Jupiter inward).

If there is any “physical basis” to astrology, it is the gravitational entrainment of Earth itself and our environmental rhythms that we then experience as individuals – not a direct link from above to any one of us, but from below and around, up through our feet and in from all around us, keeping us in tune (if we let it) or fighting it (if we insist on not listening).

And that’s where we could apply what we learn from music and art. In music, we deliberately attempt to let the music entrain us, to carry us along, to sing in tune with the song and let it uplift us. We are consciously aware of doing this, and it is what makes music and art intentionally unifying. Here, we knowingly seek to be entrained, to get in tune with the tune so we enjoy it. If we paid a bit more attention to those lower, deep bass rhythms that describe the larger picture (and us inside it), we might be better off, better in tune. That’s particularly important, because unlike music, it’s not a real choice for us. If you don’t like the rhythms of the planets (and Earth), you can’t change stations, switch your playlist, and try another song. We’re stuck with the cosmic music that’s currently on tap, and if we want a better experience in life, there is no real choice but to go with the flow. That’s what real astrology (not the newspaper Sun-sign variety) is all about, so it’s worth a second look for everyone…When you know the dance, you can join it, even lead it. If you fight the beat, you’re a lot more likely to get beaten back, without ever knowing why. So look up, listen in, and join the band…

For more details on this, see both Windowpanes and Many Rainbows…