From: pisces@cs.mcgill.ca (L. M. P. McPherson)
Subject: Music, Sacred Geometry, and Astrology
Originator: pisces@binkley.cs.mcgill.ca
Organization: McGill University
Date: Tue, 7 Apr 1992 10:13:59 GMT




Gerald Jay Markoe gave an excellent talk at the United Astrology
Congress in 1989 about the relationship between astrology and
music. I listened to a tape of his talk (you can order one from
Mercury House, c/o Arlene Nimark, 1242 E. 8th Street, Brooklyn,
NY 11230; tape number 1210, "Astrology and Music", $8 U.S. plus
$1.20 for postage and handling). I will try to summarise for you
his findings. Unfortunately, I have no knowledge whatsoever in
the domain of music theory, so many of the terms I will use have
no meaning for me, but they will have meaning for many of you. I
hope my use of such terms is not confusing.

This summary is based on my understanding of what he said, and I
hope my embellishments are not inappropriate.

The correspondence between astrology and music, he argues, has
its source in sacred geometry. For those of you who have studied
the ideas of Pythagoras or the Chaldeans, his approach should
strike a chord with you. For the uninitiated, all things with a
symmetry corresponding to the same number are in sympathy. So a
flower with five petals, an apple with five-fold symmetry at its
core, and the human hand are reflections of the same essence.

The approach to aspects known as "harmonics" recognises that each
aspect is the result of some integer division of the circle into
fractions (e.g., 2/3 -- the sinister trine).

In music, say music played on a string instrument, notes
correspond to standing waves along a string. Different notes are
associated with different fractions of the string (e.g.,
different lengths of string in a piano). Pluck a string, and you
hear a fundamental note (as well as all its harmonics, but these
change the timbre, not the pitch). Place your finger half way
along the string, pluck one half of the string, and the note you
hear is the first octave of the fundamental note (because it has
twice the frequency). The relation between any two notes played
on a string instrument can be described in terms of one string
(and by this I mean the effective string -- the part below any
finger pressed against the string) being a fraction of the length
of the other string (even if the fraction is 678/4392).

(For wind instruments, the whole air column is equivalent to
the whole string on a string instrument.)

So the key to the correspondence between astrology and music is
obvious. Here are the inevitable consequences of this insight.

The number one (associated with the Sun in Chaldean numerology)
is "the source"; it is like white light, which contains all
colours of light. In astrology, oneness manifests itself as the
conjunction. (He has found that people such as Einstein who
accomplished great deeds -- but not evil deeds -- have charts
dominated by lower harmonic aspects; they are "closer to the
source.") The one contains all notes. It is the fundamental note
against which all other notes will be compared. In this discussion,
the fundamental will always be the note "doe" (in the series doe,
ray, me, fa, so, la, tee -- the notes of the musical scale).

Two (associated with the Moon, but he does not deal with
planetary correspondences in this talk) -- the number that
divides the feminine, negative, dark, or occult from the
masculine, positive, light, or revealed -- is the opposition in
astrology. In music, it is the octave, that is, the division of
the string into two (or two cycles of a wave along the string).
He notes that women's voices are, on average, one octave higher
than men's voices.

Three (Jupiter), the number of primary colours, is the trine in
astrology. In music, the division of the string into three
produces an interval called a fifth. (I expect that 2/3 will differ
from 1/3, but he didn't mention any difference.)

The number four (Uranus), the number of angles and elements, is
the square. For divisions of a string, 1/4 corresponds to the 2nd
octave of the fundamental note, 2/4 is the first octave (as we
have seen), and 3/4 is a perfect fourth.

The number five, so sacred to Pythagoreans, the number of
Mercury, corresponds in astrology to the quintile (and the other
aspects in the 5 series). 4/5 is the note we call "me" (in the
sequence doe, ray, me, fa, so, la, tee; I think "doe" is "C"
here). 3/5 is the note "la", 2/5 is "me" in the 2nd octave
(which he claims is a particularly pretty note, suggesting that
the biquintile aspect might be worth a second look), and 1/5 is
the third octave of the note "me". 

Six, the number of Venus, is the sextile. 5/6 is "me" flat, or a
minor third. 4/6 (2/3) is "so" or a minor triad. 3/6 (1/2) is
"doe" (one octave up), 2/6 (1/3) is "so" in the second octave, and
1/6 is "so" in the 3rd octave. When these notes are played in
rapid sequence, they do have a lovely, Venusian sound.

Neptune's number, seven, the number of colours, chakras, classical 
planets, and notes in the scale, is the septile series in astrology. In
music, 6/7 corresponds to E flat, or a minor third. 5/7 is "fa"
(F) sharp. 4/7 is "tee" (B) flat. 3/7 is E flat in the first
octave up from the fundamental. 2/7 is B flat in the second
octave, and 1/7 is B flat in the third octave.

This is as far as he went. It should be possible, following 
these examples, to generate the correspondences for higher
harmonics (the octile, the nonile, the decile, and so on).

Mr. Markoe "plays" astrological charts. He claims that all the
people he has tested were able to pick out their chart-music from
among three pieces of music. He begins the piece at the ascendant
and "plays", I think, each aspect that occurs as one moves around
the circle through the houses. I think he has a means of
translating the elements into some property of the music, but he
did not deal with this topic explicitly. 


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*      * Maggie McPherson               And what if I gave you the key
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*      * pisces@cs.mcgill.ca  *   *     lit the corridors of desire? Were it
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