The Hermetic Occult principle of vibration originates in Egyptian philosophy, and underpins most magical systems.
Hermes is the Greeks version of Egyptian God Thoth also known as Tehuti.
The idea stems from the cosmological model whereby the manifest world was created by a divine utterance of sound; it is this sound that both brings forth and sustains creation. The Hermetic Gnostics viewed this vibratory motion as polar; the higher the vibration, the closer to the divine, and vice-versa. However, the world of man and the world of the divine were inextricably intertwined via these vibrations, so influencing the vibration of one influenced the other.
This is expressed in the "Hermetic Axiom," "As above, so below," first expressed in the Emerald Tablet, which may date as early as the first millennium BCE.
Early Egyptian practices were based on the notion that this creative principle could be tapped through the power of the voice; an idea echoed in many other magical cultures, including Norse rune-singing; Hebrew Kabbalah is modeled on a similar principle.
"Nothing rests; everything moves; everything vibrates."-The Kybalion.
The Teachings are to the effect that Spirit is at one end of the Pole of Vibration, the other Pole being certain extremely gross forms of Matter. Between these two poles are millions upon millions of different rates and modes of vibration.
Modern Science has proven that all which we call Matter and Energy are but "modes of vibratory motion," and some of the more advanced scientists are rapidly moving toward the positions of the Occultists who hold that the phenomena of the Mind is likewise as modes of vibration or motion.
In the first place, science teaches that all matter manifests, in some degree, the vibrations arising from temperature or heat. Be an object cold or hot-both being degrees of the same things-it manifests certain heat vibrations, and in that sense is in motion and vibration.
All particles of Matter are in circular movement, from corpuscle to suns. The planets revolve around suns. The molecules of which the particular kinds of Matter are composed are in a state of constant vibration and movement around each other and against each other. The molecules are composed of Atoms, which, likewise, are in a state of constant movement and vibration.
The atoms are composed of electrons, protons, ions etc., which also are in a state of rapid motion, revolving around each other, and which manifest a very rapid state and mode of vibration.
The Universal Ether, which is postulated by science without its nature being understood clearly, is held by the Hermeticists to be but a higher manifestation of that which is erroneously called matter-that is to say, Matter at a higher degree of vibration.
The Hermeticists teach that this Ethereal Substance is of extreme tenacity and elasticity, and pervades universal space, serving as a medium of transmission of waves of vibratory energy, such as heat, light, electricity, magnetism, etc. The Teachings are that The Ethereal Substance is a connecting link between the forms of vibratory energy known as "Matter" on the one hand, and "Energy or Force" on the other; and also that it manifests a degree of vibration, in rate and mode, entirely its own.
Saturday, March 19, 2011
Trance Musiq
'Pure' trance inducing music is simple to produce. All that is needed is at least three or four (or more) individually engaging rhythms. In much so-called generic trance music only two rhythms are used, and only occasionally three. The 'engaging' aspect of trance inducing rhythms is important. What may be 'engaging' to one person may be repulsive to someone else. Repeating rhythms can be perceived as 'boring' but it is precisely this 'boring' aspect which is the precursor to trance. If a rhythm is 'engaging' and not boring, then trance is certain to occur
One important characteristic of successful trance inducing music is what trance theory would call 'modulating the dissociated trance plane'. The music of shamans and many aboriginal tribes create effective music which modulates the dissociated trance plane by slightly varying the underlying trance generating loop.
The fundamental repetition is the trance generating loop (TGL) and the variations in each repetition results in the modulation of the dissociated trance plane. It is for this reason that the sounds of nature tend to produce trance.
When there is some 'subtlety' or artistry in the creation and modulation of the DTP, then the trance is compelling and there is an increase in the trance force.
Repetition produces trance. But it will be the type of repetition which is 'engaging' or which produces an involvement with the inner reality. Subtle loops tend to bring the attention to a finer focus. The resulting splitting or dissociation results in trance.
Deeper trances are more easily produced when, after some time of engaging rhythms, there are increasingly more subtle rhythm or melodic changes, or if rhythm loops become longer and longer. The point is that the rhythms or melodic sequences become more subtle and more engaging. Avoid sharp or unsettling rhythmic or melodic changes as these will most likely terminate the trance by destroying the trance generating loop resulting in the collapse of the dissociated trance plane. One of the reasons that 'trance music' works to produce trance is that there are long periods of the same loop or loops.
Most instances of trance music do not allow sufficient time for deeper trances to develop, as complexities are introduced too quickly. Remember, in shamanistic trances, drumming would go on for days. Subtle changes in the rhythm and melodic structures over time will produce deep trances because it is the 'subtlety' which is engaging. Commercial trance music should continue for a minimum of 20 minutes to induce deep trance.
One important characteristic of successful trance inducing music is what trance theory would call 'modulating the dissociated trance plane'. The music of shamans and many aboriginal tribes create effective music which modulates the dissociated trance plane by slightly varying the underlying trance generating loop.
The fundamental repetition is the trance generating loop (TGL) and the variations in each repetition results in the modulation of the dissociated trance plane. It is for this reason that the sounds of nature tend to produce trance.
When there is some 'subtlety' or artistry in the creation and modulation of the DTP, then the trance is compelling and there is an increase in the trance force.
Repetition produces trance. But it will be the type of repetition which is 'engaging' or which produces an involvement with the inner reality. Subtle loops tend to bring the attention to a finer focus. The resulting splitting or dissociation results in trance.
Deeper trances are more easily produced when, after some time of engaging rhythms, there are increasingly more subtle rhythm or melodic changes, or if rhythm loops become longer and longer. The point is that the rhythms or melodic sequences become more subtle and more engaging. Avoid sharp or unsettling rhythmic or melodic changes as these will most likely terminate the trance by destroying the trance generating loop resulting in the collapse of the dissociated trance plane. One of the reasons that 'trance music' works to produce trance is that there are long periods of the same loop or loops.
Most instances of trance music do not allow sufficient time for deeper trances to develop, as complexities are introduced too quickly. Remember, in shamanistic trances, drumming would go on for days. Subtle changes in the rhythm and melodic structures over time will produce deep trances because it is the 'subtlety' which is engaging. Commercial trance music should continue for a minimum of 20 minutes to induce deep trance.
Cymatics - Hans Jenny - Pythagoras
A number off videos can be viewed of this life creating phenomena here . . . Hans Jenny
The term Cymatics (pronounced sigh-matt-ix) was coined by Dr. Hans Jenny (1904 -1972). It is derived from the Greek word Kyma or ta kymatika meaning: matters pertaining to waves. By the term waves, Jenny was particularly wishing to point towards periodicity or cycles. Dr. Jenny was an Anthroposophist (a follower of the teachings of the Austrian philosopher, occultist, mystic and clairvoyant Rudolph Steiner 1864-1925).
This work revolves around the ability to demonstrate acoustic phenomenon, which work was begun in the late 18th century by Ernst Chladni (1756-1827) and then, in the late 19th century, developed further by Margaret Watts-Hughes (using the human voice and several diaphragms) and then taken a stage further by Jenny in the middle of the 20th century.
The famous Chladni Figures had previously visibly demonstrated the organizing power of sound and vibration. The method was to take a metal plate and to suspend it as freely as possible and then to excite it into activity via the use of a violin bow. Most typically, this was to clamp it at its center leaving the rest of the plate fairly free to vibrate. Placing some sand upon the surface and then bowing the plate aroused the sand particles into activity and into very beautifully organized regular geometric shapes. Bowing the plate at different points excited other harmonics, which further developed the resulting patterns into different, yet still ordered and repeatable, geometric or mandala-like patterns. Each single harmonic of the plate when sounded created the same pattern, which increased in complexity as one progressed along the harmonic series.
The harmonic series, or natural overtones, is likewise a law of nature that follows a strictly mathematical progression for the human voice, strings, and brass instruments. This series is predictable and ordered and finds its reflection within the Cymatics phenomenon.
For instance, the first overtone is known as the Octave, whilst the next overtone is a perfect Fifth and the following overtone is a Fourth. Each overtone produces an interval that gets progressively smaller as the process moves along until they are so close together that the human ear cannot detect the difference. Each succeeding Octave is also divided up in an arithmetic series. That is to say that the first Octave produces One interval (known as the Octave) and in the next Octave we find Two intervals, whilst in the next higher Octave we find Four intervals and the next Octave Eight intervals and so on.
The interval of an Octave is when the note upon which the whole series begins is reached again only vibrating at twice, four times, eight times - and so on - its original speed. Therefore, if we begin on the note C the next Octave is also called C but it is vibrating twice as fast as the original C. If the first tone is vibrating at 250 cycles per second (cps) then the Octave vibrates at 500 cps, the next Octave at 1,000 cps (4 times the original speed) and so on.
The introduction of this Law into Western music is attributed to the great Sage of Samos - Pythagoras (around 600 BC) - and an entire cosmology was further developed around these musical principles, and published in certain of his writings, by the 17th century English Rosicrucian apologist Robert Fludd (1574-1637).
Dr. Jenny took the idea of the Chladni plate but went on to excite it using precisely measured vibrations (cps - Hertz) and amplifications (volume) via a piezoelectric effect using a crystal oscillator and then to cover the plate with various substances and finally to document his results in both photographs and films.
He researched this phenomena for 14 years. The results are truly awe inspiring, breathtaking, most inspiring and enlightening. The films in particular are most stimulating. By filming the experiments, we are able to see instances of when forms arise out of chaotic substance and then return back again into what we might term the Virgin Space of Repotentialisation only to come forth again forming the same pattern (providing the tone remains the same).
Here we see cyclic phenomenon taking place, where all is in constant movement. Even the regularly formed geometric patterns are shown to be comprised of numerous particles constantly moving within those patterns - like an army of ants walking backwards and forwards along a straight line (demonstrating the Particle / Wave phenomenon).
(From the German edition, Cymatics, Vol. 11.)
The term Cymatics (pronounced sigh-matt-ix) was coined by Dr. Hans Jenny (1904 -1972). It is derived from the Greek word Kyma or ta kymatika meaning: matters pertaining to waves. By the term waves, Jenny was particularly wishing to point towards periodicity or cycles. Dr. Jenny was an Anthroposophist (a follower of the teachings of the Austrian philosopher, occultist, mystic and clairvoyant Rudolph Steiner 1864-1925).
This work revolves around the ability to demonstrate acoustic phenomenon, which work was begun in the late 18th century by Ernst Chladni (1756-1827) and then, in the late 19th century, developed further by Margaret Watts-Hughes (using the human voice and several diaphragms) and then taken a stage further by Jenny in the middle of the 20th century.
The famous Chladni Figures had previously visibly demonstrated the organizing power of sound and vibration. The method was to take a metal plate and to suspend it as freely as possible and then to excite it into activity via the use of a violin bow. Most typically, this was to clamp it at its center leaving the rest of the plate fairly free to vibrate. Placing some sand upon the surface and then bowing the plate aroused the sand particles into activity and into very beautifully organized regular geometric shapes. Bowing the plate at different points excited other harmonics, which further developed the resulting patterns into different, yet still ordered and repeatable, geometric or mandala-like patterns. Each single harmonic of the plate when sounded created the same pattern, which increased in complexity as one progressed along the harmonic series.
The harmonic series, or natural overtones, is likewise a law of nature that follows a strictly mathematical progression for the human voice, strings, and brass instruments. This series is predictable and ordered and finds its reflection within the Cymatics phenomenon.
For instance, the first overtone is known as the Octave, whilst the next overtone is a perfect Fifth and the following overtone is a Fourth. Each overtone produces an interval that gets progressively smaller as the process moves along until they are so close together that the human ear cannot detect the difference. Each succeeding Octave is also divided up in an arithmetic series. That is to say that the first Octave produces One interval (known as the Octave) and in the next Octave we find Two intervals, whilst in the next higher Octave we find Four intervals and the next Octave Eight intervals and so on.
The interval of an Octave is when the note upon which the whole series begins is reached again only vibrating at twice, four times, eight times - and so on - its original speed. Therefore, if we begin on the note C the next Octave is also called C but it is vibrating twice as fast as the original C. If the first tone is vibrating at 250 cycles per second (cps) then the Octave vibrates at 500 cps, the next Octave at 1,000 cps (4 times the original speed) and so on.
The introduction of this Law into Western music is attributed to the great Sage of Samos - Pythagoras (around 600 BC) - and an entire cosmology was further developed around these musical principles, and published in certain of his writings, by the 17th century English Rosicrucian apologist Robert Fludd (1574-1637).
Dr. Jenny took the idea of the Chladni plate but went on to excite it using precisely measured vibrations (cps - Hertz) and amplifications (volume) via a piezoelectric effect using a crystal oscillator and then to cover the plate with various substances and finally to document his results in both photographs and films.
He researched this phenomena for 14 years. The results are truly awe inspiring, breathtaking, most inspiring and enlightening. The films in particular are most stimulating. By filming the experiments, we are able to see instances of when forms arise out of chaotic substance and then return back again into what we might term the Virgin Space of Repotentialisation only to come forth again forming the same pattern (providing the tone remains the same).
Here we see cyclic phenomenon taking place, where all is in constant movement. Even the regularly formed geometric patterns are shown to be comprised of numerous particles constantly moving within those patterns - like an army of ants walking backwards and forwards along a straight line (demonstrating the Particle / Wave phenomenon).
(From the German edition, Cymatics, Vol. 11.)
Primordial Vibration & Amen
Primordial Vibration
From the onset of the Big Bang or something relevant came forth a Primordial Vibration. From this, all things were created within our Universe from the Physical to the Metaphysical to the Spiritual. It has been called the Word in the Judeo-Christian Bible, Hindu Scriptures call it Naad and Shruti, Persian scriptures Sraosha, Kalma in Muslim scriptures, ‘the Sonorous Light' in Buddhism, Naam or Shabd by the Sikhs, in Patanjali Yoga Darshan, the God/dess Ishwara is a Being expressed by this original vibration (Pranav) and Madam Helen Blavatsky and the Theosophists call it ‘the Voice of Silence'. It is interesting to note the similarities between the above word ‘Pranav' in this case denoting the personification of the Primordial Vibration and the word ‘prana' which is the life force within us.
OM
Though the most famous and enduring name we know it as is probably by OM.
From Blavatsky's article entitled ‘AUM' in the Theosophy literature ‘Path' [April 1886 issue p.6, Vol. I], the article mentions the first sound as Aum and describes it as a Divine Resonance, a power that manifests itself into being. This self manifesting power? can be traced back to Ancient Egypt (Kemet) as the Primeval God Amon creates Himself from the black waters of Nun.
From the onset of the Big Bang or something relevant came forth a Primordial Vibration. From this, all things were created within our Universe from the Physical to the Metaphysical to the Spiritual. It has been called the Word in the Judeo-Christian Bible, Hindu Scriptures call it Naad and Shruti, Persian scriptures Sraosha, Kalma in Muslim scriptures, ‘the Sonorous Light' in Buddhism, Naam or Shabd by the Sikhs, in Patanjali Yoga Darshan, the God/dess Ishwara is a Being expressed by this original vibration (Pranav) and Madam Helen Blavatsky and the Theosophists call it ‘the Voice of Silence'. It is interesting to note the similarities between the above word ‘Pranav' in this case denoting the personification of the Primordial Vibration and the word ‘prana' which is the life force within us.
OM
Though the most famous and enduring name we know it as is probably by OM.
From Blavatsky's article entitled ‘AUM' in the Theosophy literature ‘Path' [April 1886 issue p.6, Vol. I], the article mentions the first sound as Aum and describes it as a Divine Resonance, a power that manifests itself into being. This self manifesting power? can be traced back to Ancient Egypt (Kemet) as the Primeval God Amon creates Himself from the black waters of Nun.
My Fretless Friends
- from Wikipedia
A fretless guitar is a guitar without frets. It operates in the same manner as most other stringed instruments and traditional guitars, but does not have any frets to act as the lower end point (node) of the vibrating string.
Fretless guitars are fairly uncommon in most forms of western music and generally limited to the electrified instruments due to decreased acoustic volume and sustain in fretless instruments. However, the fretless bass guitar has gained fairly widespread popularity and many models of bass guitar can also be found in fretless varieties. Fretless Electric Bass is particularly popular among Jazz, Funk and R&B players due to the similarity in feel and sound to the acoustic double bass.
Advantages and disadvantages
Fretless guitars are not constrained with particular musical tunings, tuning systems or temperaments, as is the case with fretted instruments. This facilitates the playing of music in other than 12-tone scales; these scales are typically found in non-Western or experimental music.
Fretless guitars produce a different sound than their fretted counterparts as well, because the fingertip is relatively soft (compared to a fret) and absorbs energy from the vibrating string much faster. The result is that the pizzicato on a fretless guitar has a more damped sound. One can finger notes with their nail like an Indian sarod player does. This will sustain and brighten the sound. However, playing a fretless instrument usually requires much more training of the fretting hand for exact positioning and shifts, and more ear training to discern the minute differences in intonation that fretless instruments permit.
To make this easier, many fretless guitars and basses have lines in place of frets and side position markers (dots or lines), indicating half-tone increments. Acoustic fretless guitars produce less volume than their fretted counterparts, which is usually addressed by the use of pickups and amplification.
Fretless bass guitars, which have much heavier strings and a bigger body, are also typically amplified. On fretless basses the fingerboard is usually made of a hard wood, such as ebony. To reduce fingerboard wear from round-wound strings a coat of epoxy may be applied. Other strings, such as flat-wound, ground wound or nylon tape-wound strings, can also be used to reduce fingerboard wear.
Fretless guitars are typically modified versions of factory-made traditionally "fretted" guitars, the frets being removed by the player or a professional luthier. There are also professional builders specializing in custom-made fretless guitars. Fretless bass guitars are much more common than fretless guitars, and there are many manufacturers offering these as standard models.
Egyptian Symmetry
The importance of the Egyptian D scale
The Arabic name for this scale which can be traced back to Egypt is the Bayati scale, the Greeks used the name Dorian for the same scale as it was associated with one of the three tribes that the Greeks had broken into. Never the less it is of Egyptian origin as are most things.
Egyptian religion was and still is very much based on Cosmological symmetry and balance (Ma'at). It is no wonder why this scale was dominantly used given it is the only diatonic scale that is symmetrical.
The notes are d E F G A B C D
This turns out to be d-w-E-1/2-F-w-G-w-A-w-B-1/2-C-w-D
As you can see the formula is: whole step - half - whole - whole - whole - half - whole step
Perfect symmetry backwards and forwards from octave to octave
The Arabic name for this scale which can be traced back to Egypt is the Bayati scale, the Greeks used the name Dorian for the same scale as it was associated with one of the three tribes that the Greeks had broken into. Never the less it is of Egyptian origin as are most things.
Egyptian religion was and still is very much based on Cosmological symmetry and balance (Ma'at). It is no wonder why this scale was dominantly used given it is the only diatonic scale that is symmetrical.
The notes are d E F G A B C D
This turns out to be d-w-E-1/2-F-w-G-w-A-w-B-1/2-C-w-D
As you can see the formula is: whole step - half - whole - whole - whole - half - whole step
Perfect symmetry backwards and forwards from octave to octave
The Big Note
Beauty exists in music and the universe. Humans will never know what existed before the Big Bang, but we do know what exists after the explosion. In 1965 at Bell Laboratories in New Jersey, two radio astronomers, Arno Penzias and Robert Wilson, developed a well-calibrated-hypersensitive, 20-foot horn-shaped antenna. The antenna was designed to detect radio waves bounced off echo balloon satellites.
No matter where they pointed this antenna at the sky, they heard the same hum. This was not their expected result. Penzias and Wilson thought they had made a mistake. They even considered the possibility that it was due to "a white dielectric substance" (pigeon droppings) in their horn. Their puzzling findings were published in a famous paper, Excess Antenna Temperature at 4080 Mc/s. Penzias and Wilson were radio astronomers, with expertise in electronics rather than cosmology.
It soon came to their attention through Robert Dicke and Jim Peebles at Princeton that this unexpected noise, this background radiation, had been predicted years earlier by George Gamow as a relic of the evolution of the early Universe. Penzias and Wilson had, in fact, accidentally discovered the Cosmic Background Radiation, the fingerprint of the early Universe, the echo of the Big Bang. In 1978 Messrs Penzias and Wilson were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics for their discovery.
The Cosmic Background Radiation is a residual vibration from the explosion of the Big Bang, vibrating at a frequency of 4080 Mega Hertz (4,080,000,000 Hertz). All vibrations can be interpreted as sound. Octaves are defined as the lower frequency being half that of its higher frequency. For example, A 3 = 440 Hz and one octave above is A 4 at 880 Hz. Twenty-two octaves below The Big Note (4,080,000,000 Hertz), is calculated to be 972.75 Hz. This is slightly lower than B 4 at 987.77 Hz and somewhat higher than B Flat 4 at 932.33 Hz, in equal-tempered tuning. Therefore, the Universe is resonating at a tone a little flatter than B, as defined by standard tuning.
Physicists think that time began with the Big Bang. Today, just about every scientist believes in the Big Bang model. The evidence is overwhelming enough that in 1951, the Catholic Church officially pronounced the Big Bang model to be in accordance with the Bible. The Tibetan Gyuto Monks perform Buddhist ceremonies while chanting on one fundamental note. Their refined chanting technique enables each member of the choir to sing a three-note chord, exciting the harmonics of the fundamental drone note. A listening to their recording for Windham Hill Records reveals that the monks are droning on a note slightly flatter than B, exciting all the overtones above. Their valve-less brass horns are designed to play this note as the fundamental partial. The Gyuto Monks have been resonating the Big Note for the past 500 years at the Gyuto Monastery in Lhasa, Tibet, now living in exile in Dharamsala, India.
There is no explanation as to why the monks drone on that particular note. Penzias and Wilson's Nobel Prize winning discovery was an accident. The Big Note is an incredible combination of science, art and religion.
"Everything in the Universe is made of one element, which is a note, a single note. Atoms are really vibrations, you know, which are extensions of the BIG NOTE, everything's one note. Everything. The note is the ultimate power..."
- Spider Barbour from Frank Zappa's Lumpy Gravy, Part II © 1968
ROBERT FRIPP
I would like to speak of a musician that I have had the honor to study and live with during 1985 in West Virginia.
Robert Fripp is the founder, guitarist, composer and main inspiration behind the group King Crimson (1969 – present) as well as a much in demand ‘gun for hire' having worked for David Bowie, Peter Gabriel, David Sylvian, Brian Eno and Andy Summers to name but a few. Before I go into my discourse concerning the magical end of my Fripp relation I would like to detail the equally magical event in October of 1985.
Early in the summer of 1985, I was made aware (from a friend who worked for the same music company that I do now 25 years later) of a chance to study with Fripp, whom he knew I admired greatly. I was shown the magazine article, which I mulled over and eventually inquired about it. Soon I found myself to be one of twenty two guitarists from around the world chosen to Become the very first Guitar Craft Course. Robert Fripp, it seems, had taken a teaching position at the American Society for Continuous Education in Claymont Court, West Virginia, and this was his immediate task. I was 25 years old and had been working in the music business as a guitarist for about 6-7 years already. I welcomed the chance for what I would now consider as a "Rite of Passage".
In October of the same year, I arrived in West Virginia, at a cold and desolate train station late at night; it had been raining and thunder/ lightning were all around. I was picked up in a van and shuttled back to what turned out to be George Washington's Nephew's Estate (now a small village designed for the study of all things Extra Sensory). Most of us had arrived during the day and were already there. I entered into the behemoth mansion that would be my home for the next week, the lightning and thunder increased and I was sure that I had entered The Court of the Crimson King (King Crimson's first album, released in 1969).
To say that a little bit of LBM was taking place became an understatement as we stood in a huge, dark-lit room. Then at the top of the stairs with the help of a lightning bolt to illuminate the area, stood Mr. Fripp. This was way too cool and I knew this was going to be life-changing. After greetings and small talk, we were advised to group into threes and fours, and were given the "New Standard Tuning' that we would retune our guitars to. We were then informed that we had a gig this Wednesday at a local watering hole full of rednecks. Say what?
This was one of many devices used that week to break down our habits and force us to "Become Awake", as Gurdjieff would put it (a favorite study of Mr. Fripp by the way). We learned Alexander Technique, meditation, various Zen-like activities, as well as music instruction. The goal was to develop a personal relationship with the instrument and to Become a voice for the Muse to be heard through.
I cherish every moment and every memory I have of that week, and use to this day the various techniques that were taught. The late night discussions in the basement make-shift pub over a pint of home-brewed beer with Robert will enlighten me until my dying day, and I am proud to say that I have passed some of this enlightenment to a few of the musicians and other media artists whose paths have crossed mine.
Aside from the disciplined, mind numbing technical prowess this musician has worked towards, Fripp has always ventured into the Dark corners of the World's cultures, a dip into the Underworld if you will, and brought back with him new ways of expression on the guitar, he is without a doubt a true ‘hero' of the guitar in every sense of the Joseph Campbell Word.
Some of these new expressions were exotic scales and sounds from the Middle East and the Gamelan of Indonesia. These sounds on the guitar resonated heavily through me when I heard them and still do today. So intrigued with them as I have become, they have led me to take up playing fretless guitar and studying ancient music, particularly Egyptian and Middle Eastern. I have also, from reading much on these music's philosophies, discovered a universe of deep and metaphysical attributes associated with the creation of this music.
At times I have used sigilism, mantras and yantras during the composition process to engulf myself in the essence of what I am working on. This came to fruition with my three part composition for orchestra and fretless guitar, A'nen Khem Sedjet. This piece is based on Egyptian and Persian scales and is homage to Egyptian Goddess Aset/Isis. I am greatly looking forward to learning advanced magical techniques to create further evolved music with.
1985 W.Virginia - Student Master
Robert Fripp is the founder, guitarist, composer and main inspiration behind the group King Crimson (1969 – present) as well as a much in demand ‘gun for hire' having worked for David Bowie, Peter Gabriel, David Sylvian, Brian Eno and Andy Summers to name but a few. Before I go into my discourse concerning the magical end of my Fripp relation I would like to detail the equally magical event in October of 1985.
Early in the summer of 1985, I was made aware (from a friend who worked for the same music company that I do now 25 years later) of a chance to study with Fripp, whom he knew I admired greatly. I was shown the magazine article, which I mulled over and eventually inquired about it. Soon I found myself to be one of twenty two guitarists from around the world chosen to Become the very first Guitar Craft Course. Robert Fripp, it seems, had taken a teaching position at the American Society for Continuous Education in Claymont Court, West Virginia, and this was his immediate task. I was 25 years old and had been working in the music business as a guitarist for about 6-7 years already. I welcomed the chance for what I would now consider as a "Rite of Passage".
To say that a little bit of LBM was taking place became an understatement as we stood in a huge, dark-lit room. Then at the top of the stairs with the help of a lightning bolt to illuminate the area, stood Mr. Fripp. This was way too cool and I knew this was going to be life-changing. After greetings and small talk, we were advised to group into threes and fours, and were given the "New Standard Tuning' that we would retune our guitars to. We were then informed that we had a gig this Wednesday at a local watering hole full of rednecks. Say what?
This was one of many devices used that week to break down our habits and force us to "Become Awake", as Gurdjieff would put it (a favorite study of Mr. Fripp by the way). We learned Alexander Technique, meditation, various Zen-like activities, as well as music instruction. The goal was to develop a personal relationship with the instrument and to Become a voice for the Muse to be heard through.
I cherish every moment and every memory I have of that week, and use to this day the various techniques that were taught. The late night discussions in the basement make-shift pub over a pint of home-brewed beer with Robert will enlighten me until my dying day, and I am proud to say that I have passed some of this enlightenment to a few of the musicians and other media artists whose paths have crossed mine.
Aside from the disciplined, mind numbing technical prowess this musician has worked towards, Fripp has always ventured into the Dark corners of the World's cultures, a dip into the Underworld if you will, and brought back with him new ways of expression on the guitar, he is without a doubt a true ‘hero' of the guitar in every sense of the Joseph Campbell Word.
Some of these new expressions were exotic scales and sounds from the Middle East and the Gamelan of Indonesia. These sounds on the guitar resonated heavily through me when I heard them and still do today. So intrigued with them as I have become, they have led me to take up playing fretless guitar and studying ancient music, particularly Egyptian and Middle Eastern. I have also, from reading much on these music's philosophies, discovered a universe of deep and metaphysical attributes associated with the creation of this music.
At times I have used sigilism, mantras and yantras during the composition process to engulf myself in the essence of what I am working on. This came to fruition with my three part composition for orchestra and fretless guitar, A'nen Khem Sedjet. This piece is based on Egyptian and Persian scales and is homage to Egyptian Goddess Aset/Isis. I am greatly looking forward to learning advanced magical techniques to create further evolved music with.
1985 W.Virginia - Student Master
Musiq and Ritual
The scent of incense swirls around the darkened room. Two figures, their faces illuminated by a few flickering candles, stand in the darkness; they are discussing death. A hooded figure explains to a young woman that death is a transformation and release to those to whom it comes in its own time.
Remembering the pain and suffering her grandmother felt in her last days, the woman understands. As she turns to thank the hooded figure and ask him his name, she discovers that he has disappeared. Almost inaudibly the phrase "We will meet again, when the time is right, and you won't be afraid" quietly echoes through the darkness. She stands alone in the chill of autumn, contemplating this.
The silence in the room is broken by two voices, softly singing a haunting tune beckoning "Take me back, oh hills I love." Soon they are joined by more voices, and harmonies fill the room with music and words that welcome the embrace of the earth, oaks and stars and speak of death as a release and return to that which is comforting and sacred. As the melody floats through the air, the voices and energy building, no one in the room is unaffected. As the last note of the song fades away, the room is silent. Some are in deep thought; others have tears in their eyes, even the children who normally squirm and make noise are still.
The mystery play described above, part of Gaia's Grove's Samhain ritual, was complimented and made more powerful by music. Moments like that happen rarely in large public rituals. In my experience, when they do, they are more likely to occur when there is music.
Vitally important emanations of Tone are believed to inundate the Earth at certain times of the year. These are the two solstices (winter and summer) and the two equinoxes (spring and fall), vast radiations of sacred energy is released at the spiritual level. Music acts as the medium which aids these forces in manifesting into our physical world.
Incorporating recorded music into ritual will put participants in a different state of mind, separate from the mundane world and open to the energies of the elements, deities and magick.
Adding live singing to rituals raises energy. Music becomes the inspiration and focus of the ritual, rather than an addition to it.
Regardless of which magickal path you follow, each spell, each prayer, each evocation is an act of will. Finding music that moves you can help focus that will,
Music and Ritual - Music as Ritual: by Prof. Dr. Lorenz Welker - Ludwig Maximilians Universities
Music is strongly linked to ritual, not only in Western civilization but all over the world and from its first appearance onwards. Music as an essential part of religious rites, is to be found in rites of transition and has its obvious and central place in medical and paramedical rituals such as shamanic healing processes and in the treatment of obsession.
On the other hand, references to music can be found in numerous studies on rituals from ethnological, sociological and cultural points of view, from the seminal works by Victor Turner (The Ritual Process, 1969) and Mary Douglas (Natural Symbols, 1970) to more recent studies such as Hans-Georg Soeffner's Die Ordnung der Rituale, Frankfurt 1992, and the articles collected by Andrea Belliger and David J. Krieger, Ritualtheorien, Wiesbaden 1998. Artur Simon's magisterial contribution on African rituals of obsession Musik in afrikanischen Besessenheitsriten in: Artur Simon, Musik in Afrika, Berlin 1983.
The particular importance of music in ritual might be due to the fact, that music itself is a ritualized means of communication, especially in contrast to ordinary speech and spontaneous vocal utterances.
Dance of the Arktoi
The Goddess Artemis had worshipers from all over the ancient Greek world. One of the most famous worshiping sites for Artemis was in Attica at Brauron. Artemis is said to have presided over all the biological transitions of females from before puberty to the first childbirth. “Young girls began to prepare for the event of the first childbirth at an early age. Even before menarche young girls danced for Artemis, in some places playing the role of animals. At the Attica site, or Brauron, in the rite called arkteia, girls representing the polis of Athens imitated she-bears, arktoi." “The initiation ritual for girls was called the Brauronia, after the location of Artemis' shrine at Brauron, in Attica, where the ritual, performed by girls before they reached puberty, took place.”
I composed this piece of Musiq for two specific 'friends' of mine that spend much of their time at the aid of the Animal Kingdom and specifically with the wolves.
Included in the recording are nature sounds and of course wolf howls. The idea was to atone the mind's ear to the natural ordering of the universe. The composition unfolds calmly yet firmly, just as do the Fibonacci Sequence, Golden Mean, and Phi. As one of my 'friends' commented, it is a very elegant composition, thank you.
Occult Notes on Frequencies
The Six Sacred Solfeggio
Corresponding scale: G Ab C E F# A
UT – 396 Hz
RE – 417 Hz
MI – 528 Hz
FA – 639 Hz
SOL – 741 Hz
LA – 852 Hz
Binaural Beat Theory
40 Hz Gamma waves Higher mental activity, including perception, problem solving, fear, and consciousness
13–40 Hz Beta waves Active, busy or anxious thinking and active concentration, arousal, cognition
7–13 Hz Alpha waves Relaxation (while awake), pre-sleep and pre-wake drowsiness
4–7 Hz Theta waves Dreams, deep meditation, REM sleep
4 Hz Delta waves Deep dreamless sleep, loss of body awareness
The 18 Sacred Solfeggio’s frequencies
Hz Note Equivalent
147 - D3 146.83
174 - F3 174.61
258 - C4 261.63
285 - C#4 277.18
369 - F#4 369.99
396 - G4 392.00
417 - Ab4 415.30
471 - Bb4 466.16
528 - C5 523.25
582 - D5 587.33
639 - E5 659.26
693 - F5 698.46
714 ?
741 - F#5 739.99
825 - Ab5 830.61
852 - A5 880.00
936 - Bb5 932.33
963 - B5 987.77
*Notice that the lower the frequency (Qliphothic frequencies?) the closer to entropy one becomes.
*Illness is associated with a lack of movement,or an imbalance in the body's vibrations.
57-60 mhz Colds & Flu begin
58mhz Disease starts
55mhz Candida overgrowth begins
42mhz Receptive to Cancer
25mhz Entropy begins
Corresponding scale: G Ab C E F# A
UT – 396 Hz
RE – 417 Hz
MI – 528 Hz
FA – 639 Hz
SOL – 741 Hz
LA – 852 Hz
Binaural Beat Theory
40 Hz Gamma waves Higher mental activity, including perception, problem solving, fear, and consciousness
13–40 Hz Beta waves Active, busy or anxious thinking and active concentration, arousal, cognition
7–13 Hz Alpha waves Relaxation (while awake), pre-sleep and pre-wake drowsiness
4–7 Hz Theta waves Dreams, deep meditation, REM sleep
4 Hz Delta waves Deep dreamless sleep, loss of body awareness
The 18 Sacred Solfeggio’s frequencies
Hz Note Equivalent
147 - D3 146.83
174 - F3 174.61
258 - C4 261.63
285 - C#4 277.18
369 - F#4 369.99
396 - G4 392.00
417 - Ab4 415.30
471 - Bb4 466.16
528 - C5 523.25
582 - D5 587.33
639 - E5 659.26
693 - F5 698.46
714 ?
741 - F#5 739.99
825 - Ab5 830.61
852 - A5 880.00
936 - Bb5 932.33
963 - B5 987.77
*Notice that the lower the frequency (Qliphothic frequencies?) the closer to entropy one becomes.
*Illness is associated with a lack of movement,or an imbalance in the body's vibrations.
57-60 mhz Colds & Flu begin
58mhz Disease starts
55mhz Candida overgrowth begins
42mhz Receptive to Cancer
25mhz Entropy begins
Jung - Music of the Spheres and the Devil's Note
The journey, like the crossing of the great halls in the Egyptian underworld, therefore signifies the overcoming of a psychic obstacle, or of an autonomous complex, suitably represented by a planetary god or demon. Anyone who has passed through all the spheres if free from compulsion: he has won the crown of victory and become like a god.” The journey is an initiation, or a series of initiations, taking place in the imaginal world. The music that is heard there is none other than the knowledge gained in these initiations by those who have attained the requisite stage of psychic growth.
The Tritone (Devil's Note) :Diabolus en Musica
Three whole tones (the Tritone) is six semi-tones, and six is another number that has become associated with the mysterious figure of the Devil through the number 666, which is actually the divine number of the Sun and the occult number of the Hexagram, which is a magickal symbol of the Sun.
The Tritone is made up of three whole tones, thus it was originally associated by the Church with the Holy Trinity and when this did not work it was linked to the Devil, who was also connected with the number three by the Church (let us not forget the Unholy Trinity and the number of the Devil, which is made of three sixes.
Qabalistically speaking, the Devil is linked to the third Sephira on the Tree of Life of the Qabalah called Binah (Understanding) through its connection to the gods Pan, Set and Saturn (Satan), who are forms of the Devil.
Binah is the Sephira of Saturn on the Tree of Life in the Qabalah, and the Tritone itself became associated with the planet Saturn in medieval times, since Saturn was thought to be the planet of the Devil.
The Tritone adds a spiritual tension and mysterious quality of sound which cannot be had otherwise. Like the Devil, who represents one half of the nature of man, the ambiguous Tritone is one half of the Octave, it pivots and divides the Scale into two equal parts, and it is the same as its inverse.
- David Cherubim
Revisiting Claymont Court with the Crimson King
This tuning was completely foreign to every one of us. Suddenly, not one of us knew how to play the guitar. We had limited mobility since our fingers could still move but we didn’t know where to move them to! This required a new thought, a new approach, it leveled all of us off to the same expertise (that of non-expertise).
After a few nights of fumbling around with this new tuning, it began to reveal itself to us, it was not designed to play any music that we had heard, it was designed to become a new voice, and it was designed to become a collective voice, of which it has Become.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)