Musica universalis

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"Music of the spheres" redirects here; for other senses, see music of the spheres (disambiguation).

Musica universalis (or music of the spheres) is an ancient philosophical concept that regards proportions in the movements of celestial bodies — the Sun, Moon, and planets — as a form of musica (the Medieval Latin name for music). This 'music' is not literally audible, but simply a harmonic and/or mathematical concept. The Greek philosopher Pythagoras is frequently credited with originating the concept, which stemmed from his semi-mystical, semi-mathematical philosophy and its associated system of numerology of Pythagoreanism. Some Surat Shabda Yoga Satgurus considered the music of the spheres to be a term synonymous with the Shabda (also known as the Audible Life Stream) in that tradition, because they considered Pythagoras to be a Satguru as well.

At the time, the Sun, Moon, and planets were thought to revolve around Earth in their proper spheres. The most thorough and imaginative description of the concept can be found in Dante's Divine Comedy. The spheres were thought to be related by the whole-number ratios of pure musical intervals, creating musical harmony. Johannes Kepler used the concept of the music of the spheres in his Harmonice Mundi in 1619, relating astrology (especially the astrological aspects) and harmonics.

According to Max Heindel's Rosicrucian writings, the heavenly "music of the spheres" is heard in the Region of Concrete Thought, the lower region of the World of Thought, which is an ocean of harmony. It is also referred in Esoteric Christianity that this is the place where it occurs the state of consciousness called the "Second heaven."

There are three branches of the Medieval concept of musica:

musica universalis (sometimes referred to as musica mundana)
musica humana (the internal music of the human body)
musica instrumentalis (sounds made by singers and instrumentalists)

In 2006, an experiment conducted by Greg Fox divided the orbital periods of the planets in half again and again until they were literally audible. The resultant piece was "Carmen of the Spheres" (see external link). The principle of octaves in music states that whenever a sound-wave is doubled or halved in frequency, it yields another pitch similar in 'flavor' to the original one. This can be applied (through very large octave shifts) to any periodic cycle, including the orbits of celestial bodies.