Sound and Vision
Sound and Vision
By
Roland Matthews (2019)
I borrowed the title of this article from David Bowie’s album of the same name, partly to be clever / humorous, partly as an homage to Bowie because the guy was a genius, but mostly because it was appropriate to my topic. The topic is about the correlations between colors and musical notes as they are used in the Western hermetic tradition.
The Golden Dawn has colors associated with each of the sephirah, or spheres, of the Tree of Life. And there is a separate Tree in each of the four levels, or worlds, each having a different color system, which are even referred to as scales. The uppermost level, Atziluth, (attributed to Fire and the letter Yod of the tetragrammaton or four-lettered holy name) uses the ‘King’ scale, the next level, Briah, (attributed to Water and the letter Heh) uses the ‘Queen’ scale, the following level, Yetzirah, (attributed to Air and Vav) uses the ‘Prince’ scale, and the lowest level, Assiah, (attributed to Earth and Heh final) uses the ‘Princess’ scale. Since each of the sephirah has a corresponding planet, they, and the zodiac signs they rule, are given colors which are reflected in the paths on the Tree of Life, as well as in Tarot decks, and the tools implemented by magicians who choose to follow the prescriptions of that particular order.
The most common diagram of the Tree of Life (Etz Chaim) uses the Queen scale for the sephiroth and the King scale for the paths between because the sephiroth are said to be receptive containers, while the paths are outward flowing, representing yet another level of balance between polarities. For the sake of simplicity, we will use these colors and leave all the other scales for you to explore. Kether is white, Chokmah is grey, Binah is black, Chesed is blue, Geburah is red, Tiphareth is yellow, Netzach is green, Hod is orange, Yesod is purple, and Malkuth is made of four colors: citrine, russet, olive, and black. The paths between are associated with the elements, planets, and zodiac signs. Air is yellow, Water is blue, and Fire is red. Saturn is blue-violet (indigo), Jupiter is violet, Mars is red, Sun is orange, Venus is green, Mercury is yellow, and Moon is blue. Aries is red, Taurus is red-orange, Gemini is orange, Cancer is orange-yellow, Leo is yellow, Virgo is yellow-green, Libra is green, Scorpio is green-blue, Sagittarius is blue, Capricorn is blue-violet, Aquarius is violet, and Pisces is violet-red (crimson). How can different things have the same color? There is definitely a level of connectedness between Geburah, Mars, Fire, and Aries. But what about the music notes?
We have in the chromatic scale a convenient correlation between the twelve signs of the zodiac and musical notes. Aries is C, Taurus C#, Gemini D, Cancer Eb, Leo E, Virgo F, Libra F#, Scorpio G, Sagittarius G#, Capricorn A, Aquarius Bb, and Pisces is B. Through this we can extrapolate a similarity with the other items. For example, Geburah, Mars, and Fire may have a relationship with C, but perhaps at different octaves. But what do Sun, Hod, and Gemini have in common? What about Air, Mercury, Tiphareth, and Leo? Or Water, Moon, Chesed, and Sagittarius? Or Jupiter, Yesod, and Aquarius? The answer to these may not be obvious, however certain insights can be gained by examining our own subjective responses.
In addition, each of these has their color and tonal opposite. In esoteric color studies the opposite is the ‘flashing’ color. For example, green is the flashing color for red, orange is the flashing for blue, and violet is the flashing for yellow. As you can see, the colors of each zodiac sign mentioned previously also has its flashing color in its corresponding opposite sign. This is akin to visual dissonance, just as when C and F# are played together. Is it possible that the geometric aspects that are used in Astrology could be linked to harmonics? I believe so. For example, using our 12 note chromatic scale wheel, a whole note is similar to a sextile (60°), a half step is like the semisextile (30°), and the tritone is like an opposition (180°). In musical chords, such as a major triad, we have a major, a minor, and a perfect fifth, which in aspect form corresponds to a trine (120°), a square (90°), and a quincunx (150°) respectively. The augmented triad is like a grand trine with each note 120° from each other. The diminished triad is like a T-square with two squares and an opposition.
Planets repeating orbits in cycles create frequencies and therefore harmonics. Color / light is the vibration of photons at high frequencies. Sound is air vibrating at certain frequencies. When certain things vibrate at similar frequencies, they harmonize together in what is known as resonance. Resonant frequencies with the stars and planets can affect our bodies, emotions, mental state, and in addition, our health. I propose that exposing ourselves to certain harmonic colors and frequencies may be a way to adjust ourselves into a resonant state with our birth chart and therefore obtain optimum health. It would be interesting to see what kind of chord is created when the notes of one’s Sun, Moon, and Ascendant are calculated. And taking a cue from the planetary hexagram used by the Golden Dawn, what chords are struck when we compare the upward pointing triad positions of Mercury, Venus, and Saturn, or those of the downward pointing Mars, Jupiter, and the Moon?
