The Music of the Spheres

I first became aware of Astrology as something that could potentially affect human character and destiny when I was just 7 years old. My father, an eccentric Aquarian who was so far ahead of his time that he found no peace in the present moment, was forever bemoaning his fate. “I was born under a bad star” he would say on an all too frequent basis, “I was born under a bad star”. In my own young mind, and quietly too, so as not to interrupt his drama, I instantly wondered “if there are bad stars, are there good stars too?” 

Although this early encounter had aroused my curiosity, and no doubt sat somewhere in my unconscious mind waiting to be fully considered, it was not until many years later that I would come to study the subject in earnest. I then discovered, it must be said, that my father was absolutely right. There are “bad” stars, and there are “good” stars too. 

In astrological terms they are categorised as “Malefics” and “Benefics”. Malefic planets bring challenges and obstacles, like Mars and Saturn, whilst benefic planets such as Venus and Jupiter are associated with good fortune. “You can thank your lucky stars” is a phrase we are all familiar with. And indeed it appears our fortunes are blessed or otherwise and can be described by the positions of the planets at birth and their individual placement on the Zodiac wheel of fortune. 

The Zodiac and the pattern produced by joining the astrological triplicities and quadruplicities

However, before we go any further, we have to ask ourselves a very important question, and that is, are our births entirely random? Do we just get lucky or unlucky in life due to an entirely arbitrary birth time? Do we inherit our destiny entirely by chance? 

The answer, quite simply, is a resounding ‘no’. You were not born at some random moment as if by the chance roll of a dice. In the words of Albert Einstein, “I cannot believe God plays dice with the universe!” Rest assured, your birth was determined and destined from the start. If you believe otherwise you cannot understand the purpose of your life until you realise two very important factors, Karma and Reincarnation. 

Now, it is very important to understand this, it is not the planets that determine our fate. It is ourselves, it is our karma that determines our fate. The planets merely describe the fate and the subsequent path we have chosen for ourselves in this life. They do not control our fate. We do. The birth chart, the position of the planets at our birth describes in full detail our current incarnation and the path we have chosen to follow. We choose our moment of birth to inherit these planetary energies and the birth chart will show this in full detail.

Winston Churchill’s Birth Chart

Albert Einstein’s Birth Chart

Marylin Monroe’s Birth Chart

Martin Luther King Jr.’s Birth Chart

According to the theory of Karma and Reincarnation, which so far as I am concerned it is not a theory but an absolute reality, we are reincarnated according to our karma, to continue our lessons here on Earth, in other words, to reap what we have sown in previous lives. According to Buddhism, we cannot escape the wheel of Death and Rebirth until we have perfected and purified our souls and detached ourselves from all worldly desires. (Easier said than done!) 

We are drawn back to Earth time and time again until we release ourselves from the wheel of death and rebirth. (Suffice it to say that we will look at Karma and Reincarnation in a later blog). For now, our priority is to understand exactly how the planets can and do affect human character and destiny. Our priority is to understand how it works. 

So let us go back to what we discovered in the first blog. Everything in the Universe is in a state of vibration, and every vibration produces a corresponding cymatic pattern which affects the shape of matter. We have seen quite clearly, for example, how a violin bow can make sounds that affect the shape of matter on a microcosmic scale. But what if the planets are also vibrating and affecting the shape of matter on a macrocosmic scale? 

As well as emitting various electromagnetic forces that affect life here on Earth, the planets are also emitting sound. This was first confirmed when the US Space probe Voyager 2 approached Saturn. The probe picked up a distinct noise from the magnetosphere of Saturn which was then beamed back to Earth. When this was speeded up and played through a musical synthesiser, the waves were found to consist of a distinct melody. Later recordings made of the sound coming from the Sun were said to sound like a chorus of instruments playing a symphony! Could it be then, that the vibrations coming from each of the planets is affecting life on Earth and indeed, orchestrating our very existence and destiny? 

Although we currently have no way of determining the cymatic images created by the planets without accessing the recordings made by NASA, let us assume they may look something like this. Instagram image credit @vibr8zen original photographs by @cadboy_hk

Whilst it may be that NASA has confirmed that the planets are emitting different sounds, the concept of The Music of the Spheres was already accepted by many ancients, the most well known being the Greek philosopher Pythagoras. According to Pythagoras the ratio between the notes on the musical scale were identical to the ratios of the distance of one planet to another and that each planet had its own tone which affects life on Earth and the shape of matter. (This applies to the innermost 7 planets, the first octave. The outer planets form the second octave). To Pythagoras music was one of the divine sciences and its harmonies were without question, defined by mathematical proportions. He believed that this demonstrated how the creative forces established and maintained universal law. Number precedes harmony, since it is an absolute law that governs all harmonic proportions. Pythagoras further divided the creation into a vast number of planes to each of which was assigned a tone, a harmonic interval, a number, a name, a colour and a form. 

Having established music as an exact science Pythagoras also applied its law of harmonic intervals to all the phenomena of Nature, demonstrating the harmonic relation of the planets, constellations and each of the elements to each other. Like the Chaldeans, Pythagoras believed that the heavenly bodies joined in a cosmic chant as they moved across the sky. Essentially, each planet is vibrating at a certain frequency and giving off vibrations that are so immense that they can and do affect life on Earth. Each planet is emitting its own unique note or tone, and as the planets orbit our Sun, the combination of these notes and tones affect the shape of matter on Earth. Indeed could it not be that the vibrations from the planets affected the primordial oceans giving rise to different shapes and patterns which literally resulted in life on Earth! 

By looking at the birth chart of each individual we can clearly see the unique pattern of energies described by the planets and therefore the unique destiny of each life form. Astrology doesn’t just affect humans, but all life forms on Earth. The birth chart will describe the life of the individual in absolute detail. It is not so much, I believe, that the planets determine the life of said individual, but describe what that individual has brought with them into this incarnation. In essence Astrology is a shorthand, a secret code of creation, which can and does describe all life on Earth from the beginning to the end. 

According to the Hermetica, written by the Egyptian sage Thoth, otherwise known as Trismegistus, meaning “thrice great” he writes, “The creator arranged the constellations of the Zodiac in harmony with the movements of nature saying “I will build the Zodiac, a secret mechanism in the stars, linked to unerring and inevitable fate. The lives of men from birth to death, shall be controlled by the hidden workings of this mechanism.”

Hermes Trismegistus, the Greek name applied to the Egyptian god Thoth as the reputed author or source of the Hermetic writings, works of revelation on occult subjects and theology.

Each zodiac sign, each planet has unique energy, and are symbolic of different areas of life, and when they interact on the Zodiac wheel, they describe in detail not only individual lives but the world in general. The latter is known as Horary Astrology. 

To give a few examples of how planets affect world destiny and to show how this planetary shorthand works, firstly, I would like you to see a sample from an Ephemeris, so you can see immediately that Astrology is not a vague science, but in fact, a mathematical one. That in fact, in essence, Astrology is a mathematical cosmic shorthand that describes all life on Earth. 

Ephemeris details February 2024. The symbols for the planets run horizontally across the top of the page, and the symbols for the signs vertically down the page.

Now, although we know the planets describe our character and destiny in our birth charts, to demonstrate how this works on a global scale, I want to look at 3 very profound events that most of us have heard of to show how the planets are determining life on Earth. Describing earthly events is known as Horary Astrology. We already know we measure time with the planets, and the days, weeks, months and years of our lives are all determined by planetary movement. But they also orchestrate the events of life on Earth. This can be interpreted by understanding the symbolic nature of each planet and the sign they are in. 

Briefly, Mercury rules the intellect and communication, Venus rules love, beauty and art, Mars rules raw energy and aggression, Jupiter education and expansion, Saturn, contraction and discipline, Neptune water and the sea, Uranus the unusual and unpredictable, and Pluto birth sex and death. How they are placed in the Zodiac will affect their energy. For example, if Mercury is in Aries, the native with this placement will be bold and aggressive in how they communicate, if in Taurus, maybe rather stubborn, in Gemini fickle and superficial. Mercury, as all the other planets, will also be affected - not only by which sign they are in - but by which other planets aspect it. Aspects are the angles at which planets interact. Malefic angles are 90 (square) and 180 degrees (opposite), Benefic angles are 0 (conjunct), 60 (sextile) and 120 degrees (trine). So using Mercury as our example, if Mercury is opposite or square to Mars in the birth chart, the person concerned will be aggressive in speech and manner. If Mercury is conjunct, say Venus, or trine Venus, the speech will be gentle and refined, almost poetic in nature. Basically, it is a simple code, a shorthand of creation. 

I cannot go further here without writing a book on the subject, so for now I am going to concentrate on two planets and signs here to show how this shorthand, to show how this symbolism, can be interpreted on a global scale through Horary Astrology. 

The first planet is Uranus, the planet which rules the unusual, the unpredictable and the unexpected. Uranus is the ruler of Aquarius. Aquarians often display these traits in their own individual behaviour. The second planet we will focus on is Neptune. We all know from mythology that Neptune rules the Sea. Neptune rules the zodiac water sign of Pisces. 

Neptune ruler of the Sea

So, concentrating on these two, let’s firstly look at the Tsunami of December 6th 2004. At this time, Uranus, (the planet of the unusual, unexpected and unpredictable), had just moved into Pisces (representing the sea and ruled by the planet Neptune). Can you yourself clearly see what is going to happen here? Simple shorthand! Unpredictable events involving the sea! It's that simple. 

It was apparent to me as an Astrologer, that as soon as I saw Uranus moving into Pisces some two years before the Boxing Day Tsunami, that there WOULD BE unexpected and powerful events involving the sea. Furthermore, I also noted that Neptune (ruler of the sea) itself had just moved into Aquarius (the unpredictable and unexpected)! This was to be a double whammy! Uranus, ruler or Aquarius moves into Pisces, and Neptune ruler of Pisces moves into Aquarius. Double trouble! A mega event at sea was almost inevitable. It would be catastrophic and unexpected.

Now, staying with Uranus and Neptune, I recently found out about an event I had not previously known about when starting to write this blog. The event was the catastrophic flooding of the Thames in London in January 1928. What happened was that London and the South East had record snowfall for an unusually long period of time. In some places drifts of up to 10 ft or more had accumulated. Eventually of course, it got warmer and all that snow melted and started flowing into the Thames. At the same time it had started raining, adding to the load of water being dumped into the river itself and sending it downstream towards London. As if that was not bad enough, even worse was to come! A mega mega storm in the North Sea had sent massive tidal waves up the river from the sea, meeting with the snow melt coming down the Thames. In the early hours of the morning of January 6th, the flood finally broke through the existing barriers. The Thames had finally overflown its banks and caused death and destruction across the low lying areas in London with over 30 dead. 

As an Astrologer, I was curious about the planets involved, but my intuition and experience told me, this has to be a Pisces/Neptune event! Indeed it was! 

Like the Tsunami in 2004, the flood in 1928 also showed Uranus to be in Pisces. (It takes Uranus 84 years to transit the whole Zodiac), depicting unusual events involving water or the sea. However, to make matters worse and to turn the disaster into a tragedy, Jupiter, ( the planet which expands anything it is associated with), was also in Pisces thus ensuring whatever event was occurring it would be mega! So, when Uranus is in Pisces there will inevitably be such disasters involving water or the sea. 

Indeed, the Japanese Tsunami of March 2011 was also characterised by Uranus in Pisces. Also in Pisces at that time was Mars (a malefic). Uranus moved out of Pisces in late 2011 And will not return for another 70 years. However, Neptune remains in Pisces until 2026 so if any such events occur in the meantime, you can be assured there will be aspects from malefic planets involved although perhaps not on the scale we have already witnessed. 

In an individual birth chart, the interaction of these planets is what makes us all unique. Whilst we know some planets bring good fortune, and others not so much, their angular relationships and interactions can improve or dilute said fortune. So, we may have a badly placed Mars, but if Venus supports it in a positive way, it will ease the effects. Astrology is not arbitrary, the time and place of your birth is not arbitrary. It is destined - as is your whole life. Free will or a written destiny? It's actually both which we will go into in a later blog. 

For myself, the first time I saw my birth chart in full as a prelude to studying Astrology, I was absolutely amazed at the accuracy with which it described me, and I instantly thought “Oh my goodness, there is someone in the Universe that knows me better than I know myself”. 

For me this was a spiritual epiphany. Because there is only ONE being that could know me better than myself, and that is the Creator of all things most commonly referred to as God. It was truly an amazing and spiritual experience and it is through Astrology we can truly understand not only ourselves, but the Divine.

Keep posted for the next blog when we will be reviewing the cymatics of consciousness.