Preface and Acknowledgments

Part I Ascending Parnassus
1 The Marvelous effects of Music
2 Hearing Secret Harmonies

Part II The Great Work
3 Music Alchemy
4 Music and the Currents of Time

Part III The Music of the Spheres
1 The Cosmological Framework
2 Planet-Scales, Type a
3 Modern Schemes: Titius-Bode and Goldschmidt
4 Planet-Scales, Type B
5 Planets, Tones, and the Days of the Week
6 Planet-Scales, Type C
7 Systems with Movable Tones: Eriugena, Anselmi
8 Kepler's Planetary Music
9 Intervals and the Astrological Aspects
10 Tone-Zodiacs
11 Angelic Orders and Muses: The Great Chain of Being
12 The Three Means
13 Gurdjieff's Law of Octaves
14 The Harmonics Series and its Symbolism
15 The Subharmonic Series
16 The Lambdoma and the Pyhagorean Table
17 Beyond Manifestation: 1/1 and 0/0

Notes

Bibliography of Works Cited

MUSIC / PHILOSOPHY What lies beneath the surface of music and what gives it its transcendent power? For many people, music is the primary catalyst for experiences of expanded consciousness. Musicians and lovers of music--all those who have ever reflected on its inner reality--feel that a true philosophy of music cannot deal with physics and psychology alone. It must include the universal and mystical aspect of which Plato, Kepler, Rameau, and Novalis wrote, and of which Wagner said: "I feel that I am one with this vibrating Force, that it is omniscient, and that I can draw upon it to an extent that is limited only by my own capacity." The spiritual power of music surfaces in folklore, myth, and mystical experience, embracing heaven and earth, heard as well as unheard harmonies. Joscelyn Godwin explores music's perceived effects on matter, living things, and human behavior. He then turns to metaphysical accounts of the higher worlds that are the birthplace of Harmony, following the path of musical inspiration on its descent to Earth, and illuminating the archetypal currents that lie beneath Western musical history. A final section gives the fullest account ever published of theories of celestial harmony, from Pythagoras to Rudolf Steiner and Marius Schneider. JOSCELYN GODWIN, Professor of Music at Colgate University, is the author of The Harmony of the Spheres, Arktos: The Polar Myth, The Theosophical Enlightenment, and many other books on music and esoteric traditions.

Joscelyn Godwin was born in Kelmscott, Oxfordshire, England on January 16, 1945. He was educated as a chorister at Christ Church Cathedral School, Oxford, then at Radley College (Music Scholar), and Magdalene College, Cambridge (Music Scholar; B.A., 1965, Mus. B., 1966, M.A. 1969). Coming to the USA in 1966, he did graduate work in Musicology at Cornell University (Ph. D., 1969; dissertation: "The Music of Henry Cowell") and taught at Cleveland State University for two years before joining the Colgate University Music Department in 1971. He has taught at Colgate ever since.