An exploration of the vibrational qualities of the physical world by Mark Stephen John.
The quality of water permeates every aspect of our physical, emotional and spiritual world. Two elements, Hydrogen and Oxygen, the 1st and 8th elements from the periodic table join. Two gases join and create the framework for our lives. How interesting that a compound that is in a liquid state creates a framework, yet it is a true framework. Without the quality and capacity of water to carry out the functions of life, everything as we know it would cease to exist. One can find many facts about water. A three-day-old fetus is 94% water, a newborn 75% and an adult is about 65% water. The older we get, the lower the percentage of our water content. Water is one of the few compounds that exists in all three states of solid, liquid and gas. Water has a great capacity to hold heat and is one of the primary mechanisms for regulating our body’s heat and the heat balance of our earth. Water is known as a ‘universal solvent’ and dissolves more substances than any other compound. There are some substances that are hydrophobic and resist dissolution with water such as fats and oils, yet water can carry them in solution. This is a critical part of how nutrients are carried through our body. Yet, there is more.
3 Minute Soundscape of the Tones of Water
Photos by: Linda Deslauriers
One can look up many of the chemical and physical facts about water. What is it that makes it such a sensitive purveyor of life? There is a quality call weak hydrogen bonding that slows the constantly vibrating molecules enough to remain liquid. They hold on for about 200 femtoseconds (200 millionth of 1 billionth of a second), long enough to give water a liquid state. Who measures these things? The water molecule is highly cohesive; it is very sticky. Water is the most cohesive among the non-metallic liquids. This allows it to rise up the capillaries of trees and plants. If solid water were not less dense than liquid water, all life that we are familiar with would cease. Some time ago while leading a physics lesson, I asked the question, “What would happen if solid water, ice, were more dense than liquid water?” One of my students who was noted for not “testing well” raised up his hand. I could see that the rest of the class was still trying to figure out what I had just asked. He answered, “Well, the top layer of water would freeze and sink to the bottom, then the next layer would freeze and land on top of that. This would continue until all of the water on the earth was frozen and then we wouldn’t have school.” He was correct in every way including getting rid of school in its current manifestation, though; this is the subject of a different blog.
Every living entity is related by water and water is connected to everything. The Japanese researcher Masaru Emoto has dedicated his life to photographing ice crystals from various water sources from around the world. His work has revealed a quality of water that reflects the spiritual nature of our world. The following quotes are from: The Hidden Messages in Water, Masaru Emoto. Atria Books: 2001.
Masaru Emoto has found with his study of water that Love and Gratitude are the two strongest forces that exist. When intent and energy are present, water is able to register and ‘remember’ these vibrations. “The natural world is well designed – everything is in balance. And as sound is created there is a master listener to receive the sound – water.” (Pg. 43)
“All things vibrate, and they vibrate at their own frequencies. When you understand this, you will significantly broaden your understanding of the universe. With this understanding your eyes will open to things you have never seen before – things previously pushed to the back of your consciousness – and these discoveries and feelings will give new life to your soul. The fact that everything is in a state of vibration also means that everything is creating sound.” (Page 42)
Water Crystals are from: Masaru Emoto
Liquid water is constantly dancing, changing partners and vibrationally meeting other molecules. When energetic intent meets water, it resonates with the molecules, entraining them into a pattern. Emoto’s work demonstrates how our beliefs and intentions are so powerful. On page 69 he says, “Perhaps it is time that we stop seeing the human being as the evil agent. I think we underestimate the innate abilities that we each have. We have enormous power.” This brings back the component of education. We have been taught that we have no innate abilities, that we are powerless and that what we think needs to conform to the current structures. Imagine education teaching us how to expand our perception and guide our power for personal and world healing.
This project added a new dimension to my work with the elements. When atoms join into compounds their bonds resonate uniquely. Water has three unique tones. This three minute soundscape includes water sounds from a small waterfall feeding the Little Miami River near the Clifton Gorge area of Ohio. {This is the same soundscape as at the beginning of the piece.}
47-Ag-Silver
On the Equinox this year 9/22/2023 I performed “Silver Moon” in the Key of Silver at the Commons in Viroqua, Wisconsin. Rahbi Crawford on Crystal Bowls (rahbi crawford.com), Jai Lynn Mcpheron on vocals and Monte Mcpheron piano (Mindfull living), Christopher Robin on piano, Rosie Rain on percussion and Jeff Miller on sax performed with me. There is a two minute introduction and an eight minute performance in the key of Silver.
Silver Moon
Silver moon of intuition
You reflect my inner wisdom
inner wisdom, inner wisdom
Silver moon of love
Silver moon of love
Shining clarity
on dreams,
on dreams
Silver Moon of healing
Silver Moon of healing
Perfect reflection
Perfect reflection
of my true self
Silver Moon of protection
Silver Moon of protection
Silver Moon of Love, of Love, of Love
Silver has been part of the human experience for at least 5,000 years. There is evidence of smelting the element in ancient excavations in the mid-east. Humans like crows and ravens seem attracted to shiny things. The Ag come from the Latin word “Argentum” and Silver comes from Middle English “Slolfur”. It is the best reflector of light known. It also has the highest electrical conductivity and thermal conductivity of any metal. It is a relatively soft metal and has been used for trade for millennia. Although silver does not have a direct biological role in humans, it is well know for its antibacterial properties. It can even be used to purify water in the presence of oxygen replacing chlorine.
Since silver is found in a pure state, it has also been considered one of the primary metals used in alchemy. Silver is connected with the moon, intuition, self-reflection, inner wisdom, Isis, the 6th chakra, divination, healing, protection, emotion, love, dreams, vision, clarity, awareness and focus. It has also been used in Ayurvedic medicine.
Silver Scale
Silver Sound Sketch
These two recordings are from a recent performance in Viroqua, Wisconsin– July, 2023. Following the two recordings is a program with musicians and notes.
Combined Element Sound Sketches (1 through 6 in the program) {18 minute listen}
Violin accompanied by Rahbi Crawford on Crystal Bowls https://rahbicrawford.com/ (Number 7 in the program) {6 minutes}
Music from the Periodic Table
This collection of 7 soundscapes represents the tones of the colors of the spectral light signatures of the elements. Each element has a unique set of colors. This project converts wavelength to frequency.
Frequency can be converted from wavelength by using the following equation: f = c /L where f is frequency in Hertz (Hz), c is the speed of light in meters/second and L is wavelength in meters.
Light has a very high measure in Hz. (Trillions of Hz per second). Using the laws of harmonics one can continually divide by 2 to reduce the very high values to those that can be heard by us. With sound, every time a frequency is divided by 2 you get to the same tone one octave lower and if you double the frequency, you get one octave higher. Think about hitting middle C on the piano and going to the right to the next C, the pitch gets higher and going to the left the pitch gets lower. We hear about 40 octaves below the sound of light.
More poetically, the dance of the colors makes a sound 40 octaves above what we can hear. Imagine that sound, singing so high that only angels can hear. Through the law of octaves, we can take the angel song, call it down to the place where we can play it on our instruments, and dance it on the earth.
Rumi translations by Colman Barks https://www.colemanbarks.com/
- Dancing Particles in the Key of Hydrogen.
{Mark John on Violin and Larry Stephens on percussion}
Dancing Particles
Daylight, full of small dancing particles
and the one great turning our souls
are dancing with you, without feet, they dance.
Can you see them when I whisper in your ear?
[Rumi]
- The Key of Boron
{Mark John on Violin and Larry Stephens on percussion}
- Rumi’s The Guest House in the Key of Carbon
{Mark John on Violin, Siobhan Elia on Cello and Larry Stephens on Percussion}
The Guest House
This being human is a guest house.
Every morning a new arrival.
A joy, a depression, a meanness,
some momentary awareness comes
as an unexpected visitor.
Welcome and entertain them all!
Even if they’re a crowd of sorrows,
who violently sweep your house
empty of its furniture,
still, treat each guest honorably.
He may be clearing you out
for some new delight.
The dark thought, the shame, the malice,
meet them at the door laughing,
and invite them in.
Be grateful for whoever comes,
because each has been sent
as a guide from beyond.
[Rumi]
- The Key of Nitrogen
{Mark John on F# High Spirts Flute and Larry Stephens on percussion}
5.Rumi’s “Everything is Music” in the Key of Oxygen
{Mark John on Violin, Maya Bennardo on Violin, Siobhan Elia on Cello and Larry Stephens on percussion}
Where Everything is Music
Don’t worry about saving these songs.
And if one of our instruments breaks,
it doesn’t matter.
We have fallen into the place
Where everything is music.
The strumming and the flute notes
rise into the atmosphere,
and even if the whole world’s harp
should burn up,
there will still be
hidden instruments playing.
So the candle flickers and goes out.
We have a piece of flint, and a spark.
This singing art is sea foam.
The graceful movements come from a pearl
somewhere on the ocean floor.
Poems reach up like spindrift and the edge
of driftwood along the beach, wanting!
They derive
from a slow and powerful root
that we can’t see.
Stop the words now.
Open the window in the center of your chest,
and let the spirits fly in and out.
[Rumi]
- Tones of Water
{Mark John on Violin and sound effects}
- Improvisation in the keys of Iron and Magnesium
{Mark John Violin and Rahbi Crawford on Crystal Bowls} https://rahbicrawford.com/
Iron and Magnesium form the centers of Hemoglobin and Chlorophyll. The chlorophyll in plants inspires CO2 using sunlight to make sugar breathing out Oxygen. The hemoglobin brings Oxygen from our and our Kin’s inspiration to burn sugar. We breathe out CO2.. I am in awe how these two molecules mirror each other. Our relationship and interdependence sing together with these two elements as share our sentience together.
www.musicoftheperiodictable.com
Improv in the key of Nitrogen
Improvisation with a High Spirits, First Nation flute. This traditional flute is made in the key of F#. Percussion by Larry Stephens.
Nitrogen is the 7th element in the periodic table. It is one of the 6 elements that make up 98.7% of the human body. Approximately 3.2% of the total body weight is Nitrogen. Essential for life in almost all of its forms, Nitrogen plays a role as a member of DNA, RNA and ATP. Amino acids, the building blocks of proteins, all contain Nitrogen. It is also present in hemoglobin and chlorophyl.
Nitrogen is a colorless and odorless gas that comprises 78% of atmosphere by volume. Plants are our relatives that are able to “fix” Nitrogen into a form that can be used by other life on the planet. It follows a path known as the Nitrogen cycle moving from micro-organisms, to plants, to various critters, back into the soil and back into the air. At least this was the case before people discovered they could remove nitrogen from the air, form it into fertilizer and spread it ubiquitously across the planet. The disruption of the Nitrogen Cycle has added to the algal blooms and degradation of the homes of our water based plants and animals. It is estimated that the human body has 80% of its nitrogen from artificial fertilizers. It is a good reason to know your organic farmer.
In Alchemy, Nitrogen was named Sal Amoniac as a compound that when combined with sulfuric acid was called Aegis Regis and was the only substance known to dissolve gold.
Alchemical Symbols
Nitrogen has a color spectrum in the full range of what we can see. Rainbow. It has a scale that is very close to our F# major scale.
An Aside:
This is a point to try again to explain where the music of the elements comes from. In the field of spectrometry, every element has a specific set of colors that are emitted when observed. This is how astrophysicists can tell what elements are in a distant star. Each element always emits the same set of wavelengths. Some of the wavelengths are in the visible spectrum. The visible light is like a fingerprint of an element. Each set of colors makes a scale.
I am converting the light into sound. A well-heeled scientist will say that the electro-magnetic (light) cannot be compared to the vibration we hear (sound) because they are two different systems of energy. I feel okay about doing this because the folks at NASA have been doing this for a while. Follow this link for the sounds of a black hole:
https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/chandra/news/new-nasa-black-hole-sonifications-with-a-remix.html
{As an aside from this aside. Follow the winding path at this NASA site to listen to the sounds of Saturn. They are haunting. https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/cassini/multimedia/pia07966.html }
The light that we see between infrared and ultraviolet is one octave of the electromagnetic spectrum. Imagine a pole that is three feet high. At the bottom of the pole are the lowest wavelengths and at the top are the highest and most energetic wavelengths. Our eyes are able to see one-quarter inch of this pole. The rest have names like x-ray, radio waves, micro-waves (used in the kitchen to heat your food- among other things), and the list goes on and on. In the visible spectrum the lowest, meaning it has the longest wavelength, color is red and the highest that we can see is indigo-violet. Follow the colors of the rainbow. Just out of our visual field is the infrared and the ultraviolet. Some of our Kin on the planet see these colors.
The part that gets a little bit complicated is how wavelength is related to frequency. Wavelength is measured in vibrations per meter and frequency is measured in vibrations per second. Frequency is measured in Hertz. The healthy young person can hear between about 20 Hz and 20,000 Hz. Another way to say this is that we can hear between 20 vibrations per second to 20,000 vibrations per second.
Frequency can be converted from wavelength by using the following equation:
f = c /L where f is frequency in Hertz (Hz), c is the speed of light in meters/second and L is wavelength in meters.
Light has a very high measure in Hz. (trillions of Hz per second). Using the laws of harmonics one can continually divide by 2 to reduce the very high values to those that can be heard by us. With sound, every time a frequency is divided by 2 you get to the same tone one octave lower and if you double the frequency, you get one octave higher. Think about hitting middle C on the piano and going to the right to the next C, the pitch gets higher and going to the left the pitch gets lower. We hear about 40 octaves below the sound of light.
More poetically, the dance of the colors makes a sound 40 octaves above what we can hear. Imagine that sound, singing so high that only angels can hear. Through the law of octaves, we can take the angel song, call it down to the place where we can play it on our instruments, and dance it on the earth.
This parenthetic departure is yet another attempt to explain how this project finds its tones and the individual scales of the light for each element of the human body.
This perhaps, with a little luck, will help explain that Nitrogen is in the Key of F#. Coincidentally, the visible spectrum is also an octave from F# to F#, only in the trillion Hertz range. Perhaps the Native American flute tuning is an intuitive reflection of the indigenous knowledge.
The colors and tones of Nitrogen:
| Angstrom | Nanometer (rounded) | Color | Element Scale Hz | Our Scale | Hertz |
| 7468.31 | 747 | Dark red | 365.09 | F#4 | 369.99 |
| 7442.29 | 744 | Dark red | 366.37 | ||
| 6610.56 | 661 | Red | 412.46 | G#4 | 415.31 |
| 6482.05 | 648 | Red | 420.64 | A4 | 440.00 |
| 5941.65 | 594 | Orange | 458.9 | A#4 | 466.16 |
| 5679.56 | 568 | Yellow green | 480.07 | ||
| 5005.15 | 501 | Dark green | 544.76 | C#5 | 554.4 |
| 4630.54 | 463 | Blue | 588.83 | D5 | 587.33 |
| 4447.03 | 445 | Dark blue | 613.13 | ||
| 3995.00 | 400 | Indigo | 682.50 | F5 | 698.5 |
The work of Joseph Rael, Tsluu-teh-koh-ay, Beautiful Painted Arrow.
Over the last few months I have been reading the work of Joseph Rael, a Southern Ute and Picuris Pueblo First Nation mystic and spiritual leader. I was attracted to the titles of his books, Sound; being and vibration: entering the new world; and House of Shattering Light, because of their relationship to healing and sound. I was curious to explore his perspective on the relationship of sound, vibration and healing. What I found was a deep and richly embroidered world view that went far beyond a mere formula and encourages the personal transformation of ‘us’ as individuals and ‘us’ as a global family. Indeed, it took me a while to read this work as it was full of thoughts and activities that often went beyond my level of experience and asked that I move into realms of thought and manifestation that were new and challenging.
https://millichapbooks.com/?page_id=110
As I reread the books I find that I want to quote his work and, at the same time, realize that the quotes out of context do not communicate the material. One must read the books in order to begin to understand the content. I feel they are more akin to a manual, a reference guide to self-development, and, simultaneously not a self-help book. Rael’s vision is world peace. His intention is to provide the tools to bring the human society to the ‘next world.’ This is the world where we recognize and honor our relationship to all things. A world where we know that all vibration is conscious. A world where we are a contiguous part of the whole. A world where our words are a reflection of our reality.
On page 29 from being and vibration, “Since people are made of sound, listening is important. …. To become a true human, one must become conscious of listening and hearing the voice of the Great Mystery speaking through everything; through the sound of a tree, or the bird flying overhead, or the wind in the room, or someone breathing, or someone talking, or a moment of silence. The activity of sound is what made the people.”
https://millichapbooks.com/?page_id=73
Ted Andrews from his book, Sacred Sounds speaks about all words being magical and the paradox being that they need intention to become magic. Rael takes us on a journey into the inner nature of sound, through a process of finding the intentionality of sound and hence, making it magical. As Joseph Rael studied languages, he found that there were aspects that transcended the language and also that the language formed how one sees the world. In his native Tiwa language, he found a direct relationship between the words and the phenomena of the world. Tiwa has no nouns. All the words are verbs and the action of the world is reflected in the sounds of the language. These words have multiple layers of meaning based on the context. He saw English as a language of technology, creating form. His explorations found that even within the English language the words reflect their ancient roots.
https://millichapbooks.com/?page_id=115
Another aspect of the work is the nature of ceremony. Ceremony can be as simple as washing the dishes if it is done with intent. Even without intent, it is a ceremony, though lacking the power of intent. Jonathan Goldman writes that ‘Tone + Intent = Healing.’ Joseph Rael imbues all action with intent through his writing, actions and instruction. Again, I find it difficult to condense this work without diluting or misconstruing the insights. Within these works are insights into the nature of the Feminine and Masculine energies of being; the power of the vowels in our words and toning; how form crystalizes from idea; the interplay of the Great Mystery with our existence on the planet earth; and perhaps most importantly; how we can take these principles into our daily lives and through our intent, change the vibrational future of all beings on our beloved planet.
5-Boron-B
Image explanation:An image reflecting the importance of boron as an essential mineral for plants. The tree and its strange metallic foliage ‘grow’ from a ‘pure’ dark powdered cone of the element.
Appearance:Pure boron is a dark amorphous powder.
Uses:Amorphous boron is used as a rocket fuel igniter and in pyrotechnic flares. It gives the flares a distinctive green colour.
https://www.rsc.org/periodic-table/element/5/boron
Boron is the 5th element in the Periodic Table. One of the interesting aspects is the assertion that Boron is created by cosmic ray spallation, in other words, getting hit by cosmic rays. It is not formed in the sun by nucleosynthesis. This accounts for low amounts in the solar system including the earth. Like Carbon, Boron has the ability to create strong and stable bonds with other elements. Meteoroids contain pure Boron. Pure Boron was not isolated until the late 1800’s or early 1900’s as it is difficult to separate it from its chemical compounds.
Although I found quite a few articles that were not specific about how the human body uses Boron, an article by Lara Pizzormo “Nothing Boring about Boron,” published in 2015 has a significant list.
“Boron has been proven to be an important trace mineral because it (1) is essential for the growth and maintenance of bone; (2) greatly improves wound healing; (3) beneficially impacts the body’s use of estrogen, testosterone, and vitamin D; (4) boosts magnesium absorption; (5) reduces levels of inflammatory biomarkers, such as hs-CRP and TNF-α; (6) raises levels of antioxidant enzymes, such as SOD, catalase, and glutathione peroxidase; (7) protects against pesticide-induced oxidative stress and heavy-metal toxicity; (8) improves brain electrical activity, cognitive performance, and short-term memory in elders; (9) influences the formation and activity of key biomolecules, such as SAM-e and NAD+; (10) has demonstrated preventive and therapeutic effects in a number of cancers, such as prostate, cervical, and lung cancers and multiple and non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma; and (11) may help ameliorate the adverse effects of traditional chemotherapeutic agents.”
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4712861/
Boron improvisation with the tones of the colors:
This is the same tuning using the Ukelele tuned to the Boron scale. Here I am trying to stay true to the Boron scale.
If I take the Root, third and fifth of the Boron scale and tune my violin in fifths I can then play a standard song in the Key of Boron. Of Course, I am using more notes than the notes of the color, so this is a stretch from the pure scale. This is Abbot’s Bromley Horn Dance from the Medieval – Renaissance period.
Thanks to Larry Stephens for percussion.
This is a link to the periodic table entry: https://musicoftheperiodictable.com/boron/
Here are the colors and the notes for Boron.
| Nanometer (Wavelength) | Color | Hertz (Frequency) | Notes closest to our current scales | Hertz
Based on 440 A |
| 608 | Orange | 224.21 | A3 | 220.00 |
| 494 | Cyan | 275.95 | C#4 | 277.18 |
| 447 | Indigo | 304.80 | D4 | 293.66 |
| 419 | Violet | 325.00 | E4 | 329.63 |
| 412 | Violet | 330.74 |
The Tones of Carbon
By Commons:Robert Lavinsky – File:Diamond-and-graphite-with-scale.jpg, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=39385953
This recording is a sketch of the tones of carbon done by Siobhan Elia on cello, Maya Bennardo and me on violin. There are two versions, one that is instrumental and another with a voice over with a poem by Rumi. Maya is a member of the new music duo, ANDplay – http://andplayduo.com/about/ . Siobhan is a cellist and Alexander Technique teacher – https://confluencelearningspace.com/
The Guest House
This being human is a guest house.
Every morning a new arrival.
A joy, a depression, a meanness,
some momentary awareness comes
as an unexpected visitor.
Welcome and entertain them all!
Even if they’re a crowd of sorrows,
who violently sweep your house
empty of its furniture,
still, treat each guest honorably.
He may be clearing you out
for some new delight.
The dark thought, the shame, the malice,
meet them at the door laughing,
and invite them in.
Be grateful for whoever comes,
because each has been sent
as a guide from beyond.
The Essential Rumi: translations by Coleman Barks ©1995 http://www.colemanbarks.com
Carbon sound sketch with words.
Carbon sound sketch without words– A 7 minute meditation
Carbon is the 6thelement in the periodic table. In the human body oxygen, carbon and hydrogen are 93 percent of the mass of the body and 96% of the atoms. Here are some data from Wikipedia: Oxygen 65% of the mass and 24% of the abundance; Carbon 18% of the mass and 12% of the abundance; Hydrogen 10% of the mass and 62% of the abundance.
We are a carbon-based life form, and almost all life on Gaia is connected to this element. Carbon is in use everywhere within the body. Fats, muscles, proteins, connective tissue, cell walls, DNA, RNA, nerve cells – everywhere. The carbon that we use as fuel in the form of oil, gas and coal took between 100 million years and a billion years to form. It was how our earth stored the excess carbon that made the earth too hot to support life. Another way to look at this is that every day we release 11 million years of sequestered carbon into the atmosphere. The earth has a “fever” and fevers are used to burn off life that is unhealthy for the organism. Hmmm!!!
Carbon is soft enough to write with (graphite) and it is also diamond, one of the hardest natural substances. It is an element of transformation and connectedness. As carbon based creatures walking upon the earth, we also can be that soft and that hard. Is it from the carbon? Diamonds heated to a high temperature in pure oxygen transform to carbon dioxide—they simply evaporate! So given enough heat and oxygen we too can transform, even the hardest heart.
Diamonds have been used for millennia, 2500 BCE in China, 1500 BCE in India. The stone was often found on statues in India used for eyes or the third eye. The current mythology of diamonds being a crystal of love and devotion seems to be a more recent manifestation of the marketing industry. Early use focused on the diamond’s hardness as a tool. The formation of diamonds is an exploration way beyond the scope of this article, but, totally worth exploring if you have the inclination. Let it suffice to say that diamonds are formed at great pressures and temperatures at between 50 and 450 miles below the surface of the earth. There may be a diamond stability zone under the crust of the earth where the conditions are perfect for their formation. If so, we have a crystalline layer of diamonds floating in a shroud around the mantle that is collecting and converting the energy of this planet.
Terry Tempest Williams writes in When Women Were Birds. http://www.coyoteclan.com
“But what thrilled me most was the fact that millions of meteors burn up every day as they enter our atmosphere. As a result, Earth receives ten tons of dust from outer space. Not only do we take in the world with each breath, we are inhaling the universe. We are made of stardust.”
Another source of diamonds are meteorites. Microscopic diamonds formed in an unknown star. As we breathe, we breathe diamond dust, diamond stardust. Is it any wonder that we look to the stars with longing as our diamond infused breath longs for home. The stars are a cradle of creativity. All of the elements we know are first formed in a star. It seems that the misogynistic patriarchy has usurped the womb of the universe for itself and claimed that the Sun is our Father. When in reality, She is our Mother. We have so much to forget before we remember.
There is a delight in following a stream of thought, seeing where it meets the next body of thought and how they dance together. The following composition is with my daughter, Siobhan Elia (cello) [https://confluencelearningspace.com/], Larry Stephens (percussion) and me on violin. The field recording is simple and done as a single take. The poetry of Rumi is translated by Coleman Barks. [Click his name to see his website.] Below is the new recording as I seek to find consonance in these colors and combinations. At the bottom of the post you will find the first sound sketch, if you are interested. Feedback is aways welcome. Sharing is enthusiastically embraced.
Where Everything is Music
Where Everything is Music
Don’t worry about saving these songs.
And if one of our instruments breaks,
it doesn’t matter.
We have fallen into the place
Where everything is music.
The strumming and the flute notes
rise into the atmosphere,
and even if the whole world’s harp
should burn up,
there will still be
hidden instruments playing.
So the candle flickers and goes out.
We have a piece of flint, and a spark.
This singing art is sea foam.
The graceful movements come from a pearl
somewhere on the ocean floor.
Poems reach up like spindrift and the edge
of driftwood along the beach, wanting!
They derive
from a slow and powerful root
that we can’t see.
Stop the words now.
Open the window in the center of your chest,
and let the spirits fly in and out.
This is a repost of Heart-Healing-Oxygen and it still feels relevant today.
One of the joys of writing and researching for a blog is the ability to follow a muse or take a tangent only to be delighted on how applicable it is to my current work. While participating in an equinox gathering at Serpent Mound in the non-glaciated part of southern Ohio, I met an individual studying herbal medicine. She highly recommended the work of Stephen Harrod Buhner. Initially, I didn’t see how this related, but never the less, I looked up his work. Before I knew it, I had ordered from the author, “The Secret Teachings of Plants: The Intelligence of the Heart in the Direct Perception of Nature” and “The Transformational Power of Fasting: The Way to Spiritual, Physical, and Emotional Rejuvenation.”
These two books have a wonderful perspective on perception, healing and the interrelationship- interconnectedness of humans and the world. On page 111 of “The Transformational Power of Fasting” Buhner quotes Clarissa Pinkola Estes, “The body is best understood as a being in its own right, one who loves us, depends on us, one to who we sometimes mother, and who sometimes is mother to us.” Buhner continues, “We begin to trust what the body can do, and so we step back and let the body do what it has always been capable of doing. We allow it to go where it uniquely knows to go. We drop the reins on its neck and allow it to take us home. …It is the first and best friend that the Universe has given to us, and it is through the body, not in spite of the body, that we find the luminous and the ineffable that our souls need to be whole.”
What Buhner expounds upon in great detail, employing extensive research, challenges the very core of the modern quasi religious belief system of how we are related to the earth, the plants and each other. Concerning the direct perception of nature, he writes, “Scientists have, by removing all meaning, intelligence, and soul from matter, caused the abandonment of this capacity of the human. We have been colonized by a particular kind of thinking.” When the paradigm of science that sees species, organs, environment as discrete, identifiable, controllable and dis-related systems, the true interconnectedness is missed.
Just because we can’t sense or measure all of the frequencies or vibrations around us does not mean that they are not present. “For Universe is not a place but an event, not a collection of solids but an interaction of frequencies. Not a noun but a verb.” As we feel our connection, the solid becomes plastic, the unchangeable has the potential for returning to its state of balance. Vibrations entrain as they interact, and balance is the underlying principle of health.
When healing is viewed from a heart perspective, there is a significant change in the approach towards disease. “Our heart intelligence is still working at a six-year-old level while our mind intelligence is absurdly further ahead.” Our linear education has given us this predilection for missing the connections. I keep hearing how things are ‘out of the box’ — education, science, business, medicine. The truth is, there is no box.
Once, while sitting in my inner city back yard late at night, looking at the stars, there was a drunken argument from the next house. All of the other words were muffled except, “You aren’t god, you never were god and you never will be god.” I laughed as I wondered when he would realize that they were both god. However, when it comes to linear thinking both in and out of the box, there is no box, there never was a box and there never will be a box.
We have forgotten our heart. “For the human heart is vastly more than a muscular pump-it is one of the most powerful electromagnetic generators and receivers known, It is, in fact, a highly evolved organ of perception and communication.” Healing takes on a radically old perspective, a point of view that reflects back to our roots of humanity. Most of our time as a species on this planet has been one of connections, recognition of our kinship with plants, stones, mountains, indeed, all aspects of our material plane. Because spirit is not measured, does not mean it is not there. Because we have forgotten our thinking heart, does not mean it does not think.
“So What” — (The question that always got me into trouble in school.) — How does this relate to Oxygen and the tones from its spectra. Do these tones and colors help the body to heal? At this point, I am not sure, though, I am following a feeling that as we find vibrations that are in tune with the elements, we will be able to better resonate with them.
With the colors of the oxygen spectral fingerprint, the reds are the lower tones and as the tones get higher, they move towards the blues and violets. I am enjoying playing with these tones and I am continually fascinated by their inherent consonance. Here a sound sketch of Oxygen.
Pictures by Linda Deslauriers
Rumi in the Key of Hydrogen
Hydrogen, the most abundant element, the lightest known element, the element that is in every part of our body is the framework for this composition. As I work with the tones from the elements, I find a beautiful consonance between the colors. It is quite mind bending to step out of my experience with tuning based upon 440 Hertz and the equal tempered tuning of the piano, and, into tones that are vibrating from, into, with, the world around us.
My intent is to create music that is healing for us and for the planet. As I held this intent I wondered how I could approach combining tones from the elements and words. The human voice and words add so much to music. I have decided to begin with the Poetry of Rumi as rendered by Coleman Barks. This is my first attempt as I find my voice and merge it with the tones of the colors.
Let me know what you think.
Dancing Particles
Daylight, full of small dancing particles
and the one great turning our souls
are dancing with you, without feet, they dance.
Can you see them when I whisper in your ear?
The Essential Rumi: translations by Coleman Barks ©1995 http://www.colemanbarks.com
Dancing Particles in the key of Hydrogen
After what seems like an inordinate amount of time, I have finished working through the elements of the human body. The question now is what to do with this body of work? Or is it, work of the body? While traveling in Europe the summer before last visiting a dear family friend, her partner listened to the ideas behind the project and said, “Oh, Art!” That certainly helped to put this all in perspective. If it is not full of art, then it is probably missing the point. The initial idea to make a scale of the earth has transformed into turning the electromagnetic colors of the elements into individual element scales. Played together, they are not too consonant, but internally, many of the colors are internally harmonious.
Now is a time for forming a small ensemble and doing some recordings that highlight the quality of the amazing light harmonics. I am interested to see if I can communicate this new scale system to a group of musicians who have not the slightest idea how to put these tones into a traditional context. I will certainly keep you posted to when I have the next phase started.
Here are some of the most important things I have learned while following this thread of inspiration:
- Our entire world is vibrating and hence everything an has an electro-magnetic interaction.
- That means we are constantly exchanging our energy with everything around us.
- Consciousness extends minimally to the cellular level and most likely to the molecular.
- First Nation religion extends this to what we consider inanimate. I agree.
- Healing is the process of removing hindrances.
- Vibrational healing with crystals, aroma, ceremony, sound, light, tinctures, touch, all are different vibrational modalities that accomplish bringing the organism back into balance.
- The first thing the earth does when it has been harmed is begin healing. This includes bringing plants and microorganisms to the site of harm to begin the process. Gaia employs a sophisticated vibrational skill.
- Likes attract. Focusing on what you want to see will attract what you consciously work on. I am trying to figure out how to apply this given the current trends.
- Love harmonically brings living systems into balance.
This is the last element in this series that I am analyzing. Lead, Pb, (plumbum-Latin), element 82 is the second heaviest stable element. It is soft, malleable, blue-white element that tarnishes quickly in moist air to a dark grey. It may be the first metal that was ever smelted at approximately 7,000 BCE. The Wikipedia article was quite interesting the perspective of history, qualities and toxicity. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lead
It was established as toxic in the late 1800’s and is quickly integrated if ingested or inhaled. Basically, lead is toxic to every system of the body, especially the nervous system, though it is incorporated into various enzymes and mimics the elements it is supplanting causing biological havoc.
Alchemy is the oldest and first of the 7 metals of alchemy. It is related to redemption and transformation. Saturn’s metal is lead. It symbolizes contraction, stability, structure and materialism. Again, there are many aspects of the alchemical qualities and as a start; this is an article that was well written. https://theorderofthequest.wordpress.com/alchemy/saturn-lead/
Lead Scale
Lead Soundscape
Gold is the 79th element and one of the heaviest naturally occurring elements. It has been known since ancient times and artifacts from the ancient Ur (modern Iraq) civilization have been found and dated to 3,800 BCE, or 5,800 years ago. It is a shiny, soft, yellowish red, heavy malleable and ductile element. A one-gram piece of gold can be hammered into a one meter square sheet that is semi-transparent. It is one of the least reactive elements and will not react with oxygen at any temperature. It is resistant to heat and acid except “aqua regia” (nitric acid and hydrochloric acid) which will dissolve pure gold.
Because of its long association with humans and their crow like attraction to shiny things, it was an object to collect, adorn, barter and obsess over. Alchemically, gold is the symbol of transition to love, virtue and compassion. Interestingly, gold is considered a transition element within the periodic system. Vitality, life, health, radiance, wisdom, clarity, unification, virtue and light are all qualities associated with this element.
Though it is also considered to be biologically inert, some salts of gold are used to treat inflammation from arthritis. If pure gold is ingested, it is not absorbed or processed by the body at all.
Gold Scale
Gold Soundscape