The Sound of Civilizations
by Jill Mattson
Does your music alter you?
“Vibrations, or sounds, influence our people!” wrote ancient officials. It may seem an outrageous idea at first glance, but many ancient dynasties lasted thousands of years. Today in the U.S., we grow tired of our president in merely four years.
I planned to uncover why many rulers believed this. I hunkered down into the study of antiquity…for twenty-five years, recording musical and esoteric secrets. Esoteric societies guarded this data, believing that whoever knew it could control people, and perhaps for the wrong reasons! They refused to document this secret information.
Esoteric students were divided according to their moral and psychic advancement into categories, such as initiates, disciples, adepts, and masters. Secrets of sound were confined to verbal discussions among proven adepts and masters, safeguarding this powerful information. Each esoteric school divulged a few secrets; but I studied so many, I accumulated a wealth of diverse vibratory knowledge. Merely considering these ideas exponentially increased my understanding of the power of music!
Musical Sounds of the Earliest Civilizations
Sparse writings from Rudolf Steiner discuss the musical system of the ancient Lemurians and Atlanteans. Many Mayan, Incan and Aztec writings are being decoded and added to this body of information. The earlier civilization, the Lemurians, listened to a descending musical scale. In this scale, the smallest distance between adjacent tones was equivalent to nine of our notes! This music connected the listener with the divine. Later, the Atlanteans claimed to enjoy a descending musical scale with the notes closer together. Yet, neighboring notes still represented seven of our musical notes. The Atlantean music connected man to his own divine spirit.
In order to hear Lemurian or Atlantean music, one would need clairaudience, as few notes would be within our hearing range. Steiner suggests that man had not “involved” into matter to the extent that we have today, enabling people to hear clairaudiently.
Ancient Civilizations and Sound Connections
The ancient Indian and Persian epochs boasted of a musical system built on the interval of six of our notes. Persian cosmetology mingled with writings about Zoroaster reflect that music escorted man towards a connection with the next lower hierarchy of spirit. This was the “Planetary Logos,” providing a spiritual experience.
Increased historical documents shed light on music of ancient Egypt and China. It was a belief that music was a powerful, controlling influence on the population. The rulers governed, regulated and policed the music people heard. By controlling the vibrations they exposed people to, officials believed they yielded a strong influence over them. They did the same thing with art. Ever wonder why the Egyptian art looked exactly the same over their 3,000 years in power? It was not allowed to change. The belief was these subtle vibrations changed people.
Ancient China & Cosmic Tones
Ancient Chinese rulers believed that each musical note was a connection to the divine. The rulers orchestrated concerts with 10,000 players, making plentiful and powerful connections to the divine. Wow! That is more people than the total living in my town. In a current example, the Latvian country of Estonia sponsors a week-long songfest every five years. These historic concerts boasted of half a million singers. This was a good showing for a country of only one million people. Many credit the historic courage of this tiny nation in their struggles for independence, to the energy created by this vitalizing, musical experience.
Ancient Chinese music centered on twelve notes. Each note was five of our notes apart and referred to as the “Lu Scale.” Musical sounds floated like the sounds of wind chimes, with no beginnings or endings. Tones still descended and were said to augment the imagination.
As the stars in the skies journeyed across the horizon, the belief was this changing energy influenced people. The music or “musical astrology” changed throughout the year. This provided support for personal and emotional challenges caused by the vibrations of planets in motion in our solar system. This musical Feng Shui varied as energy in nature changed, providing a balancing mechanism for the population! Instruments made out of the various elements were exclusively played at certain times; thus, further engineering the balancing effect of the music.
Greek, Roman Church & Modes of Musical Change
In the Greek epoch, tetra chords, two groups of four notes each, created modes, which resembled our scales. These modes characterized personalities, with modes named after people who preferred its mood. According to Steiner, this musical system enabled spiritual energy to descend to a greater extent, so mankind could see the world primarily through a physical body.
Control of music shifted to the Catholic Church in the Middle Ages. Initially adopting the Greek modes, they later dropped all but two, renaming them “major” and “minor.” Prior to this period, music was a series of ongoing tones. Adding an “amen” on the end of Gregorian chants and church liturgy, created the concept of a beginning and ending in a song.
Earlier writing suggests the sound of the first and third note of a scale sounded together, so harmonious today, was shrill and hard to listen to. As the Middle Ages progressed the third became a staple of harmony, and chords using the 1-3-5 notes of the scale flourished. In a more recent example, the jazz-sound introduced a chord with the seventh note of the scale added. Listeners considered it to be outrageous, scandalous and “the music of the devil.” Today, we do not consider jazz to be sinful, or even racy, relegating it to soothing elevator music. This suggests that populations get used to new sounds, and in essence, harmonize with them. Esoteric writing suggests that such harmonization transitioned people’s consciousness and experiences.
Renaissance-Era Civilization and Sound
Turn-of-the-century esoteric writing insists that the Renaissance music pulled the population out of the dark ages by introducing the perfection of chords, harmonies, and mathematical patterns. We may take note that early ornamental classical music inspired the excessively decorated architecture and dress of the time. One mystic writer revealed a concern about cold-hearted people hiding behind elaborate decoration. Hence, Beethoven was “over lit” to create music that enabled the masses to feel compassion. According to the writing, the record of charities in Europe occurred after people heard the music of Beethoven.
During the Renaissance people choose music for the first time as musicians made a living from public performances. Songs changed in key to accommodate singers’ vocal ranges. As a result, we created today’s Equal Temperament tuning system to allow easy transition between musical keys. Some liken this scale to “aural caffeine,” saying it influenced the Western Hemisphere to spur industrialization and modernization. In contrast, the Eastern Hemisphere played the older mathematic scales with soothing sounds and developed meditation practices. Now popular music is becoming worldwide, lessening cultural differences.
Popular Music Styles Today & What They Mean
So many popular music styles are changing rapidly from swing tunes, to jazz, to rock and roll, through heavy metal, and on to rap in just sixty years. At this time, the changes in our society have also been immense. Sixty years ago, it was novel to see color TV. Now, fax machines, cell phones and computer games have revolutionized our world. Once again, the sonic vibratory changes precede the physical ones.
Melodies sport sequential notes, displaying a system of twos. Rap music sounds a rhythmic series of the same note, a musical system of ones. In conclusion, musical systems throughout the ages reveal a pattern of frequencies becoming closer together, as civilizations learned various lessons. When a musical style stopped, the culture transitioned and re-birthed with new music. Throughout the ages, man incarnated into matter and duality, as the music descended, changed styles, and the space between neighboring notes decreased from nine of our notes to only one.
If listening to frequencies closer together precedes further separation from God, then reversing this process should facilitate evolution and our journey back to the divine. Listening to ancient musical patterns may expand our consciousness…perhaps leading to increased awareness, including that of the divine!
About the Author
Jill Mattson, a four-time author and sound healing expert, uses sound healing techniques with original music. Free sound healing mp3s at bottom of home page: www.JillsWingsOfLight.com. Special frequencies expand our consciousness; we can direct musical intervals, rhythms and harmonics to produce special effects!
#1 free mp3, Paint your Soul, contains soul soothing music and the Fibonacci numbers, vibrational patterns that God used in creating our world, transposed into tones. The Solfeggio tones are embedded to enhance spiritual enlightenment. #2 free mp3, Star Dust CD, contains heavenly music with the sounds of the planets and trace elements of stars! #3 free mp3 – Listen to the literal sounds of beautiful flower energy, embedded in the Healing Flower Symphonies.
