T H E P L A N E T S
'A S T R O L O G I C A L' S U N M E R C U R Y V E N U S M O O N M A R S J U P R I T E R S A T U R N
'A S T R O N O M I C A L' E A R T H C E R E S U R A N U S N E P T U N E P L U T O
D W A R F P L A N E T S, M O O N S & A S T E R O I D S
'A S T R O N O M I C A L' E A R T H C E R E S U R A N U S N E P T U N E P L U T O
D W A R F P L A N E T S, M O O N S & A S T E R O I D S
“There is geometry in the humming of the strings. There is music in the spacing of the spheres.”
PYTHAGORAS
PYTHAGORAS
Mea culpa...before I dive off and start having oodles of fun with this incredibly rich topic I'd like to get my confession out of the way. Simply put, what I am creating here is a mash-up of astrology and astronomy. In reality the seven celestial forces are nothing whatsoever to do with the planets. This ancient and remarkably succinct system of categorising psychological conditions would work just as well were there no planetary attributions whatsoever; if you so wanted you could term them condition 1, 2, 3 etc. Whilst acknowledging that here is an overlap with astrology (on which I am not competent, or willing to comment) I believe that the conditions attributed to the planets are perfectly valid without association with planetary bodies. However, and here's the nub of my confession, what individual with a creative bone in his body would have the moral strength to bypass all the wonderful imagery that cascades from the subject? Certainly not me. And whilst acknowledging this error I compound it with literal associations with the planets that would only be possible with the benefits of modern imaging techniques unavailable to our ancestors who originated astrology with, for the most part, the naked eye. So here I am in the second decade of the 21st century commanding an immense intellectual and visual reservoir of material from the Hubble telescope to ancient Egypt via the Enlightenment and the Renaissance; but whilst I play with images and associations please bear in mind that for the most part these are completely spurious; these seven 'planetary' conditions are a perfectly good stand-alone system of psychological categorisation. I just couldn't resist combining these concepts with the graphic reality of their associated planetary bodies. I was seduced by their wonder and beauty, so recently revealed to us; and that's an excuse as old as the stars...mea maxima culpa.
I wol yow telle, as was me taught also, The foure spirites and the bodies sevene, By ordre, as ofte I herde my lord hem nevene. The firste spirit quiksilver called is, The second orpiment, the thridde, ywis, Sal armoniak, and the firthe brimstoon. The bodies sevene eek, lo! hem heer anoon: Sol gold is, and Luna silver we threpe, Mars yron, Mercurie quiksilver we clepe, Saturnus leed, and Jupiter is tin, And Venus coper, by my fader kin! — Geoffrey ChaucerDamn the Solar System. Bad light; planets too distant; pestered with comets; feeble contrivance; could make a better myself. — Lord Francis Jeffrey “The Sun, with all the planets revolving around it, and depending on it, can still ripen a bunch of grapes as though it had nothing else in the Universe to do.” Galileo Galilei “Transmitted at the speed of light, all events on this planet are simultaneous. In the electric environment of information all events are simultaneous, there is no time or space separating events.” Marshall McLuhan quotes “It may be that our role on this planet is not to worship God, but to create him.” Arthur C. Clarke quotes When I investigate and when I discover that the forces of the heavens and the planets are within ourselves, then truly I seem to be living among the gods. — Leon Battista Alberti “We are born at a given moment, in a given place and, like vintage years of wine, we have the qualities of the year and of the season of which we are born. Astrology does not lay claim to anything more.” Carl Gustav Jung quotes Who are we? We find that we live on an insignificant planet of a humdrum star lost between two spiral arms in the outskirts of a galaxy, tucked away in some forgotten corner of a universe in which there are far more galaxies than people. — Carl Sagan “The smallest children are nearest to God, as the smallest planets are nearest the sun” Jean Paul Richter quotes |
The classical count of planets is seven; this held true right up until 1851 with the discovery of. (and this included the Sun and Moon). All classical magic is based on this sevenfold principle. Since classical times we have discovered a few more; and there may be more to come.
Astrologers simply incorporated these new planets as and when they popped up. But for the modern magician this creates a dilemma; whether to continue to limit operations to the seven classical planets which magic and alchemy are based on or include the most recent planets in our workings. The answer for me is that we probably have to do both. We must recognise that for the most of human existance astronomy (judged as a physical science) was pathetically primitive and the model of the universe was pure supposition based on very limited information. But the ancient's idea of planets was not the same as ours. Planets represented archetypal forces. Not something you can drive a Mars rover over let alone walk on. These archetypal forces didn't just run away in shame the moment we took to space. They still exist. What is up for conjecture is whether the newly descovered planets also represent other (different) archetypal forces. I could be that the discovery of a greater solar system heralds an expansion in human consciousness and these new (physical) planets are matched with an expansion of the metaphysical pantheon. If so these newly discovered planets have absolute relevance to magic. The images sent back (or interpolated from the data of) the Hubble Telescope have certainly increased my sense of awe. Magicians (or any branch of mataphysics) straddle the gulf between astrophysics and human psychology. But the good news is that having widened to its logical extreme the gap seems to be closing again. Astro-physics (exploring the very big) and quantum-physics (exploring the very small) seem to be coming up with remarkably similar conclusions; all of which are beginning to sound very much like meta-physics. Both are trying to describe subjects that we don't have a vocabulary to communicate except in mystical terms. Planetary CorrespondencesAccording to the 'perennial philosophy', the universe is a living pattern, or network, of fields of resonance vibrating at different frequencies in the great chain of creation. [17] Everything in the universe is perceived as vibrating in descending frequency from the level of spirit to soul, mind, body and matter, which includes the various frequencies of the animal and plant worlds as well as the densest frequencies of the colours, metals, minerals and stones. Each field or level of resonance in the 'hierarchy of creation' is reflected in every other field, an understanding common to all the mystery traditions and central to astrology. The Tree of Life in the Kabbalah is also a reflection of this scheme, and if you are interested in these ideas, then I recommend that you read the books of Warren Kenton (Z'ev ben Shimon Halevi). |
Pythagoras, the Greek mathematician and philosopher, is credited with saying, “There is geometry in the humming of the strings. There is music in the spacing of the spheres.” This idea of the “Music of the Spheres” has endured over the centuries, ultimately informing how Kepler visualized the movements of the planets, which led him to formulate his laws of planetary motion. The notion that the stars, planets and galaxies resonate with a mystical symphony is a rather appealing one.
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400s BC Democritus proposes that the bright band in the night sky known as the Milky Way might consist of stars
300s BC Aristotle believes the Milky Way to be caused by "the ignition of the fiery exhalation of some stars which were large, numerous and close together" and that the "ignition takes place in the upper part of the atmosphere, in the region of the world which is continuous with the heavenly motions" 964 AD Abd al-Rahman al-Sufi (Azophi), a Persian astronomer, makes the first recorded observations of the Andromeda Galaxy[2] and the Large Magellanic Cloud[3][4] in his Book of Fixed Stars, and which are the first galaxies other than the Milky Way to be observed from Earth, 11th century Abū Rayhān al-Bīrūnī, another Persian astronomer, describes the Milky Way galaxy as a collection of numerous nebulous stars 11th century Ibn al-Haytham (Alhazen), an Arabian astronomer, refutes Aristotle's theory on the Milky Way by making the first attempt at observing and measuring the Milky Way's parallax,[6] and he thus "determined that because the Milky Way had no parallax, it was very remote from the earth and did not belong to the atmosphere" 12th century Ibn Bajjah (Avempace) of Islamic Spain proposes the Milky Way to be made up of many stars but that it appears to be a continuous image due to the effect of refraction in the Earth's atmosphere 14th century Ibn Qayyim Al-Jawziyya of Syria proposes the Milky Way galaxy to be "a myriad of tiny stars packed together in the sphere of the fixed stars" and that these stars are larger than planets 1521 Ferdinand Magellan observes the Magellanic Clouds during his circumnavigating expedition 1610 Galileo Galilei uses a telescope to determine that the bright band on the sky, the "Milky Way", is composed of many faint stars 1750 Thomas Wright discusses galaxies and the shape of the Milky Way 1755 Drawing on Wright's work, Immanuel Kant conjectures that the galaxy is a rotating disk of stars held together by gravity, and that the nebulae are separate such galaxies; he calls them Island Universes 1785 William Herschel carried the first attempt to describe the shape of the Milky Way and the position of the Sun in it by carefully counting the number of stars in different regions of the sky. He produced a diagram of the shape of the galaxy with the solar system close to the center 1845 Lord Rosse discovers a nebula with a distinct spiral shape 1918 Harlow Shapley demonstrates that globular clusters are arranged in a spheroid or halo whose center is not the Earth, and decides, correctly, that it is center is the center of the galaxy 1920 Harlow Shapley and Heber Curtis debate whether or not the spiral nebulae lie within the Milky Way 1923 Edwin Hubble resolves the Shapley-Curtis debate by finding Cepheids in the Andromeda galaxy 1930 Robert Trumpler uses open cluster observations to quantify the absorption of light by interstellar dust in the galactic plane; this absorption had plagued earlier models of the Milky Way 1932 Karl Guthe Jansky discovers radio noise from the center of the Milky Way 1933 Fritz Zwicky applies the virial theorem to the Coma Cluster and obtains evidence for unseen mass 1936 Edwin Hubble introduces the spiral, barred spiral, elliptical, and irregular galaxy classifications 1939 Grote Reber discovers the radio source Cygnus A 1943 Carl Keenan Seyfert identifies six spiral galaxies with unusually broad emission lines, named Seyfert galaxies 1949 J.G. Bolton, G.J. Stanley, and O.B. Slee identify NGC 4486 (M87) and NGC 5128 as extragalactic radio sources 1953 Gerard de Vaucouleurs discovers that the galaxies within approximately 200 million light years of the Virgo cluster are confined to a giant supercluster disk 1954 Walter Baade and Rudolph Minkowski identify the extragalactic optical counterpart of the radio source Cygnus A 1959 Hundreds of radio sources are detected by the Cambridge Interferometer which produces the 3C catalogue. Many of these are later found to be distant quasars and radio galaxies 1960 Thomas Matthews determines the radio position of the 3C source 3C 48 to within 5" 1960 Allan Sandage optically studies 3C 48 and observes an unusual blue quasistellar object 1962 Cyril Hazard, M.B. Mackey, and A.J. Shimmins use lunar occultations to determine a precise position for the quasar 3C 273 and deduce that it is a double source 1962 Olin Eggen, Donald Lynden-Bell, and Allan Sandage theorize galaxy formation by a single (relatively) rapid monolithic collapse, with the halo forming first, followed by the disk 1963 Maarten Schmidt identifies the redshifted Balmer lines from the quasar 3C 273 1973 Jeremiah Ostriker and James Peebles discover that the amount of visible matter in the disks of typical spiral galaxies is not enough for Newtonian gravitation to keep the disks from flying apart or drastically changing shape 1973 Donald Gudehus finds that the diameters of the brightest cluster galaxies have increased due to merging 1974 B.L. Fanaroff and J.M. Riley distinguish between edge-darkened (FR I) and edge-brightened (FR II) radio sources 1976 Sandra Faber and Robert Jackson discover the Faber-Jackson relation between the luminosity of an elliptical galaxy and the velocity dispersion in its center. In 1991 the relation is revised by Donald Gudehus 1977 R. Brent Tully and Richard Fisher publish the Tully-Fisher relation between the luminosity of an isolated spiral galaxy and the velocity of the flat part of its rotation curve 1978 Steve Gregory and Laird Thompson describe the Coma supercluster 1978 Donald Gudehus finds evidence that clusters of galaxies are moving at several hundred kilometers per second relative to the cosmic microwave background radiation 1978 Vera Rubin, Kent Ford, N. Thonnard, and Albert Bosma measure the rotation curves of several spiral galaxies and find significant deviations from what is predicted by the Newtonian gravitation of visible stars 1978 Leonard Searle and Robert Zinn theorize that galaxy formation occurs through the merger of smaller groups 1981 Robert Kirshner, August Oemler, Paul Schechter, and Stephen Shectman find evidence for a giant void in Boötes with a diameter of approximately 100 million light years 1985 Robert Antonucci and J. Miller discover that the Seyfert II galaxy NGC 1068 has broad lines which can only be seen in polarized reflected light 1986 Amos Yahil, David Walker, and Michael Rowan-Robinson find that the direction of the IRAS galaxy density dipole agrees with the direction of the cosmic microwave background temperature dipole 1987 David Burstein, Roger Davies, Alan Dressler, Sandra Faber, Donald Lynden-Bell, R.J. Terlevich, and Gary Wegner claim that a large group of galaxies within about 200 million light years of the Milky Way are moving together towards the "Great Attractor" in the direction of Hydra and Centaurus 1987 R. Brent Tully discovers the Pisces-Cetus Supercluster Complex, a structure one billion light years long and 150 million light years wide 1989 Margaret Geller and John Huchra discover the "Great Wall", a sheet of galaxies more than 500 million light years long and 200 million wide, but only 15 million light years thick 1990 Michael Rowan-Robinson and Tom Broadhurst discover that the IRAS galaxy IRAS F10214+4724 is the brightest known object in the Universe 1991 Donald Gudehus discovers a serious systematic bias in certain cluster galaxy data (surface brightness vs. radius parameter, and the Dn method) which affect galaxy distances and evolutionary history; he devises a new distance indicator, the reduced galaxian radius parameter, rg, which is free of biases 1992 First detection of large-scale structure in the cosmic microwave background indicating the seeds of the first clusters of galaxies in the early Universe 1995 First detection of small-scale structure in the cosmic microwave background 1995 Hubble Deep Field survey of galaxies in field 144 arc seconds across. 1998 The 2dF Galaxy Redshift Survey maps the large scale structure in a section of the Universe close to the Milky Way 1998 Hubble Deep Field South 1998 Discovery of accelerating universe 2000 Data from several cosmic microwave background experiments give strong evidence that the Universe is "flat" (space is not curved, although space-time is), with important implications for the formation of large-scale structure 2001 First data release from the on-going Sloan Digital Sky Survey 2004 The European Southern Observatory discovers Abell 1835 IR1916, the most distant galaxy yet seen from Earth 2004 The Arcminute Microkelvin Imager begins to map the distribution of distant clusters of galaxies |
what I’m listening to at this very moment was recorded by two automated NASA probes — and all the music itself was produced by the planets and moons of our solar systems.
Yep, I’m listening to “Symphonies of the Planets,” the five-volume collection of ambient space drone music released in 1992 by Lasterlight Records. WhenVoyager I and II made their 5-billion-mile journey across the solar system, the probes recorded electromagnetic waves in the soundless void of space surrounding Jupiter, Saturn and Uranus. For instance, the probes picked up the interaction of solar wind on the planets magnetospheres, which releases ionic particles with an audible vibration frequency. Essentially, we can then translate these waves into sound waves and put them on an album. The probes also recorded:
“Music is the mediator between the spiritual and the sensual life.”
Ludwig van Beethoven “I despise a world which does not feel that music is a higher revelation than all wisdom and philosophy” Ludwig van Beethoven The classical count of planets is seven and that includes the sun and earth. All classical magic is based on this. Since then we have discovered a few more and there may be more to come. So the dillema is whether to limit ourselves to the seven classical planets which magic and alchemy are based on or include the most recent planets in our workings. The answer for me is that we have to do both. We must recognise that for the most of human existance astronomy was pathetically primitive and the model of the universe was pure supposition based on very limited information. Their idea of planets was not our idea of planets. Planets represented archetypal forces .Not something you can drive a mars rover over. These archetypal forces still exist, probably always will. Whether the newly descovered planets represent other archetypal forces is for us to decide. Classical astronomy had more in common with modern psychology than astrophysics. Do the newly discovered planets have any relevance to magic? http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/10/24/185_ad_supernova_is_rcw_86/ |
Well you can forget about turning base metal into gold for a start. Alchemy is simply a vast body of ancient religious literature cloaked in fascinating literary and visual allegory. Or is it?
Magical planetary associations are useful in many aspects of ritual and spell craft. Read on to discover the magical associations of each planet and the sun and moon.
Magical Planetary Associations - Sun
Magical properties of the sun are success, honor and energy. The sun is associated with the number one. Colors associated with the sun are yellow and gold. Other magical planetary associations of the sun include the oak tree, sunflower, topaz and frankincense. The sun is also symbolic of male deity.
Magical Planetary Associations - Moon
Magical properties of the moon include intuition and peace. The moon is associated with the number two. Colors associated with the moon are white and silver. Other magical planetary associations of the moon include the willow tree, orchids, quartz crystals and jasmine. The moon is also symbolic of female deity.
Magical Planetary Associations - Mercury
Magical properties of Mercury are communication, thinking and learning. Mercury is associated with the number five. Colors associated with Mercury are gray and yellow. Other magical planetary associations of Mercury include the palm tree, lime, opal and cloves.
Magical Planetary Associations - Venus
Magical properties of Venus are friendships, sociability and emotions. Venus is associated with the number six. Colors associated with Venus are aqua blue and pink. Other magical planetary associations of Venus include the laurel tree, roses, emeralds, and doves.
Magical Planetary Associations – Mars
Magical properties of Saturn are realism, self preservation, self control and restrictions. Saturn is associated with the number eight. Colors associated with Saturn are indigo and black. Other magical planetary associations of Saturn are the cypress tree, lilies, sapphires and myrrh.
Magical Planetary Associations - Jupiter
Magical properties of Jupiter are opportunity, wealth, expansion and finances. Jupiter is associated with the number three. Colors associated with Jupiter are blue and violet. Other magical planetary associations of Jupiter include the olive tree, clover, lapis lazuli and copal.
Magical Planetary Associations - Neptune
Magical properties of Neptune are psychic energy, occultism, subconscious and spirit. Neptune is associated with the number seven. Colors associated with Neptune are lavender and purple.
Magical Planetary Associations - Uranus
Magical properties of Uranus are changes, news, tension and knowledge. Uranus is associated with the number four. Colors associated with Uranus are green and brown.
Magical Planetary Associations - Pluto
Magical properties of Pluto are rebirth, transformation and evolution. Pluto is associated with the number zero. Colors associated with Pluto are black and brown
Magical Planetary Associations - Sun
Magical properties of the sun are success, honor and energy. The sun is associated with the number one. Colors associated with the sun are yellow and gold. Other magical planetary associations of the sun include the oak tree, sunflower, topaz and frankincense. The sun is also symbolic of male deity.
Magical Planetary Associations - Moon
Magical properties of the moon include intuition and peace. The moon is associated with the number two. Colors associated with the moon are white and silver. Other magical planetary associations of the moon include the willow tree, orchids, quartz crystals and jasmine. The moon is also symbolic of female deity.
Magical Planetary Associations - Mercury
Magical properties of Mercury are communication, thinking and learning. Mercury is associated with the number five. Colors associated with Mercury are gray and yellow. Other magical planetary associations of Mercury include the palm tree, lime, opal and cloves.
Magical Planetary Associations - Venus
Magical properties of Venus are friendships, sociability and emotions. Venus is associated with the number six. Colors associated with Venus are aqua blue and pink. Other magical planetary associations of Venus include the laurel tree, roses, emeralds, and doves.
Magical Planetary Associations – Mars
Magical properties of Saturn are realism, self preservation, self control and restrictions. Saturn is associated with the number eight. Colors associated with Saturn are indigo and black. Other magical planetary associations of Saturn are the cypress tree, lilies, sapphires and myrrh.
Magical Planetary Associations - Jupiter
Magical properties of Jupiter are opportunity, wealth, expansion and finances. Jupiter is associated with the number three. Colors associated with Jupiter are blue and violet. Other magical planetary associations of Jupiter include the olive tree, clover, lapis lazuli and copal.
Magical Planetary Associations - Neptune
Magical properties of Neptune are psychic energy, occultism, subconscious and spirit. Neptune is associated with the number seven. Colors associated with Neptune are lavender and purple.
Magical Planetary Associations - Uranus
Magical properties of Uranus are changes, news, tension and knowledge. Uranus is associated with the number four. Colors associated with Uranus are green and brown.
Magical Planetary Associations - Pluto
Magical properties of Pluto are rebirth, transformation and evolution. Pluto is associated with the number zero. Colors associated with Pluto are black and brown
It’s fascinating to think that some of the most beautiful and haunting music I’ve heard in my life isn’t the work of British electronic artists. Nope, what I’m listening to at this very moment was recorded by two automated NASA probes — and all the music itself was produced by the planets and moons of our solar systems.
Yep, I’m listening to “Symphonies of the Planets,” the five-volume collection of ambient space drone music released in 1992 by Lasterlight Records. WhenVoyager I and II made their 5-billion-mile journey across the solar system, the probes recorded electromagnetic waves in the soundless void of space surrounding Jupiter, Saturn and Uranus.
For instance, the probes picked up the interaction of solar wind on the planets magnetospheres, which releases ionic particles with an audible vibration frequency. Essentially, we can then translate these waves into sound waves and put them on an album. The probes also recorded:
Sadly, the albums are out of print and mostly available in used or bootleg form; fortunately, a friend of mine had a copy, so here we are. Whether you’re a space junky or an electronic music fan, you really need to get your hands on these.
Yep, I’m listening to “Symphonies of the Planets,” the five-volume collection of ambient space drone music released in 1992 by Lasterlight Records. WhenVoyager I and II made their 5-billion-mile journey across the solar system, the probes recorded electromagnetic waves in the soundless void of space surrounding Jupiter, Saturn and Uranus.
For instance, the probes picked up the interaction of solar wind on the planets magnetospheres, which releases ionic particles with an audible vibration frequency. Essentially, we can then translate these waves into sound waves and put them on an album. The probes also recorded:
- Waves from the magnetospheres
- Trapped radio waves bouncing between each planet and the inner surface of its atmosphere
- Electromagnetic field noise in space itself
- Charged particle interactions of each planet, its moons and solar wind
- Waves from charged particle emissions from the rings of some planets
Sadly, the albums are out of print and mostly available in used or bootleg form; fortunately, a friend of mine had a copy, so here we are. Whether you’re a space junky or an electronic music fan, you really need to get your hands on these.