15

Human social harmony and synergies in all human dimensions, with commonalities as bonding element and diversity as dynamic factor.

Aesthetics as basic faculty inherent and to be discovered/developed in all humans: Critique of elitist notions on art.

Interrelation and balance of aesthetics and functionality;

Community aesthetics rooted in the rhythms and rituals of Community Life;  Critique of divisive effects of segregating aesthetics into “seven disciplines”

Critique of commercialization of art.

Critique of overspecialized artistry and star system as elitist and separative in bases and consequences

Specific Nuances of Art in mass communication.

  1. Total Human Development and Harmony Through Synergism

  2. Holistic Health Care and Medicine

  3. Deep Ecology and Harmony with Nature 

  4. Sense of History and Sense of Mission

  5. Civics and Democratic Governance

  6. Culture as Community Creativity

  7. Light-Seeking and Light-Sharing Education

  8. Gender Sensitivity, Equality & Harmony

  9. Reconstructive/Restor-ative Justice

10. Associative Economics, Social Capital and Sustainable Development

11. Synergetic Leadership and Organizations

12. Appropriate/Adaptive Technology

13. Mutual Enrichment of Families and Friendships

14. Human Dignity and Human Harmony: Human Rights and Peace

15. Aesthetics Without Boundaries: 'Art from the Heart'   

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Music, Humanity and Mysticism*

By Charles G. Wheelock, F.R.C.

This article was published in Rosicrucian Digest, Vol. 72, No. 1, 1994.

AS WE PASS from one experience to another, we come across a fundamental fact of life. There is music in breathing, in footsteps, in talking – even the clink of glassware will produce a musical note. Awareness is a base principle of mysticism. As one grows and expands, he or she will find how music, humanity and mysticism are all related.

From the previous, one may feel feel that breathing, glassware clinking and someone speaking are not music, but random sounds. Feelings, however depend upon perception. When Claude Debussy’s wondrous tone poem La Mer was performed for the first time, many critics commented that it sounded like random noise with no theme, no thread of logic. Those comments reflected the listeners’ consciousness – their inability to hear what Debussy was saying.

This article is not intended to be a dissertation on music, but an understanding of some basic music theory and operation is helpful. Most music is built on what is called the diatonic scale, which is composed of eight notes. Each note has a particular vibratory rate. The notes’ spacing and combination creates a particular harmony. The law of the triangle, an intrinsic law of nature, applies to the basics of interval harmony as well. If you were to choose any diatonic scale at any point and counted in threes, you would find what is is called a basic chord.

As already stated, chords gave three basic parts corresponding to the law of the triangle. A piece of music also has three basic parts: rhythm, melody and harmony.”
Rhythm is the “backbone” of music. It is the base of the melody and harmony. Without a strong rhythmic feel, music lacks any solidity. Rhythm is based upon time, and time in music is based upon meter. The pulse on accent’s placement in time will give a metric feel to the piece. For example you may be listening to a particular piece of music and observe a rhythmic feel; strong-weak-weak-weak, strong-weak-weak-weak. That piece of music is said to be in four-four time. The same holds true for waltz time. It’s rhythmic feel would be strong-weak-weak-weak, strong-weak-weak-weak.

Rhythm is based upon time, and time is related to consciousness.
Melodyis the story line of music; it is the passion, love, and tenderness of a particular work. Depending on how it is used, melody can be the color of the musical work.

Melody is the director of the music – the music depends on it, and the harmony colors the melody. It is the ideal of the composer personified. Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony is the ideal of universal brotherhood actualized in rhythm, melody and harmony. To me, the spirit of harmony has not been dramatically portrayed than this, Beethoven’s last symphony

Blending of Colors

Finally we come to harmony, the color of music. In fact, music borrows a term from the world of color: chromatics. In painting, chromatics is the gradual blending of the various colors of the spectrum: red slowly blends into orange, orange into yellow, and so on. Chromatics in music are the half steps. F to F#, G to G#, etc. Harmony is the blending of musical opposites. A particular dissonant interval, when played by itself, sounds very unpleasant. Yet, when one note in harmony is added, it blends the other two so that they no longer sound unpleasant; there is now a pleasing sound. The music of Johann Sebastian Bach is a good example. His music is the definitive example of this half-step or dissonant blending.

Despite their secular content, the cantatas that he penned can be a very effective tool in attuning with the inner self.
We now arrive at one of the most important principles of music – the principle of tension and release. At the beginning of most pieces is the I chord, or home chord.

When you hear this chord, it is stored in the subconscious mind. As the music moves from the home chord to subsequent chords, tension is created – yes, tension, but only in the mind of the listener. The composer utilizing this principle can weave a story of hope, fear, exaltation, or any emotion that people know well. Even if they’re not aware of it, people expect the release of this people expect the release of this tension, or the return to the home chord. The weaving of this tension and release can be infinite. It can be a bombastic roar moving to the release point, or it can be the notes’ gentle whispering to conclusion. The varieties are endless. They depend upon the imagination of the composer, the performer and the listener.

Each of us is the composed, the performer, and the listener in our own life. Our individual thoughts make our brand of music. What we choose to hold in our consciousness molds our character, and our character molds our personality. Do we choose to hold discordant of harmonious thoughts? If we find that we are choosing inharmonious thoughts, our performance will become discordant. Then again, as listeners we reap the harvest of the non-release of the non-release of tension; it climbs higher and higher. The harvest is poor physical and mental health. If we choose to hold thoughts of love and peace, we reap the rewards of a performance that is in harmony with the cosmic forces, and we have the added rewards of an infinite storehouse of magnificent compositions. We can then play upon the cosmic keyboard with added assurance.

Out one chord is born with us when we take our very first breath. This chord is the beginning of our particular symphony. It is our key, and as we go through life we find that we experience periods of tension and release. We cannot escape tension. We can, however, make the period of tension harmonious. We might fond that if we add one note, that area in our life becomes harmonious, though there is still tension.

Visualization

The key to adding this harmonious blend to our lives is visualization. If there is a problem that needs to be solve, all that one need to do is see the situation solved in the best interest of all concerned. The problem will not be solved like magic – but the inspiration to see the struggle through will be there, along with the method with which we need to work.

Keeping in mind that we are working like the symphonic composer, we slowly add to our melody – the to our rhythmic pulse, and finally to our harmony. When we are adding our ideal to the screen of consciousness, we must have adequate concentration.

Without this we will not have a strong picture. The tone picture will be weak and the magnetization will not be correct. We will not realize what we have visualized.

Finally, we release the picture, the idealized image, and let the inner self take over, expecting the problem or the visualization to be actualized. We have now set this particular part of our symphony into motion. We will reap the rewards of our concentrated thought vibration.

Vibratory Patterns

Thought, like music, travels in a vibratory pattern and is registered in our auric pattern. We can have a profound influence over our own lives and the lives of others if we just sit and reflect over the implications of our thoughts being finalized in our aura, while keeping in mind that our auras have an influence over material affairs.

In Rosicrucian teachings, we study a series of vowel sounds that effect these changes in the auric pattern. The physical as well as the psychic body vibratory pattern is altered by the intonation of these sounds. These vowels correspond to a musical note, a color in the solar spectrum, and a chemical element. When someone intones them at regular intervals, the changes will be like adding a single note, as spoken of earlier. There will be added harmony in one’s life. These vowels should be used in conjunction with visualization.

This now brings us to the core of mysticism. One needs to understand what mysticism is to reach its core. The major goal of mysticism is union and communion with the inner self. The inner self is our direct link with the omnipotent forces of the Cosmic. Communion with the inner self will bring one into greater awareness of his or her personal relationship with He who created the seen and unseen worlds.

Music is one of the finest tools of the aspiring mystic. Music can inspire our finest and noblest emotions. When used in conjunction with vowels, visualization, and meditation, music can uplift our consciousness to that unseen world where peace, love and harmony prevail.

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