Unity Consciousness through Music
Published for a Class on the Evolution of Consciousness through Music:
Music is the sound vibration of air molecules, and the silence in between. Unity Consciousness is thinking, feeling and acting in ways that unite us to ourselves, others, nature, and to the God of our understanding. This unity consciousness lives in each note. Elsie Hamilton emphasized Rudolf Steiner’s observations of the unity in music by these words, “in music we shall be able to hear not only a note, but also what is behind the note, its spiritual content.” We are called to return to wholeness as humanity, to Unity Consciousness through the tonal vibration and resonance of our own hearts.
As the evolution of consciousness through music has unfolded, we have moved from the greatest unity, to the greatest individual expression, and now we are returning to the wholeness out of which we came, and which we never left. Since the time immemorial, the Shamans echoed the drum beat of the mother earth, creating a unified field of sound, through the rhythmic shamanic drumming, chanting and playing the flute, made from bone. A deep spiritual connection to nature and the elements is felt through this single tone. According to Primal Vibration, from The Secret Power of Music by David Tame, “the audible sound is considered to be an earthly reflection of a vibratory activity taking place beyond the physical world.”
So, how did we depart from a such a primal vibration of oneness? Throughout time, we have learned that human beings can compose melodies. The first melodies retained the meditative spiritual quality, with the ascension and descension of tone as civilizations rose. In India, healing sanskrit ‘Ragas’ were sung, and played with sitar and bamboo flute. In Ancient Egypt, the rite of passage, death was honored in ritual by harp, lute and sistrum. The ritual of group consciousness through the Tibetan chant revered the creation of the world.
It was with Ancient Greece, that individual expression arose. Pythagoras, is a pivotal figure in the vibrational alignments that we know of as the music of the spheres. He believed he could hear the music of the spheres, and that the body could be healed through vibrations, and with music. From the article, Audible and Inaudible Sound, from The Third Ear by Joachim-Ernst Berendt, the Third Ear, the ‘intuitive’ ear for vibration, tone, sound and music, much like the third eye, intuitive sight, is spoken of in high regard. The third ear, supports in tuning into frequencies, sounds, and vibrations beyond the sensory world, it is a spiritual sense.
As societies forgot this unified field of vibration, and sought materialism and power, music took on an atonal quality. With the Baroque, it was intentionally distorted, and the Romantic Era brought dissonance. With the Modern Era, music became a playground for artists, with the “Emancipation of Dissonance” to the “Retention of Melody.” The contemporary period brought forth a soothing unifying quality invoking the mysteries of the universe through the “Cosmic Mystery of the Triad.”
In Joachim-Ernst Berendt’s article, he spoke of the music of the solar wind and the geomagnetism. It feels current for these times, to be tuning our ‘third ear’ to this vibration, as we tune into the mother earth, Gaia, humanity and the evolving consciousness of the music of the spheres.