Choose Any Icon: Bach's signature seal

by E. Alan Meece
UU Band of Writers
Eric A Meece, written at the meeting of May 3, 2020
Prompt: Choose Any Icon

I recently chose Bach's signature seal for my icon at the Generations Forum. You remember "generations" from my Who essay about My Generation. Back in Bach's day, no-one knew about generations, or even biology or DNA. They thought God created the world in 6 days. Bishop Ussher was even considered a great scientist for calculating the date of creation based on Bible chronology.

And yet, Bach created an icon as his personal seal that incorporates images similar to DNA, probably based on the alchemical caduceus symbol.

And the Toccata in F BWV 540 which his seal imitates contains two self-imitating canons that are like strands of DNA, each spiralling around and imitating the other. And the word toccata contains 4 letters, 3 of which are in the DNA code itself, T, C and A, and the 4th letter G is almost the same as the 4th letter in toccata, O, if you turn the light switch on from the right.

So how did Bach know about DNA? He must be one of the creators of the universe. I guess we all are, but he was one of the special gods who knew how to create beautiful spirals. The initials in his seal are even the same as those of Solomon's Temple. The name Solomon means Sun and Moon, [1] and Bach as well as King Solomon were certainly leading lights in the history of creation on Earth. And so are we all, at least dimmer lights. So, keep the light alive.


[1] Actually, the name Solomon does not mean Sun and Moon historically, because Sol is not the Sun in Hebrew, but in Latin. It means peace. But in the Song of Solomon a reference to the Sun and Moon occurs. So the similarity between the name Solomon and the names Sun and Moon is just an interesting and possibly-meaningful symbolic coincidence, and I believe this is referred to by occultists I have read.

LINKS

My Band of Writers Essays

Fly Away: The Who and Our Generations

Generations and The Fourth Turning