Mozart's "Jupiter" Symphony #41 Finale is a fabulous Olympian achievement in counterpoint inspired by Bach. Click "more info" and watch NPR's commentary too.
The Mozart 41 Finale played by the Vienna Symphony
Then, of course, there's Pete Townshend and The Who's Quadrophenia. It is musical alchemy. Four themes in one, sort of like The World card! "The Rock" is the philosopher's stone of rock! Picture the 4 members of The Who on the world card: Keith is the Bull (earth/Faith), Roger is the Lion (fire/Strength), Pete is the Eagle (water/Love), and John is the Man (air/Temperance).
Here is a list of other chakra music. For example, in the new age, ambient, visionary music field of today, a number of fine works have been created.
Topping the list is Chakra Gold by Aetherium, who are Kevin Kendle and Chris Puleston. brief excerpt of each chakra
The Song of the Tree by Lis Addison (5th chakra only in this video)
Chakras by Magnetic Wind (see also part 2)
Light Music by Richard Shulman some tracks available here; first track seems to be crown chakra
Sacred Love by Christopher Lloyd Clarke, "the most beautiful chakra music in the world," a heart chakra piece, from supermindmusic
A Rainbow Path by Kay Gardner
Music for a Busy Head by Absolute Ambient/Matt Coldrick
Fresh Aire II (1977) by Mannheim Steamroller features a suite of 7 "doors" first door second door third door fourth door fifth door sixth door seventh door (7th door reminds me of The Who's Tommy)
Fresh Aire 7 (1991) is the Chakras of the Body Chakras 1 and 2 Chakra 3 Chakra 4 Chakra 5 Chakra 6 Chakra 7
The Seven Metals of Alchemy by Mannheim Steamroller
Reiki, Chakra Meditation Music, New Age Music Therapy, Low Pulse Bio Movement, Relaxation - Composed by Gibi del Barrio
Heart Chakra and the other chakras by Pat Simmons, from Chakra Mandalas
Chakra Healing by Dean Evenson and Soundings of the Planet
Chakra Meditation by Kim Scholten, with art by Walter Bruneel
Chakra Journeys by Seckund Naychur
The Seven Stages of Alchemical Transformation by Seth Osborn
Chakra Suite by Steven Halpern excerpt
Chakra Chants I and II and Chakra Dance by Jonathon Goldman 2nd chakra 4th chakra 5th chakra 6th chakra 7th chakra
Chakra Healing Zone by David and Steve Gordon
Second sacral chakra, with flute by Robin Silver (composer of music for Anodea Judith's chakra video)
Chakra Healing Zone by various artists, including David and Steve Gordon, Sophia, Shajan and Robin Silver
Anodea Judith, The Illuminated Chakras with music by Robin Silver
Chakra Healing Music by Meditative Mind
Chakra Healing Chants by Sophia
Kundalini Rising by Phillip Kanakis
The 10 Minute Chakra by Akshara Weave
Rhythms of the Chakras. Volume 2 by Glen Velez
I will mention others here as I find or remember them. Lots of chakra music exists. Try using a search engine or you tube search if you want to see more examples.
Bach's toccata is more energetic than some of today's more-meditative new age chakra music. Toccata in F is more like the venerable Hindu tradition of the chakra dance. It is energetic music that raises kundalini through our "energy centers." Here are some of the many videos on you tube of the more energetic kind of chakra music (with some sensual dancing too!).
Dance the Chakras
Ana Brett - Kundalini Yoga Dance Cardio Blast
Kundalini Belly Dance Tribe
Arabian kundalini dance, and
Part 2 includes a snake at the 5th chakra and a group dance at the 7th.
Awakening the Kundalini Serpent
Innerverse - Awakening The Serpent
Swami Ji Jaisiya's fire chakra dance (3rd chakra)
Notice how the theme of this excellent music resembles Bach's 3rd chakra theme. See links to the other chakras.
Chakra Dance by Louis Gervais to Indonesian gamelan music by the Suara Parahiangen
Powerful Tantra music by David Parsons
Devi Dhyani performing a Sacred Shamanic Chakra Dance to Pink Floyd's
Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun
linernotes
Here are liner notes for the Toccata in F by Bach, quoted from Lionel Rogg's collection of organ works in 1970 at Arlesheim, on Harmonia Mundi, and notes by Harry Halbreich, translated by Frank Dobbins, from Michel Chapuis' great 1968 performance of the Bach organ works on Valois; plus the comments by Hermann Keller quoted from the Wikipedia article.
"On taking a closer look at the toccata (originally from "toccare", meaning to touch or to play on a keyboard as opposed to "cantare", and "suonare"), it is almost certain that Bach contributed in large measure to giving it its modern aspect, that of a brilliant piece characterized by an implacable rhythm.... With the "Dorian" Toccata in D minor (BWV 538) and the Toccata in F major (BWV 540), Bach left a definitive imprint on the toccata. We have seen that they are characterized by an uninterrupted movement, an impetus engendered by a motif which is less of a theme than an impulsion which, by its very structure, invites development. Bach is the unrivalled master of this type of musical dialectic. If the "Dorian" Toccata already achieves formal perfection, the Toccata in F major, by virtue of its proportions and, perhaps, even of its spirit, might be compared to the most impressive achievements in Gothic architecture. And one is tempted to analyse it in architectural terms. (See cathedrals here and in the video above) Because, after the double portico of flamboyant arabesques alternating between the manuals and the pedal, the ribs of a vaulting of ogival tracery are evoked by the powerful scaffolding of broken arpeggios, conceived as a great succession of modulations which lead successively to the neighbouring keys of D, A and G minor (three landings in which the initial motif re-appears, treated as a trio), before returning to the dominant on which the work culminates before coming to an end.... the Fugue in F major... is... a double fugue the last part of which super-imposes contrasting elements. The purity and richness of its composition and the flawless perfection of its tonal structure place this fugue assuredly among the finest Bach ever wrote." -- Lionel Rogg
"With its 438 bars, the Toccata is really one of the most gigantic and one of the most wonderfully balanced structures to be found in Bach's work. In a mood of Easter rejoicing, a luminous canon in two parts is presented over a great pedal point spanning fifty-four bars. Linked to this is a majestic solo for the pedals of daring virtuosity. These two elements return in the course of a counter-exposition in the dominant key; then a cadential formula with chromatic chords, whose role as an architectural breathing-space is shown to be important by what follows, leads to the vast central section. This alternates a new fiery and flamboyant theme with three periods of equal length that bring back the initial theme successively in D minor, A minor and G minor. During the whole of this middle section, the colouring becomes darker, and the anxious modulation, sometimes very daring, contrasting with the radiant tonal security of the opening, give it the character of a kind of great development. The piece ends with a shortened and varied recapitulation of the first section but its tormented harmonies, recalling those of the middle section, elevate its role to the level of synthesis crowning the whole, a role enhanced by its brevity. The two themes of this Toccata are undoubtedly related. Shortly before the end we hear the famous second chord on C minor, which drew from Mendelssohn the exclamation: << When the modulation at the end happens it seems as if the church will collapse: Bach was really a terrible cantor! >>. The richness of the rhythmic and harmonic invention, as well as the supreme perfection of the proportions prevent any feeling of boredom when hearing this colossal fresco." -- Harry Halbreich
Hermann Keller expresses his rapture as follows: "At the beginning the extensive linear construction of the two voices in canon, the proud calmness of the solos in the pedal, the piercing chord strokes, the fiery upswing of the second subject, the bold modulatory shifts, the inwardness of the three minor movements, the splendour of the end with the famous third inversion of the seventh chord, who would not be enthralled by that?"
From You Tube, I saw this comment on Zappacosta's page: "The piece reminds me of a rivulet moving from an obscure region of the mountains back to the sea, much like our soul's excursion from an obscure terrestrial setting on this small planet--universally speaking--back to the (our) source, heavenly abode, God family, etc." - hilljhyt
On Karl Richter's video, Eleuthero51 writes: "This is a work of Bach's that is like the construction of a Gothic Skyscraper ... beauty all the way from the ground to heaven."
Also from You Tube, here is Dan Campolieta's description, posted on his excellent video of Toccata in F:
The longest of Bach's extant organ preludes, there is some question as to when this piece was actually composed, and if indeed it should be coupled with the Fugue in F Major, BWV 540/2, which is not nearly as grand and complex as the toccata. Due to this uncertainty, the toccata is often performed separately, as is the case here.
The work begins with a canon between the hands, with the right hand leading, over an F pedal tone in the bass. This is followed by an impressive pedal solo. After the piece's first cadence, Bach repeats the canon in inversion, with the left hand leading, now in the key of C Major. The second pedal solo ends with the hands rejoining with off-beat chords containing unexpected harmonies. These chords will serve as important transitional material for the rest of the piece.
The remainder of the toccata is joyous in character and has the feeling of an unending song, as cadences are rare and the piece is continually spinning in new directions. A new theme is introduced containing similar pitches to the opening canon, but with a more upward trajectory. This becomes a ritornello which leads through the circle of fifths. At the end of the episode, Bach returns to the transitional chords, leading to an unusual cadence (V to V 4/2 of Neopolitan) which also navigates through a B-A-C-H motif in the pedal.
Following is a trio based on the opening canon theme. At this point, all the material for the piece has been introduced. Bach continues to alternate between ritornello episodes and this trio material. Bach's contrapuntal mastery shines through because each time the trio section occurs, the parts are inverted so that by the end of the piece, each hand and the feet have played each of the three musical lines in their respective registers. From a technical standpoint, the pedal parts in these sections are some of the most difficult organ excerpts in the entire repertoire to perform in context.
The final ritornello episode is cut short and leads to a long coda beginning in B-flat and then transitioning to a long C pedal. For the last time, we hear the transitional chords, the V 4/2 of Neapolitan cadence, the B-A-C-H motif, and the final cadence in F Major.
Combining elements of the North German pedal toccata, Italian ritornello, and flawless counterpoint, it is no surprise why this piece is one of the most well-known of Bach's works.
Performed on the 1961 Aeolian-Skinner with 68 ranks at historic Asylum Hill Congregational Church in Hartford, CT. Dan Campolieta has served as Organist and Associate Music Director at Asylum Hill Congregational Church since 2007, and is also a composer and jazz pianist.
http://www.dancampolieta.com
BACK to Toccata in F: Bach, Chakras, Tarot
Here's a table showing how each of the 7 chakras are indicated
by each of the 7 sections of Bach's Toccata in F.
Read from the bottom up.
| Chakra Seven | Uplifting theme "stretched," representing eternity | chariot theme ends on an unresolved chord, leading into struggle theme: yang chakra | Final chords in F symbolize the throne of God | Uplifting theme predominates, symbolizing crown chakra | ||
| Chakra Six | Uplifting theme has 3 repeats, with all 3 triple chords in the high octave: the 3 eyes, & the 3 virtues | chariot theme ends on a peaceful tonic chord, yin chakra | B flat symbolizes high chakra | Chariot theme (played by right hand) and original "snake" canon theme (played by left hand) heard in counterpoint, symbolizing synchronized yang and yin hemispheres in the 3rd eye | ||
| Chakra Five | Uplifting theme has 4 repeats, with two triple chords in high octave. | chariot theme ends on an unresolved chord, leading into struggle theme: yang chakra | in repeat of original theme, the key is g minor, a relative of d minor of 3rd chakra | Brief, businesslike chords without base notes introduce repeat of original theme in "purification" chakra | original theme heard in high and middle notes as it moves downward, showing higher chakra | Right hand enters before the left in repeat of original theme |
| Chakra Four | Uplifting theme has 5 wandering (unstruck) repeats instead of four, symbolizing Venus (pentacle). One triple chord is heard in high octave (first level God is found) | chariot theme ends on a peaceful tonic chord, yin chakra | in repeat of original theme, dominant key returns in relative form of a minor | Poignant theme introduces repeat of original "snake" theme, representing heart chakra | original theme heard in high and low notes as it moves downward, showing middle chakra | Left hand leads during repeat of original theme |
| Chakra Three | Uplifting theme enters strongly for the first time, symbolizing will; repeated 4 times, with no triple chords in high octave. Uplifting theme returns to open each succeeding chakra | chariot theme ends on an unresolved chord, leading into struggle theme: yang chakra | in repeat of original theme, tonic key returns in relative form of d minor | Power chords introduce repeat of original "manifesting" or "snake" theme, representing power chakra | original snake theme heard in middle and low notes as it moves downward, showing lower chakra | Right hand leads during repeat of original theme |
| Chakra Two | feminine left hand leads original canon snake theme: yin chakra | chariot theme is heard 7 times, once in each chakra (except chakra one, and heard twice in 6th chakra). In 2nd chakra, chariot theme ends on a peaceful tonic chord: yin | dominant key, C major; lower down on the scale. Lower notes = feminine/yin chakra | original manifesting theme predominates; sounds sweeter | pedal solo grounds the listener, but more freely | |
| Chakra One | masculine right hand leads in the original, manifesting "snake" canon (imitation) theme, indicating yang chakra | pedal solo ends on a discordant note: indicates yang chakra | tonic key, F major | original manifesting "snake" theme predominates | pedal solo grounds the listener in lower chakra |
BACK to Chakras and the Toccata
Most recommended recordings
Finding the 1970 Lionel Rogg definitive version of the Toccata in F and other Bach organ works on CDs issued on the Harmonia Mundi label
seems to be getting harder.
On the Answers.com page it is listed as
Bach: L'Oeuv're d'Orgue, but copies might not be available for sale. If it costs about $70, make sure you get all 12 discs. If you see the dark-colored
cover with the angel, that's the one. Meanwhile, if the 1968 Michel Chapuis version
is available anywhere (volume 6 of his recording of Bach organ works, L'ouvre d'Orgue), grab it. His performance on the sparkling Schnitger organ at
Zwolle Holland brings out the feeling and significance of the solar plexus and heart sections very effectively. Rogg and Chapuis both play it in a smooth,
graceful and flowing style, unlike the performances by Biggs and many others which are too staccato.
Go to Amazon.com and type "Toccata in F Bach 540" in the search box and many fine available recordings will come up which you can sample or buy. They have a new recording by Michael Murray at Zwolle on Telarc. He's good, so it might be worth it. Try typing in Lionel Rogg or Michel Chapuis too in case there are some copies available.
Some releases available in 2009
Michael Murray, Bach at Zwolle (Telarc)
Robert Kobler, Bach: Organ Works / Köbler, Eger, Albrecht, Otto, Et Al: 15 CDs, 189 works (Berlin Classics 184172)
Agnes Luchterhandt, Scene Bach, Byrd, Weckmann, Et Al / Luchterhandt, Janssen (MD&G (Dabringhaus & Grimm))
Douglas Major, Masterworks By Bach (Gothic Records)
Johannes Strobl, Scheidemann, BÖHM: Christ Lag In Todesbanden; Bach, Buxtehude, Etc (Audite 92560)
James Hammann (Toccata in F) Guilmant In America (Raven Recordings (Classical) 330)
Helmut Walcha, Bach: Great Organ Works (Deutsche Grammophon)
Karl Richter, Bach: Organ Works (Deutsche Grammophon)
Hans-Jurgen Ander-Donath, Orgelkonzert in der Dresdner Frauenkirche [ORIGINAL RECORDING REISSUED] (Berlin Classics)
Marcus St. Julien, Romantics & Classics (Raven)
Some of the recordings recommended by listeners and released before July 2007 are listed here.
BACK to Toccata in F: Bach, Chakras, Tarot
FOOTNOTES
Footnote: alternative views of the kundalini pattern
Some occult symbols (like the Golden Dawn's Tree of Life) reverse the positions of the planets, putting outer planets at the top instead of the Sun and Moon. The planets' places on this "Tree's" 10 "spheres" is based on another version of the "stairway to heaven": the Greek cosmos with the earth at the center of the universe, leading up from Earth, then to the fastest planet Moon, then up the ladder's 7 steps to the slowest planet Saturn, and beyond; with Sun in the middle of the stairway (which was actually the orbital path of the Earth). More about this on a future webpage. See also Planetary Dynamics
Some traditional yogis do not say that the two currents switch from side to side, but that the feminine, lunar Ida current flows only on the left side of the body, and the masculine, solar Pingala current only on the right. Some say they only cross each other twice; at the 3rd and 5th chakras. I think this grand symbol contains any of these interpretations.
If correlated to astrology, the current can still be seen both as running up and down on one side, or as switching from side to side. If all the yin signs, representing the lunar Ida current, are all placed on the left (as in this table), and all the yang signs, representing the solar Pingala current, are all placed on the right, as on the Medicine Wheel and the Tree of Life, then (as I mentioned) the currents still shift back and forth as they proceed through the sign sequence during the seasons of the year. If the currents only switch at the 3rd and 5th chakras, then they mark the divisions between the 3 parts of the soul. Many clairvoyants observe the currents switching and the direction of spin changing, from one chakra to the next.
Anodea Judith correlates the Moon with chakra 2, and Jupiter with chakra 6, and many authors follow this model. In this case, as I see it, the yin chakras 2,4,6 can be correlated with these planets (Jupiter with chakra 6 and Moon with chakra 2) if the whole series is flipped upside down, with Saturn (7th chakra) at the top (like the Golden Dawn's Tree of Life/Saturn = World card or Binah), while the yang chakras 1,3,5,7 continue to be correlated to the original Sun-at-the-top model shown above. Thus one current is pointing up, and the other is pointing down. Venus at the center, of course, fits both ways.
However you look at and symbolize kundalini, it is the process of transformation that counts the most. Anodea Judith pointed out that the chakras are
"a template for transformation," a map of the powers within us and how to develop and balance them. Alchemists called this "the great work." Bach's Toccata in F
puts it into music. It is the template for transformation in sound, a precise map of the spiritual journey. The music reveals the lessons we need to learn at
each level, and the rivers, valleys and mountains we cross on our way toward becoming ever more-perfect expressions of the divine energy that we are.
Above the alternative kundalini views I mentioned, I offer vowel sounds to tone your chakras. More traditionally, "seed sounds" are given. They are also great for getting in touch with your chakras, as Robin Krasny mentioned in her video. Remember though that the vowel sounds in these seed sounds are the same "ah" ending in "mmm" for all 7 seeds. So what matters here is to emphasize and stretch out the consonants with which the first 5 chakra seed sounds begin to activate those different chakras, since they create the direction of the sound. Krasny also offers excellent keywords or mottos for each chakra.
Root Chakra 1 = Lam.... "I have"
Sacral Chakra 2 = Vam.... "I feel"
Solar Plexus Chakra 3 = Ram.... "I can"
Heart Chakra 4 = Yam.... "I love"
Throat Chakra 5 = Ham.... "I speak"
Third Eye Chakra 6 = Ahm.... "I see"
Crown Chakra 7 = Om (which is also the sound of the central back-bone channel or shushumna that connects all the chakras, which is the held pedal notes in the Toccata in F), or silence.... "I know"
BACK to Bach, chakras, tarot: the alternative ways of representing the kundalini pattern
Footnote: The myth of the serpent churning the ocean of milk: The most reknowned bas-relief carving at the famous Angkor Wat temple in Cambodia relates the Hindu story of Vishnu using a serpent being pulled back and forth by 108 gods and asuras (demons), 54 gods pulling one way, and 54 asuras pulling the other, spiralling around the central point (Mt. Meru), to churn the ocean of milk in order to produce the elixir of immortality. This myth obviously coincides with the two snake themes in Bach's Toccata in F consisting of 108 bars, 54 for each theme, each moving in opposite directions, opening up the hero's journey to immortality and the elixir of life. The churning of milk coincides with the water element being turned in the vortex of the second chakra. It also coincides with our Milky Way spiral galaxy. The gods and demons represent the light and the dark, or conscious and subconscious, both of which we need to embody in order to attain enlightenment.
The actual carving at Angkor Wat appears to feature 180 instead of 108 gods and demons, 88 and 92 respectively, which may relate to the number of days between the equinox and solstice. According to the Oriental Architecture site, there are 5 monumental guardian gates to the fortified temple city of Angkor Thom. In front of each gate stand giant statues of 54 gods (to the left of the causeway) and 54 demons (to the right of the causeway) and they are said to relate to the story depicted at Angkor Wat.
The story of the "108 gods and demons pulling the serpent in opposite directions" is also told in the documentary by John Bush Journey of Buddhism, Prajna Earth, which depicts the Angkor Wat carving and other great spiritual art and practices in the region. Angkor Wat is the largest temple in the world, the greatest of 40 other surviving temples of Angkor, and is recognized as a wonder and a masterpiece. Like Bach's Toccata, Angkor Wat is a model of the universe, and is built to be oriented toward the solstices and equinoxes and the four directions. Like the Taj Mahal, it has four towers surrounding a fifth in the center in a "quincunx" formation. Another temple near Angkor Wat (see under symbolism) has 108 towers to represent the 108 gods on Mt. Meru, the sacred mythic symbol of the center of the universe and home of the gods.
The churning of the ocean of milk is also depicted in other Cambodian and Hindu temples. Many Buddhist and Hindu temples have 7 levels like the chakras, including (according to the Bush documentary) the great Buddhist temple of Borobudur in Java. 9 levels is also a common motif in many others. Like the Taj Mahal, Hindu Temples such as Borobudur, Angkor Wat and Kandariya are built with many "self-similar" repeating patterns-- what we now call fractals, as is the Toccata in F, the world's greatest musical temple.
BACK to Bach, chakras tarot: Chakra Two
Footnote: Some intriguing possible links to string theory are opening up. Remember that I mentioned how Titus Burckhardt writes in Alchemy, "a serpent or dragon as the image of cosmic power is to be found in all parts of the world... A reptile moves without legs and by means of an uninterrupted rhythm in its body, so that it is the incorporation, so to say, of a subtle oscillation." and that I mentioned that the Toccata in F's theme oscillates. On the string theory website we read: "For a closed string, the boundary conditions are periodic, and the resulting oscillating solution looks like two open string oscillations moving in the opposite direction around the string. These two types of closed string modes are called right-movers and left-movers..." This sounds like the two chakra currents to me, as well as Bach's two strings of snake-like canons, one right-moving and one left-moving. String theory asserts that the universe is like music, and that its fundamental "particles" "are like the harmonic notes played on a string." Pythagoras, mentioned here on the toccata website as a founding father of esoteric philosophy, is also cited as the first string theorist. (the original string theory website seems to have vanished, but this quote which I originally saw there now appears in this new link)
Footnote: another idea illustrated by the Toccata in F is Spiral Dynamics of Integral Philosophy, which proposes that life, people and history develop in stages, and that each stage "transcends and includes" the previous stage. The toccata theme itself is spiral-like as it oscillates back and forth, and in the first two sections of the toccata, we hear the snake-like theme twirling around itself; also spiral-like. Integral Philosophy also carries the same image illustrated in the Toccata in F of the two great currents moving up and down the entire spiral. At each of the 7 levels of the toccata, we move up in spiral fashion; first a yang chakra section and then a yin, as in Spiral Dynamics. The next level also "transcends and includes" the previous one. For example, the second chakra section shows how the first can be included and transcended by keeping all the same notes, but reversing the direction (left-hand leading instead of the right) and shifting to the dominant key. The third chakra adds a whole new theme based on the original one, yet brings back the original one too. In the fourth and fifth chakras, new themes are added to the start of the recurrance of the original theme (in the manifesting sections), and the fifth section retains the theme introduced in the fourth. At each level, all the themes are transferred to higher notes on the keyboard. Finally at the 6th chakra, the themes begin to be condensed and combined together, in a way that seems to expand our vision. The chariot and snake themes are played in counterpoint. In the final section all the themes are synthesized into one seamless expression of bliss.
Footnote: the 3 parts of the brain. In the 1960s Paul D. MacLean developed the triune brain theory and published it in his book The Triune Brain in Evolution. MacLean proposed that the reptilian brain complex was responsible for instinctual behaviors involved in aggression, dominance, territoriality, and ritual displays. He maintained that the structures of the limbic system arose early in mammalian evolution (hence "paleomammalian") and were responsible for the motivation and emotion involved in reproductive and parental behavior. The neomammalian brain complex or intellectual brain consists of the cerebral neocortex, a structure found uniquely in mammals. MacLean regarded its addition as the most recent step in the evolution of the mammalian brain, conferring the ability for language, abstraction, planning, and perception. Deepak Chopra and Rudolph Tanzi have used this concept in their books and PBS programs, and Carl Sagan and Arthur Koestler have also referred to it. The structure of the brain is very complicated, with many parts with different terms. The cerebellum is another major part in the back of the brain that governs posture and balance, but does not seem to be included in the triune model. Here is another website on brain structure. Also check the links on the wikipedia page for triune brain theory (link above) for more details (hard to follow though).
BACK to the tarot story and the 3 parts of the soul
Footnote, Divine Science inherency of God: Divine Science is the founding school of New Thought,
which taught and helped inspire the teachers of the better-known New Thought denominations of Unity, Science of Mind (Religious Science), and others.
The Divine Science basic course defines the inherencies of God as 7 aspects of the Infinite Mind which operate in creation.
They are also discussed briefly in Divine Science, Its Principle and Practice (Denver, 1957), p. 41-42, 234.
Although this fact is not known to most Divine Scientists, these 7 inherencies of God correspond exactly to the 7 chakras.
Our 7 chakra centers are where we connect to Spirit; they are the principle links or doorways between the Creative Spirit within us and our own bodies.
The inherencies of Divine Science represent their highest spiritual expression. Here are the 7 inherencies as defined in the Basic Course by Divine Science,
and how they correspond to the 7 major chakras:
- Wisdom is the Infinite Mind Source perceiving its own ideas. For us, it is our capacity to see the ideas in the Mind of God, and to discern the best means of expressing them. The crown chakra connects us to the source of Infinite Mind, and its wisdom and bliss.
- Knowledge is ideas manifesting in fixed patterns. It brings forth ideas as images, or patterns in our minds. The third eye chakra is our faculty of imagination or inner vision in which we see these patterns. The Tree of Life also uses these same terms wisdom and knowledge for the highest two sephiroth or phases of creation, but the most-usual translation switches these two words between the first and second sephiroth.
- Understanding brings forth idea patterns in visible substance. Understanding knows how to produce and apply. The throat chakra is where we put divine ideas into symbolic form, vibration, and spoken language and song, both visible and audible, so we can apply them to life and adjust to conditions. Just as the inherency of Understanding knows how to produce, the thyroid gland at the throat releases our growth hormone.
- Love is the conscious unity of oneness. The heart chakra is where we find the integrity or oneness of our own authentic self, and the compassion through which we experience connection with others.
- Power is the ability to produce and bring ideas into actuality. The solar plexus or navel center is where we experience this power to focus energy for action.
- Joy is a sense of being filled and overflowing with goodness. The inherency of Joy interprets the pleasures of the sacral chakra at their most elevated expression. It also illuminates the correspondence of this chakra with jovial and generous Jupiter.
- Life is self-determined motion, the Creative Spirit in action throughout Its creation. This is also the definition of a soul, according to Plato. The base chakra is the basic center from which our life springs, and our will to live and survive within creation.
BACK to the table of exalted planets and other chakra traits and correspondences on 7 levels
Footnote, Fillmore's 12 soul powers: Charles Fillmore published The Twelve Powers of Man in 1930. Click on the link to see where he placed them in the body. In the table below I have added other names by which the same powers are also known, as well as other correlations.
| Powers, as located in my table, and other names | Jesus' 12 apostles (or disciples) | signs of the zodiac/planets (chakra order) | Fillmore's location in the body | my location in chakra | tarot card |
| wisdom, judgment | James, son of Zebedee | Leo/Sun, Neptune | pit of stomach | head, left brain, 7 | World, Judgement |
| imagination | Bartholomew | Cancer/Moon, Jupiter | between the eyes | between the eyes, right brain, 6 | Star |
| understanding | Thomas | Virgo/Mercury | front brain | throat/mouth, connected to right brain, 5 | Devil |
| power (of the word) | Philip | Gemini/Mercury | root of tongue | throat/mouth, connected to left brain, 5 | Temperance |
| order | James, son of Alphaeus | Libra/Venus, Saturn | navel | left heart, 4 | Justice |
| love | John | Taurus/Venus, Moon | back of heart | right heart, 4 | Hanged Man |
| strength | Andrew | Scorpio/Mars | loins | navel, 3 | Hermit, Wheel of Fortune |
| will | Matthew | Aries/Mars, Sun | center front brain | solar plexus, 3 | Strength |
| zeal | Simon the Cananean | Sagittarius/Jupiter | back of head at medulla | sacrum/hips, 2 | Lovers |
| faith | Peter | Pisces/Jupiter, Venus | center of brain | sacrum, female genitals/top of head, 2/7 | Empress, Pope |
| life | Judas | Capricorn/Saturn, Mars | generative functions | base of spine, male genitals, 1 | Emperor |
| release, renunciation, elimination, forgiveness | Thaddeus | Aquarius/Saturn | abdominal region | base of spine, 1 | Fool, Magician |
Notes on the changes I made to where Fillmore locates the 12 Powers: In general, Fillmore's overall picture of the powers is top heavy; the brain is seen as having more "powers" than the lower chakras. I have restored balance to the powers by giving the lower chakras their due, and thus aligning the powers better with the other systems. But both alignments seem to be mostly valid, depending on how you interpret the meaning of the words used to describe the "powers."
"Order" matches up with the virtue Justice, and to both the tarot card and sephiroth of that name, which I correspond to the left side of the heart. I see no reason to associate "order" as Fillmore does with the navel, which is part of the 3rd chakra of will and self-assertiveness. However, the other changes I made can be seen to be almost interchangeable with Fillmore's order, if you notice the correspondences to the planets and signs. The Sun, for example, is linked both to Leo, which it rules, and to Aries, where it is exalted. Leo corresponds to the crown chakra, and Aries to the 3rd, the solar plexus. Fillmore associates wisdom/judgment with the 3rd chakra (which he calls "pit of the stomach"), and thus with Aries, whereas I have linked it to the crown chakra and its sign Leo to match the other systems that locate these virtues in the head (or top of the head), such as the final two tarot cards (Judgement, and World, which represents the virtue of Wisdom), the highest part of the Tree of Life, the highest inherency of God, etc. It is logical to think of wisdom as an intellectual virtue of the mind. But Fillmore places "will" in the head (and thus in the crown chakra) instead of wisdom, and Leo is the crown chakra sign, whose motto is "I will." But I have put will in the solar plexus to match the 3rd chakra of will, and the tarot card and virtue of Strength, etc. A slight shift in the meanings of "will" and of "judgment" or "wisdom" makes Fillmore's placements logical as well, however. Will, as associated with the crown chakra, means awareness of and alignment with God's will, not the personal will, which is how religious people such as Fillmore would prefer to consider the power of will. I, however, think that personal will is an important key to spiritual development, not something to be extinguished. But Judgment (or Wisdom) also fits well in the 3rd chakra. In this sense Judgment or Wisdom means the ability to make good decisions (which we make with our own "will"), which matches Aries, sign of the 3rd chakra. On the philosophy wheel, Aries and the 3rd chakra are placed on the left, like the left column of the Tree of Life (the active or decisive yang side), and where I also put Enneagram Type 8, Myers-Briggs type ENTJ, etc.; see my articles on these). It also matches Judgment as described by Myers-Briggs, the ability to make decisions in an organized way, which is in turn also associated with the left-brain and the left/yang pole of the philosophy wheel, the left column of the Tree of Life, etc. So these two alternate positions of the "powers" are interchangeable, depending on how you understand the words for them.
In a similar way, we also see a link between the crown chakra and the 2nd chakra, and the different positions of Faith in the chart above. Neptune is exalted in Leo, sign of the crown chakra. But it is also the higher ruler of Pisces, the sign of Faith, which aligns with the 2nd chakra of generative creation and propagation. The lower ruler of Pisces is Jupiter. So "Faith" can be linked to either the crown or the second chakra. The corresponding sections in Bach's toccata, the second chakra (Empress card) and 7th chakra (Judgement card) sections, are the toccata's most joyous, transcendent, sweet and blissful moments. They bring out vividly these two alternate (higher and lower) positions of faith-- the transcendent virtue by which we can contact divine life. So faith is still associated with the brain, as Fillmore indicated, as well as with the primordial lower chakras. Notice I have also connected in another of my charts the highest tarot card The World with Pisces (sign of faith), as well as with the crown chakra, where Neptune, higher ruler of Pisces, is exalted.
The Fool tarot card also represents Faith, and is linked in my tables to Aries. But just as The Fool is a wild card that can be played any time in the game of tarot, Faith is a basic power or virtue that applies anywhere in the body. However, it is especially associated in esoteric tradition with the lowest and highest chakras. The Fool, for example, is usually placed either at the beginning of the tarot parade, or near the end. Faith also means the 2nd chakra's power to propagate and nourish life, but Faith also fits the base chakra of basic life motivation, the willingness to go forth in action. Thus Faith has two places in my table on the main page (see BACK just below), corresponding to the two related but different definitions. Faith as a willingness to believe in spite of not knowing, is represented by Pisces and Peter, but Faith as the willingness to go forth and act without knowing the outcome, is represented by the next sign Aries.
Zeal also shares the rulership of bouyant Jupiter, which rules the 2nd chakra, but Jupiter is also exalted in Cancer, corresponding to the brain (6th chakra) near where Fillmore places it. Zeal or enthusiasm is a nice fit for the joyous confidence of the 2nd chakra.
None of these correspondences invalidates the scientific idea that these powers are all located in the brain. Everything in the body has a connection to the brain, because it is the switchboard and operations center of our body and of our embodied soul. But we also experience these powers at the other chakra centers and organs of the body, since our consciousness and intelligence are experienced and contacted there as well, and not solely in our brains as many scientists seem to think-- discounting as they do our own experience in favor of what can be measured and verified outwardly to other people with instruments used by our five senses, and discounting as well the proven scientific fact that abundant nerve tissue is found in each of the ganglia located at each of our chakra centers-- especially the heart center.
BACK to the table of exalted planets and other chakra traits and correspondences
Footnote: other speculations can be made too about how to correlate signs, Hebrew letters and tarot trumps.
Remember Mars and Aries are male, like the Emperor and Pope, and Venus and Taurus are female, like the Empress and High Priestess. So the correlations of signs and planets to these cards, and their trump order, could be changed to reflect this fact, confirmed in the chakras and the Toccata-- and also to represent the "new age" order in which female rulers often trump male ones, and in which the "esoteric" High Priestess trumps the "exoteric" Pope (since clearly, in the new age, esoteric philosophy is venerated and traditional religion is often scorned). We would therefore have:
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2. Emperor (Aries, camel) (formerly #4, Aries, window)
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The Empress, of course, is clearly a sensuous symbol, and her Venusian sweetness really shines through in the second canon of Bach's Toccata in F. Of course, the original trump order is still valid too, since the patriarchy as been and still usually is the way of the world.
Camel (gimel) could also be switched with fence (cheth), so that camel represents the Chariot and fence represents The Emperor. Then all 4 rulers in the tarot trumps would correspond to the parts of the house built by the Magician (beth). Emperors build fences between peoples, and the camel is a kind of chariot (the ship of the desert). But in that case, the Chariot would be trump 2 and the Emperor trump 7, if the Hebrew alphabet's order is maintained. It seems to be the case that the order among the lower group of trumps can be moved around more than the upper groups. This reflects what Charles Ponce wrote in his book Kabbalah: "About the beginning (God's realm) there is much agreement; about its result, the world, little." (p.112)
Some kabbala scholars might object to my shifting around the correlations, citing the difference between letters that have only one
as opposed to two or three sounds associated with them. These are the 12 single letters (supposed to align with the signs),
7 double letters (with the planets) and 3 triple letters (with 3 elements). But I point out that these differences and numbers do not apply to the Hebrew
language as it is actually spoken, as any dictionary shows.
BACK to Bach, chakras, tarot: trump order and correlations
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Footnote: for those interested in a more detailed correlation of the
12 notes, colors and signs with the 12 chakras (7 major and 5 minor) along the spine, as they are depicted in this picture (see left)
(posted on flickr by Jai MA).
Right now I agree pretty much with the picture, but I would adjust the correlation to correspond better to my other charts.
This is how I see it now: In my table above, the Moon and Star cards and their
associated symbols are designated "chakra 6 or 7". This is only because the Golden Dawn and BOTA made a correlation between the
Moon card and the sign Pisces, as shown in their table. In our system the Moon and the Moon card are located in chakra 6, but violet is chakra 7.
Following the suggestion of Robert Place, however, I have correlated the Moon with the Moon card, and this frees up PIsces for me to correlate it with World,
violet and the crown, chakra 7-- see my table. So also, the Star card and its sign Aquarius
correspond to violet (7th chakra) in the BOTA order, but are in the 6th chakra in my table. In the picture above, Aquarius, A# and violet
are attributed instead to the Pineal gland, which is a good idea. This gland governs the brain's relationship to the soul and the cosmos,
and usually is said to correspond to the 6th chakra (3rd eye). The pineal gland can also be considered a minor chakra that bridges the 6th and 7th chakras.
Further down in the above picture, Capricorn/Devil corresponds to the 3rd eye, A and indigo (and to the Hebrew letter for eye). That makes some sense, although Capricorn/Devil is also 5th chakra; but Sagittarius and blue/G# are linked in this picture to the "zeal point" behind the throat (seen therefore as a minor chakra), and Scorpio (blue-green/G) corresponds to the throat. Some authors have also alluded to a "high heart" chakra located at a nub just above the heart. Here it is attributed to the thymus gland and Libra/F#. I would place Scorpio/Death and the blue-green sea color/G there instead of Libra (making it also a "lower throat"), and delete the "zeal point" from my spinal order, leaving Sagittarius/Temperance and blue/G# to correspond to the throat chakra proper (and also to the "zeal point"). That would return Libra/Justice and green/F# to correspond with both the heart and corresponding thymus gland. I like keeping the 7 glands and the 7 chakras aligned as much as possible. In the picture Virgo and yellow-green/F are attributed to the heart chakra, and it looks more like green proper. But I think there is a "lower heart" minor chakra between the heart and navel where we feel fear and sometimes romance. I would attribute this to Virgo (the Hermit) and yellow green, a color sometimes associated with fear. This way both F and F# remain associated with "the heart." The Solar plexus corresponds to Leo/Strength and yellow/E, and Cancer and D#/yellow-orange (which here looks beige) is attributed to a minor "duality" chakra just below it. This could be the navel and the Chariot card, the transition point or portal from the 2nd to the 3rd chakra, where we receive our original vitality and perhaps also our merkabah vehicle of ascension. The first hearing of the chariot theme represents it in the toccata. Going further down, we see in the picture that the sacral or sexual chakra is attributed to Gemini (The Lovers card) and orange/D, but this chakra is actually in the lower abdomen, while the sex organs themselves are located below it. Thus here in this picture they are recognized as a minor chakra corresponding to sexy sign Taurus and red-orange/C#. For obvious reasons, in this case Taurus corresponds to the Empress, not the Pope/Hierophant or High Priestess. The root 1st chakra and the testis "ejaculation muscle" in men corresponds to Aries/Emperor and red/C. |
BACK to Bach, chakras, tarot: reversing the BOTA correlation order
Text of Toccata in F compared to tarot trumps
Toccata in F Major by J.S.Bach, Schmeider # 540, performed by Michel Chapuis. Compared to the Major Arcana Tarot trumps showing The Fools' Journey.
Text of the video for each card in the order presented
Intro: Toccata in F Major S.540, matched up with the Hero's Journey as presented in the sequence of the 22 tarot trumps
0. The Fool
It's called the Fool's Journey
4. Emperor
Each card trumps the one before, thus telling the story. The Emperor is the founder and leader, so he comes first.
The Toccata's snake-like theme, with two voices in canon (imitation).
The right hand leads the left hand, representing male power.
The symbol of mastery and thinking
5. The Hierophant
The theme starts over again; the journey's next phase
Hierophant means High Priest. Actually it's the Pope!
He is a male ruler, the sacred counterpart of the secular Emperor.
The "imperial rulers" represent temptations of worldly power, and authority figures that advise or obstruct the seeker
The symbol of intuition, or knowledge of first principles and eternal moral values.
1. The Magician
The Toccata's "snake" theme is played by the pedals only.
The magician is our guide. He uses ritual.
Originally he was a money-grubbing trickster.
His hands are saying "as above, so below"
The last 4 notes of this section are the same as the last 4 notes of the whole piece. As above, so below
0. The Fool
The 3 chords represent The Fool
3. The Empress
The canon "snake" theme returns, but this time the left hand leads the right!
The left hand represents the feminine. In Bach's order, the feminine rulers trump the males!
The symbol of sensation, its alluring delight and power! Life is growing all around us. Awake; participate!
2. The High Priestess
The theme starts over, left-hand still leading.
Originally the priestess of Venus, and keeper of secrets. She's "Mother Superior" too.
She's also the Female Pope! Leader of a heretical "new age" papacy.
In the New Age order, women rule religion & the "esoteric" Priestess trumps the exoteric Pope.
Symbol of intuitive feeling.
6. The Lovers
The second pedal solo.
Like the first, it grounds us to the earth. This first section of cards are about mastering our worldly appetites.
This card represents sensuous love & romance.
It's also a choice whether to follow a higher love. This is shown by the pedal notes jumping between high and low.
7. The Chariot
The seeker chooses the path!
Two chords with pedal alternating between high and low represents the chariot.
8. Strength
The Toccata's second theme; uplifting, strong and aspiring.
It represents the cardinal virtues, from Plato's "Republic"
We need Strength to make this Hero's journey!
7. The Chariot
Pedal note and 2 chords form a triangle, like the charioteer and his horses.
9. The Hermit
The Toccata's climbing theme; sounds like a difficult ascent.
Spiritual practice is hard, but he also guides others.
10. Wheel of Fortune
The seeker confronts the awesome power of fate, represented by powerful chords!
The original snake theme returns, now played by feet and pedals together.
11. Justice
The powerful uplifting theme returns, representing the second cardinal virtue.
Knowing what is fair for ourselves and others. Wholeness and integrity.
Our calm inner heart center.
7. The Chariot
The seeker learns to direct his two horses, one more obedient than the other.
12. The Hanged Man
The "snake" canon is hung from high, passionate chords!
Turning convention on its head. Letting go of the social ego. Sacrifice and compassion.
14. Temperance
The 3rd cardinal virtue. Being adaptable and of good temper.
Much needed to master these challenges!
Chords alternate between high and low, symbolizing liquid pouring between the 2 cups.
7. The Chariot
We climb ever higher on our path, and the view is scenic!
13. Death
Climbing and struggle theme. The suspense is great!
We need to let go of the old to grow.
15. The Devil
The ultimate adversary; the dark night of the soul
We get stronger battling our demons!
Hands play the "tempting" snake theme, accompanied by the pedal.
16. The Tower
The uplifting theme enters again 3 times: our 3 developed virtues!
We can now overthrow the devil from power!
17. The Star
Breakthrough! New vision. Themes combined.
18. The Moon
The chariot is now our vehicle of ascension. Light is increasing!
19. The Sun
The uplifting theme is now a theme of victory. We are ready for enlightenment.
20. Judgement
The trumpet calls us to new life. Bliss and rebirth.
The organ is nature's most finely crafted set of divine trumpets!
7. Chariot
The chariot theme descends from the heavens. We see the throne of God.
21. The World
An amazing stroke! Bach brings back the struggle theme at the end.
The seeker is now a master returning to the world to help others.
The vision of revelation. The final 4 notes are the 4 figures.
0. The Fool
These 3 chords also introduced the 2nd canon. Hit replay, & they introduce the first! The end is a new beginning!
Toccata in F BWV 540 matched to tarot trumps on youtube
Interestingly, Robert Place noted that the High Priestess card was originally a
picture of a female pope chosen by a heretical 13th-century sect which called itself "the new age." So the order implied by Bach in his toccata
was actually a prophecy
of the new age and the empowering of women today! And as I noted before, the powerful presence of love, joy and sensuality near the beginning of the journey
at chakra 2 also shows how much of a motivating factor it is; we could not make the ascent without it. That's why the kaballah calls it "foundation."
The discipline of virtue needs to be seen not as inflicting pain or domination on oneself or others. Rather, it is focusing on our 7 soul centers,
and recognizing the power over us of our own uncentered demonic compulsions, fears and habits. By becoming conscious of these "demons,"
we master them. This is what Buddha meant, I contend, by his second Noble Truth, in which craving and attachment is named as the cause of suffering;
which in turn is healed by Awakening (Nirvana, the 3rd Noble Truth).
Remember also that on the Strength card, a woman tames a powerful lion using love. Notice how in the Toccata the pedal, heard solo in the Lovers card,
soon leads the way in the uplifting theme of the
Strength card.
We also know today that our reasoning mind is not always virtuous, but often is chief among our demons. The ancient philosophers did recognize, however,
that reclaiming ourselves and our consciousness from these compulsions is true power and virtue, not the worldly dominance over other people depicted on the lower
trumps. They taught us that our addiction to indulgence, fear or comfort sometimes needs to be sacrificed in order to achieve "the great work."
We also notice that the virtues and the highest wisdom are represented in the cards by females. Perhaps religious liberals and conservatives can find
some common ground in the universal symbols of the Tarot trumps. It is interesting that the "Severity" of Justice, represented by the card Justice
and by the sephirah circle colored red on the Tree of Life
by modern occultists, and the leniency, nurturance and openness of "Mercy", represented by the Hanged Man trump and by the
blue sephirah on the Tree, are both linked and balanced in "Beauty," the kabalistic symbol of the heart.
Perhaps in the spiritual journey, then, we can reconcile today's red and blue states and their conflicting values in the culture wars. In my order,
Temperance is placed between the red and blue circles on the Tree of Life.
Notice how neatly the first 7 tarot cards, which represent the lower soul level, match the sections of the toccata's lower level.
The two canons (imitation or double-helix snake themes) each start over half-way through, making 4 versions of the theme.
These 4 themes match and symbolize the 2 mated pairs of imperial rulers: Emperor and Pope (first canon) and Empress and Priestess (second canon).
The canons, each played with opposite hands leading, also match the two eagles flying in opposite directions to find the sacred center; the goal of the spiritual journey.
These canons are the liberating current through which kundalini begins moving from imprisonment in the first chakra up to liberation.
The 2 pedal solos are the manifesting current; they ground us in the lower chakras, but remember the manifesting current also comes down from the divine source.
These pedal solos are symbolized by the other two cards in the lower soul-of-appetite section, besides The Chariot: The Magician and the Lovers.
On one level they represent greed and trickery (the Magician, 1st chakra) and sensuality and indulgence (The Lovers, 2nd chakra),
but they also give us divine guidance for the spiritual journey upwards. The Magician provides that guidance through rituals
and spells that manifest the divine mind in the world and bring beauty into it through art (maya). He does this according to the principle
"as above, so below," represented on the card by his hand gesture and by the 4 magical tools on his table that correspond to the
4 elemental creatures on the final World card, and in the first pedal solo by the four notes at the end (one out-of-tune pedal note,
plus the three "fool chords") that are almost the same as the pedal note plus 3 "fool chords" that conclude the entire toccata and represent the throne of God
(pictured on the World card, the highest trump).
Remember Donovan Leitch, Judy Collins and I think Tim Buckley pointed out that Love is The Magician. Bach in effect links these two cards because they correspond to the only two pedal solos in the piece.
Bach also shows this by the difference between the two solos. The first pedal solo (The Magician) stops after 28 bars, while the second pedal solo (The Lovers) has all 32 bars that correspond to all 32 paths on the Tree of Life. So The Magician only takes us to path 28, which corresponds to The Star card.
The Magician brings down divine energy from the throne of God, and is able to cast spells and enact rituals through inspiration (The Star, path 28).
We as the seeker have not actually reached those levels yet, but we are linked to them through the Magician's manifesting current that guides us from above.
The Lovers takes us beyond the Magician by giving us greater guidance through Love. That's because the next tarot card beyond The Star,
the one which The Magician stops before reaching, is The Moon (path 29), which I point out later in this essay represents our perfected
Merkabah or chariot of ascension. We don't fully reflect and manifest the divine until we have perfected our Chariot.
But we are able to enter it in the next card-- the next path right after The Lovers. Then we can begin our journey in earnest, and enter the next soul level,
even though we haven't yet fully learned how to drive the vehicle. That is because in the Lovers, we are able to connect more directly to the
superconscious mind than we did in The Magician. He only links us as far as The Star. But in Love, Eve (the female part of us, represented by the girl on
The Lovers card) is able to connect us to The Moon, our perfected chariot-- and to the 3 higher paths beyond it. Notice that in the Waite-Smith and BOTA
decks the Adam figure looks to Eve, but Eve looks above to the angel. The female Eve thus (subconsciously and magically through love) guides and connects us to the higher level. She takes us up to the female Moon, our perfect receptivity to the divine, which the male Magician alone cannot do.
The Lovers thereby allows us to get on board The Chariot in the next card and accelerate our journey, just as the 2nd pedal solo leads directly into the
first dynamic chariot theme. The Chariot corresponds to the zodiac sign Cancer in the Golden Dawn system, but Cancer in astrology is ruled by The Moon.
In the Toccata in F, only The Chariot card and The Moon card are symbolized by the chariot theme alone, and by the time we hear it in the 6th chakra section,
when it becomes the theme for The Moon card, the chariot theme sounds elevated, peaceful and magnificently pure.
Therefore the second pedal solo, which gives us all 32 bars and all 32 paths, prepares us through Eve's greater contact with the superconscious to enter
The Chariot of ascension, and our ability to drive this Chariot will be perfected by the time we reach The Moon theme in the highest soul level.
Notice how in The Ultimate Gift, by the way,
Alexia (Jason's new love) coaxes Jason to ride the chariot (the bus),
and that it's the females that get him to take the trip to Texas where he learns his dream,
whereas the Magician Mr. Hamilton almost stops him from going.
The seasons are related to the cycle of signs and kundalini presented above,
symbolized by the caduceus. This is the same movement from dark and cold up to light and hot represented by the ladder of planets
where we climb from dark, cold Saturn up to the hot, bright Sun. The season of Spring here represents the "liberating" phase,
in which life is liberated from the dark and cold, while Autumn in the "manifesting" phase; even though it might also seem as if in Springtime things are "manifesting."
This is another example of how symbols can sometimes switch around in their meaning. Spring therefore in the first table below will be correlated to the yin
(liberating) water element, which is also related to the Direction West. It might seem as if Spring, when the light is increasing, is analagous to sunrise in the East;
but since the Sun appears to move through the Houses in a reverse direction each day from its movement through the zodiac and the seasons, things are reversed;
so that in the northern hemisphere the 10th sign Capricorn (Winter, when things are darkest), is equivalent to the 10th house (Noon, when the light is bright).
This paradox can represent the ultimate connection between the spiritual and the material, the inward Sun of enlightenment and the outer world represented by Saturn.
The four humors, and the four temperaments related to them, certainly correspond to the elements-- but these also correspond to the chakras,
as we saw in the
earlier table of exalted planets and chakras; thus to the "male" ascending line--
and to the toccata and tarot journey, rather than the female circle. This is also the chakras ascending along the backbone, or the central column on the Tree of Life;
and the color spectrum rather than the color wheel. The humors are also related in this way to the yang (male) zodiac signs, which in our virtue order
(see my table) indicate the virtues into which we convert our inherited "temperaments,"
as we grow spiritually on our path to wisdom and liberation.
Sanguine, the most happy temperament, is linked traditionally to blood and to air (the word sanguine is derived from the Greek word for blood).
We see that the 5th chakra (adaptation, purification and expression) is air, and that the virtue card "Temperance" is located there too, which means
"proper mix of temperament" and thus "sanguine." Seen this way, the 4 temperaments are arranged in ascending order, as we move up the chakras
and (we hope) our mood improves (this ascent also resembles other ascending patterns, like the Maslow hierarchy of needs, the scientology tone scale,
the Hawkins power scale, developmental scales, etc.). Thus the choleric temperament, linked to yellow bile and fire and considered vindictive and angry,
is found at the 3rd chakra of will. In its refined form it is the virtue Strength. The phlegmatic temperament, linked to phlegm and water and considered sluggish,
is found at the 2nd chakra of pleasure (The Lovers). In its refined form it is sensuous Love. The melancholic temperament, linked to black bile and earth and
considered sad, is found at the 1st chakra of concern for survival. In its refined
form it is Faith (The Fool) and initiative. Faith is the "root virtue" in that it allows us to move forward and live (survive). Its opposites are fear and despair (melancholy).
And of course the value of money (merchants, bourgeoisie), so necesssary to survival, depends on faith and confidence. Sometimes the 1st chakra is
considered to be the seat of inherited beliefs (or faiths) too.
The central 4th chakra, and the highest 7th chakra, are related to the spirit element, which takes our temperament beyond the physical humors to the
spiritual virtues (Justice and Wisdom/World respectively), carried by the "humor" of consciousness that suffuses our bodies.
Hope is related to the 6th chakra of vision (corresponding to The Star card, ruled by Aquarius-- sign of hope). Here in this table Hope can be grouped with Strength,
since Fire as yin (light, vision, intuition) is the element of the 6th chakra, and fire as yang-energy is also the element of the 3rd chakra.
Some say the 3rd chakra also corresponds to eyesight. Thus we see the place of all 7 virtues; the 4 Platonic or cardinal virtues
(Temperance, Strength, Wisdom and Justice) and the 3 Christian virtues (Faith, Hope and Love). In our spiritual journey,
we convert our inherited physical "temperament" into the corresponding spiritual "virtue."
With these considerations, and others, we can also place these aspects of the four-fold world in an extended table. Here "swords,"
which is usually interpreted as "sorrow," is in the same position as sanguine, which means cheerfulness. But I think "sorrow" may be too negative
an interpretation of the swords suit. If we think of the meaning of swords as contemplation, investigation and thought, and read the cards that way,
we can see how "swords" and "sanguine" both relate to the air element; even though our runaway thoughts often bring worry and anxiety too.
The Temperance card, located in the 5th chakra, carries these meanings.
Also notice that Strength (choleric) is related to intuition, and this makes sense when intuition is interpreted as knowledge of enduring, eternal truths
and values (often taught by priests), which bring strength through stability and endurance.
Since "cold and dark" represents the base chakra and Winter in our kundalini scheme, and the base chakra represents the earth element,
I associate cold with earth. Cold also represents matter in its slowest and most solid (earthy) state.
Its opposite hot is equivalent to fire. Water and wet are equivalent, while its opposites are air and dry. Fire and water are sometimes called
"the parent elements," and we notice that fire is hot, but also dry (thus giving birth to air), and water is wet, but also cold (giving birth to earth).
Fire cannot be wet or cold, and water cannot be dry, but air (the element of communication) and to a lesser extent earth can contain all the other conditions.
The 5th element spirit represents the condition of matter as alive and conscious-- in living things for sure, and perhaps in all things too.
The Chinese represented this 5th element as "wood," but did not include "air" ("metal" being the equivalent).
Unfortunately, Placing the weather conditions (cold, hot, dry, wet) in this table does not match the seasons, since the element of the fixed sign
of each season, determines where I place the related weather condition. Since cold is earth, that means here it must be correlated to the Spring sign,
the earth-sign Taurus. In the traditional symbolism, the weather conditions are placed in between the elements. Air is dry but also hot, and so is Fire. Water is wet but also cold, and so is Earth. Sometimes wet is associated with Spring (earth/Taurus in our table), hot with Summer (fire/Leo), dry with Autumn (air/Scorpio) and cold with Winter (water/Aquarius). In this case, Aquarius is the water bearer, and thus water, and Scorpio is the Eagle that flies in the air. But I don't include this alternate alignment in the table below.
All 12 signs do not match the four seasons, four elements and four weather conditions,
because there are three different signs of three different elements in each season.
I include other planetary correlations here which were too complicated and confusing to include in the table on the main page, since the same planets
can be placed in different columns depending on the context.
So here is the extended four-fold quincunx table; still in toccata order:
The seasons relate to cyclic movement, while the four quadrants and directions are static spaces. In the former, fire and air are opposites; in the latter (as in table
here), fire and earth are opposites. In some other schemes, fire and water are opposites. In these schemes,
as in the chakras, the air element is highest.
In the table below, then, I place the seasons in cyclic order and show some resulting correlations. Since there is so much difference in weather between
the early and late parts of a season, there aren't really just 4 seasons, but 12 (the signs of the zodiac); this may be why correlating the seasons with signs
is more problematic.
In the Generations Theory put forward by Strauss and Howe, 21-year "generations" move in a 4-fold cycle called "turnings," which
symbolically are the 4 seasons of life. But I have noticed that these generational "seasons" (the 4 turnings) really correspond to day and night instead.
Whereas during the seasons the Sun travels through the zodiac of signs, in this daily cycle, the Sun travels through the astrological houses,
which are correlated in reverse order to the signs. For example, a day starts at Midnight, which is the 4th house, corresponding to Cancer.
Just past midnight it moves into the 3rd house, which corresponds to Gemini (backward through the signs). Just before sunrise is the first house,
corresponding to the first sign Aries. But as the Sun rises over the horizon it enters the 12th house, which corresponds to Pisces (backward from Aries); and so on.
The four cardinal points, midnight (4th house/Cancer/water), sunrise (first house/Aries/fire), noon (10th house/Capricorn/earth), and sunset (7th house/Libra/air),
correspond in that order to the 4 turnings, and to the generation in young adulthood at each turning. Meanwhile, the journey through the 4 fixed signs
and their elements on the World card, correspond to the seasons, and to both the 4-letter name for God YHVH, and the 4 notes of the
Toccata's God or World chord (consisting of high 3rd, middle tonic, low 7th, and middle tonic notes). Starting with Leo in Summer, the fire sign of the crown chakra,
the 4 fixed signs move down from the crown to the 3rd chakra (Scorpio, Autumnal water sign), down to the base (Aquarius, air sign of Winter),
and back up to the heart (Taurus, earth sign of Spring), and then back again to the crown (Leo). I have placed my correlations for the seasons,
World card, generations and turnings in the cyclic table below.
The philosophy wheel order doesn't fit as well here in the cyclic table, as it does in the static
non-cyclic tables. This is because on the wheel, yang is always placed on the east (fire/essentialism and air/rationalism are yang)
and yin on the west (water/existentialism and earth/empiricism are yin). In a cyclic order, yang and yin alternate; switching back and forth like the caduceus.
For example, on the philosophy wheel, reason, which corresponds to air, is placed at the east. But here, air corresponds to sunset (Libra), at which time the
Sun is in the west. On the philosophy wheel, the two upper quadrant philosophies (existentialism and essentialism), and their meanings,
switch places from where they are here on the cyclic wheel. In other words, the philosophies from left to right across the table above do not follow their
order on the wheel, but shift back and forth between opposites: empiricism to essentialism, its opposite; then existentialism to rationalism.
Here in this cyclic table above, perhaps the old meaning of swords (air) as "sorrow" fits after all, and sanguine means learning to be cheerful
in spite of the cold and "sorrowful" conditions of Winter. The civic generations exhibit just such traits, according to
Strauss and Howe, authors of Generations theory, even though they come of age in a Great Crisis (a "winter").
In another possible order, the cycle matches the philosophy wheel, but not the 4 fixed zodiac signs in seasonal order, nor the toccata order.
In this cycle the weather matches the seasons better. Moving counter-clockwise from the upper left:
BACK to the "imperial" four-fold quincunx table
As we saw, the four faces of the four beasts in Ezekiel's vision of God in his chariot-throne, are described in "toccata order."
That means the order in which their corresponding sections in the Toccata in F are heard. These 4 sections are in the first two chakras of the Toccata,
which represent worldly powers and appetites. The "snake theme" is heard 4 times, with the snake representing both "temptation"
and the serpent power within us that needs to be tamed and transformed into spiritual power in our quest. Thus they are the four powers represented
by the four imperial cards, and later (in the Fortune and World cards) by the four beasts around God's throne. First is heard the opening portion of the canon,
or snake theme, in which the right hand is imitated by the left hand, which indicates male power. This is represented by the Emperor and the air element,
which later becomes The Man (Aquarius). The second portion follows immediately, as the theme starts over; this "higher" portion representing the
Hierophant or Pope, the "sacred" emperor, and the fire element, which becomes The Lion (Leo). After the first pedal solo (The Magician),
the canon starts again with the left hand leading the right, which indicates female power. This is the Empress or living-earth element,
which becomes The Calf or Bull (Taurus). The final portion follows immediately, as the theme begins again; this "higher" portion symbolizing the
High Priestess or Papess, the "sacred" empress, and the water element, which later becomes The Eagle (Scorpio).
The two male symbols are presented first, and then the two female symbols, just as they are presented in Ezekiel.
The four gospels of the New Testament are also presented in toccata order. As designated by the early Christian authorities in the Second Century,
Matthew is The Man (Aquarius, air sign), Mark is The Lion (Leo, fire sign), Luke is The Bull (Taurus, earth sign), and John is The Eagle (Scorpio, water sign).
That means that the Toccata in F could represent the New Testament. This could even have been in Bach's mind as he wrote his piece.
The Bishop Iranaeus and others had decided by the Second Century that these four earliest gospels (but unfortunately without the gnostic or Thomas gospels)
should be chosen for the "canon," because four was the right number-- since there were four directions and four elements as well as four beasts in the
visions of God's throne.
And it turns out that the gospels fit the elements pretty well. Matthew is the most wordy and fully-explained gospel, befitting the mental air element.
It contains Jesus' sayings in the most detail, and contains the most heated mental diatribes against rival Jewish authorities. It also discusses Jesus' future
return most fully (Aquarius, sign of hope and expectation). Mark, on the other hand, emphasizes the actions and events in Jesus' life, and is short and to
the point. It makes the clearest explanation of Jesus' thoughts on the creative power of the mind. It was the earliest, or pioneering gospel on which the others
were partly based. All this is in accord with the active and inspired fire element. Luke contains the most examples of Jesus' healing powers,
which relates to the body and health (earth element). It also brings Jesus' message down to earth with the most parables and stories, and puts it in the context of history,
both before and after (The Acts). John's gospel is the most passionate and emotional, and the most mystical (water), as well as emphasizing doctrine
and the meaning of Jesus' death (Scorpio, sign of death and rebirth), and providing the basis for Christian evangelism and fundamentalism
(arousing fear as well as faith). It also assures us that Jesus will always be with us in Spirit.
So you can hear the message of each gospel in toccata order as it unfolds in the 4 sections of the canon/snake theme, the theme on which the rest of the
Toccata is based. The Acts of the Apostles is like the Chariot, taking them on their adventures through the early history of the Faith. It is the gateway to the
long section of Letters that follows, mostly by Paul, which outline the practices and virtues (like Faith, Hope and Love) which we need to be good Christians,
and which admonish followers to reject Paul's rivals and avoid temptations. This is like the middle section of the Toccata in which we hear the virtue themes
and the struggles and battles with time and fate or inner demons. Finally we hear the book of Revelation, set to music in the Toccata's magnificent,
revelatory and blissful final section. Here of course the four Apostles reappear in the vision of God's throne, in the final 4 chords; no longer in Toccata order,
but in cyclic seasonal or astrological order: fire/Lion, earth/Calf, air/Man and water/Eagle (which can also be run backwards: fire, water, air, earth),
and in alternating yin and yang signs (as on the caduceus/chakras). The beasts are no longer four faces on four separate beasts, as in Ezekiel
(16 in all, which could also represent the 16 face cards of the minor arcana), but now integrated as one face per beast.
As a 7-step "stairway to heaven," the Toccata in F is part of a great tradition in which the number 7 is a sacred number.
Certainly the pious J.S.Bach knew the Book of Revelation, which features the "7 spirits of God" in front of the Sacred Throne, and several seven-step events.
The fact that the Toccata is called "apocalyptic" is another clue that the Book of Revelation may have influenced its creation, as it did other baroque composers
(Handel's Hallelujah Chorus is from Revelation). The prominence of the number 4 in the
Toccata also refers to the four living creatures around the Throne. The Bible itself is full of number symbolism from start to finish, and certainly no other
well-known composer used numbers symbolically as often as Bach did.
The Muslim pilgrims circle the sacred kaba seven times, just as the chakra currents circle the center 7 times.
They also throw seven stones at a wall representing temptation, 3 times = 21.
The famous fibonacci series of "divine proportion" is a ratio between numbers or lines. The ratio of two numbers or line segments, where one (call it A)
is about 1.6 times longer than the other (B), is the same ratio as that between the longer line and both lines together. This is expressed as A is to B, as A+B is to A.
This ratio creates a spiral that goes on forever, as illustrated by the famous image of rectangles within rectangles in which a spiral is drawn.
This you tube video provides an introduction.
Besides what I reported above, I studied the number of bars (measures)
in each chakra section of Bach's Toccata in F, S. 540. One note to add, is that Lionel Rogg
in his 1970 performance at Arlesheim only plays 82 bars of chakra 2, dropping 4 bars from the 2nd pedal solo. So does Walcha on You Tube.
This is probably because, like other 18th century and earlier organs, it does not have the high pedal keys required to play those four measures.
As I mentioned above, each section of the Toccata is linked to a chakra, and each has a "liberating" portion representing the upward-flowing current
around each chakra, and a "manifesting" portion representing the downward-flowing current. Here are the number of bars in each section,
with the proportions between their 2 portions (remember the divine proportion or
PHI is 1.6180339...):
As you can see, in chakra 4 (the heart), the proportions comparing the 2 sections (liberating and manifesting) almost match the divine proportion.
If the 12-bar Sun section is included in chakra 6 instead of chakra 7, the total proportion is. 1.52. If, in addition, the first chariot section (7 bars) is added to section 3 instead of #2, the total proportion between liberating and manifesting sections is 1.622 (271/167).
One canon has 54 bars. The two canons together have 108 bars; the two pedal solos together have 60. 108/60=1.8. Multiply this proportion by 10=18. 18x3=54. 18x6=108.
The first bar of the toccata has 6 notes, whose tones (1+7+1+5+3+1) add up to 18. 18x6=108.
Looking from end to end instead of side to side, we can compare the first three sections, plus the first half of the 4th (heart), to the second half of the 4th,
plus 5th, 6th and 7th. We get close to the divine proportion. From the base to the middle of the heart is 269.33 bars, and from the middle of the heart to the crown is 168.67 bars.
269.33 divided by 168.67 = 1.5967. In bar 271, the chord introducing the 2nd half of the heart section (manifesting or Hanged Man section) is finished and held, passionately. Using bar 271 as the center of the heart instead of 269, again we get 271/167 or 1.622.
The proportion of the liberating (uplifting/rocket) theme section and the manifesting (snake) theme section in the 4th "heart center" portion of Toccata in F is 1.6. Notice that Venus stations (when Venus aligns with the Earth and Sun at its nearest distance to the Earth) happen every 1.6 years. This is the reason for all the divine proportions and 540 pentagon patterns in Venus' orbit in relation to Earth's. Bach put this proportion in the 4th section which represents the heart chakra, the chakra center of Venus, planet of harmony and love.
There's also this little fun fact about the number 1.6, that 1 + 6 = 7.
Some other patterns are apparent. If we divide the Toccata into the 3 parts that correspond to the 3 parts of the soul, and the 3 parts of the
Tarot journey according to Robert Place, the first two chakra sections (including the first chariot) is the lower soul. The "devil" section (the manifesting portion of chakra 5) is added to the last 2 sections, together representing the higher part of the soul. The proportions between the three parts of the soul in the Toccata #540 are thus: (lower part)=175 bars, (middle part)=155 bars, and (higher part)=108 bars.
Notice also in the table above, that the first two liberating sections (the two snake-like, double-helix canons) each have 54 bars. 54 x 2 = 108. As above, so below.
108
is a very sacred number, linked to the great year and other astronomical phenomena.
The diameter of the Sun is 108 times the diameter of the Earth (109.12). Distance between the Sun and the Earth is 108 times the
diameter of the Sun (107.47). Distance between the Moon and Earth is 108 times the diameter of the Moon (109.12).
Here is a video which explains some of the significance of the number 432 (108 x 4)
The number 108 x 5 = 540-- the very number Schmeider designated for this Toccata in his catalogue of Bach Works based on genres and dates of composition, known as the BWV, published 100 years after Bach's death. Quite a coincidence. Of course, 54 x 10 also = 540.
When 175 (# bars in lower soul portion) is divided by 108 (# bars in higher soul portion) the proportion is 1.62, close to the divine proportion of 1.618.
As I mentioned, the central bar of the Toccata comes during the great chords of the Wheel of Fortune section, in the middle of the 3rd chakra section (bar 219), representing the navel or solar plexus. Bar 271 of the Toccata,
closest to the golden ratio of 1.618 when compared to all 438 bars, comes during the poignant introduction to The Hanged Man section, the very center of the Heart or 4th chakra. The 3rd chakra is the center of our will, and the 4th chakra is the "golden" center of our soul.
Looking the other way, reversing the direction of the divine proportion, the second pedal solo ends at bar 168, leaving 270 bars for the rest of the toccata. So the fiery, "piercing" entry of the chariot theme
(transition to 3rd chakra) comes at the divine proportion point, looking at the toccata backward (or downward). You can watch the status bar on
You Tube performances to graphically see the
divine proportion at these points of the piece (unless the video
features a lot of applause at the end).
270 times 2 = 540. The Toccata And Fugue in F is BWV #540.
The Fugue has 170 bars, about the same as the smaller part of the divine proportion in the toccata (167 to 169 bars depending on where you count).
Robert M. Place showed Leonardo Da Vinci's Vitruvian Man and its relationship to The Tarot. Leonardo places the Man inside an overlapping square and circle.
The square represents our physical nature (the 4 minor suits), and the circle our spiritual journey (the trumps). The center of the square is located at the
1st or 2nd chakra, the groin. When focused on sexuality, we are centered on the physical.
But when we look at the divine proportion point on the central up/down axis (along the backbone and between the legs) of the man inside the square,
it is located at the 3rd chakra (navel, or solar plexus). This is also the central point of the circle. Place points out all this and more.
I go on to observe that, at the divine proportion point on the axis within the circle (including the portion of the circle that rises above his head), is the Man's heart.
This of course matches Bach's Toccata in F, in which the central bar #219 is in the middle of chakra 3, and the divine proportional bar #271
is in the middle of the heart chakra. It thereby describes The Man within the spiritual circle
(or his spiritual journey), with his 3rd chakra at the center of the circle, and his heart at the golden proportion point on the up and down axis of the circle.
Taking it another step further, bar 374 comes at the golden proportion point between the middle of the heart chakra section (bar 271) and the top of the crown
(the end of the Toccata, bar 438). That is the start of the second Chariot theme in the third eye, thus in the very middle of the third eye section,
where the two sides of the soul are integrated. Notice that this 6th chakra section is the only one that contains two chariot themes, the first
combined with the snake theme (corresponding to The Star tarot card), and the second alone (The Moon card).
And now for geometry! I linked the heart chakra and its section in the Toccata in F to the 12-sided
Dodecahedron, citing its relationship to the 12 petals in Hindu chakra symbolism, as well as to the 5-sided pentagram, and said it represents spirit, the 5th element. There are 5 "Platonic solids", and Plato linked 4 of them to the 4 elements.
Plato assigned Air to the
octahedron because of its ability to penetrate. An 8-sided polygon relates to the
16 petals of the 5th chakra. Plato related Earth to the stable
cube, which is based on the square that resembles the 4 petals of the 1st chakra.
Remember in Leonardo's drawing, the center of the square is the first or earth chakra. Plato linked
Fire to the
tetrahedron, the first or original of the solids
(4-sided pyramid, or 4 triangles; triangles are based on the number 3, for 3rd chakra, and the word pyr means fire).
The number of sides plus the number of edges in a tetrahedron is 10 (3rd chakra has 10 petals).
Water was linked with the 20-sided
icosahedron because of its fluidity.
Chakra #2 times 10 equals 20. It is composed of 20 equal triangles (3x2(0) = 6(0) petals). The dodecahedron was the 5th of
Plato's geometric solids, and is the only other such figure;
so associating it with spirit or Ether is logical.
Plato said that the creator god used the dodecahedron "for arranging the constellations on the whole heaven."
This could also represent the 12 signs of the zodiac, another symbol of the wholeness of the soul and the complete circle of heaven.
Aristotle invented the term "5th element" or quintessence, claiming that it composed the "unchanging" heavens, but didn't link it to Plato's 5th solid, the dodecahedron. It was Plotinus who first described the 5th element as "spirit." He thus understood that the same Spirit
that composes the heavens (for example, the planets and the zodiac) also composes the soul (the 7 chakras, especially the 4th and 7th, the sacred center).
As we have seen, there's a planet and 2 signs for each chakra. As above, so below; as within, so without, is the spiritual principle.
The five Platonic solids and elements are pictured below in a quincunx, as on the world card, the Taj Mahal and Angkor Wat, with the
Dodecahedron and Spirit in the center and the four other solids and elements in the four corners, as they would be arranged according to the
philosophy wheel and the toccata/Ezekiel order, and in our table of the 5 imperial tarot cards.
Note that the word "quincunx" literally means five-twelvths, indicating again 5 combining with 12 as in the dodecahedron.
This figure is a different meaning of the word from the astrological aspect, which is 5/12 of a circle (150 degrees).
The dodecahedron, associated with the 5th element and the heart chakra,
is composed of 12, 5-sided regular polygons.
The 5 interior angles in this kind of polygon are each 108 degrees (a sacred spirit number, and the sum of the # of bars in the two full toccata canons), and add up to 540 (the Schmeider/BWV number of Bach's Toccata in F). The Key of F is the key of the heart chakra, which is indicated in the Toccata in F by the five wandering repeats in the uplifting theme, and represented by the 5-sided polygon faces of the dodecahedron, the Platonic solid
corresponding to the 5th element, the quintessence, the heart chakra's element of Spirit. Venus, the heart's ruling planet, moves with the
Earth in a 5-pointed rhythm, exhibiting 4 5-pointed stars and the fibonacci sequence as it does so, as do the pentagram and pentagon.
540 degrees is 1 and a half times around the zodiac or the circle. If you start at 0 degrees Aries, then 540 degrees equals the beginning of Libra, a heart-chakra sign ruled by Venus. And of course, the musical key of Venus and the heart chakra is F. F stands for Five, Four, and Five-Forty; and the F tone is a fourth, and an inverted, falling (or yin, for the heart chakra) fifth. Remember that the 54 bars of the 2nd canon are the inverse or mirror image of the first 54.
Here is an astonishing article by Iona Miller about the Dodecahedron as a symbol of the universe.
See the diagram of Venus and Earth orbits from Jeff Andrews in the
Heart Chakra section (and below). The lines drawn between points on the two circular orbits form 4 5-pointed stars.
Add the circle of the orbits to the 5 and the 4, and guess what you have: 540, the BWV number of Bach's Toccata in F. It's as if the drawing of Earth's
and Venus' orbits is a logo for the Toccata in F. Remember also that the uplifting theme has 4 bars, and is repeated 5 times in the heart chakra section.
The Pentagram of Venus article by John Carlos Baez
All music is based on the Octave, the Fifth, and the Fourth tones, according to Pythagoras. If O stands for Octave, in which the first tone has spiraled around in a circle to meet itself, then once again we have 5, 4 and 0, this time the number 540 standing for all music and for Bach's Toccata in F. If the octave is represented by the number 8 instead, then that would make "all music" correspond symbolically to the great "masonic wedge" prelude and fugue in e minor, #548, or to the Trio in g minor, #584, or clavier works #845 (Gigue in F Minor, authenticity doubtful) or #9 in the Well-Tempered Clavier #854.
The quincunx or world card formation/throne of God is also represented by the number 540: 4 figures in a circle or wheel (0) around the throne or spirit element in the center (5th element). (you could also cite # 405, 450, or 504 in some of these coincidental correlations, but these numbers just represent vocal hymn settings in Schmeider's BWV catalogue). The quincunx formation (God's throne), and the 3 tones on which music is based (using 0 for the octave), are thus numerically the same, #540. Remember, the interior angles of the dodecahedron, which represents the spirit or universal element, also add up to 540. Does that indicate that God is music, and that the Toccata in F by Bach BWV#540 is the music of God? Or you can substitute the word Universe for God, if you are more physics-minded, which would agree with string theory and Pythagoras (the universe is music).
Could the relationships shown by all the Platonic solids to the chakras also reveal the Fibonacci sequence (1,2,3,5,8,13,21), and thus the divine proportion?
After the cube (1st chakra) comes the "fluid" icosahedron, which has 2 x 10 faces (2 = 2nd chakra). The tetrahedron is a 3-dimensional triangle
(tri = 3 = 3rd chakra), and each face of the dodecahedron is a 5-pointed figure (4th chakra = 5). The octahedron has 8 faces (5th chakra = 8).
So if the sequence continues, the 6th chakra is ruled by the number 13 (the number of the toccata theme; 12 +1, a number of synthesis and wholeness and The Christ),
and the 7th chakra is ruled by the number 21 (number of trump cards, and the number of the World card that rules the 7th chakra).
The "star tetrahedron" is also linked to the heart chakra and to the "chariot of ascension" because it is the 6-pointed star, a figure that traditionally represents the union of all the elements. Since the "chariot" section of the toccata and tarot journey leads into the 3rd or fire chakra, the tetrahedron's association with fire is also shown.
This chariot theme, as we saw, has 6 pairs of chords, and in each pair the first chord is higher than the second (yang/yin), and each is preceeded
by a pedal note. That's a total of 18 pedal notes and chords. Together with the 4-note world or God chord that follows it, that's 22 pedal notes and chords,
equal to the 22 trump tarot cards of the Major Arcana, 22 Hebrew letters, pathways on the Tree of Life, etc. (which represent the fool's or hero's journey
in a chariot of ascension, or merkabah). The 3 motiff of the tetrahedron also appears in the 3 notes of the original theme's 3rd bar, which represents the 3rd chakra.
You can also compare the 6 triangles of the Chariot Theme to the
Tree of Life. It has 6 triangles, with the lines in each running from two sephiroth circles to a circle between them, with 3 triangles pointing up and three down, just like the pedal notes (see as the middle notes) in the Toccata's chariot theme alternate between up and down. The Chariot Theme in the 7th chakra seems to come down out of Heaven, so it corresponds best to the Tree.
Kether represents the first high pedal note, followed by the two yang and yin circles on each side, Chokmah and Binah,
which represent the two highest chords. Then the next low pedal note is Daath, which again connects to Chokmah and Binah above it.
Then Daath becomes the second high pedal note, connecting to Chesed and Geburah (2 chords) below it on each side. The second low pedal note is Tipareth,
connected also to Chesed and Geburah (the 2 chords) above it. The third high pedal note is Tipareth again, but connected to the 2 chords representing
Netzach and Hod below it. Finally, the third low pedal note is Yesod, connected also to the 2 chords Netzach and Hod above it. This is followed by the 4 God chords,
which this time represent Yesod, Netzach, Hod, and Malkuth, the 4 circles at the bottom of the Tree sometimes correlated to the 4 elements,
or the 4 creatures of God's throne (the World of God chord).
This sequence is presented literally in the crown chakra section, in which the chariot theme descends from the heavens, as the chariot becomes the very
Throne of God itself before our ears. But the last chord of the 4 "God chords" in the chariot theme here is unresolved, like the chords in the 3rd and 5th chakras (also yang chakras, like the crown).
The enlightened seeker has become the master, but feels (s)he must return down the tree of life to the Earth to share with others the light (s)he has discovered.
As in the other two yang chakras, the struggle or climbing theme follows, this time representing this difficult and often dangerous Return into the manifest world.
The final world chords that end the Toccata can also begin it again, if you choose.
Special notes on the World tarot card
Paul Foster Case in The Tarot (page 121) points out that the numbers of the four fixed signs of the zodiac, illustrated by the four symbolic
creatures from Ezekiel and Revelation in God's "throne" pictured on The World
tarot card, and often also the Wheel of Fortune card, are 2, 5, 8 and 11.
These numbers are their position in the zodiac (Taurus is the 2nd sign after Aries, the first sign; Leo the 5th sign, Scorpio the 8th and Aquarius the 11th).
These numbers add up to 26. The numbers corresponding to the Hebrew letters IHVH, the name for God, also add up to 26 (I = 10, H = 5, V = 6, H = 5).
Using 8 as the number for the tonic note or chord, since 8 is the octave, the numbers for the
World or God chords in the Toccata in F also add up to 26: 3rd note = 3, tonic note = 8,
7th note = 7, tonic note = 8. This pattern (using 8 = tonic note) would especially fit those instances of the World chord (such as the final chord) when the tonic notes
jump up an octave higher, thus representing the presence of God.
The English word "world" has 5 letters (for the 5 figures on the card, 5 elements, etc.), and the numbers corresponding to the letters in "world" add up to 71,
which in turn adds up to 8 (the octave). The numbers in 26 also add up to 8.
The first bar (the original canon/"snake" or "spiral" theme) of Toccata in F (BWV 540) has 7 notes, symbolizing the 7 chakras. The high notes are the first, third,
fifth and seventh notes in the theme (the sixth is the same note as first and third). These high notes equate to the yang chakras, just as do the primary colors
(red, yellow, blue), and the primary tones of the scale (do/tonic, mi/3rd, so/5th/dominant). The "yang" notes of the toccata theme, #1,3,5 and 7, are all higher
than the notes neighboring them, which is why I call them the primary or yang notes of the theme.
See the graphic of the theme turned upright on the main page, with yang notes on the left and yin on the right.
Remember that the toccata's full theme has 13 notes. Multiplying 13 by 2, for the theme imitating itself in canon, equals 26, the number of God's name and the
God/World chord.
26 times 3 (like the 3 parts of the soul) = 78, the number of cards in a tarot deck. 26 times 2 is 52, the number of cards in a regular playing deck.
If you add the two jokers, which take the place of the major arcana in a regular playing card deck, that's 54 cards, the same number of bars in a canon of the Toccata in F.
The toccata's 4 World Chord(s) (3rd, tonic, 7th, tonic), which represents IHVH (God's name) and the throne of God in Ezekiel and Revelation
shown on the World card, is made from the first three notes of the main snake theme (tonic, 7th, tonic), preceeded by the 5th note of that theme (the 3rd tone).
The 4 World Chord notes are therefore the same as notes 1,2,3 and 5 of the main theme, heard in reverse order (like the way the virtues come down from God),
and represent chakras 1,2,3 and 5. These are also the chakras represented by the 4 elements of fire, earth, air and water, and given the "elemental virtues"
Faith (earth, chakra 1), Love (water, chakra 2), Strength (fire, chakra 3) and Temperance (air, chakra 5) in my tables.
Remember these are also the same four
elemental virtues represented by the members of the greatest rock group, The Who, in Quadrophenia. The four creatures around the throne of God
and their four elemental signs on the World Card (Taurus/earth sign, Leo/fire, Scorpio/water and Aquarius/air), are also represented in both the toccata's main
initial canon theme, and in its crowning (and oft-repeated) World Chord. The 5th element in the Center of the World Card, shown as Lady Sophia (wisdom),
is represented by the spiritual virtues Justice (4th chakra, 4th note of the theme, a dominant tone), and Wisdom (7th chakra, 7th note = first note of next bar);
while Hope (6th chakra, also fire) is represented by the 6th note of the initial theme, which repeats notes 1 (faith) and 3 (strength/fire); these three notes are all tonic tones.
The World chords also conclude the chariot theme, and within that theme the 4 chords represent the crown chakra. But in this case the first note
is not a major 3rd, but a 5th or dominant tone. This corresponds to the 4th note within the original theme, which represents the 4th chakra (the heart), instead of the 5th note
(a major 3rd tone) representing the 5th chakra. Traditionally the heart chakra is linked to the air element instead of the 5th chakra, which is traditionally linked to ether.
I would interpret this to indicate that the heart is essential to the chariot, our vehicle of ascension, which becomes on the higher levels the holy grail,
or feminine receptivity to spirit, which is centered (among other places) in the heart. In other words, we travel our spiritual journey in our chariot (merkabah) through the yin heart center, more than through the yang fifth chakra. Remember that the Lovers card theme (2nd pedal solo) opens into the following Chariot card theme.
The heart's virtue Justice (integrity) would also appear to be essential to our voyage in the spiritual chariot vehicle.
The pedal notes of the chariot theme, remember,
also stand for the central pole, the Sushumna or central spine of the chakras and the Tree of Life, and these pedal notes are all dominant or 5th tones.
This central pole also symbolizes the sacred center of the heart and crown chakras. In the original theme, the central pole was represented by the held-down
pedal note (pedal point), which shifted in the course of the theme from being the tonic tone to the dominant and back, as if in the lower chakras the pole or spine is
attempting to get upright (or human) instead of horizontal (like an animal), but doesn't quite make it yet. In the chariot theme, the portal to the 3rd chakra of power,
the pedal notes are all dominant, or upright. We are entering the soul of will, the human level capacities and virtues, for which we need an erect backbone!
Finally, in the blissful crown chakra theme (the Judgement card theme), the held pedal point returns
in the dominant key (C major), as if connecting the crown chakra to the heart, symbolized by the dominant C 4th note in the original theme.
The crown theme combines two themes. Played in the left hand is an altered version of the uplifting "rocket" theme, moving downward as if from the crown,
while the right hand plays a majestic but simple 4-note theme that resembles the God/World chord. This is repeated 4 times through 4 descending bars
(24 notes total, same as during the virtue themes); then the hands switch and repeat. Then the liberating theme moves up and down the keyboard with joyous abandon,
turning cartwheels as it goes. The crown theme in the right hand consists of the same notes played in the 4th bar (representing the heart) of the original theme.
In the uplifting theme (see below), the fifth element of the World Chords is represented by a 5th note that sounds the 4th tone (heart chakra = 5th element), which leads into the 4 "world" or "God" notes (3rd tone and the other 3 chords) that follow.
In Revelation 4, each creature around the throne has one face.
But in the original revelation in Ezekiel 1, each creature has all four faces pointing
in the 4 directions, and this makes 16 faces in all, corresponding to the 16 MBTI types. The goal in the spiritual journey is to become more than one's type,
by developing all 4 functions. These are represented by the four elemental creatures in Revelation and on the World card, by the four imperial rulers, and by
the four intertwined canon snakes, and all the world chords, in the Toccata in F. By integrating these different and opposing functions within us, we can steer our
chariot or merkabah, just like God does as he sits on His throne.
This article from crystalinks describes 2 other types of "angels" besides the
4 creatures (chayot) around the throne of God in Ezekiel: the wheels or ways (ophannim), and the flashes of fire (seraphim). The Seraphim powers the
movement of the chariot, and are closest to God, and they control the "Chayot", which control the wheels of "Ophannim." These angels correspond respectively to the
four cardinal, fixed and mutable signs in astrology.
There may be other mathematical and numerical patterns to notice in the Toccata, which I will report here if I find them.
Footnote: No doubt the allegory in the Tarot trumps or Major Arcana might need some updating.
We don't live in Renaissance times, and the Tarot'smoral point of view could be seen to somewhat resemble the reactionary "red-state" attitudes of today's
Religious Right fundamentalists. Male figures trump female ones, and sexuality and sensuality, often symbolized in the cards by women, is rejected in the Tarot's
2nd Act in favor of male discipline. The conservative, punishing parenting style described by George Lakoff might be seen to be preferred over the liberal nurturing style.
All the more reason then (in a "new age" tarot) to change the trump order in the first section to elevate the female rulers over the male ones,
as Bach's Toccata in F and the chakra system indicate. For in the Toccata, as in the chakras, the first chakra is male, and the second chakra above it is female!
BACK to Bach, chakras, tarot: Tarot Trumps and Toccata
Footnote: Why does the first pedal solo stop after 28 bars at path 28, while the second includes all 32 bars that
correspond to all 32 paths on the Tree of Life? It never ceases to amaze me how Bach's Toccata in F provides answers that illuminate the spiritual path.
Let's review things to see how.
Other aspects of the "4-fold world and center" with tables
Imperial Tarot cards #1-5 Emperor Pope/High Priest Magician Empress Papess/High Priestess
Bach Toccata in F portion first canon pt.1 first canon pt.2 first pedal solo second canon pt.1
second canon pt.2
Element/weather air/dry fire/hot spirit/alive
earth/cold water/wet
Season Winter Summer the poles/equator Spring Autumn
Fixed Sign/Creature Aquarius/Man Leo/Lion World Soul/Sophia Taurus/Bull Scorpio/Eagle
Temperament/fluid sanguine/blood choleric/yellow bile wise/consciousness melancholic/black bile
phlegmatic/phlegm
Virtue Temperance Strength/Hope Justice/Wisdom
Faith Love
Tarot Suit swords wands trumps coins
cups
Function thinking intuition individuation
sensation feeling
Philosophy rationalism essentialism spiritualism
empiricism existentialism
Social Class nobles priesthood seekers
bourgeoisie proletariat
Outer Planet Saturn Jupiter Pluto Uranus
Neptune
Government aristocracy (Federalist/Tory) theocracy (Christian parties) ecological (Green Party)
republican (Republican) socialism (Democratic/Labour)
Planets/sephiroth Mercury/glory Mars/severity
Sun/beauty Venus/victory Jupiter/mercy
Cyclic Table
Season Spring Summer Autumn Winter
Fixed Zodiac Sign on World card Taurus/Bull Leo/Lion Scorpio/Eagle Aquarius/Man
cardinal point Noon/Capricorn Sunrise/Aries Midnight/Cancer Sunset/Libra
Turning/Generation 3.nomad (X) 2.prophet (Boomer)
1.artist (Silent, Z) 4.civic (Greatest/Y-Millennial)
Element earth fire water air
Suit coins wands cups swords
Function sensation intuition feeling thinking
Philosophy empiricism essentialism existentialism rationalism
Class merchant priest peasant noble
Temperament/Virtue melancholic/Faith choleric/Strength phlegmatic/Love sanguine/Temperance
Jungian Type ST NF SF NT
Imperial tarot card Empress High Priest High Priestess Emperor
Tetragrammaton 2nd Heh Yod 1st Heh Vav
Toccata World chord final tonic chord 1st note or chord: a major 3rd 1st tonic chord 7th chord
Essentialism/intuition/fire/hot/Summer/yod/3rd
Rationalism/thinking/air/dry/Autumn/heh/tonic
Empiricism/sensation/earth/cold/Winter/vav/7th
Existentialism/feeling/water/wet/Spring/heh/tonic.
BACK to the "imperial" four-fold quincunx table
Mathematical patterns in the Toccata in F, S.540
chakra section bars lib.portion manif.portion lib/manif. proportion
(1) 82 54 28 1.92857
(2) 93 54 32 (plus "chariot", 7 bars = 39) 1.722
(3) 62 41 21 1.952
(4) 52 32 20 1.6
(5) 62 41 21 1.952
(6-7) 87 30(ch.6) 57(ch.7) .5263
totals 438 252 186 1.3548
See Spiritual and scientific significance of the number 108. This fascinating relationship also allows for total solar eclipses, also the symbol for the alchemical divine marriage of silver and gold.
The longest total solar eclipses, however, happen when the distance between the Moon and Earth is closer and the Moon appears larger, and thus the distance between Moon and Earth is closer to exactly 108 times the diameter of the Moon.
In the final World Chords, not only is this the case (since the struggle theme ends on that note, and then the 3rd tone pedal note and final 3 Chords follow),
but the same fourth tone is imbedded underneath one of the Chords themselves, played by the pedal. This doesn't happen in the Toccata's many other
World Chords, but only in the concluding World Chords that end the piece; the final destination of the journey. The 5th element has become integrated within the
other 4 elements.
The fifth element is also indicated in the final section (the 7th chakra) by the 12 bars that introduce the crown theme (which I also call the Sun card section).
Here the uplifting arpeggio theme enters in two fragments of 6 bars each (12 total, like the dodecahedron), but instead of the four descending pedal notes
underneath the uplifting theme (see above), there are 10 descending pedal notes under each fragment (two times five, like the five-sided faces of the dodecahedron).
BACK to Toccata in F: Bach, Chakras, Tarot