Music of the Spheres

In the beginning of Middle Earth, Iluvatar created the world of Arda by the music of the Ainur, angelic beings who sang creation into existence. In the beginning of Narnia, Aslan wandered to and fro across the land, singing a new song and bringing the world into being. In the beginning of our world, the angels rejoiced and the morning stars sang together when Elohim created the heavens and the earth. 

The connection between music and the created order is a long lasting one. Over the years some have called it the Mystery of the Cosmos, the Harmonies of the World, the Musica Universalis, or the Music of the Spheres. The Music of the Spheres was an ancient Greek theory by Pythagorus later developed by astronomer Johannes Kepler. It was the belief that the stars and planets made a cosmic melody as they circled the earth and made their way through space. 

Though this theory is of course poetic and imaginative, the disciplines of astronomy and mathematics have in part backed it up. There is a real harmony and proportionality to geometry, and the heavenly bodies do indeed vibrate with a dynamic energy captured by radio telescopes. 

C.S. Lewis wrote extensively about this concept in his last book, The Discarded Image, and put it into practice in his series, The Chronicles of Narnia. Michael Ward delves into this in his doctoral thesis which became the book, Planet Narnia. He discovered a hidden code in the Narnia books and found that each book represents one of the planets, or seven heavens, of the medieval world. 

(The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe is Jupiter, Prince Caspian is Mars, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader is the Sun, The Silver Chair is the Moon, The Horse and his Boy is Mercury, The Magician’s Nephew is Venus, and The Last Battle is Saturn.) 

J.R.R. Tolkien used the imagery of the secret music to begin his creation account in The Silmarillion.

“Then Ilúvatar said to them: 'Of the theme that I have declared to you, I will now that ye make in harmony together a Great Music. And since I have kindled you with the Flame Imperishable, ye shall show forth your powers in adorning this theme, each with his own thoughts and devices, if he will. But I will sit and hearken and be glad that through you great beauty has been wakened into song.' Then the voices of the Ainur, like unto harps and lutes, and pipes and trumpets, and viols and organs, and like unto countless choirs singing with words, began to fashion the theme of Ilúvatar to a great music; and a sound arose of endless interchanging melodies woven in harmony that passed beyond hearing into the depths and into the heights, and the places of the dwelling of Ilúvatar were filled to overflowing, and the music and the echo of the music went out into the Void, and it was not void. Never since have the Ainur made any music like this music, though it has been said that a greater still shall be made before Ilúvatar by the choirs of the Ainur and the Children of Ilúvatar after the end of days. Then the themes of Ilúvatar shall be played aright, and all shall understand fully his intent in their part, and each shall know the comprehension of each, and Ilúvatar shall give to their thoughts the secret fire, being well pleased.”

As great as Lewis and Tolkien were, perhaps no one wrote more profoundly of the music of the spheres than King David in Psalm 19, a favorite of Lewis. Lewis wrote that it was the greatest poem in the Psalter and one of the greatest lyrics in the world.  

“The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they reveal knowledge. They have no speech, they use no words; no sound is heard from them. Yet their voice goes out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world. In the heavens God has pitched a tent for the sun. It is like a bridegroom coming out of his chamber, like a champion rejoicing to run his course. It rises at one end of the heavens and makes its circuit to the other; nothing is deprived of its warmth.”  

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