The New Moon in Fixed Air on February 1^st, 2022 at 5:46 GMT

I know not how thou singest, my master! I ever listen in silent amazementThe light of thy music illuminates the world.

Rabindranath Tagore, Gitanjali, III

This month lunation rekindles our personal relationship with the element of Air, as the lights of the waters above synchronise for but a brief moment, whispering to us to be still and to listen to the breath and sound of the Cosmos, the Nada.

You would be forgiven if you find strange the term stillness being linked with Air, after all movement feels to be its’ natural state, especially in coastal temperate regions of the world. Essential to life in the form of breath, air extinguishes fire; churns water to mist and can rip up the Earth. But it can also bring fire to life by providing the necessary fuel to feed the flame; it can push a boat across water and shape the land through erosion. Its very existence is fundamental to wellness, let alone it being the alpha and omega to our bodies as we in and excarnate.

But it is from sound that we are born; it is sound that accompanies our transition between differing states of consciousness; and it is from sound that the knowledge of the cosmos is revealed, encoded within the symbol of the Water Bearer, Aquarius or the consciousness filter called Fixed Air.

Aquarius

Two oscillating wavelengths, parallel to each other, the Nada or invisible vibration that permeates all of Creation, mirrored in the material world; and the vibration of the physical plane, mirroring the vibration of the cosmic rhythm.

Movement, not stillness, yet again immediately springs to mind when you initially look at the symbol, as your eye naturally descends and ascends along the waves, in the same way that your body sways into the rhythm generated by the sound of music; the mind immediately remembering forgotten memories as the first bar of a song is heard; the heart is stirred; the soul, uplifted; the spirit, animated.

Just as life cannot flourish without stillness, both music and the waves of Aquarius are nothing without the pause, or space between.

Many struggle to cope with the Twins – Pause and Stillness – in a world consumed with activity and movement. Society tells you that you must have something wrong with you; that you lack ambition or drive; or that you are lazy if you take time out to simply be.

Pause

Pauses, or space, are inherent. Nature stills within the shorter days; ladies are to retreat at the Dark Moon; the spaces between notes, in musical composition, are as important as the melody itself. Imagine listening to someone giving a continuous single sentence speech, or reading Joyce’s Ulysses!! Not only is it exhausting to keep concentrating on the constant stream of words issuing forth from a speakers mouth, whatever nuggets of shared inspiration will eventually become lost within this unending, monotonous stream of sound from which you will eventually crave relief from.

The ‘rest’ in music allows the listener to absorb each musical phrase before the next one starts. Imbued with both reflection and anticipation, the space encapsulates the concept of being present, just as the rest within a musical phrase adds strength to the rhythm of the melody. If the musician were only to produce charming cadences for the sake of making beautiful sound and she did not listen to her own inner voice, her imaginative energies would quickly exhaust and her voice would fade.

Whilst the actual creation of the music itself (cardinal) and the intrinsic interchange between the musician and the listener (mutable) make up an obvious dualism, the procreative process gains its driving force from the alteration of sound and silence, vocalising and listening, creating and perceiving and ultimately from the individualistic meaning attributed to the harmonic vibrations as you internalise what the sound means to you (Fixed).

The listener’s part is to observe silence lest she will not hear the real message within the melody. It is this silent listening, the ultimate experience of all pervading sweetness concealed in the vibration of sound, that turns the music into something meaningful, inspiring and rejuvenating. It is within the stillness and silence that a deeper rhythm can be heard and a resonance that those on a spiritual path intimately understand carries a frequency that can raise our awareness.

 

“Nothing is inert, all vibrates. All is vibration.” Hermes Trismegistus

A deeper look at Aquarius

Returning to the Aquarian symbol and another of Hermes’ statements – as above, so below, you can see the parallel sine waves mirroring each other, one above, the other below – the Nada or invisible cosmic radiation or vibration and Bhur-Ioka or the physical plane we live within. Between them is the space, an essentially invisible, or incorporeal, bridge that connects both together. These wavelengths carry knowledge – the upper is accessed through the eye whose inwards focus falls upon the Akashi; the lower is transposed through the ear and eyes and reasoned within the mind. It is through this still space that the two are connected, and it is through the medium of sound that a shift in consciousness occurs. And the only way to truly ‘hear’ the upper wavelength is through stillness, a process that can be supported by listening to music and eventually hearing your own music.

Music reminds us that we are always still. It connects us to the Now. We become at one with the moment and our notion of time and space, worry and tension dissolves as we simply listen and feel the sound vibration. We experience our stillness. We can hear ourselves. We can simply be.

Music brings us closer to our stillness as we lose ourselves in the moment, forgetting about the busyness of life and the constant stream of addictions that surround our material lives. Music prompts us to listen; to reflect; to connect; to remember; and to be fully present in the now.

The Aquarian within you can learn from the stillness within music. The musical pause, or reflection, not only accentuates beauty, it enables the listener to truly hear the message within the harmonies. It is within the still space that a deeper rhythm can be heard, a rhythm necessary to free yourself from the noise that keeps you embedded within the physical plane.

In the three days leading up to this Fixed Air, New Moon I would urge you to immerse yourself in the pauses within your music, allowing yourself to ride the wave, observing what voices rises from within your own Deep.

Listen well, listen true and thank you for being part of my world.

All rights reserved –Andrew Smith. Written at 22:46 GMT, 28^th January 2022