The Cauldron

I was reading the Spring 2008 issue of Light of Consciousness magazine (here for issue details), and as I started the article titled, The Healing Power of Singing Bowls (here and samples of sound, here), I was struck by the opening paragraph:

Science tells us that all life is energy, eternal in nature and morphing from one shape or form to another.  Physicist Dave Bohm calls this the "implicate order".  According to Bohm, what lies behind all phenomena is vibrating energy, which forms an "unbroken wholeness, which connects us all."  Each "energy shape" has its own particular pattern of frequencies or vibrations.  When one form experiences a matching frequency in a musical note, or even words, the form will begin to vibrate in sympathetic resonance.  A strong enough vibration can even cause a form to restructure itself, as has been noted with cancer cells, crystal glasses, water crystals, etc.

Bound within the pages of a fantasy novel, Rhapsody uses the sound of her music, attuning herself to her namesong, and "tuning in" to others to find the truth that is contained within all of us.  She finds that resonance, amplifies it, and is able to restructure, or re-form (but not always reform ) the truth behind that which has been melted (or burned) away. 

Strangely enough in reality, this fantasy seems rooted within fact and truth.  How often does it happen that when we listen to a piece of music or song, that it "speaks" to us on a level that we cannot quite explain -  almost as if the writer or musician has captured a piece of ourselves within the music that resonates to the very essence that makes us who we are?  If we maintain that harmony within ourselves, we are able to touch the truth of who we are - and that truth can become a very powerful healing agent, creating the miracles that can happen at any time in the exercises of faith.     

I believe Haydon did a major amount of research, and most likely knew about this and added it in to her series.

But wow Krinsel, that is some really interesting information you dug up! I never really thought of that in detail. As you mentioned in your post above, vibrations (now that I think about it) effect us in different ways. Like if you turn the stereo to full blast, your heart beat increases and you become excited and lively. But if you are playing something soft and gentle on the stereo, you heart beat decreases and you become relaxed. Tones of voices effect us as well, like if someone was yelling it would makes us angry or scared. But if someone was speaking to you softly and gently, you would be calm and comforted. I think its not only the sound of the voice, but the vibrations of the words coming in contact with us or speaking it ourselves.

I think Naming is more based on ones opinion than anything else. Like if you called someone a beautiful French name, how the words flow from someones mouth and the vibrations created in speaking the rhythm of the name is comforting and romantic. But if you said something in German, you have to have a WHOLE lot of spit to speak it! Such as saying: Guten tag, ya, or flaschen; it gives you a more strong, powerful feeling of being.

I don't know if that made any sense, but I hoped it helped!

Considering that one of her jobs included being an editor of textbooks, I can definitely see where she could have been introduced to this knowledge, although I continue to be floored by how she wove her story around it!  

I dunno, if a special someone called me liebchen in a soft, yet husky voice, I think the meaning will come across rather well!    I think it also might matter as to how we are introduced to the language we tend to learn from the time we are in the womb.  Certain inflections become "dear" to us from a very early age - although to someone who isn't familiar with a dialect or form of expression, might not pick up the nuances that each language has to offer. 

The power of vibration, eh?  What about the power of names?  Many of the rules of Haydon's world fall into the Putonian belief in the power of the name/the thought.  Following in Plato's tradition (and that of Judeo/Christian theology), words in SOA have power.  Not only can something's (someone's) true name return that object to its original form (or bind the object to the will of the speaker, like Tsoltan did to the Brother), changing the name can alter the nature of the object.  This power of names has always been an interesting, if somewhat problematic, concept to me.  I can't help but wonder how much of Achmed's development from solitary assassin to king with friendships and alliances came from the name change or just from necessity.  He lost the advantages his blood-bond gave him on the Serendair, and in becoming king, he had to forge alliances with other political leaders.  But how much can be credited to the name change? 

Just for the sake of discussion, I'd like to introduce an alternative view of the power of words, one first proposed by linguist Ferdinand Saussure: words have no power.  Saussure believed that words themselves were nothing but meaningless utterances.  Under this assumption, “cat” is nothing but a vocalized sound, which we interpret to mean a small fuzzy critter.  On their own, words can have no meaning – they rely on how they differ from other meanings in order to make sense (which is how we distinguish between “house” and “car” and “cat.”)

How might this apply to SOA?  Are these two philosophies (one valuing the power of words and the other rejecting it) in complete opposition to each other?  Is there room for Saussure in Haydon’s world?  I’ll admit, I have trouble reconciling the two.  My gut reaction was that SOA existed in complete rejection of Saussure’s discovery.  However, I am coming around to a more modified view that borrows from both perspectives.

What do y’all think?

Well! If words mean nothing in the world of Symphony of Ages, then little Mri Niun's project of keeping the Dictionary of All Symphony of Ages Knowledge updated and edited really was a waste! No, just kidding!

I think you might have something there Rayhne. But words are just the single point of an entire sentence or describing words, like you said above. But words are indeed like a sacred, holy container. They hold the meaning of the words and make speaking a sentence easier and faster. But than again, if you don't know the meaning of the word, it is useless to you and might as well die with all the other ones in any dictionary.

Of course, that’s what I think.

Ooh, I like this, Rayhne.   Just let me reiterate a significant part of the quote which got me on this train of thought, and I'll bold the piece which directed me to start the thread here:

When one form experiences a matching frequency in a musical note, or even words, the form will begin to vibrate in sympathetic resonance.

To me, words have power because in order for language to "work", you need a consensus of individuals to give the word meaning.  Without this consensus, words have no power - it is the people who use the language of words which give meaning to their worth. 

In the Judeo/Christian traditions, the Book of Genesis tells the story of God giving this power over words to Adam, in having him name all the creatures in the World.  For Adam, there was no one to dispute his authority, the consensus was absolute, and anyone who came after him had a foundation of naming already in place.  In many Eastern traditions, the first "word" of power was the vibrational AUM (or OM) which caused all of existence to come into being.  The Christian acknowledgement of this can be seen in the opening of John's Gospel (1:1) In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 

I find the function of words particulary fascinating because my youngest daughter is dyslexic - she doesn't process words as "easily" as others might, because she conceptualizes in images and through tangible examples, over the abstract relationship that is critical for words to hold for effective communication.  I often give the example of when she was younger, she would color a tree "correctly",  but if I asked her to pick up the green crayon, she would look at me with confusion and frustration.  To her, green held no meaning, although she knew that the tree's leaves looked like this.  The word green represents the vibrational frequency in which this color reflects as a visual cue - but if she could "touch" that frequency directly, what meaning does "green" have, other than to communicate with others who might never have seen a tree, what it looks like?  It can't communicate her experience of that tree, just what it appears to be.

Words might have been attempts to mimic a vibration which was experienced upon "discovery" of a new creature, as it appeals to the sensory portion of ourselves and makes recognition almost immediate.  Ask almost any child (who doesn't have hearing difficulties) what is a "Meow Meow", "Woof Woof", or "Moo Moo" (my daughter's favorite), and observe how many of them will identify either by name or point to living examples of: "cat", "dog" or "cow", when given these auditory cues.

I don't think there is a true contradiction of the two philosophies as they co-exist within the Symphony of Ages.  I see that in finding one's "true name", Rhapsody directly touches that experience, and acts as an agent to describe that experience as it appears into words which are understood to represent (yet not totally convey) it.  It takes the vibrations contained in the music to fully bring "to life" what that name can bring forth.  It is in the combination of the two, working together, in which the power can be realized  through our limited understanding.  

In a way, Lirin Singers could be acting as the Voice of God, much like Metatron acts as God's Agent in communicating with Creation, in some mystical texts.

As an aside, I'm working on a piece of writing and I often find myself trying to find just the "right" word to put in place.  The other night, I used utmost to describe something that means of the height or pinnacle of importance.  I was looking at the word (I originally typed upmost when my spell check caught it! lol), and I was struck by what I learned at the EH site about the origination of "DO" on the musical scale, and how it was first named "UT".  In the Guido Scale, Ut was the first note, yet it was also the note one higher than the end of the previous scale, signfying something that starts a new beginning, making Ut a crowning achievement of what it set out to do.  

I immediately thought of how that applied to the true naming of Utmost...and how it holds multiple significance for Achmed in the Symphony of Ages! 

Very interesting Krinsel. Seeing that Achmed rose above his standards of a healer to an assassin, than from an assassin to a king is really significant, but when you look at it as him being put to "UT," from the Guildo Scale, it all just seem to fall right into place. Achmed just keeps rising above the limits one would expect for him to not being able to achieve till he is at the top (as we know of) off his game. A king!

Any of that make any sense to anyone?

That's exactly what I was aiming at, Little Niun .  Well done!

The following contains spoilers from The Floating Island, so if you haven't read it, might want to stop here. 

ETA:  I just re-read The Floating Island (after practically prying it from my daughter's sticky fingers! ) and the Singer, McLean, (another aside, I wonder if this Singer's name was inspired by Don McLean of "American Pie", and "Vincent" fame? lol) talks to Ven about what it actually means to "see".  I thought that this quote is right in line with Dave Bohm's quoted explanation at the beginning of this thread:

The Floating Island American Hardcover, p. 273

"All of life is at its very core made up of vibrations, Ven, waves of sound that most people hear or light that they see, or so I'm told.  But if you don't have eyes to behold that light, and the colors is carries, you can use a different sense to see.  I feel the vibrations on my skin, and hear the sounds they make.  It's my way of seeing.  It can be yours, too, at least for a moment."