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Further, if we compare our experiences of the two kinds of tone, they tell us that through the quality or colour of the natural tone something of a soul-nature, pleasant or unpleasant, speaks to us, whereas ‘pure’ tones have a soulless character.

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‘… A Pulpit in my Mind
A Temple, and a Teacher I did find,
With a large Text to comment on. No Ear,
But Eys them selvs were all the Hearers there.
And evry Stone, and Evry Star a Tongue,
And evry Gale of Wind a Curious Song.’¹¹

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Centripetal acceleration:
a = 4ϲr / t²

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Actually, Kepler’s great work, Harmonices Mundi, in the last part of which he announces his third law, is entirely devoted to proving the truth of the Pythagorean doctrine that the universe is ordered according to the laws of music. This doctrine sprang from the gift of spiritual hearing still possessed by Pythagoras, by which he could perceive the harmonies of the spheres. It was the aim of his school to keep this faculty alive as long as possible, and with its aid to establish a communicable world-conception. The Pythagorean teaching became the foundation of all later cosmological thinking, right up to the age which was destined to bring to birth the spectator-relationship of man’s consciousness with the world. Thus it was left to Copernicus to give mankind the first truly non-Pythagorean picture of the universe.

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Thy functions are ethereal,
As if within thee dwelt a glancing mind,
Organ of vision! And a Spirit aëreal
Informs the cell of Hearing, dark and blind.
W. WORDSWORTH

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Having thus established that the psychic content of aural experience forms an integral part of the tone-phenomenon as such, we must seek to understand how the kinetic process which is indispensable for its appearance comes to be the vehicle for the manifestation of ‘soul’ in the manner described.

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Thirdly, if it is true that the essential solar and lunar effects – and presumably the effects of the other planets – on the earth do not spring from physical influence exerted by the visible bodies of the planets concerned, but from certain astral force-fields of which these bodies themselves form part, what is the significance of such a body within the planet’s dynamic whole?

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In connexion with our discussion of electricity (Chapter XIII) we spoke of the special function of the metals as bearers of the ‘mercurial’ quality (in the alchemical sense of the term). As one of the characteristics which reveal this function we mentioned the peculiar capacity of metals to behave as ‘solid fluids’. This exceptional place among the mineral substances of the earth, the metals owe to their close association with the extra-terrestrial astral forces of the world. In this field, too, modern spiritual investigation has recovered something which was known to people of old – that among the metals there are seven which have a distinctive character, for each stands in a special relation to one of the seven planets (that is, the planetary force-spheres) of our cosmic system. This is shown in the following table:

 Saturn Lead Jupiter Tin Mars Iron Sun Gold Venus Copper Mercury Quicksilver Moon Silver 

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Resolving normal tones by Helmholtz’s method (useful as it is for certain purposes) amounts to something like dissecting a living, ensouled organism into its members; only the parts of the corpse

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We have obtained a sufficiently clear picture of the organization of our sense of hearing to see where the way lies that leads from hearing with the ears of the body to hearing with the ears of the spirit, that is, to the inspirative perception of the astral world.