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| In ancient astronomy, measurements for the most part are based on factors of 12 and 60, the Babylonian sexagesimal system. Through geometry, a circle naturally divides into 12 parts. By subdividing these 12 parts, we end up with 360 degrees (6 x 60 or 12 x 30), which is the ideal “geometrical” division of a year. The approximate length of one Platonic month or astrological age is 2,160 years (60 x 6 x 6 or 180 x 12), and a similar type of rounding takes place in other idealized measures. For example, the diameter of the moon is 2,160 miles, the diameter of the earth is 7,920 miles (60 x 132), and the diamater of the sun is 864,000 miles (60 x 12 x 1200). Due to the very structure of number, many of these values like 216 and 864 are important whole number values for expressing musical ratios in ancient mathematics. — Connie Achilles
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| Circulation of the Cosmos, the Pythagorean Progression, and the Vedic Scale
This diagram correlates the musical notes attributed to the planetary orbits on the Greek Esoteric Music Theory website with the numbers from the Pythagorean Lambda (“the Pythagorean progression”) and the note names of the Vedic scale. |
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| Beginnings of the Music of the Spheres — The Number 3168
As John Michell has shown in his earth-moon diagram, a square surrounding the earth has a perimeter of 31680 miles, which is also the circumference of a circle with the combined radii of the earth and the moon. The proportions of the earth and moon, taken together, thus “square the circle,” or can be used to generate a square and a circle possessing equal perimeters. As I show in the accompanying diagram, the total angular values in the 22-note musical lattice also have a sum of 3168. |
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