Hey dear community, I hope you all had a great start to the new week and you are all well! Today I would like to talk a little about alchemy and hope you are able to expand your knowledge about this exciting topic.
Music is based on the principle of vibrations or frequencies, which were of enormous importance in both hermetics as well as alchemy and and already in ancient times people knew that everything must have its own vibration and this way of thinking was extremely formative in the philosophy of alchemy. The harmony of vibrations was also strongly associated with other important principles such as geometry or mathematics and the alchemists knew that different frequencies would affect the whole world and an important personality for this way of thinking goes back to the Greek philosopher Pythagoras who dealt a lot with mathematical principles and once he passed a forge from which different sounds could be heard. Pythagoras was so fascinated by it that he decided to visit the blacksmith and saw that these harmonic frequencies were created due to the interaction between hammer and anvil and this experience was an important basis for his teachings and he was firmly convinced that everything in our universe exists on the principle of different vibrations and this should strongly influence the work of the alchemists. The legend is often controversial and there are also other legends in which a blacksmith is considered the creator of music and there are also interpretations that it is said to have been Hermes Trismegistos who is said to have been behind Pythagoras.
The occult way of thinking was also closely linked to tones and some people were firmly convinced that celestial bodies would have their own patterns of frequencies which were also called heavenly scales and it is important here to better understand the whole principle that not certain vibrations of sounds but the general understanding of them influenced the spiritual as well as practical way of thinking of alchemy. A great interest for the alchemists was also the effect of the music on the body and what effects would result from it and they knew that it must be possible with certain sounds to influence the functioning of the body and to use this for healing purposes and here rituals were in focus in which instruments were used as a stimulating tool. The focus was often on one's own mind and with certain sounds it was possible to expand it and put people in a trance-like state and as an old branch of natural philosophy, also frequencies from nature such as birds, water or others were of high priority for the alchemists and also often linked to mysticism. Everywhere where alchemy was practiced, sounds were also of great importance and went hand in hand with spiritual development and music was also associated with the own energy field which is called aura and through the effect on the spirit of the various instruments and frequencies can be even seen as a own branch of alchemy. There are numerous traditions from which the importance of vibrations emerges and not only music as a form was important but also one's own receptivity and from numerous traditions from old writings or artworks the importance of vibrations in alchemy can be traced back.
Thank you for the visit and I hope you could learn something new about this interesting topic! I captured these pictures with my Camera Sony Alpha 6000 plus 55-210 mm lens.