The Creative Power of Sound

The material that makes up our physical world is in constant vibrating motion. Every atom oscillates with life; from micro-organisms, plant and animal lives, up to and including humanity, all lives actively fulfil their various destinies within the biosphere; while countless planets revolve around their suns; galaxies as far as our telescopes can see rotate mysteriously in deep space whose vast dimensions awe us.

These observations remind us that the different creation myths from around the world have a common thread – God, the absolute, the causeless cause, the unmoved mover, the synthesis behind the outer multitude of forms, initiates the whole panoply of the universe into motion through sound. “In the beginning was the word”, for God, the One Life, speaks and thus creates and sustains all forms.

Made as we are in the image of this synthesis, we replicate the pattern on our limited human level. The individual use of sound, or speech, to generate and attract what is desired and repel the undesirable is ubiquitous. The use of sound to promulgate thought and ideas is becoming more widespread.  On a larger level it is the ‘sound bite’ and the advertising slogan that drives, not yet fully, thinking people into patterns of voting and purchasing which puts politicians into power and swells the profits of industry. Viewed in this way the power of sound as the transmitter of ideas and desires is enormous. Yet the fascinating thing is that sound has no material substance other than fleeting changes of pressure in the atmosphere. In reality it is a creative bridge between the material world and the more spiritual dimensions.

Perhaps the most sublime use of sound by humanity lies in the world of music. Here the combination of timbre, melody, rhythm, discord and concord reflects the human condition of diversity with conflict and tension that must eventually achieve resolution in harmony. Perhaps it is this that gives music its power to produce the experience of unity, of shared emotion, of thought and of purpose. In a very real sense the unfolding life of humanity is a musical improvisation on the theme of the Plan as we gradually weave together conflicting elements and eventually produce – who knows what? – other than a fitting climax and revelation of truth and beauty that our best guesses fall far short of.

This end, of course, is still aeons in the future. Our spiritual task now is to use the tensions and dissonances of the present world situation to generate a better future of right human relationships. Much is already being done. Even more is being done silently behind the scenes as people all over the world consecrate their lives to reach up and grasp the new realities on the verge of manifestation and help precipitate them as a new and major theme for humanity to play in the planetary life. Triangles is an important contribution in this planetary effort.