New Spiritualibus Blog Posts – Excerpts

Not someone else
No matter who it is
But you — yourself
Create and carry life
In your personal space
Not the past or future
But the moment now
Counts in every reality
Separated from illusion
Because we are mixed
Together in this world
Of space and of time
Energy and matter
That we hold dear
And also what not
Is your own choice
To determine freely
Detached of others
All the propaganda
And good intentions
Healthy discrimination
Can well turn on itself
As balance is needed
Be healed by looking
Deep into God’s eye
Listening patiently
To the song of life
That — love is all.

“HeptaNa Gita” — harmonics medley

The tonality HeptaNa / LydAeolian, aka Lydian dominant ♭6 (related to the Neapolitan major scale), is remarkable in that its pitches are the first seven overtones or harmonics of its fundamental. “Hepta” indicates seven and “Na” natural harmonics. You can find the first six harmonics listed in the previous blog post Into the depth of soul along with their use in the piece “HexaNa Gita” — harmonic six-pack. The additional harmonic in HeptaNa, the seventh one, is the minor sixth, which contributes a somewhat melancholic feel (in slight contrast to the touch of LydDorian in “HexaNa Gita”). The other name of HeptaNa, LydAeolian indicates that its lower tertachord is Lydian and the upper PhrygAeolian.

See and hear yourself, not someone else

Looking into the depth of soul —
Breaking through the superficial
Black and white to all the colors
Duality tends to argue and fight
Why not just simply all together
Such a great force of evolution
Not the fittest or the strongest
But the one cooperating most
An ever new consciousness
Like a phoenix from ashes
Does the old have to burn
Or can it just step aside
Make room for the new
Generation merry go round
Heaping not just much trash
But the unfoldment of all
Consciousness and love
Appreciation and care
For oneself, others, all
A world that is home
Such beauty of nature
God has made the earth
We can plant a few flowers
Or trample them—too often
For black and white views
Too prevalent in humanity
Until able to perceive colors
Appreciate them all together
The spirit of life and of love
All free beyond the surface
Big round eyes open so wide
Looking into the depth of soul.

“HexaNa Gita” — harmonic six-pack

The tonality HexaNa is remarkable in that its pitches are the first six overtones or harmonics of its fundamental. Though our hearing may only perceive the first few harmonics of a fundamental with relative clarity, further overtones or harmonics contribute much to the feel and timbre of a sound, of an instrument or a composition.

The initial six harmonics or overtones in their distinct sequence are: 1) fundamental, 2) quint or fifth, 3) major third, 4) minor seventh, 5) major second, and 6) tritone. Their actual order of appearance in the series of harmonics shows their prevalence and relative importance: 1) fundamental, 2) octave, 3) quint, 4) octave, 5) major third, 6) quint, 7) minor seventh, 8) octave, 9) major second, 10) major third, 11) tritone, 12) quint, etc. Thus, within the first twelve harmonics, the fundamental or octave occurs four times, the quint three times, the major third twice; and the minor seventh, major second, and tritone each appear but once and in this order of decreasing prevalence.

The tritone — the sixth distinct harmonic

Generally in Western music, the tritone, which is the sixth overtone in their distinct sequence or the eleventh in appearance, tends to be suppressed. In exact tuning it does not fit well into the grid of tempered twelve-pitch tuning. As such, the hammers of a piano apparently strike their strings exactly and purposely in the place where this harmonic originates, in order to suppress it.

Finally, from Wikipedia a historical glimpse on the tritone:
“The tritone is a restless interval, classed as a dissonance in Western music from the early Middle Ages through to the end of the common practice period [the era of the tonal system, roughly to 1900]. This interval was frequently avoided… because of its dissonant quality… Until the end of the Renaissance the tritone was regarded as an unstable interval and rejected… The name diabolus in musica (Latin for ‘the devil in music’) has been applied to the interval… designated as a ‘dangerous’ interval… That original symbolic association with the devil and its avoidance led to Western cultural convention seeing the tritone as suggesting ‘evil’ in music.”
— This is an example of how humans kept and keep falling into entanglement with duality, separating and excluding instead of unifying and embracing what is in front of us.

Because. Therefore. Further. Still. The depth of soul…

And here is soul
Spirit, the divine
In a heart of love
Dialectics flushed
No holding back
Sifting through it
To find the gems
Past devastation
Re-sprouting life
Is mother nature
With father God
Pointing the way
Light and sound
Unmistakable
Totally diverse
Different each
And the same
Beyond duality
Unified as one
All themselves
But never alone
Sing and dance
Go with the flow
Stand up straight
Till strong enough
On one’s own feet
To wade to shore
The river’s edge
Peace at heart
Carried by love
Welcome home

“Life is great!” — a celebratory meditation

And here is soul contemplating with Old Turtle

“Once, long long ago . . . yet somehow, not so very long . . .”
…
“the people forgot. They forgot that they were a message of love, and a prayer from the earth. And they began to argue . . . about who knew God, and who did not; and where God was, and was not; and whether God was, or was not. And often the people misused their powers, and hurt one another. Or killed one another. And they hurt the earth. Until finally even the forests began to die . . . and the rivers and the oceans and the plants and the animals and the earth itself . . . because the people could not remember who they were, or where God was. Until one day there came a voice, like the growling of thunder; but as soft as a butterfly sneezes. Please, STOP.”
…
“And after a long, lonesome and scary time . . . the people listened, and began to hear . . . and to see God in one another . . . and in the beauty of all the Earth.”
“And Old Turtle smiled; and so did God.”

— Old Turtle, text by Douglas Wood (children’s book with watercolors by Cheng-Khee Chee)

Edgy boulders broken and ground into small colorful rounds