Topical Guide 92
Mark Dorset
Philosophical Concepts: The Harmony of the Spheres
World Views, Mistaken
The musica universalis (literally universal music), also called music of the spheres or harmony of the spheres, is a philosophical concept that regards proportions in the movements of celestial bodies—the Sun, Moon, and planets—as a form of music. The theory, originating in ancient Greece, was a tenet of Pythagoreanism, and was later developed by 16th-century astronomer Johannes Kepler. Kepler did not believe this "music" to be audible, but felt that it could nevertheless be heard by the soul. The idea continued to appeal to scholars until the end of the Renaissance, influencing many schools of thought, including humanism.
Life and Death
GUPPA DIED when I was twenty-five, of a heart attack. Gumma died when I was twenty-eight, of cancer.
Little Follies, “The Static of the Spheres”
I have always tried to live, but I have passed life by. I think this is what most men feel. To forget oneself one must not only forget one’s own death, but forget that those one loves will die and that the world will come to an end. The thought of the end fills me with anguish and fury. I have never been really happy except when drunk. Unfortunately alcohol destroys memory and I have only retained blurred recollections of my moments of euphoria. Life is unhappiness. That does not prevent me from preferring life to death, existence to non-existence, because I am not sure of being once I have ceased to exist. Existence being the only mode of being I know, I cling to this existence, for I cannot, alas, imagine any mode of being apart from existence.
[more to come on Monday, September 20, 2021]
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