Observations placeholder

Joscelyn Godwin

 Armed with the concept of the Imaginal world, we can make an intelligent approach to the age old myth of the Ascent through the Spheres and the music that is heard there. While most of the Celtic adventures take place on the Imaginal Earth, the accounts of ascent refer to what we may call the 'Imaginal Heavens'. In the classic version of the ascent, the soul rises above the earth... and finds itself in the region of the planetary spheres. The Pamphylian soldier in Plato's 'Myth of Er' saw the system of the seven planets and the fixed stars with a Siren standing on each sphere ' uttering one tone varied by diverse modulations; and the whole eight of them together composed a single harmony'.

Following in Plato's footsteps, Cicero also ended his Republic with a cosmic vision, though this time presented as a dream. The Roman hero Scipio Africanus saw nine spheres, including the earth, making a 'grand and pleasing sound'. His deceased grandfather, who acted as his guide, explained that it came from the rapid motion of the spheres themselves, which although they are nine, produce only seven different tones.