Quicksilver & Gaia

The orbits of Mercury and Earth and be described in this way. Draw a square around the orbit of Mercury. Surround this square with a circle. Do the same and draw another square around this circle. On the four corners of this larger square, draw four circles with radii that reach the last circle you drew. One more step. Draw a large circle around the four smaller circles. You just defined Earth’s orbit to 99.9% accuracy.

The other planets in the solar system also show geometric relationships.  Geometry is number in space, and Music is number in time.  The solar system echoes these fundamentals of the Quadrivium through their orbital periods, sizes, and distance from the Sun.  Kepler discovered that the planets’ orbits neatly fit inside of nested platonic solids.  He called this Mysterium Cosmographicum.  Pythagoras and his buddies called it the Music of the Spheres, or the Musica Universalis.  The idea is that music if composed of ratios of numbers.  The octave is a 2:1 ratio.  The fifth is a 3:2 ratio.  These ratios are echoed in the solar system.

Saturn and Neptune also exhibit some interesting geometry, as do Mercury and Venus, and Jupiter and Mars.

“The acquisition of new knowledge by man is but the re-thinking or recollection of old knowledge.” Walter Russell

“The heavenly motions… are nothing but a continuous song for several voices, perceived not by the ear but by the intellect, a figured music which sets landmarks in the immeasurable flow of time.” -Johannes Kepler