Max Heindel: over licht, kleur en geluid

Max Heindel, diagram 11, The Rosicrucian Cosmo-Conception, [1909]
Oceanside,U.S.A. 1992

Er zit niets tegenstrijdigs in door verschillende getallen aan God toe te schrijven. Wij doen niet tekort aan de 'eenheid' van het licht omdat wij drie primaire kleuren onderscheiden waarin het zich verdeelt. Het witte licht van de zon bevat de zeven kleuren van het spectrum. De occultist onderscheidt zelfs twaalf kleuren en zegt dat er behalve rood, oranje, groen, enzovoort van het zichtbare spectrum, nog vijf kleuren liggen tussen tussen rood en violet. Vier kleuren zijn absoluut niet te beschrijven, maar de middelste van de vijf, komt overeen met de tint van een pas ontloken perzikbloesem. Dit is in feite de kleur van het levenslichaam. Geschoolde helderzienden, die de kleur beschrijven als blauwachtig, grijs of roodachtig-grijs, proberen een kleur te beschrijven die in de stoffelijke wereld haar gelijke niet kent en daarom zijn zij genoodzaakt dit in termen te doen die er het dichtst bij komen.
Misschien kan kleur ons in staat stellen de eenheid van God met de Zeven Geesten voor de Troon beter te beseffen dan iets anders dat kan doen. Daarom wenden wij ons tot diagram II: 1,3, 7 en 10 facetten van God en de mens. Hier zien wij een witte driehoek op een zwarte achtergrond. Wit is een synthese en bevat alle kleuren in zich, zoals God alle dingen in het zonnestelsel in zich bevat.
In de witte driehoek bevinden zich een blauwe, een rode en een gele cirkel. Alle andere kleuren zijn eenvoudig combinaties van deze drie primaire kleuren. Deze cirkels zijn te vergelijken met de drie aangezichten van God. Zij zijn zonder begin en eindigen in God, hoewel ze slechts tot de wereld der verschijnselen behoren gedurende actieve openbaring.
Als deze drie kleuren gemengd worden, zoals men op het diagram kan zien, ontstaan er nog vier kleuren namelijk drie secundaire kleuren, die elk ontstaan zijn uit het mengen van twee primaire kleuren, plus de kleur indigo, die het hele gamma aan kleuren in zich bevat en die met alle zeven kleuren het spectrum vormt.

Max Heindel, De wereldbeschouwing der Rozenkruisers, [1908], Den Haag 2000, blz.: 211/213

Yves Klein's exemplaar van Max Heindel's boek "La Cosmogonie des Rose-croix".

The therapeutic basis of light, color, and sound

God is Light.

Each time we sink ourselves in these three words we lave in a spiritual fountain of inexhaustible depth, and each succeeding time we sound more thoroughly the divine depths and draw more closely to our Father in heaven.

With every year that passes, with the aid of the greatest telescopes which the ingenuity and mechanical skill of man have been able to construct to pierce the depths of space, it becomes more evident that the infinitude of light teaches us the infinitude of God.

Truly, God is ONE and undivided. He enfolds within His being all that is, as the white light embraces all colors. But he appears threefold in manifestation, as the white light is refracted in three primary colors: blue yellow, and red. Wherever we see these colors they are emblematical of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. These three primary rays of divine life are diffused or radiated through the Sun and produce Life, Consciousness, and Form upon each of the seven light-bearers, the planets, which are called "the Seven Spirits before the Throne." Their names are: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn and Uranus.

Each of the seven planets receives the light of the Sun in a different measure, according to its proximity to the central orb and the constitution of its atmosphere, and the beings upon each, according to the stage of their development have affinity for some of the solar rays. They absorb the color or colors congruous to them, and reflect the remainder upon the other planets. This reflected ray bears with it an impulse of the nature of the beings with which it has been in contact.

Thus the divine Light and Life comes to each planet, either directly from the Sun, or reflected from its six sister planets, and as the summer breeze which has wafted over blooming fields carries upon its silent invisible wings the blended fragrance of a multitude of flowers, so also the subtle influences from the garden of God bring to us the commingled impulses of all the Spirits and in that varicolored light we live and move and have our being.

The rays which come directly from the Sun are productive of spiritual illumination, the reflected rays from other planets make for added consciousness and moral development, and the rays reflected by way of the Moon give physical growth.

But as each planet can absorb only a certain quantity of one or more colors according to the general stage of evolution there, so each being upon Earth: mineral, plant, animal, and man, can absorb and thrive only upon a certain quantity of the various rays projected upon the Earth. The remainder do not affect it or produce sensation, any more than the blind are conscious of the light and color which exist everywhere around them.

The white light of the Sun contains the seven colors of the spectrum. The occultist sees even twelve colors, there being five between red and violet--going one way around the circle--in addition to the red, orange, yellow, green, etc., of the visible spectrum. Four of these colors are quite indescribable, but the fifth--the middle one of the five--is similar to the tint of a new-blown peach blossom. It is in fact the color of the vital body. Trained clairvoyants who describe it as "bluish-gray," or quot;reddish-gray," etc., are trying to describe a color that has no equivalent in the Physical World: and they are therefore compelled to use the nearest descriptive terms afforded by our language.

When the three primary colors are interblended, there appear four additional colors, the three secondary colors: orange, green, purple, each due to the blending of two primary colors, and one color (indigo) which contains the entire gamut of colors, making in all the seven colors of the spectrum. (Red plus yellow gives orange; blue plus yellow gives green; blue plus red gives purple.)

The color of Mars is red; of Venus, yellow; of mercury, violet; of the Moon, green; of the Sun, orange; of Jupiter, blue; of Saturn, indigo; of Uranus, yellow. We may blend these colors in order to obtain help from them. As a matter of fact, it is the complementary color which is seen in the Desire World that produces the effect of the physical colors. If it is desired to restrain one whose Mars is too prominent, the gems, colors, and metals of Saturn will help, but if we want to help someone who is moody and taciturn, we may use the gems, colors, and metals of Mars to advantage.

In the Physical World red has the tendency to excite and energize, whereas green has a cooling and a soothing effect, but the opposite is true when we look at the matter from the viewpoint of the Desire World. There the complementary color is active, and has the effect upon our desires and emotions which we ascribe to the physical color. We speak of jealousy, which is engendered by impure love, as the green-eyed monster.

Upon observing the auras of people, the trained clairvoyant notices the scarlet of anger, the gray and steel blue of fear, the darkish blue of worry, the red cloud of hate, the black veil of despair, etc. A tinge of soft sky-blue indicates hope, optimism, and a dawning religious feeling. Blue shows the highest type of spirituality, but the blue color does not appear outside the dense body save in the very greatest of saints--only yellow is usually observable there.

In the lower races the ground color of the aura is a dull red like the color of a slow burning fire, indicating their passionate, emotional nature. When we examine people upon a somewhat higher rung of the ladder of evolution, the basic color or vibration radiated by them is seen to be of an orange hue, the yellow of intellect mixed with the red of passion. The natural golden color is the Christ ray finding its chemical expression in the oxygen, a solar element, and as we advance upon the path of evolution those who are not professedly religious acquire a tinge of gold in their auras due to the higher altruistic impulses common to the West.

There is an intimate connection between color and tone; when a certain note is struck, a certain color appears simultaneously. In the heaven world color and sound are both present, but the tone is the originator of the color. Pythagoras spoke of the harmony of the spheres, and he did not use that expression simply as a poetical allusion. There is such a harmony. We are told by John that in the beginning was the Word...and without it was nothing made that was made. That was the creative fiat which first started the world into being. We hear of celestial music, for from the point of the heaven world, everything is first created in terms of sound which then molds concrete matter into the multitudinous forms which we see around us. Orderly rhythmic sound is the builder of all that is--the creator and sustainer of all form.

In the occultist's sphere of vision, the whole solar system is one vast musical instrument, spoken of in the Greek mythology as the "seven-stringed lyre of Apollo, the radiant sun god." As there are twelve semitones in the chromatic scale, so we have in the heavens, twelve signs of the zodiac, and as we have the seven keys or whole tones on the keyboard of the piano, we have seven planets. The signs of the zodiac may be said to be the sounding-board of the cosmic harp and the seven planets are the strings; they emit different sounds as they pass through the various signs, and therefore they influence mankind in diverse manner. Should the harmony fail for one single moment, should there be the slightest discord in that heavenly band, this whole universe as such must crumble. For music can destroy as well as build. This has been well proven by great musicians. For instance, the grandson of the immortal Felix Mendelssohn has for several years been experimenting with the power of sound in that direction. He has come to the conclusion that once we find the keynote of a building, bridge, or other structure, we may raze that structure to the ground by sounding that note sufficiently loud and long.

Our supercilious smiles of bygone days when listening to the story of Joshua and the walls of Jericho are no longer in place. The sound of the ram's horn undoubtedly struck the keynote of those walls which had been sensitized by the rhythmic tramp of his army in preparation for this final climax. The rhythmic tramp of many feet will destroy any bridge, and therefore soldiers are instructed to break step when crossing a bridge.

Thus we may say that every planet gives out a keynote which is the sum total of all the noises upon it, blended and harmonized by the indwelling Planetary Spirit. That sound can be heard by the Spirit ear. As Goethe says:

"The sun intones his ancient song
Mid rival chant of brother spheres;
His prescribed course he speeds along
In thunderous ways, throughout the years."

"Sound unto the spirit ear proclaims the
new-born day is here;
Rocky gates are creaking, rattling,
Phoebus' wheels are rolling, singing--
What sound intense the light is bringing."

The invisible sound-vibrations have great power over concrete matter. They both build and destroy. If a small quantity of very fine powder is placed upon a brass or glass plate, and a violin bow drawn across the edge, the vibrations will cause the powder to assume beautiful geometrical figures. The human voice is also capable of producing these figures; always the same figure for the same tone.

If one note or chord after another be sounded upon a musical instrument--a piano, or preferably a violin, for from it more gradations of tone can be obtained--a tone will finally be reached which will cause the hearer to feel a distinct vibration in the back of the lower part of the head. Each time that note is struck, the vibration will be felt. That note is the keynote of the person whom it so affects. If it be sounded in a dominant way, loud and long enough, it will kill as surely as a bullet from a pistol. If, on the other hand, it is struck slowly and soothingly it will build and rest the body, tone the nerves and restore health.

Max Heindel, The Occult Principles of Health and Healing, [1928], chapter II part 1

Max Heindel, diagram 15, The Rosicrucian Cosmo-Conception, blz. 412, [1909]
Oceanside, U.S.A. 1992