Science overwhelmingly supports the use of sound, music, and frequency in medical and behavioral therapies. Full stop. This post isn’t about that science. If you want the science hit up my previous posts or head to google scholar, all the evidence is out there for you. For this post, I’m focusing on the spiritual and historical significance of sound. Namely the Solfeggio Frequencies, which are widely accepted by spiritualists as the gold standard of sound therapy.
Solfeggio
As far as we know, the Solfeggio scale was used as a tool to teach music theory dating back to the 11th century. You’ve heard an evolved version of this scale in modern musical theory “Do-Re-Mi-Fa-So-La-Ti.” James Stewart, a musical theorist for the Vermont Public does a much better job of explaining that history. I’ve posted his article below.
It was first seen in Hymns and Gregorian Chants of Catholic Monks and played an important role in the church’s service. Yes, that’s right, the Solfeggio Frequencies have roots in Catholicism. The Catholic church’s influence on modern Western culture never seizes to surprise me.
This ceremonial church music was believed to be spiritually beneficial and significant to the listener, much like Catholic and Christian church music today. If you’ve ever been to a church, you know the impact of the music is almost trance-like.
Spiritualists’ attachment to the Solfeggio scale could very well be remnants of the Catholic Churches' influence on Western beliefs. However unsurprisingly, Catholics were not the first to use music ritualistically. There’s evidence that one of the first civilizations in recorded history, the Sumerians, used music to uplift listeners in worship ceremonies.
For this post let’s turn to Ancient Greece, where music was studied mathematically; most notably by Pythagoras, a philosopher, who lived 1500 years prior to the Catholic Monks credited with Solfeggio, and long before the inception of Christianity.
Pythagoras
More than a mathematician, Pythagoras was a spiritual fellow. He believed that everything in nature could be reduced to numbers. He believed sound had healing properties and that this could be understood through numbers. He discovered that the musical scale was ratioed. Meaning a string cut in half would play the same note an octave higher. You’ve likely learned his theorem about right triangles: a2 + b2 = c2.
He introduced the math world to the idea of number reduction, a common practice in the spiritual divination tool of numerology. You know how this works, where you take a multi-digit number and reduce it to a single digit. For example, a birthdate, 08/12/1983 could be further broken down to 8+1+2+1+9+8+3= 32, and then further broken down into 3+2 giving us 5. This method has its roots in Pythagorean math.
Tesla
If we use the reduction method noted above and use the angles of Pythagoras’ famous right triangle, we yield reduced numbers of 3, 6. and/or 9. Pythagoras had a sweet spot for these numbers.
As did, Nikola Tesla. In one of his more famous quotes, he says “If you knew the magnificence of the three, six, and nine, you would have a key to the universe.” There is a lot of speculation as to what Tesla meant by this or the significance to these numbers, but never anything definitive. We do know that Tesla was spiritual, a fan of Pythagoras, and understood the connection math had to music, nature, and universal meaning.
In an 1899 interview, he was quoted saying:
About Pythagoras and mathematics, a scientist may not and must not infringe of these two. Numbers and equations are signs that mark the music of the spheres…These sounds are the messages to the mind that life has meaning, that the Universe exists in perfect harmony, and its beauty is the cause and effect of Creation. This music is the eternal cycle of stellar heavens. The smallest star has completed composition and also, part of the celestial symphony. The man’s heartbeats are part of the symphony on the Earth. Newton learned that the secret is in geometric arrangement and motion of celestial bodies. He recognized that the supreme law of harmony exists in the Universe.
Perhaps Tesla understood frequency and Pythagorean math better than we do.
Back to Solfeggio
Spiritualists believe that every frequency in this 9-note scale holds a different healing power, as noted here. I have yet to understand where these meanings derived, historically or scientifically, though they are widely accepted. (If you have more knowledge on the topic, please leave a comment on this post.)
· 174 Hz: relieves pain and stress
· 285 Hz: heals tissue and organs
· 396 Hz: liberates guilt and fear
· 417 Hz: facilitates meaningful change
· 528 Hz: transforms and produces miracles, and repairs DNA
· 639 Hz: connects us to others and facilitates healthy relationships
· 741 Hz: encourages the expression of self and facilitates solutions
· 852 Hz: awakens intuition and spiritual awareness
· 963 Hz: connects us to divine consciousness and enlightenment
Where this gets interesting is when we reduce each number in this scale. Shockingly we get, you guessed it, a 3 or a 6 or a 9, as shown here:
174 Hz = 3 (1+7+4=12. 1+2=3)
285 Hz = 6 (2+8+5= 15 1+5=6)
396 Hz = 9 (3+6+9=18. 1+8=9)
417 Hz = 3
528 Hz = 6
639 Hz = 9
741 Hz = 3
852 Hz = 6
963 Hz = 9
Is your mind blown?
What did Tesla, Pythagoras, and presumably Catholic Monks from the 11th century know about sound that is lost on us today? How is it that these frequencies, which are so spiritually important, are not understood scientifically?
What do you think?
With Gratitude,
Crystal