by guest blogger
Ezra Sanzer-Bell
author of
ASTROMUSIK is an art project that draws from an Ancient Greek lineage of thought called the Harmony of the Spheres. The author speculates about the influence of Western Astrology, Alchemy, and Kabbalah upon the development of techniques common to Western music and tonal harmony. The book describes a composition technique developed by the author, called Tone Color Alchemy, that borrows from inner teachings of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn and Paul Foster Case of the B.O.T.A.
In the book, the author describes a technical method for the translation of words, tarot cards, and astrological charts into musical sequences called "musical seed sigils". These seeds become the basis of the songwriter's composition process, without dictating any laws of voice leading or harmony. The Tone Color Alchemy technique allows a high degree of creative freedom, while at the same time introducing opportunities for the integration of a magical process never before featured in the printed medium. This book is recommended for anyone interested in bridging their understanding of the Western Hermetic Mystery tradition with music.
The Star Spangled Banner
Key of Canis Major
Shortly after the release of Astromusik, I was invited to give a presentation at Portland’s New Renaissance Bookstore on July 3rd 2014 to promote the book. The proximity of this event to Independence Day seemed like a perfect opportunity to explore the musical history of the Star Spangled Banner. I had a strong intuitive sense that the song’s music and lyrics might connect in some way to the concepts I had put forth in Astromusik. A tapestry of coincidental data emerged during my research, which I have summarized here as an introduction to this new book.
The Star Spangled Banner became the United States National Anthem in 3/3/31 under the presidency of 31st president Herbert Hoover. Alaska and Hawaii had not yet been brought under the Union, so the country held only 48 state territories and the flag featured only 48 stars. The flag itself existed precisely one day and one year shy of 48 years, from July 4th 1912 to July 3rd 1959.
1948 was the year that NASA sent the first Rhesus monkey into space, linking this date with our country’s space program and the idea of travelling to the stars. Furthermore, the Alexandrian astronomer Ptolemy wrote around 150 AD that there were 48 total constellations in the sky, a classical worldview that survived for over a thousand years following his publication of his major book of knowledge, called the Amalgest.
This version of the Star Spangled Banner features chords and melodic notation without lyrical accompaniment. It is divided into two sections: Section A features 24 notes with a repeat section, totaling 48 notes, while Section B features 48 notes and no repeat. I was excited when I first discovered it, because I imagined it to be correlated to the 48 star flag, each musical note representing a state in the Union or a constellation in Ptolemy’s system.
On closer inspection, I realized that the fourth bar of section A was not entirely accurate. In keeping with the traditional lyrics of the song, the final G note should be notated as two eighth notes rather than a quarter-note, as in the first two words of the lyrics “What so proudly we hailed”. The same issue came up in the second section, measure 12, where once again the G note is written as a quarter note where it should be two eighth-notes, in “O’er theland of the free”.
However, upon closer inspection, I discovered that this was not an error at all, but rather an allusion to the original melody by John Stafford Smith.
National Anthem: “Dawn’s early light what so proudly we hailed”
Anacreontic Song: “Fat in full glee, A few songs of harmony”
Two syllables of “what so” were originally the single syllable word “A”.
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Anthem: “Banner yet wave o’er the land of the free and the home of the brave”
Anacreontic Song: “Me to intwine the myrtle of Venus with Bacchus’s Vine”
Two syllables of “o’er the” were originally the single syllable word “The”.
What you see here are two excerpts from the original sheet music and lyrics of the Anacreontic song, written by John Stafford Smith during the mid 1760’s as a theme the Anacreontic Society. Based in London, the society was a popular gentleman’s club where amateur musicians of the upper class came together and shared their music. Among their members was Joseph Haydn, a known friend of Mozart’s.
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America’s national anthem thus has its roots in a drinking song devoted to Venus and Bacchus, goddess of beauty and god of intoxication. Historical records are not clear on precisely when J.S. Smith wrote the song. but given its placement in the “mid 1760’s”, it is totally possible that the song would have been written in 1766, in which case the song would have been composed 48 years prior to the lyrics of the Star Spangled Banner, written by Francis Scott Key in September of 1814. This is of course speculation, but it highlights the recurrence of these “roughly 48” synchronicities, such as the 47 year length of the 48 star flag, the 49 note version of the star spangled melody, NASA’s launching of the second Rhesus monkey into space on June 1949, and so forth.
Featured to the left is literally F.S. Key’s signature, a fantastic musical pun given the nature of this speculative musical endeavor. Musicians will recognize that the bass and treble clef are traditionally called the F Clef and S Clef: The two dots of bass clef center on the line attributed to the musical note F, while the S clef is merely shaped like the letter S. These clefs let a musician know what key signature they are in. Together they are called the “grand staff”.
The bass and treble clefs represent the lowest and highest possible vibrations of the piano’s tonal spectrum. In this way, they could be said to represent the full spectrum of light, from the total absence of light (blackness) at the very lowest note to the pure totality of light (white radiance) at the highest note. This is symbolized on the piano by the low note of A and the high note of C.
In conventional music theory terminology, C major is called the “natural major key” and A minor is called the “natural minor key”. They are called natural because they have no sharps or flats. In other words, when a piece of music is written on the grand staff without sharps or flats, it is automatically understood that it is in C major or A minor. These two keys are called “relative keys” because they are composed of the same notes, the only difference between them being the starting point. C major starts on the C note (CDEFGABC) and A minor starts on the A note (ABCDEFGA).
The solfeggio scale - Do Re Mi Fa Sol La Ti Do - is a major scale.
As I describe with some detail in my first book, major and minor keys are the most basic musical structures. Each has a quality distinct from the other. In Astromusik I classify Major as Solar and Minor as Lunar.
To recap, J.S. Smith writes “The Myrtle of Venus with Bacchus’sVine” in Anacreontic Song’s chorus, which later became F.S. Key’s melodic foundation for the Star Spangled Banner. The melody is composed of approximately 48 notes.
A previous article I wrote for PDX Magazine highlighted the resonance of J.S. Bach and his 48-songmasterpiece, WTC books 1 and 2, with the New York City World Trade Center buildings 1 and 2. The September 11th attacks were a monumental stage of America’s history, igniting the same kind of patriotism that inspired Key initially, complete with planes harkening back to the “rocket’s red glare” and the explosions of the towers to the “bombs bursting in air”.
As the two central pillars of commerce in New York City, WTC1 and WTC2 were like tuning forks directing the country’s cash flow. Synchromystic literature has explored in excruciating detail how the buildings were intended to represent the freemasonic pillars of Jachin and Boaz, which originally stood at the gate of the temple of Solomon. These masonic pillars of Darkness and Light found there way into music via the bass and treble clefs.
Q: How many Freemasons does it take to screw in a light bulb?
A: It’s a Secret!
Freemasonry’s first Grand Lodge was established in London in 1717. 171 years later, the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn was founded and opened their Isis-Urania temple, also in London. These two groups have proven to be the most influential and relevant Western hermetic societies to emerge during my research into esoteric musical symbolism. The relevance of the Hermetic Golden Dawn material is covered in detail throughout my last book.
Although J.S. Bach was not openly affiliated with Freemasonry, many have speculated that he was a student of the Western mysteries. Among the techniques allegedly used by Bach are:
Cryptogram: The translation of German words into numbers by way of gematria. A=1, B=2, C=3, H=8 etc. so that BACH = 2+1+3+8 = 14.
Number Symbolism: Cross-reference of these numbers with other words of the same numerical value, especially with reference to biblical passages, magic squares, astronomical, and geometric principles.
Interval and Rhythm: Application of these sacred numbers melody and harmony, or else rhythmic measurements like duration, repetition, variation, and so forth.
The Bach family crest features his initials JSB in mirror image, superimposed, and topped with a seven-pointed crown, possibly representing the seven-note scale. Also the Bach Motif, a cryptogram spelled from the letters of his name, could be written with a single note at the cross-section of four musical staves due to the German use of “H” to signify the B note and “B” for the note B flat.
In 1717, Bach was appointed the role of kappelmeister (chapel-master) at Prince Leopold’scastle in Kothen. That year he composed the Brandenburg concertos, often held to be the greatest orchestral compositions of his career. Just a few years after J.S. Bach’s death, Mozart was born. He rose through the first three degrees of the Freemasonry and earned the title of Master Mason in 1785, while still in his late 20s. That same year his father, Leopold Mozart, was also initiated into the craft.
Mozart went on to write a number of pieces openly devoted to the craft. Entire books have been written on Freemasonic symbolism encoded into his famous opera, The Magic Flute. Conspiracy theorists will have a field day when they realize that Mozart was a close personal associate of Adam Weishaupt, founder of the Bavarian Illuminati. Classical music scholar Katherine Thomson addresses the historical evidence for this in her book, Mozart and Freemasonry.
According to the Harvard Dictionary of Music, Freemasonry was the formal organization under which the informal Anacreontic society formed. It would appear that the Masonic lodge was utilized for serious business, while the Anacreontic society served as a more casual gentlemen’s club, where aristocrats could party, drink, and share their creative musical projects.
Freemasonry certainly played a central role in the founding of our country. The first president of the United States, George Washington, was a Freemason of the highest degree, as were nine of the men responsible for signing the Declaration of Independence in 1776. That same year, on the other side of the ocean, Mozart was busy in Salzburg composing his breakthrough piano piece, the E-Flat Concerto (K. 271). This means that the birth of America coincided with the rise of equal tempered Classical music in Western culture.
Rumors have circulated about J.S. Smith belonged to the Inverness Masonic Lodge #4 in London. If that were the case, we could say with total confidence that the National Anthem was originally a Masonic melody, not to mention an invocation of pre-Christian deities (Bacchus and Venus).
Aside from the codes of secrecy, major political influence, and centuries old roster of elitist criminal sociopaths, Freemasonry has taken a lot of flack from Christian fundamentalists for their sympathy with Lucifer. Believed by most Christians be synonymous with the Devil, Lucifer is said to have cast judgment upon God and fallen from grace as a result. He is the angel associated with the sin of pride.
Freemasonic Luciferianism has two sides to it. On the one hand, it represents a political and ideological split from the church, allowing for the revised code of ethics. The Scientific illuminists of Freemasonry interpret Lucifer as humanity’s acquisition of scientific knowledge as superior to blind faith in Church dogma.
The myth of Lucifer has a second, more mystical aspect however. Known also as the Morning Star, Lucifer is described throughout Freemasonic literature, among countless other sources, as a symbol of the planet Venus. The most basic interpretation of this attribution has to do with the rising of Venus in the morning, prior to the sun. Just as dawn is about to break, this bright planet draws up over the horizon and offers a taste of the illumination to come. When the sun itself emerges, then it is said that the “true son” has risen. Thus the Luciferian sin of pride, when interpreted astrotheologically, is an allegory of Venus, the “morning star” who is in fact only a planet.
Here we see three symbols. On the left is a Rosicrucian symbol of the Rose and the Cross. In the center is the Venusian pentagram, and on the right is an ordinary, phi-ratio pentacle. The three of these symbols work symbiotically.
If we could hover above the disc of our solar system and watch the planets turn, we would see the sun at the center and the planets turning around it in elliptical patterns. However, if we were to hover above the earth so that it appeared to be at the center of the system, with the sun and planets rotating around it, we would witness an entirely different set of geometric patterns playing out.
Viewed from the geocentric, birds-eye perspective the Venusian pentagram is formed by Venus as it turns around the Earth, The five innermost points mark the moments when Venus comes closest to the Earth and forms an inferior conjunction with the sun. One full Earth cycle around the sun requires 365.256 days, whereas Venus has an orbital length of 224.701 days. Astronomers discovered that the ratio between Earth and Venus was remarkably close to 8:13. Every 8 Earth years, Venus goes around the sun 13.004 times.
The symbol of the rose cross alludes to the top-down geocentric perspective, with the cross representing Earth and the rose representing Venus. The pentacle becomes a symbol for Venus as well. Given its derivation from the geocentric model, the pentacle has also become a symbol for Earth. In the tarot for example, the suit of coins features a pentacle design and signifies the Earth element. Pentagrams have been traditionally associated with pagan ritual magic, benevolent when turned upright and Satanic/Demonic when inverted.
I discovered that the early name for sheet music was pentagramma, from the Italian word meaning “five lettered”. This refers to the five lines of the staff, each representing one musical letter. Between these lines are the letters FACE. One could speculate that this correlates to the face of Baphomet, the goat-headed nature deity whose face is often depicted within the inverted pentagram. The Devil card of the tarot features a variation on this theme, with an inverted pentagram stamped upon the creature’s forehead.
But more importantly, I discovered the application of the Venus and the Sun to the Western musical scale. This did not emerge in time for the release of ASTROMUSIK, which is why the material is featured here instead.
The twelve-tone scale is a measurement of solar time on Earth. It corresponds to the twelve months in a year as well as the twelve hours of day and twelve hours of night in a 24-hour period. This much I knew. However, upon studying the pentagram of Venus, I realized that the eight white keys, including root and octave, represent one Earth year each. The five black keys correspond to the additional five orbital cycles made by Venus in its own journey around the sun. Therefore, these 13 notes represent the relationship between Earth and Venus as they journey together around the sun.
Jupiter is the fifth planet from the sun and the largest planet in our solar system. It requires approximately twelve earth years to complete its cycle (11.86 to be precise). The twelve-year cycle of the Chinese zodiac is based on the orbit of Jupiter, which they call the “year star”. Interestingly, ancient Chinese culture was the first to derive the 12-note musical scale, based on the cycle of fifths.
The 88-note keyboard corresponds to the 88 day cycle of Mercury around the sun. In Greek mythology there is a story of Mercurius falling in love with Aphrodite (Venus) and longing for her affection. Jove (Jupiter) took pity on Mercurius, and while Aphrodite was bathing in the river, Jove stole one of her sandals. He sent the sandal to Mercury by way of an eagle, so that Aphrodite would come looking for it and the two would be brought together. His plan worked, Mercurius and Aphrodite fell in love, and together the created a child, the divine hermaphrodite (Hermes-Aphrodite).
Aphrodite’s sandal symbolizes her relationship to the Earth, or in musical terms, the 13-note scale of root-to-octave. This pattern must repeat a number of times to reach the 88-note scale of mercury. Jupiter makes this possible, symbolically, because of what the orbital resonance of its major moons. Orbital resonance is an astronomical term that implies the relationship between two orbiting bodies exerting a consistent gravitational influence upon each other, due to the length of their orbit existing in a ratio that approximates two small, whole numbers.
In music, the doubling or halving of a sound frequency creates an octave. If a musical tone is vibrating at 432 cycles per second, then its higher octave would vibrate at precisely 864 cycles per second, in a perfect ratio of 1:2.
The orbital frequencies of the three large, inner moons of Jupiter exist in an almost perfect harmonic ratio of 1:2:4. Herein lies the principle of the doubled octave, representing the means by which the 13-note Venusian scale replicates itself to produce multiple octaves and eventually achieve union with Hermes-88.
Aphrodite’s bath in the river resonates with imagery found in the Star card of the tarot’s major arcana. Traditionally, the Star card features a barefoot woman, naked and kneeling into a pond with one foot on the earth and one in the water. In each hand she holds a pitcher filled with water, one of which she pours out onto the ground and the other into the pond. Above her head are seven small stars and one large star. In the Golden Dawn / BOTA attributions, this card is associated with the constellation of Aquarius, the water bearer.
Author and well known occultist Kenneth Grant wrote about this card, stating that “The STAR is the Key to the Aeon of Horus as it represents Sirius, the star of Isis, the Mother of Horus, who is the son of this god, and the sun or father of our solar system.” In other words, Grant attributes the kneeling woman of the Star card to the Egyptian goddess Isis, mother of Horus, who is in turn is the deified representative of our physical sun. The large star above her head represents the Sirius, the brightest star in the night sky.
In ancient Egypt, the river Nile would flood every year with the heliacal rising of Sirius, initiating what the Ancient Greeks and Romans called the “Dog days of summer”. Heliacal rising means that the star rises in conjunction with the sun. Coincidentally, these were the hottest days of the year, and according to mythology it was the spiritual intensity of Isis and Horus in union (Mother and Child) that generated this heat. They were called the dog days of summer because of the larger constellation to which Sirius belonged: Canis Major (Canis: Canine).
The Dog Days begin on July 4th and thus tie back in to this study of the US National Anthem, where the 8 stars in each row of the 48-star American flag relate to the eight stars featured the Star card, representing the eight notes of a musical scale with octave included. Canis major could be abbreviated C Major, which is the very key that the national anthem is written in. The sun and Sirius would be root and octave.
Canis Major is positioned next to Canis Minor, corresponding to the parallel musical keys of C major and C minor respectively. These two dog-themed constellations are accompanied by the well-known constellation of Orion, the hunter. His three-starred belt was represented by the three wise men in the story of the birth of Jesus Christ, while the “star in the east” refers to Sirius.
The rising of Orion’s Belt along the horizon coincided with the Winter solstice, that time of year when the sun is at its very lowest point in the sky, and from which it once again rises, symbolized by the birth of Christ (our local sun).
The three-starred belt of Orion connects to the musical idea of a chord being built upon three notes, the C major and C minor triads representing Orion’s hunting dogs. The eight stars of Canis Major are featured in the tarot’s Star card. Through the Isis/Horus myth, initiates came to understand that our sun was in fact a star, just like its “mother”, Sirius. Some people have taken these teachings literally and believe that the sophistication of ancient Egyptian culture was due to a direct transference of knowledge between conscious beings existing in the Sirius star system and our own early human ancestors.
The twin star system of Sirius could be interpreted as a correlate to the musical concept of relative keys, Sirius A playing the central pivot point (“solar” center) around which Sirius B orbits (“lunar” satellite). The two scales C major and A minor are composed of the same notes but with a different center of gravity, both in the key of “Canis Major”, if you will. Note their 50.1 year orbital period.
Presently, there are 50 stars on the United States Flag and 52 states in the union. Just as the 48 star flag has been linked to the idea of 48-note melodies in the national anthem, so too the 52 states can be connected to the 52 white keys on a piano. Where the 88 total notes on a piano correlate to the 88-day orbit of mercury, these 52 white keys could be set to the 52 weeks in a year on Earth, reinforcing the notion that music is a symbol of time organized according to harmonic ideals.
The other 36 notes on the piano fall on the black keys. Coincidentally, the Star Spangled Banner full under Title 36of United States Federal Law:
301: National Anthem - Star Spangled Banner, J.S. Smith and F.S. Key
302: Includes American Motto: In God We Trust (1956: Eisenhower)
303: Rose as Floral Emblem of the Country (1986: Reagan)
304: National March - Stars and Stripes Forever, by John Philip Sousa
305: National Tree: The Oak
The national anthem is grouped with four other codes of law, one of which is Sousa’s National March, the military anthem of our country. The pairing of these two songs and the American motto (In Dogs We Trust) with the symbols of Rose and Oak tree could be viewed as a hermetic riddle. The rose as a national emblem connects to the idea of the Venusian Rose and the Rosicrucian fraternity out of which Freemasonry emerged prior to the founding of America. In ASTROMUSIK I explore the rose as a Kabbalistic allusion to the 22-letter Hebrew alphabet and the Tree of Life, as detailed in the Sepher Yetzirah.
When You Wish Upon A Star…
In Celtic mythology, the Tree of Life is attributed to Dagda the Oak tree. From the wood of the oak comes the uaithne, an Irish word meaning sacred harp. The oak harp has also been called Coir Cethar Chuin, meaning Four Angled Music. According to legend, Dagda played the harp during times of peace. As he strummed its strings, conditions in nature would respond accordingly, giving rise to the four seasons of Spring, Summer, Fall and Winter. It follows that the Kabbalistic seed of life corresponds to the acorn, out of which the Tree of Life is born. Each year, the acorns fall from the tree and fertilize the earth, preparing for new life the following spring.
Freemasonry incorporated the Celtic Oak myths into their initiatory rites at Oak Island, a small landmass in Nova Scotia. Here they conducted the Secret Vault ritual, introducing brothers to the mysteries of death and Eternal Life.
This relates to the ritual of oak and mistletoe, described by Pliny the Elder during the 1st century AD, as the most sacred of all plants in the druidic culture. Mistletoe, like the music of Dagda, was said to restore fertility to the infertile and was the antidote to all poisons. The gathering of these plants was carefully timed with moon cycles and other celestial patterns.
Mistletoe found its way into American culture via Christmas, the one time of year when indigenous shamanic practices are revived, even if cloaked in the language of Christianity. What’s with the star at the peak of the tree? People hang mistletoe in doorframes and are encouraged to kiss their sweethearts under the plant for good luck. Dagda’s musical harp and its role in moving the seasons connects back in to the image of Sirius, making its appearance during both seasonal polarities, being conjunct with our sun the Dog Days (July 4th) and signaling the rebirth of the sun during Winter Solstice (December 22nd).
“In the olden days, when children wished upon the stars, there lived a king whose daughters were all very beautiful. But the youngest was so radiant that the very sun, who had seen much indeed in her time, was filled with amazement every time she looked down upon the girl” - The Frog Prince, Grimm’s Fairy Tales
Brian Wilson, lead songwriter of the Beach Boys, wrote his first song when he was 19 years old. This catchy surf ballad was called “Surfer Girl” and took the world by storm, reaching 7th place in the U.S. Billboards Top 100 in 1963. According to Wilson, the song was inspired by a version of “When You Wish Upon A Star” performed by Dion and the Belmonts, a popular American vocal group from the late 50’s. Wilson had changed the original melody slightly but kept their 6/8 rhythm and utilized the same rich vocal harmonic techniques.
The first version of “When You Wish Upon a Star” was co-written by Harline and Washington, featured during the credits of Walt Disney’s 1940 film Pinocchio. It was later voted 7th place in the 100 Greatest Songs in film historyby the American Film Institute. Some countries have adapted the song for their Christmas media specials, putting the song in a context that suggests attribution to the Star of Bethlehem (Sirius) that revealed the birth of Christ (sun).
“When you wish upon a star, makes no difference who you are. Anything your heart desires will come to you. If your heart is in a dream, no request is too extreme, when you wish upon a star as Dreamers do”
Popular rock and roll songwriter Roy Orbison, made famous for his songs “Oh, Pretty Woman” and “Only the Lonely”, released another major hit in 1963 called “In Dreams”. The song, just like Surfer Girl and When You Wish Upon a Star, peaked at number 7 in the US Billboard Top 100, spending a total of 13 weeks on the charts. In an interview, Roy explained that the song’s melody had come to him during a dream, as many of his songs did.
“A candy-colored clown they call the sandman tiptoes to my room every night just to sprinkle stardust and to whisper, go to sleep, everything is all right. I close my eyes then I drift away into the magic night. I softly say a silent prayer like dreamers do.”
Whereas Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys had adapted the rhythm, vocal style, and melodic contour from “When You Wish Upon A Star” to achieve seventh rank in the Billboard Top 100, Roy Orbison borrowed the closing line from the song’s chorus “As Dreamers Do”, changing the word as to “like”, achieving the very same rank on the pop charts.
The sandman had already appeared in American pop music almost a decade previously, when Pat Ballard wrote the song “Mister Sandman” and gave it to the Chordettes to perform. Their version of the song reached #1 on the Billboard US Charts and dozens of recording artists have since performed it.
The Sandman was a major character in Northern European folklore for centuries. Hans Christian Andersen wrote a version of the story in 1841 that described the Sandman sneaking into the room of children at night and sprinkle sand in their eyes so they couldn’t see him. Then he would blow on the back of their neck until they fill into a trance. The sandman came with two umbrellas, and when the child slept he would climb upon their bodies, taking out an umbrella and spinning it above their head. For the good children, he brought out an umbrella covered with images on the inside, to induce dream experiences. Above the heads of the bad children, he would spin an umbrella that had no imagery at all, and they would fall asleep without dreaming any dreams.
“Mister Sandman, I’m so alone. Don’t have nobody to call my own.
Please turn on your magic beam, Mr. Sandman, bring me a dream.“![]()
Thank you for reading through this article. If you enjoyed this content and would like to watch a free, full-length Astromusik video presentation on this material, please visit this link:
Ezra Sandzer-Bell - Star Spangled Banner Presentation - July 3rd 2014You can also visit the main website for more information about Astromusik, a full length book written by Ezra Sandzer-Bell and published April 2014 through the Sync Book Press.
Astromusik / Audiomancy Website
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