The Music of the PassionIn order to understand the true meaning of the Passion it is first necessary to realise that all of the major mythological and religious descriptions of the world are actually variations of a single, original musical theme.
Described in its entirety by the formula now known as the Hermetic Code, this theme is rooted in the minds of beings who supposedly lived long before even the simple wheel was invented. And yet, the strange fact is that this ancient code constitutes a genuine scientific description of a resonant symmetry that pervades the whole universe, one which modern science has only recently begun to identify, and which was first symbolised numerically in the form of the pi convention, or 22/7,
In fact, the formula pi, which, paradoxically, has been at the forefront of mankind's intellectual endeavour ever since it was first revealed, is, in my view, none other than the fabled Philosopher's Stone. As I have argued in my latest book, High Priests, Quantum Genes, this could well be the long sought 'universal' formula referred to by alchemists of all ages, which exactly describes the fundamental composition of virtually everything existing, from 'superstrung' subatomic particles to galactic superclusters, from the self-replication of microbes to the musings of messiahs, from time to eternity, from the big bang to the big crunch, from life to death, - quite simply, everything.
The first authentic record of knowledge of the pi relationship appeared in Egyptian Old Kingdom administrative documents, which record that the Grand Vizier had control over the twenty-two nomes (districts) of the land of Upper (southern) Egypt, while his deputy's jurisdiction over the same land extended to only seven nomes. Twenty two over seven, as we have seen, is an expression of the 'triple-octave', a formula embodied in early Egyptian myth in the form of the first recorded 'Holy Trinity': Osiris, Isis, Horus.
To the ancient Egyptians, festivals and religious occasions were of special importance, possibly the most notable of which was the annual re-enactment of the mysteries of Osiris at the sacred city of Abydos. These mysteries were first given publicly under the pharaohs of the XII dynasty, but are believed to date right back to the original Osirian myths of the Old Kingdom. Significantly they were cast in the form of an eight-act drama, an essentially octave format, which many years later was to re-emerge as the model of the most famous Passion Play of all time. The life, death, resurrection and transcendental 'enthronement' of Osiris is identical in every way to the story of Jesus Christ's tumultuous passage across the world stage.
In fact, the symbol of the octave, and the basic assertion that the universe and everything in it is simply 'crystallised music', lay at the root of all the earliest Egyptian myths.
Hermopolitan theology, for example, which arose at Hermopolis, the seat of the god Thoth, was possibly the most influential theological system of the Old Kingdom. The myth embraces a pantheon of eight gods, four male, four female, all of whom were said to have appeared simultaneously on the primeval hillock known as the Island of Flame.
Thoth himself was revered in early Egypt as the founder of the fabled school for the 'sons of kings', scribe of the gods, inventor of 'writing', and patron of all the sacred arts, including medicine, astronomy, magic and alchemy. The Greek name for this mysterious character, 'Hermes the Great, the Great' became the epithet 'Trismegistus' (Thrice-Greatest), and represents a development from the Egyptian 'AA AA', which is found as an epithet of Thoth in late hieroglyphic. The name 'Thrice-Greatest Hermes', is particularly significant in that it is symbolic of the first law of nature embodied within the formula pi - the law of three forces. This indicates that Thoth himself was held to have been a divine embodiment of the 'Holy Trinity', the fully resonant triple-octave, of which, as we have noted, one of the first recorded expressions was the major Egyptian triad, Osiris, Isis and Horus. The Great Pyramid, as all but the most hardened of sceptics now acknowledge, is a massive embodiment in stone of the Hermetic Code, the Pi convention. But it was also associated with the numerological figure known as the Magic Square of Mercury and the number 2080, the sum of all the numbers from one to sixty-four. Mercury was identified with Hermes, and sixty-four is the numerological equivalent of an octave squared. The special relevance of this particular number - 64, the square of the 'sacred constant' - is discussed in some detail in both of my books.
Exactly the same musical format appears in another major theological system in ancient Egypt, formulated about the time of the III dynasty by the Memphite priesthood. According to the Shabaka Stone, a slab of basalt carved at the command of the XXV dynasty pharaoh, King Shabaka, the demiurge or maker of the universe manifested his creativity through the intermediary of eight forms, 'which existed in him'. This was Ptah, the god of Memphis, who by his thought and speech alone created everything that is.
The third and last major myth of the Old Kingdom was the Heliopolitan system. According to it, the head of the pantheon, the god Atum, alone and unaided, succeeded in fertilising himself to produce the first of four divine couples. Thus from Atum, the 'Whole', emerged an octave, a family of eight.
Egypt, of course, is just the beginning, for this esoteric music has been played many times over millennia.
Moses for example, departed Egypt with rather more than just a caravanserai of earthly provisions. He took with him the miracle formula for producing celestial 'manna' - a higher form of consciousness. That is, he left his adopted homeland with full knowledge of the Hermetic Code, of the pi formula. Subsequently, and with supreme artistry, he ensured that the kernel of this sacred knowledge should continuously persist in the subconscious minds of his followers by creating the iconic Jewish menorah, the seven-branched candelabrum festooned with twenty-two cups, which is still to be seen today in synagogues and traditional Jewish households the world over.
Further examples of this sacred art of musical symbolism on both sides of the Atlantic are numerous, and I have detailed them elsewhere. All 'avatars', 'saviours', 'civilizers', have had their seminal moments of 'passion', when they have reputedly 'died', voluntarily relinquished their sensible grip on the earthly world, and then successfully re-entered the metaphysical arena of human consciousness transformed, with new and startling concepts, or revelations.
In the first century AD, a new cover-version of the Passion of Osiris was released with such dramatic effect that its influence is still today being felt by close to a billion people on this planet. This was the final week in the life of Jesus Christ, which began on Palm Sunday, and culminated, seven days later, on the Sunday of the Resurrection. The Passion of Jesus Christ, like that of Osiris, was a musical production enacted over eight individual stages, beginning on Sunday - the first 'note', Doh, of an octave of time - and ending on the following Sunday, on the last 'note' of the octave, again, Doh. The 'sacred' Trinity in all this is, of course, fundamental to the structure of the whole Passion: 'Life'- 'death' - 'resurrection'.
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