Willie Nelson

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The most important questions concern the nature of reality and humanity’s position in it. This summarizes all the big questions and all the essential answers. The pondering of these questions and the search for these answers reaches back to the beginnings of human thought.

It should not be surprising that humans reached basic conclusions a long time ago. Peoples’ brains haven’t gotten any larger. Sure, we’ve learned new things but our basic intelligence hasn’t increased. In fact, most of us now have less time to ponder these questions than did the ancient philosophers.

Those basic conclusions revealed basic truths. Their obvious value required a method of preservation and transmission from one generation to the next. The ancients sought a method both enduring in social institutions and recoverable in the case of disaster. The method they devised is the structure of music.

Music dates back to the earliest human endeavors. Its origin is literally lost in time. It is not difficult to imagine musicality arriving with humanity’s first vocalizations and perhaps even before complicated language. Oral traditions preceding the development of writing utilized musical structure as an aid to memorization.

Music is pervasive and ubiquitous.

It always was. With all of today’s distractions it is perhaps hard to understand its reach before recent generations. In a world where survival activities consumed most of daily life music was the primary nonessential activity. Rhythmic melodic chanting a cappella preserved and transmitted the earliest human culture.

Before religions, before governments and before family structure the uniting cultural activity of prehistoric tribes was essentially musical. Cultural anthropologists find evidence for this agreeing with sociologists studying preliterate hunting-gathering tribes in the remotest regions of the world.

By the time philosophy evolved music already possessed a long history of development. An ensemble of percussion, stringed and wind instruments had already been invented. Music accompanied every human activity. The music reminded people how to perform each activity. Children learned by first hearing the songs then practicing the activities.

By the time philosophy evolved people had already experienced the rise and fall of many social structures. Leaders had died.

Tragedy and disaster were not infrequent.

The instability and uncertainty of human existence was well established. Indeed, it was these circumstances that urged the creation of philosophy.

When philosophical conclusions revealed basic truths they informed musical structure. More than merely another set of lyrics or new rhythms and melodies, the structure of music echoed philosophical truths. The tuning of string and wind instruments, along with the harmony of human voices became the key to philosophical truths.

This only makes sense.

Philosophical truths must have conformation in nature. Empirical reality must support valid philosophical conclusions. The nature of material reality must provide the proof of the truths. The relationship of philosophical truths to music could survive the vicissitudes of human existence.

Musical structure begins with the octave. The construction and use of the octave relies upon the nature of material reality. The relationship of notes in the octave reveals the Golden Ratio, one of the most important discoveries in all of mathematics. Before the origins of Western culture in ancient Greece the Golden Ratio was already sacred.

The octave is not a trivial construction. A musician may choose from an infinite number of notes. The specific tuning system chosen by a musician is of primary importance. One cannot overestimate the importance of tuning systems in ancient societies. The wedding of philosophical truths to musical tuning systems was obvious.

Here we reveal an essential quality of the octave. All subsequent notes derive from the root tuning. The philosophical truth this symbolizes is that all subsequent circumstances derive from root beliefs. This seems painfully obvious but so many people miss this in Genesis, the first book of the Old Testament.

We have seven days in a week because of the structure of the octave. Just like the octave, the week proceeds through seven steps and on the eighth begins anew. When God creates the universe in seven days it is an allegory of the establishment of an octave. Right from the beginning the Bible gives notice that the universe works on the principle of the octave.

Not long after, in the Garden of Eden, the first people have a choice and receive a warning of the consequences. There are two trees, the Tree of Life and the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. The first people chose to eat of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil.

The rest of the events of the Old Testament derive from this act.

Plato took for granted that all educated and many less educated people understood musical symbolism. This held true until a few generations ago. It is only in recent history that Bible literalists prove ignorant of musical symbolism and miss out on Bible allegory. It is not surprising that they choose to eat of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil.

Eating of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil means one takes on God’s task of judging the actions of people. From this follows all the meanness, violence and sorrow of the Old Testament. The Old Testament continues to chronicle as evidence the rise and fall of the Jewish state.

The basic single allegory of the Old Testament is that once you choose to sit in judgment of other people you will suffer and die.

This follows just as the tuning of the root octave determines all the notes in a scale. Eating of the Tree of Life leads to lasting peace. We know what eating of the other tree leads to. Don’t do it. And don’t judge those that do.

That just created a negative cycle of suffering and death.

It is ironic to then see peace activists judging fundamental literalists. Eating of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil is not the path to peace. It is the exact opposite. It is the path to suffering and death. This is a basic philosophic truth older than the Old Testament.

You do not need to believe in an Abrahamic religion to appreciate this truth. But if you are Jewish, Christian or Muslim this is your God’s first lesson. All educated and many less educated people can see the obvious musical symbolism. All educated and many less educated people can understand the allegory.

We all know what televangelist Jerry Falwell did. But the peaceful path asks that we love him unconditionally. We all know what President G.W. Bush is doing. But the peaceful path asks that we treat him with compassion. They must answer to their God. Let us not fall unto the same path. The path to lasting peace on earth leads in another direction.

Listen to the music.

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