Number: 4
Symbol: Square
Sound/Music reference: 4/4 time
Quote: “Every
truth has four corners: as a teacher I give you one corner,
and it is for you to find the other three.” – Confuscious
Music
is spiritual and is a doorway into that world. Its power comes from the fact
that it plugs directly into the soul, unlike a lot of visual art or text
information that has to go through the more filtering processes of the brain.-
Peter Gabriel
Song: Quadrophenia- The Who
No Quarter – Led Zeppelin
Emperor keywords: Authority, responsibility, structure, reason, society, peace, authority experience, knowledge, strength, wisdom, stubbornness
Archetypes and the
Number 4
After my awakening, it felt as though someone had sawed off
the top of my head, and dumped a gazillion random thoughts into my brain on a
daily basis. Two things that kept ringing in my mind were the word “archetypes”
and the number “four.”
“What do archetypes and the number four have to do with rock
music, and what on earth am I supposed to do with these ridiculous clues?” A
few months after the word “archetype” was indelibly etched into my
consciousness, I saw some Tarot books in the library. Tarot cards never
interested me before, but for some reason I felt compelled to check them out.
Good thing I did, because the Tarot depicts the archetypal journey of Foolkind. Was I being led by my Higher Self or Soul to
a tool for me to use as my own journey unfolded, even though at the time I
didn’t even know I was on a journey yet? You betcha!
Music is heavily
influenced by the number four
Part of the answer to the number four and rock music was
obvious. Generally, there’s a guitarist, bassist, drummer and vocalist, or four
members in a band. But then I wondered why
those particular instruments became the staples of rock music. What was in the
sound of the guitar, bass and drums that people were drawn to, and how did that
connect to archetypes? Was it plausible
that certain fans were attracted to a musician or group on some level because each
band fulfilled an archetype or myth that we Fools subconsciously recognized and
were drawn to them because of possible hidden encoded messages? Yowza. My brain
hurt just asking these questions, never mind figuring out an answer.
Archetypally, four represents the square as well as the
earth, matter, security, completion and stability. So what’s that got to do with music? As I
mentioned on day two, the logo of the band I followed is a checkerboard. It’s a
bunch of four sided squares. Do rock bands with four musicians symbolically
represent security and stability to fans?
Tarot Wisdom
Since rock music was primarily a brotherhood (yes, a few
girls have been admitted, but face it, rock was built by dudes), an archetype
the music seems to follow is the fourth card in the Tarot, the dude leader, The
Emperor. In August 2000, I dragged an intuitive friend of mine who had no
interest in rock music to see Cheap Trick with me in concert. Afterwards, she told
me she received a paternal, father-like energy coming from one of the band
members and saw sine-wave patterns
upon an orange background. When she asked her guides what all this meant she
heard, “The message is NOT for you!” I was floored. The message was for us, the
fans! But what was the message?
She had no interest in archetypes or the Tarot, but when I
began using the cards in 2002, I realized she’d tapped into a very important
aspect of rock music. The Emperor symbolizes a leader as well as the archetype
of the Father, and he is drawn sitting on a throne with a bright orange
background. Yikes!
Encoded Messages in
Music? No Way!
I thought the encoded message stuff was fascinating but
totally unrealistic until I began reading that waves are prevalent at the
quantum level. Sound is a wave, and quantum mechanics says that nature encodes
information at the basis of its functioning in wave forms. Our brain perceives and makes its own record of the world in
pulsating waves and our cells and our DNA
communicate through frequencies. There are only four different types of nucleotides found in our DNA code, and the shape of the double helix
that creates a DNA strand is…..A WAVE! Fools are physically created by the
codes in our DNA, and all life is based upon only four nucleotides. Four is the building block of life.
DNA Strand
Four Strikes Again in
Music too
Like an ordinary deck of cards, there are four suits in the Tarot,
but they symbolize the physical, spiritual, emotional and mental aspects of our
journey. Ultimately, I came to see how the bass, guitar, drums and vocals could
represent each suit of the Tarot.
The drum and bass guitar are very rhythmic, primal, lower
frequencies which energetically, connect us to the earth, the square. You can
feel those deeper vibrations rip through your body at a concert, and usually
stimulate the first and second chakra*.
They are also the sounds of a variation of the leader archetype,
the Warrior. Warriors and Emperors are dudes that protect their group. I
wondered, “Does rock music protect us, the fans?”
Over the course of several months, I stumbled across
important clues that suggested part of rock music’s spiritual purpose was to
protect us emotionally, and one way this was accomplished was by connecting us
to joy and love. Rock music may have been brought to us by dudes with long hair
and loud instruments, but every other freaking song was about LOVE. I came to
see that rock musicians were a different kind of warrior (or Emperor), attempting to bring
about transformation for their listeners through sound and connecting us to our
4th chakra, the heart charka which is the chakra of LOVE. See, I told you the number four rocks!
Musical
sound/reference: 4/4 Time
Many rock songs feature a 4/4 time signature, with the
accents on the second and fourth beats of the measure (a “backbeat”). Why is
there something inherently satisfying in a 1-2-3-4 beat? Like the four sides of
a square, it feels solid and complete. But when I hear a song with a strong 4/4
beat and a rocking bass riff, I want to move in a spiral. Spirals both curve
and move in an angular manner. What do
you sense when you listen to this kind of music? Next post, we’ll discuss the
concept of protection and spirals more deeply.
TERMS:
For example, the first chakra is the color red, corresponds
to the note “C” and depicted as a square within a circle, with four
lotus leaves evenly distributed around the circle at the base of the spine. It
is represented by the earth, and connects us to our survival instincts and
sense of security. It is the area where our tribal group attitudes which stem
from family and society are formed.
The second chakra is the note “D” and corresponds to the
color orange and is located in our abdomen area. It is associated with emotions
and sexual drive, and the third chakra connects to the note “E” and is yellow,
located in the solar plexus, and rules our personal power and will. I call
these first three the “Rock ‘n’ Roll Chakras” cause the harder sound and
frequencies of rock target and stimulate these areas of our body and
consciousness.
For more information on chakras check out:
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