Images from Athanasius Kircher's Musurgia Universalis (1650)

Submitted by Jeffers L. Engelhardt on Wednesday, 2/16/2011, at 2:03 PM
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Modern rendering of Marsilio Ficino's astrological songs

Submitted by Jeffers L. Engelhardt on Wednesday, 2/16/2011, at 11:52 AM

From the liner notes of the Marini Consort's Seven Invocations for the Contemplation of Things Celestial, a modern rendering of Ficino's astrological songs and 15th century translations of the Hymns of Orpheus

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In Renaissance Florence the magus and philosopher Marsilio Ficino likened himself to Orpheus, as he took up his lyre and sang hymns to the planetary gods - both to alleviate his own melancholy and to heal others. We have followed his descriptions of astrological music, and used the different musical modes attributed to the planets by 15th century music theorists, to compose our own settings of Orphic invocations, which are interspersed with 15th and 16th century music and song in the spirit of each god. As Ficino tells us:

"These celestial bodies are not to be sought by us outside in some other place; for the heavens in their entirety are within us, in whom the light of life and the origin of heaven dwell."

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Quechua shaman healing ceremony, Ecuador

Submitted by Jeffers L. Engelhardt on Tuesday, 2/15/2011, at 9:30 AM

What are you hearing? How does this example compare to stethoscopic listening and mediate auscultation? What is the status of the body, sound, the medical specialist, and the patient?