A review of "The Meaning of the Musical Tree"
by Jeff Zaleski
Parabola Magazine
"Several years ago, what I have called the Musical Tree suddenly appeared in my mind’s eye, like the goddess Athena sprung forth full-grown." So writes Mitzi DeWhitt in The Meaning of the Musical Tree, her fourth book dealing with the Tree and its meanings and implications (most recently, Gurdjieff, String Theory, Music). The Tree itself is a modest structure, three pairs of limbs descending along a central axis, with each limb, each pole of the axis, and each intersection of limbs and axis denoted by a particular ratio ("There are four singular ratios along the vertical axis: octave, tone, Pythagorean comma, and diaschisma…."). Yet despite the simple appearance of the Tree, "the information coming from this living symbol," writes DeWhitt, "provided me a seemingly inexhaustible source for the various aspects of reality. There was nothing, it seemed, that was not somehow a part of the Tree." Accordingly, DeWhitt devotes much of her new book to applying the lessons inherent in the Tree’s design to an astonishingly wide range of matters, from the Anthropic Principle to quantum physics and string theory, to human evolution and civilization, to - the heart of the book - spiritual awakening, particularly as expressed by Gurdjieff and his teachings. DeWhitt’s arguments are challenging - both because they overturn accepted wisdom ("In defense of the contemporary scientists, those who deem that undertones do not exist, it must be stated that the invisible realm of the twenty-eight dieses is not so simple of comprehension") and because they can be difficult to follow, especially for those not steeped in mathematical or scientific knowledge. This is by no means an easy book, but those willing to work their way through it should find, at the least, edifying connections among aspects and levels of reality that they never suspected. |