Musical Sympathy and Occult Knowledge

In a chapter of his treatise on magnets, Kircher explored the correspondences between music and magnetism. He argued that magnetism is present in musical modulations as evidenced in Orpheus’ skill in attracting animals, trees and even stones to the sound of his lyre. Music could attract – harmonious songs would calm a man – but also repulse – inharmonious songs cause agitation. According to Kircher, music did not affect the soul directly because the soul is immortal and immaterial; instead it moved the spirit. As the instrument of the soul, the spirit was light and thin and thus easily moved by harmonious music. Kircher also cites the example of ‘tarantism’ whereby a man bitten by a spider would go mad and dance until death. According to Kircher there was, however, a cure for tarantism in certain kinds of music, an example of which is shown here. This had the effect of forcing anyone afflicted with the condition to dance until the poison had sweated out through the skin. By ‘drawing out’ the poison, music acted like a magnet owing to the fact that the ratios inherent in the music matched those of the poison.

Author: Athanasius Kircher
Title: Magnes sive De arte magnetica opus tripartitum [Magnets and the magnetic art] (Cologne, 1643)
Shelfmark: D.20.32

D.20.32