Music goes all the way to the roots of western esotericism. In Ancient Greece, the music of the seven-stringed lyre was widely considered to cultivate the divine intellect, mirroring the logos of the sky’s seven wandering stars. In cult ritual and Dionysian revelry, however, another instrument rang supreme: the aulos, a double-piped wooden horn similar to today’s oboe. An extremely controversial instrument, Iamblichus is quoted maligning its spiritual effects as compared with the lyre: the former “stains” the spirit, while the lyre chases away the irrational desires of the soul. With Greek music and ritual dance as a case study, this talk will explore how “the divine” can be constituted at a sonic level.
Drew Levanti is a consulting astrologer and mystical educator based in San Francisco. His work cultivates godly presence through astrological relationship and poetic craft. Levanti’s teaching spans astrology fundamentals, elections, predictive technique, and the magic of the Orphic hymns, co-teaching STAR: An Orphic Initiation with Kristin Mathis. In his own class Initiate, astrology is an everyday tool for fortifying collaborative, spirit-enriching engagements with Time, understood as a relational entity. His client practice is fueled by astropoetic interpretation that is realistic, strategic, and affirming of a free-will world. Levanti received an undergraduate degree in 2018 from the University of Chicago where he studied cultural anthropology.