“To find the pivotal point that unites our moral nature with the all-encompassing order, the central harmony—that is, in truth, the highest human goal.” (Confucius, ca. 551–479 B.C.)
Finding this “pivot” is also an integral part of the Rosicrucian teachings, as described in the second manuscript, “Confessio Fraternitatis” (1615).
In it, we are called upon to perceive “the great letters and characters” that God has inscribed into His creation and to align our lives accordingly.
This means recognizing the Creator’s spiritual laws—His “handwriting”—everywhere in the “Book of Creation.” The goal, as described by Confucius, is for human beings, who are integrated into nature and live in harmony with it, to find their own ethical orientation, their “pivot point,” within nature’s laws and order.
This is the “universal harmony of things” for which the versatile genius, the philosopher Leibniz (1646–1716), coined the term “pre-established harmony.” This harmony is a fundamentally creational order (law)—that is, an order inherent in all of creation, including us, from the very beginning.
This universal, hidden principle of harmony is also the fundamental principle of all regularity and order.
Examples of this include:
1. Pythagorean numbers and geometric harmonies, as well as Kepler’s magnum opus “Harmonices Mundi”— the harmony of the world.
2. In nature: seasons, tides, laws of evolution
3. Mathematical harmonies, the Golden Ratio,
4. Medicine: the organism’s functional principle
5. Aesthetics: symmetry, color theory
6. Music: the theory of harmony
7. Laws of reproduction
More than 2,500 years ago, great thinkers already regarded this universal harmony as the sole ethical and moral guiding principle. In everything, opposites are united and yet contain a hidden harmony; and this invisible harmony is stronger than the visible opposition. This insight also holds the key to understanding the reason that reigns in all things and governs everything through everything.
I would like to conclude with a statement attributed to Johann Sebastian Bach regarding the secret of his heavenly music: “The secret of my harmony?… The harmony of the stars in the sky and the longing for brotherhood in the human heart. That is the secret of my music….”
