The Origin of the Solfeggio Frequencies | Part 1
At the beginning of this year, I wrote an article exploring the ‘controversy’ and ‘confusion’ between the Solfeggio (or Solfège) System (a memory device designed to help musicians develop their sight-reading, sight-singing, pitch recognition, and aural skills within the Western Tradition), and the Solfeggio Frequencies, a series of frequencies discovered by Dr. Joseph Puleo in the mid-1970’s.
I wrote this article because I was confused by how these two seemingly separate notions could come to have the same or similar names. Superficially, although both based in music and sound, they seemed completely disparate to me. Analysing each from a musical perspective seemed to only prove their difference rather than their similarity, and no matter how much I tried, much of my research into how Dr. Joseph Puleo discovered these frequencies, nothing concrete came up.
That was until I tracked down the book ‘Healing Codes for the Biological Apocalypse’ as being the place in which Puleo’s methods and intentions were recorded. I won’t lie, initially, I was a little reluctant to read this book. It seemed pretty out of my depth; as though it would encourage me to wade into territories of which I was quite unfamiliar with and would not know how to navigate. Nevertheless, I decided to bite the bullet and give it a go.
Since, throughout my original research I had struggled to uncover any of this information online (probably because I didn’t really know what I was looking for), I thought I would share as much as I could about Puleo’s method here, in the hopes that it could help other people understand it as well. For, if you are looking to listen to these frequencies, surely, you have the right to know the method behind them?
Introduction
Much of Puleo’s work and life path is spiritually based. The book (‘Healing Codes for the Biological Apocalypse’) shares his unconventional journey to discover this knowledge, receiving messages from other people as well as experiencing his own visitations from spiritual beings himself. As wacko as this may seem to anyone who is not particularly spiritually minded, his discoveries are cemented in mathematics, numerology, and science. It seems that the book is an attempt to illustrate the connection between spiritual teachings and science and maths, rather than a separation, which is what makes it so interesting.
The information that Puleo was led to discover is heavily based on the Pythagoras Skein and The King James Bible. It is said that: “Though many significant discoveries have been made, it may be safely said that with the death of Pythagoras, the great key to this science was lost for nearly 2,500 years. Philosophers of all nations have attempted to unravel the Pythagorean skein, but apparently none have been successful.” (Hall, 1928)
In the book, it is indicated that much of this knowledge has been hidden on purpose to keep it away from the masses, and that the information discovered by Puleo is the unravelling of this skein that has been lost for millennia. By the way, ‘skein’ means ‘a length of loosely coiled thread or yarn’. Therefore, the Pythagoras Skein is essentially a looping pattern of numbers, as you will soon see in the next section of this article.
It is believed that the King James Bible is significant, because King James, being a part of certain secret societies, may have been fully aware of this knowledge, and in commissioning his version of his bible to be written, hid these numerical patterns within the pages. His motives for doing so are unclear. Could it be to further hide the patterns from the masses, whilst offer a place to reveal them to the select few? Could it have been to keep them safely recorded somewhere? Who knows? But it is this version of the bible that Puleo used to discover these hidden codes.
The Pythagoras Skein
Mathematically, this skein, is a process of reducing numbers to their lowest form (1-9), and in doing so, discovering repeating patterns that can be related to other aspects of our universe, for example, language. I will do my best to explain it based on what I have read in the book, though I should emphasise, I am no mathematician or spiritual philosopher. I simply share what I have read as someone who was interested enough to find out where these frequencies have come from, considering they are widely bandied about these days.
Figure 1
Figure 2
The basic idea can be seen in this first table (Figure 1). If we focus on our complete set of single digits- 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9, it seems that if we continue counting past 10, when we reduce these double figures down to single digits (as shown in the table), the 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9 pattern continues to repeat throughout, in the same order. Here, I have only shown it up to 30, to save space, but if you continued to to follow the mathematical pattern, you would find that when reduced, it is simply 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9 on a continuous loop.
Next, Puleo applied the same technique to the English (Latin) alphabet. By numbering all the letters A-Z from 1 to 26, he then further reduced these numbers to their single digits, only to discover that the patterns was formed again, this time following 1-9, 1-9, and then 1-8, with Z landing on 8. This is shown in Figure 2.
He found that if he took a word, such as GOD, applied the numbers attributed to each letter in the skein, for example, G (7), O (6), D (4), and added them together, in this case getting 17, and then reducing it further to its single digit,
GOD = 8 , he could, as illustrated, attribute numbers to whole words.
In numerology, the numbers 1-9 all represent something different. For example, number 8 represents infinity, and number 9 represents completion, aka the end of the cycle.
Initially, it had been believed that “The first step in obtaining the numerical value of a word is to resolve it back into its original tongue.” (Hall, 1928). This meant that the bible would have to be translated back to Greek or Hebrew in order for the numerical values discovered to make sense.
Figure 3
However, on investigating this further, Puleo found that when he applied this method to the Hebrew alphabet, reducing Hebrew words to their single digit numerical form, the English translations of those words would also be reduced to the same numbers. Apparently, this technique was tested on other languages as well and found to work the same too.
Nevertheless, it isn’t fool proof. As languages have continued to evolve and be modernised, many of these patterns have been warped or lost. This is likely why biblical words were a useful starting point for Puleo, since, these words remain old and unchanged.
Figure 4
Then Puleo was led to investigate the 8 times table. In Figure 3, the first column shows the 8 times table from 1 to 26, with each answer reduced to its single digit equivalent. The pattern that emerges is the same pattern for the alphabet but in reverse. Puleo found that if you added the number from the reversed sequence of the alphabet and the non-reversed sequence of the alphabet, every answer was equal to the number 9. He later realised that it was only the 8 times table that led to this specific pattern emerging, which is interesting when 8 represents infinity and 9 represents completion.
Next on Puleo’s journey, he was led to study the numerical patterns associated with the Hebrew alphabet. He found that the entire 22 letters of the Hebrew alphabet were shared in Psalm 119 (of the King James Bible), and that under each Hebrew alphabet letter, the first number attributed to each verse followed the 9-1 pattern when reduced, as shown in Figure 4.
Figure 5
When investigating the multiplications of 3, 6, and 9, Puleo came across another pattern, as shown in Figure 5. He found that the answers to the 3 times table, when reduced, created a consistent 3, 6, 9 pattern. The same pattern appeared for the 6 times table, except the order was reversed. And for the 9 times table, every reduction was equal to 9. When adding up all the reduced numbers associated with the alphabet (column 1, Figure 5), the number also reduced to 9. When adding up every reduced answer for each of the times tables (3,6,9) and then reducing the answer further, each single digit resolves into the same number… 9.
Numerology Single Digit Meanings:
1 = Self/ New Beginnings 2 = Peace 3 = Creativity 4 = Power/ Stability 5 = Freedom/ Change
6 = Unconditional Love 7 = Wisdom/ Truth 8 = Infinity/ Balance 9 = Completion
Numbers, Chapter 7, Beginning with Verse 12
Figure 6
It seems that after discovering that the 3,6,9 pattern was repeated throughout multiples 3, 6, and 9, Puleo was guided to The Book of Numbers in his King James Bible, specifically, Chapter 7, Verse 12. One only has to read this section of the King James Bible to see how perplexing it is. It is almost nonsensical, with the same phrases being repeated on a loop (perhaps like a skein???). Puleo noticed that with each repeat, the verses began with phrases akin to ‘on the first day’, ‘on the second day’… rising until the twelfth day, and that each of these phrases were positioned six verses apart. By underlining each of the days and inspecting the corresponding verse number attributed to these lines (using the Pythagorean Skein), he noticed the same pattern emerging… 3,9,6,3,9,6.
Figure 7
In Figure 6, I have done my best to share this information within a table to make it easier to visualise. However, if you want to take a look yourself, here is a link to this specific section- Numbers, Chapter 7:12. It will make it easier to understand if you are able to follow along.
Following the pattern of the repeated verses within this section of the bible, Puleo decided to apply the Pythagorean Skein to the next verse, verse 13, which was one degree higher. In this verse, it talks about an offering of one silver charger, the weight thereof was an hundred and thirty shekels, and so on, which is repeated almost word for word throughout this section, twelve times, just like the 3,6,9 verse shared above. By applying the Pythagorean Skein to verses 13 and its repeated companions, he noticed another pattern appearing, this time, it was 4, 1, 7. Take a look at Figure 7 to see where this pattern was located.
Figure 8
Figure 9
And so Puleo continued in this vein, applying this Pythagorean Skein to each set of verse numbers attributed to each set of repeated verse lines throughout Chapter 7. Above, in Figure 8 you will see that the pattern discovered from verse 14 onwards is 5,2,8. And in Figure 9, you will see that the pattern discovered from verse 15 onwards is 6,3,9. Below, in Figure 10, you will see that the pattern discovered from verse 16 onwards is 7,4,1, and in Figure 11, you will see that the pattern discovered from verse 17 onwards is 8,5,2, completing the set.
Figure 10
Figure 11
The Original Six Healing Codes
As you have probably deduced, these six repeating patterns found within Numbers Chapter 7:12 of the King James Bible are the healing codes that Puleo discovered, and what are now known as the original six Solfeggio Frequencies.
396, 417, 528, 639, 741, 852
Of course, nowadays we are aware of all nine Solfeggio Frequencies, including the additional three frequencies which are… 174, 285, and 963. It is unclear whether these were also discovered within the King James Bible, or whether they were simply deduced through following the numerical patterns found within the first six Solfeggio Frequencies.
As I had written in my first article exploring this topic:
“When all nine numbers are ordered from lowest to highest, it is clear that each one starts with every number from 1-9. The second number in the frequencies also follows the pattern 1-9, however, it is shifted so that the pattern starts from 417Hz. Again, the third number in the frequencies follows the same pattern, however it is shifted so the pattern starts from 741Hz. I have colour coded the numbers and underlined the 1s in the picture below to illustrate this more easily.” (Figure 12)
Figure 12
“Now if you take all the numbers containing the 1s- 174Hz, 417Hz, 741Hz- you can see that they are the same numbers re-organised. 285Hz, 528Hz, 852Hz and 396Hz, 639Hz, 963Hz, also follow this pattern. Each set of three figures are the same numbers in a different order.”
Continuing on from what I previously wrote, if you apply the Pythagoras Skein to these numbers, by adding all the numbers together to reduce them down to a single digit, you get this:
1 + 7 + 4 = 12 —> 1 + 2 = 3
2 + 8 + 5 = 15 —> 1 + 5 = 6
3 + 9 + 6 = 18 —> 1 + 8 = 9
4 + 1 + 7 = 12 —> 1 + 2 = 3
5 + 2 + 8 = 15 —> 1 + 5 = 6
6 + 3 + 9 = 18 —> 1 + 8 = 9
7 + 4 + 1 = 12 —> 1 + 2 = 3
8 + 5 + 2 = 15 —> 1 + 5 = 6
9 + 6 + 3 = 18 —> 1 + 8 = 9
Again, the 3,6,9 pattern appears. A pattern that seems to hold a high significance, not only to Puleo and Horowitz, but also to scientists such as Nikola Tesla, and his theories on energy, vibration, and creation, which might be something I’ll explore another day. For now, I hope this is enough to help you understand more about the origins of the Solfeggio Frequencies, or at the very least, their numbers.
———
So there we have it! This is exactly how and where Puleo discovered these specific codes and numerical patterns that were to become the Solfeggio Frequencies. However, my journey of research hasn’t quite finished yet. In Part 2, I dive deeper into why these codes were linked with the Solfeggio hymn, also known as ‘Ut queant laxis’, which is linked below if you are interested!
If you would like to read my original article on this topic, please click on the link below:
Sources:
‘Healing Codes for the Biological Apocalypse’ (2007- 9th ed.) by Dr. Leonard G. Horowitz & Dr. Joseph S. Puleo.
‘Secret Teachings of All Ages’ (1928) by Manley P. Hall
‘Gregorian Chants’ (1990) by Professor Emeritus Willi Apel
The Solfeggio Frequencies vs. The Solfège System (2025) by Sylvia Villa
