It is recommended to read Part 1 before Part 2, otherwise this article might become very confusing!

This is Part 2 of my investigation into the origin of the Solfeggio Frequencies, discovered by Dr. Joseph Puleo in the mid-1970’s. This research is heavily taken from the book ‘Healing Codes for the Biological Apocalypse’ by Dr. Leonard Horowitz and Dr. Joseph Puleo, in which they divulged the journey and methods Puleo took in order to reveal these codes.

Following on from Part 1, where we learnt about Dr Joseph Puleo’s Pythagorean Skein and the Numbers, Chapter 7:12 section of his King James Bible, from which he unveiled the first six ‘healing codes’; 396, 417, 528, 639, 741, 852, I think it is time to dive deeper into their origin story. How did Puleo come to the conclusion that these numbers were frequencies? How did Puleo come to associate them with the text and syllables within the Solfeggio hymn ‘Ut queant laxis’? Perhaps these codes are as significant as they seem, but why are they so attributed to sounds and frequencies?

Let’s find out!

Gregorian Chants

It appears that earlier in his investigation into these so-called hidden Bible codes, Puleo had been researching Gregorian Chants. Gregorian chants are sacred unaccompanied songs, usually sung in Latin, within the traditional practices of The Roman Catholic Church. One notable Gregorian chant is ‘Ut queant laxis’, a Latin hymn in honour of John the Baptist, dating back to the eighth century. It is this hymn from which the Solfège System, the musical solmization technique, sprung.

Musicologist, Professor Apel, wrote in his book titled ‘Gregorian Chants’:

“The origin of what is now called Solfeggio… arose from a Mediaeval hymn to John the Baptist which had this peculiarity that the first six lines of the music commenced respectively on the first six successive notes of the scale, and thus the first syllable of each line was sung to a note one degree higher than the first syllable of the line that preceded it.

By degrees these syllables became associated and identified with their respective notes and as each syllable ended with a vowel they were found to be particularly adapted for vocal use. Hence ‘Ut’ was artificially replaced by ‘Do’. Guido of Arezzo was the first to adopt them in the 11th century, and Le Marie, a French musician of the 17th century, added ‘Si’ for the seventh note of the scale, in order to complete the series. It might have been formed from the intial letter of the two words in this line [Sancto Ioannes], S and I.”

Reading Professor Apel’s explanation, I can see where my original confusion stemmed from. In my first article on this topic (titled: The Solfeggio Frequencies vs. The Solfège System), I explained what the Solfège System was from a purely musical perspective, including the hand symbols, the changing syllables, and the two different forms. Therefore, if you are interested to learn more about this system from a musical perspective, please go and read that article, which I will link at the bottom of this page.

I had simply assumed that it was somewhat a coincidence that this particular hymn had been written in the way that it had, with every line starting on the rising degrees of the scale. I had supposed that because of this characteristic, it had been discovered to be a useful tool in learning how to sing, sight-sing, and recognise pitches, and so had gradually developed from there.

For example, the addition of SI, followed lines of the hymn ‘Sancto Iohannes’ but they changed the note on which this line was originally sung in order to complete the seven note set. The shift from SI to TI, was likely to ensure each syllable had a different starting note, SI couldn’t start with S, because Sol started with an S, and so it was changed to a T. And lastly, the replacement of ‘Ut’ with ‘Do’, was likely to ensure every syllable started with a consonant and finished with a vowel. We can also see this with the dropping of the L on Sol, so it reads as So instead, which is the version that we are familiar with today. One could also imagine that the choice of ‘Do’ may have been to mimic ‘So’, in order to emphasise the root and fifth note relationship. And, as a result of all these changes, we have a very neat set of two-letter sounds, all starting with a consonant and finishing with a vowel that have been attributed to the seven degrees of the scale, creating a very useful tool for musical study.

From a musical perspective, the hymn was nothing more than a starting point towards the creation of of this system. As we can see, the name for this system, be it Solfeggio, Solfège, or Solfa, was derived from two of the hymn’s original syllables Sol and Fa, cementing its connection to said hymn. However, changes were made so freely and liberally to the original set of syllables, likely because the end goal was musically focussed rather than spiritually focussed; and there is nothing wrong with that when looking through a musical or non-spiritual lens. Although some people attribute the music for the hymn ‘Ut queant laxis’ to Guido of Arezzo, it is mostly believed that he merely adopted the hymn and the music as part of the development of the Solfège System and that the original composer remains unknown.

I believe that the mystery of the unknown composer is quite an important one, since, whoever wrote the melody could have had so many different intentions behind their harmonic choices. If it was Guido of Arezzo, could he have not written it with the intention that it be used as a form of solmization? And yet, if that was the case, it wouldn’t make sense to miss out the seventh note in the scale, which makes it seem quite unlikely that this was the case.

Did the composer write the hymn in this way based on mathematical or spiritual precision or guidance? Or, did they simply just like how it sounded? Here, it is important to note that composers from earlier centuries were usually incredibly precise in their musical choices and compositional techniques, especially when writing music associated with their religion and sacred texts, since there were far stricter harmonic and musical rules to abide by. Usually, little, if anything, was composed by accident. Everything was assumed to be created with great purpose and spiritual intention.

The Significance of The Six Degrees

Although I might look at the Solfège System and the hymn ‘Ut queant laxis’ from a musical perspective, Puleo was looking at it from a spiritual and mathematical perspective. He believed that it was significant that “the first six lines of the music commenced respectively on the first six successive notes of the scale.” He felt that the alterations and additions of the syllables had significantly altered the way these frequencies were sung, affecting their mathematical resonance and spiritual impact.

He drew connections to Psalms 120 through to 134 of the King James Bible, titled ‘A Song of Degrees’, in which each Psalm is “one degree higher that the preceding one.” (Horowitz, 2007). Within these Psalms he found another mathematical pattern of which I won’t go into detail, since it is lengthy to explain, but essentially, it re-emphasises the importance of the six degrees.

It seems that it is the significance of the six degrees that ultimately links the Solfeggio hymn (‘Ut queant laxis’) with the healing codes discovered by Puleo. In Part 1 of this journey, we discovered how Puleo came to discover these codes within Numbers, Chapter 7:12 in his King James Bible. It was through his knowledge about the hymn and the Song of Degrees that helped him to decode this specific section. Initially he noticed the repeating pattern of verses of which each repetition was consistently six verses apart. Then he noticed that with each repetition the assigned day (first day, second day, third day) was each one degree higher, completing a total of twelve days. When he applied the Pythagorean Skein to the verse numbers, he then unveiled these six different repeating numerical patterns: 396, 417, 528, 639, 741, 852, as we saw in Part 1.

As far as I can tell, because the ‘Ut queant laxis’ hymn contains six notes that rise by one degree consecutively, and that the Song of Degrees is a song where each Psalm rises by one degree (120, 121, 122…) and also have the significance of the number six hidden within them, and that the Numbers, Chapter 7:12 has a set of six verses that are looped six verses apart and that each individual verse is one degree higher than the previous one, is the reason why each of these seemingly separate biblical notions have been united together, purely through their numerical similarities. And since the Song of Degrees is essentially a song and the ‘Ut queant laxis’ hymn is also a song, the codes discovered within Numbers, Chapter 7:12 were seen to be related to sound and/or singing, hence why Puleo described these healing codes as healing frequencies… the Solfeggio Frequencies.

Now, I guess we can understand how these numbers (or codes) became related to sound. However, there are a couple of thinks that confuse me. In Figure 3, I have shared a table that Puleo and Horowitz share within their book, ‘The Healing Codes to the Biological Apocalypse’. Of course, I understand how the codes have been reduced using the Pythagorean Skein to form the pattern 9,3,6 (which funnily enough is one of the additional three Solfeggio Frequencies discovered later on, as discussed in Part 1). Yet, I am not entirely sure why they have been individually assigned to the Ut, Re, Mi, Fa So, La syllables. Is it simply because these syllables represent these six healing tones? Because musically speaking, these codes in Hz form do not relate to the scale sung within the ‘Ut queant laxis’ hymn. Another question I have is why these frequencies are considered to be healing? It seems much of this assumption comes from the meaning of the ‘Ut queant laxis’ hymn text, which we will explore a little further now…

What Does The Solfeggio Hymn Mean?

The next discovery by Puleo, is the importance of the Apocrypha within his research. The Apocrypha is a selection of ‘Hidden Books of the Bible’, that for many centuries have seldom been printed as part of the Bible for a variety of different reasons. Apparently,“the Apocrypha formed an integral part of the King Hames version of 1611” (Horowitz, 2007), but by 1629, it was being demanded that copies be printed omitting this section. Puleo found that using his King James Bible, Webster Dictionary, and the Apocrypha, he had all he needed to further understand the Mediaeval hymn to John the Baptist (‘Ut queant laxis’). And so, his next step was diving deeper into investigating the meanings of the old Latin phrase used within the hymn’s text.

In Figure 4, I have done my best to share the definitions of the Latin words shared by Horowitz and Puleo in their book, as taken from Webster’s Dictionary. However, please note, this is a reduced version. Many of these words have a wide variety of meaning. I have shared only what Puleo and Horowitz deemed to be correlated to their cause (as well as my own interpretation, as I will share that later in this article).

Puleo notes that between the King James Bible and the Apocrypha, two words are potentially significant: ‘Selah’, a musical term that means ‘arising into life or genesis’, and ‘Higgaion’ meaning ‘a deep sound’. He divulges that “this is important for those who sing hymns or chants. The perfect notes have an inspirational effect and give rise to spiritual life, transforming physical nature through electromagnetic vibrations.” (Horowitz, 2007).

He also shares the English translation of the text for the ‘Ut queant laxis’ hymn:

“So that your servants
Can sing together
With the loose strings (the vocal cords)
The wonders of their deeds (potential miracles)
Oh Saint John
Wash away the guilt
of their polluted lips.”

Puleo and Horowitz deduce that “people could live together in peace and communicate in harmony about the miracles in their lives… Such baptism could be best accomplished by washing away people’s guilt, false judgments, and divisive dialects that had assumed due to deceptive manipulations perpetrated by those in control of the spiritual knowledge. Thus, to be ‘saved by grace’ alone, this cleansing and illumination could be best achieved by singing or listening to hymns that used the Solfeggio notes.” (Horowitz, 2007)

I guess it is here that we can see why these frequencies are deemed to have healing properties or capabilities. Between ‘Solve polluti’ meaning something akin to ‘cleanse the unclean’ and Horowitz’s explanation that these “perfect notes have an inspirational effect and give rise to spiritual life, transforming physical nature through electromagnetic vibrations”, it is inferred that these tones can be used to heal us. I won’t lie, this does seem to be one area of their proposition that is quite underexplained. However, as it is divulged in the book (Healing Codes for the Biological Apocalypse), many of the guidance Puleo received when uncovering these codes came from visions he had of Jeshua. I can only assume that where explanations of how certain conclusions were arrived at appear to be fairly vague, that the answers were held within these visions Puleo experienced, making any attempt to join the dots of this journey that he went on rather difficult. This is obviously where one needs to remain open minded, in order to fully grasp their story, since aspects are pretty puzzling, to me at least!

The 144,000

Puleo and Horowitz also discuss the great significance of the number 144,000. As mentioned in Revelations 7:4-

“Then I heard the number of those who were sealed: 144,000 from all the tribes of Israel.”

They state that “this hidden knowledge, and related vocal actions taken by 144,000 spiritually enlightened people, would bring about the social transformation of planet earth- that is (as illustrated by ‘LA-bii reatum’), the ‘reverse movement’ back from mankind to ‘Godkind’. Humanity could go from shackled to the sovereign, hateful to trusting, fearful to empowered…” (Horowitz, 2007)

They then go onto share their own attributed meanings to the Solfeggio Syllables heavily based on the information from Webster’s Dictionary and their notion that the “144,000 people [represent] a critical mass singing in unison the notes of the Solfeggio.” (Horowitz, 2007). I have shared their ‘definitions’ in Figure 5.

Thoughts & Questions:

Reading through this section of the book, including their definitions and the supposed significance of the 144,000 people, raises some questions for me.

Firstly, it is not entirely clear in the book as to why the 144,000 mentioned in Revelations 7:4 has been linked with the Solfeggio hymn and syllables. I can’t see the process of thought, other than to assume that since Puleo is working heavily with numbers in the Bible, that he would see all of the numbers to be both significant and related (and 1 + 4 + 4 = 9, which signifies completion). Or that perhaps, behind the scenes there was a lot more explorations going on that involved the whole King James Bible, and they are only sharing the aspects that are easiest to understand or that are related to their message? Nevertheless, this whole concept of the 144,000 and how it relates to the hymn and the frequencies is pretty perplexing to me.

Additionally, looking at Puleo’s attributed definitions to the Solfeggio syllables in Figure 3, I am intrigued by his fixations. For me, looking at the definitions for these Latin words in Webster’s Dictionary, it seems that their meaning can be quite expansive. In Figure 3, I merely shared what was deemed significant by Puleo and Horowitz, however, many of the words have additional meanings, some similar to what was deemed significant, and some quite different. What I am trying to say is that surely, anyone looking at the variety of different meanings and attempting to deduce the correct one, could potentially make different choices and yet the result might still be believable?

For me, it is their derived meanings for ‘UT’, ‘FA’, and ‘LA’ that stand out to me as being the most potentially ‘bent to fit a narrative’. Firstly, for ‘UT’, they merge the 144,000 with the Webster’s Dictionary definitions, and yet it isn’t clear how they came to the conclusion that this was correct. ‘FA’ is perhaps a little more understandable, since Revelations 7:4 talks about 144,000 people and Famuli tuorum is essentially ‘the chosen group’. And ‘LA’ they highlight the return to political conservatism, or an earlier system of order, which is related to world peace. I am sure the text is speaking about a return to something, but is it political conservatism that they are talking about, or is that just a buzzword that satisfies a certain group of modern ears?

My Interpretation:

When I look at the definitions in Webster’s Dictionary, I could come to slightly different conclusions. I could draw upon other meanings shared in the dictionary and provide alternative explanations. For example, in Figure 6, I have shared my own interpretation based on my own personal understanding of manifestation.

As much as this might make sense to me and satisfy my brain, it doesn’t mean that I am right. I do not know ancient Latin, and so I cannot understand how these words should be read together to understand their appropriate meanings. I can only guess. And as Puleo and Horowitz also do not understand old Latin, how can we know that their selected meaning are the right ones, since, at most, they are working with the numerical significances in the Bible, but they are not masters of the meanings or definitions by proxy. We all are at risk of cognitive bias, of coming to conclusions that suit our cause but aren’t necessarily 100% true.

It may seem as though I am being critical or cynical, but I wanted to try my best to investigate these frequencies as properly as I could. I wanted to share my genuine thoughts and questions as I interacted with this information. It is not that my sole reason in creating these blog posts is to debunk these Solfeggio frequencies. In fact, I am very intrigued by the numerical patterns as identified by the Pythagorean Skein, as well as the potential meanings of the Latin text within the Solfeggio hymn. In many ways, I have been one of the many people to listen to and meditate to these frequencies long before I ever decided to research them or had any outside opinions on them, and… in my experience I have found them to be highly effectual and… well… healing.

However, something I always return to when working with this kind of spiritual information is the notion that ‘every truth is a half truth’. The Solfeggio frequencies are real and do work… for those that believe in them. But for those that don’t believe in them, it is likely that they won’t work. Just like the same medicine can heal some people but not others. Rarely do we ever come across something that has a success rate of 100%. Because, ultimately, it all stems from us. It all depends on what we accept as true. It all depends on what we believe. It all depends on what we identify with. There is nothing outside of us that is more powerful than us. The discovery of these frequencies is an aid but not necessarily the answer.

Anyhow, this was the second and final part of this investigation and the end of a very long journey. I may return to this topic if I come by any new or interesting information, but for now, I hope these two articles have helped you to understand the origin of the Solfeggio Frequencies, how they were discovered, and who discovered them. I also hope that this information helps you to come to your own conclusions regarding the veracity of Puleo and Horowitz’s claims. I have attempted to share my opinion throughout this journey as so much is very interesting to me and something I will continue to explore in other ways. Nevertheless, there is no doubt that I still have some unanswered questions…

Numerology Double Digit Meanings:

The first three numbers in the sequence- 11, 22, & 33, are seen as Master Numbers and are deemed highly significant. The rest- 44, 55, 66, 77, 88, 99- are seen as Power Numbers; lesser than but still notable.

11- The Master Intuitive- possessing insight between realms

22- The Master Builder/ Architect- making the intangible tangible

33- The Master Teacher- the peak of spiritual evolution, rare, the most influential of all the numbers

———

44- strength, efficiency, practicality 55- transformation, growth, leadership
66- creativity, love, reliability 77- inner wisdom, awakening, enlightenment
88- abundance, prosperity, success 99- end of a lifecycle and the beginning of a new one

Sources:

‘Healing Codes for the Biological Apocalypse’ (2007- 9th ed.) by Dr. Leonard G. Horowitz & Dr. Joseph S. Puleo.
‘Number in Scripture’ (1894) by E.W. Bullinger
World Numerology

The Origin of the Solfeggio Frequencies | Part 2