Saturday, June 2, 2012

Fascinating interview with Richard Merrick on Red Ice Radio



The previous post discussed some of the mechanics of the Venus transit and provided some links to sites to help you observe this historic astronomical event if possible.

Above is a remarkable interview with Richard Merrick, author of the newly-released book the Venus Blueprint: Uncovering the Ancient Science of Sacred Spaces, in which he discusses the ancient importance of the Venus transit as well as the harmonic pattern of the planet Venus itself.

Especially important in his view is the pentagonal pattern created by the five synods of earth and Venus over a cycle that is extremely close to eight years (but very slightly shorter than eight exact earth years). Details of that pentagonal pattern traced out by the celestial mechanics between earth and Venus can be seen in the excellent diagrams and discussion in this webpage by Nick Anthony Fiorenza (scroll down for the pentagram discussion). The upcoming Venus transit takes place at one of the points of this pentagram pattern, because those are the points at which Venus and earth align with the sun.

Both hours of Richard Merrick's interview on Red Ice Radio are fascinating (the first hour is embedded above, and the second hour is available to subscribers to Red Ice Creations). In the interview, Mr. Merrick discusses evidence that ancient civilizations were very aware of the importance of Venus and the pentagonal structure, and that they captured many subtle and sophisticated aspects of the harmonics of Venus in their mythology relating to the goddess associated with that heavenly body (under many different names). He also relates some of the significant aspects of this pattern to his work on harmonics and his harmonic interference theory.

Noting that the 8:5 ratio inherent in the earth-Venus synodic pentagram approximates phi (the Golden Ratio), he observes that ancient structures around the world also incorporate this ratio, and that those which incorporate the Golden Ratio also usually incorporate sophisticated harmonics that yield unusual acoustical and vibrational effects inside their sacred spaces.

This is a very important subject, and Mr. Merrick's work promises to expand on the observations of these acoustical and proportional aspects of ancient structures which others have also analyzed. For example, the indispensable Serpent in the Sky, by John Anthony West discusses cymatics (the study of wave forms) in conjunction with the advanced knowledge of ancient Egypt, and on page 78 says:
It is harmony that is responsible for the specific physical phenomena that scientists call 'reality,' but that wiser men realise is but the physical aspect of reality to which our senses have access. We speak of musical 'form'. We know it is the result of harmonies that may be reduced to vibrations -- that is to say, to number. But we tend to think of musical 'form' metaphorically, whereas we should regard it literally.
Mr. Merrick's work also appears to add some new perspectives on the exciting discoveries of acoustics at sites such as the Hypogeum Hal-Saflieni on the island of Gozo in Malta and other extremely ancient sites, discussed in previous blog posts here and here. He takes his discussion of the different wave and vibrational geometries down to the cellular level in the human body, and reaches some very innovative and noteworthy conclusions. This subject matter appears to intersect with a related important topic explored in several previous posts, which is the importance of chanting (see here, here and here, for instance).

Richard Merrick is also the author of a previous book, Interference: A Grand Scientific Musical Theory (2010). His new book The Venus Blueprint was just released last week, just in time for the upcoming Venus transit for 2012. While I have yet to read either of these books, I hope to do so in the near future. I strongly recommend listening to his entire interview above as an introduction to his analysis and as a window into some of the more esoteric ramifications of the upcoming Venus event on June 5/6.