How does the study of octaves and intervals help us understand our own efforts to be more present, more awake?

The Natural Law of Octaves and Intervals

The Law of Seven can be observed everywhere in the natural world and in everything we do internally and externally. If we understood the law of octaves, we could see more clearly how the universe unfolds, how a tree grows, or how learning requires special efforts at certain, very specific, points.

The law of octaves explains many phenomena in our lives which are incomprehensible. ~ George Gurdjieff

Octaves and Intervals on the Musical Scale

The Law of Seven is said to be the basis for the seven-note musical octave. The idea is that in nature and the universe at large, nothing continues forever in a direct line. Everything must deviate at definite intervals. If you take the standard seven-note octave,plus the first note of a new octave, you get eight notes: do, re, mi, fa, sol, la, si, and do. What the Law of Seven says is that within these eight notes there are two definite intervals, one between mi and fa, and one between si and the new do. The intervals are called the mi/fa interval and the si/do interval. On an energetic level what this means is that the level of vibrations, which are increasing (or decreasing) at a consistent rate, change at these two intervals.

Ascending and Descending Octaves

Octaves can be ascending, where the vibrations increase, or descending, where the vibrations decrease. In an ascending octave the notes run forward, so that the first interval occurs in the middle at the mi/fa, and the second interval occurs at the end at the si/do. In a descending octave the notes run backward: do, si, la, sol, fa, mi, re, and do, so that the first interval falls at very beginning and the second interval happens toward the middle.

The Nature of Intervals in an Octave

Reading a book (or reading this article) can be considered a simple example of an ascending octave. We are inspired by the subject or what we are going to learn, but then suddenly we don’t understand why we began reading the book in the first place. This is the feeling of a mi/fa interval, a kind of emotional confusion about what we are doing and why. At this point it is very easy for the octave to change direction, to deviate. 

Intervals Require Shocks – an Extra Effort

To move on, to complete the octave—in this case, to continue reading the book—we need to make a certain effort. An effort to bridge the interval. Effort may take many different forms. It may be quite simple. You may simply use your will to read on, knowing that if you do this, your feelings of emotional motivation will eventually return. You may have an external force motivating you. Maybe you need to learn the material in the book in order to pass a test, or to make more money.

The point is that some kind of effort needs to come to keep the octave from deviating. Once this new note sounds, then it’s possible for the octave to continue for a time. The second interval in an ascending octave happens right at the end. This is when you are ready to move on. The feeling of the si/do interval is: I just want this to be over. It requires a second effort or shock to complete the octave.

In descending octaves, the first interval comes at the beginning. In other words, the octave starts with a change of direction. Intervals in descending octaves are not bridged, or if they are, it happens mechanically. The octave happens automatically, usually changing direction at each interval. Many natural processes, like decay, are descending octaves. 

Octaves and Intervals within Octaves

The Law of Seven is a little more difficult to observe than the Law of Three. The Law of Seven requires observation of a process that unfolds over a period of time. Indeed, there are octaves within octaves. If we go back to our example of reading a book, we can say that reading a book in its entirety is a single octave, but we can also say that each chapter is an octave, or that each section is an octave. And all of these different octaves have intervals. But the shorter the octave is, the less severe the interval, which means it will be easier to bridge.

Applying Shocks to Intervals

Like everything else, our inner work—efforts to remember ourselves, to be present, to transform suffering—is subject to the law of octaves. What this means it that the Law of Seven can become a tool that can help us understand how to keep efforts moving forward; that is, toward more and more presence.

It is a law that we will be able to be present for a time and then an interval will come. Nothing can continue at its present rate of vibration forever, including attempts to be present. Something will always happen. Maybe you will simply forget about it, or maybe you will become identified. Something will happen to break the chain. But if you can observe this moment, you have an opportunity. You can use your intelligence and your experience to make a special effort to continue to be present. And this type of effort, where there is no motivation, has a greater possibility to produce consciousness. When you bridge this interval, there is no momentum, so it becomes necessary to work directly from will.

–William Page is the author of the blog BePresentFirst. This is an excerpted version of a longer article. Read the full article:  https://bepresentfirst.com/the-law-of-seven/.