Speakers

Name: Aleksandra Bajič

Looking for Harmonia

Abstract:

The paper asks the question "Who is Harmony?". For, the concept of harmony has its divine personification, the Greek goddess Harmonia (the daughter of Ares and Aphrodite, the sister of Phobos (Fear) and Daimos (Horror). Her origin indicates that the goddess is a unity of terrible opposites, Freud would say the unity of Eros, who is embodied in her mother, and Thanatos, embodied in her father. In myths, a divine daughter is usualy an aspect of her mother, so she caries on some of her mother's symbols. Pausanias (Description of Greece, 1, 14, 6) states that the Phoenicians brought the cult of Aphrodite to Greece. The only goddess of the Middle East who could be a model of the Greek one is Inanna (otherwise called Ishtar or Astarte), in whose divine competence are both war and bodily love. She also represents the personification of the planet Venus. It is quite obvious that Aphrodite (her daughter Harmony as well) "inherited" some of Inanna's symbols. This symbolism leads to celestial harmony and immutability of astronomical cycles and rhythms of Venus, but also to certain (empirical) knowledge about the human soul, which can be traced in the works of Carl Gustav Jung.

Harmonia's divine status is indisputable. Both of her parents are gods of the highest rank. Despite that, she lived on Earth for some time, as the ideal wife of Cadmus (the hero). Her sojourn in the world of humans is not related to the so-called "Golden Age", but for a very specific time of the sixth generation before the Trojan War, which corresponds well to the period of the Bronze Age in prehistory. Thus, the stay of Harmonia on Earth is possible, but it is temporary and occasional. Since then, her symbolism has survived to the present day, often adapted to the needs of newer religions. Because of that, her symbols are sometimes difficult to recognize, but still have their significance. These continue to appear in the dreams and creative imagination of men and women during the later stages of the psychotherapeutic process, often representing signposts to mental health.

In this contribution, we were looking for harmony through symbols. We haven't found it. Instead of harmony, we have found a dilemma between two options:
1. Symbols represent the cultural heritage of humanity that needs to be carefully studied. Studying also means preserving. Since each symbol always has several interconnected meanings, the results will be very difficult to defend against the harsh criticism of science, which seeks conciseness, exactness and logic. Anyone who has studied and practiced psychology knows this very well. Jung practically demonstated that some of the ancient symbols still influence people today leading them to psychological harmony. The ways of that action are still not clear enough, but that is not a reason to give up further efforts.
2.

Name: Nicholas Campion

The Harmony of Heaven and Earth: theory and action (Saturday)

Abstract:
The notion that the Earth exists in a state of Harmony (and sometimes Disharmony) with the wider Universe is central to the worldviews of China, especially Confucian and Taoist philosophies, classical Greece and many indigenous cultures. The Athenian philosopher Plato and the sixteenth century astronomer Johannes Kepler both saw the ebb and flow of Harmony and Disharmony in the movements of the stars and planets. The Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius wrote that gazing at the stars purged his soul. But the question they all asked of the Heaven-Earth relationship is what do we do about it here on Earth? This talk will introduce answers to this question provided in the ancient, medieval and modern worlds. How do we make a sustainable world? And is Love the solution?

The Harmony of Heaven and Earth in the paintings of Joseph Turner, Joan Miro and Geoff MacEwen (Sunday)

Abstract:
This presentation will look at the work of three painters who have attempted to portray and examine the intimacy of the human relationship with the sly and stars, drawing on Johannes Kepler’s view that people and stars occupy part of the same Harmonious continuum. The English painter Joseph Turner (1775-1821) is known for his fascination with light. His work spans the spectrum from the figurative, to the semi-figurative, to the non-figurative, in which case he stands as an ancestor of twentieth-century abstract art’s attempt to locate the pure essence of the world. Turner sought to portray the pure essence of light, working under the influence of the poet Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832), along with recently translated works on Persia and India which portrayed the Sun, the source of light, as God. I will move on to consider the work of the surrealist Joan Miró (1893-1983), whose entirely non-naturalistic representations of stars are contained in a series of 23 paintings created in the critical early years of the Second World War and known together as ‘constellations’. Miró was a close friend of André Breton, writer of the Surrealist Manifesto, and an astrologer: Miró’s ‘Constellations have been described as ‘astronomical or astrological maps’. I will then conclude with a look at the work of a lesser-known modern painter, Geoff MacEwen, who has produced remarkable series of works based on the ascent through the stars in Dante’s Divine Comedy, and more recent representations of the planets. In the preparation of his Dante series, MacEwen worked together with Joan Miró’s printmaker.

Name: Yuqing Chen

Beliefs and cosmology: the orientation of graves in Neolithic China

Abstract:
The study of prehistoric megalithic and astronomical phenomena in Europe has long been linked to a variety of prehistoric ideologies and beliefs. However, the relationship between prehistoric sites in China and astronomical phenomena such as sunrise and sunset, the Plow or the North Star is still at an embryonic stage of research. This paper presents a selection of three Neolithic sites containing several hundred graves, located in the Yellow river and the Yangzi river basins and belonging to different cultures within China. The burial orientations and the relationship between the layout of each cemetery and its surrounding landscape are analysed through satellite map to understand the different prehistoric harmony of life and death. For instance, the orientation of the graves in the Yangshao culture (仰韶文化) is uniformly to the west, but the orientation of the neighbouring Dawenkou culture (大汶口文化) may have been determined by the geographical landscape of its surroundings. This study will further explore the settlement groups and burial customs across the sites to analyse the distribution of cultural features through space and time and the connections that may or may not have existed between these communities. The aim is to critically determine whether the layout of orientations is decided by celestial beliefs in the culture to which the site belongs to or local context or other reasons. Second aim is if so, whether this phenomenon serve the function of harmonizing prehistoric cosmologies.

Name: Dawn Collins

Tibetan Spirit Mediums, Harmony and the Sky

Abstract:
Summing up ethnographic fieldwork on the Tibetan Plateau, this paper will discuss ways in which Tibetans seek to harmonise life in their earthly village valley communities with the local deities who populate surrounding mountains and skies. It will explore how Tibetan harmonies are maintained through cultivating right relationships between spiritual agencies, their human mediums and the communities they protect. The paper will outline some core concepts of Indo-Tibetan cosmology and culture underlying contemporary life in the Rebgong valley communities of the Tibetan Plateau and how these inform aspects of the annual harvest festival of Leru. Relationships between the skies and the embodied landscapes of the valley communities will be explored. The paper will suggest that local deities, their spirit mediums and communities do not come together for Leru to harmonise heaven and earth. Rather, through ritual resonance, they seek to reveal the profound interconnectedness of being that is its harmonic nature and, in doing so, to elucidate their right relation and place in the dance of it all.

Name: Nathaniel Daudrich and George Richards

Ancient and contemporary observatories in the face of climate change: a study of Namoratunga

Abstract:
The site of Namoratunga near Lake Turkana in Kenya comprises an array of standing stones that may have been aligned to celestial phenomena and, by the astronomical calculation of time and its relationship to predictable weather systems, allowed people to plan their movements and those of their herds. This function is suggested by the continued use of petroglyph symbols on the Namoratunga stones as branding marks for cattle herded by contemporary pastoralists. A new centre in Nairobi, called the Jameel Observatory, uses data science to monitor, forecast and give early warning of outbreaks of acute hunger in eastern Africa, drawing on data as diverse as satellite imagery and remote sensing, to household economic data. But the Jameel Observatory also seeks to engage traditional systems of knowledge to inform its outputs, and to contextualise its outputs among Kenyans, both as researchers and as end-users (e.g., pastoralists).

By reference to Namoratunga as a case-study, this paper explores the relationship between traditional conceptions of the sky and the urgent need to achieve harmony in modern ways of life, especially where people face critical pressure from climate change.

Name: Marc Frincu

A look at the cosmological and Christian harmony in traditional Romanian carols and fairytales. Tracing back a long-forgotten solar myth with elements of Christianity

Abstract:
Throughout time and around the world people have sought ways to harmonise with the sky and cosmos. In Romania, a place situated at the crossroads of civilizations and where, over time a unique blend of traditions has emerged, mixing old pagan rituals with Orthodox beliefs, the harmony between day-to-day life and cosmos is ever present. Here we find evidence of solar and fertility cults dating back to Neolithic times, and we have some of the largest Late Bronze Age earth enclosures spanning hectares and exhibiting possible alignments with the solar extremes. Deeply rooted in cosmological beliefs, it is unsurprising that even today we find numerous examples of astronomical and cosmological ornaments (sun, moon, tree of life, seed of life, etc.) on traditional houses throughout the country. But in this talk, our focus is on the oral traditions. Despite being an Orthodox country, pagan rituals and traditions have found their way into the narrative by being adapted or accepted as part of daily life. I will discuss solar motifs in fairy tales and how they help the narrative build a unique cosmological realm where the cosmos is not only present but also helps the heroes of our stories. Furthermore, based on the earliest cultural astronomy study in Romania (1902), I will overview the astronomical significance of the "colinda", a traditional carol, and address its etymology and relation to the astronomical year.

Name: Jessica Heim

Astronomers, the Night Sky, and the Space Environment

Abstract:

Artificial light at night (ALAN) and light pollution have long affected professional astronomers. Increasing ALAN stemming from ground-based sources, such as outdoor lighting, has led to astronomers locating their observatories in increasingly remote locations in order to reduce the impacts of ALAN on their research. However, with advent of satellite "megaconstellations" in 2019, astronomers realized they were facing an issue quite different from ground-based ALAN.

While human-made satellites have been in orbit around the Earth since the launch of Sputnik in 1957, the satellite megaconstellations being deployed in low-Earth orbit (LEO) by a growing number of companies and nations (for the purpose of providing low-latency, high speed internet across the globe) are increasing the number of objects in orbit at an ever-quickening pace. Many astronomers have begun to see streaks from satellites trailing across their images. An additional issue is the combined effect of these objects: sunlight reflecting off of satellites and debris in orbit appears to be brightening the night sky. This issue will increase in magnitude as more satellites are launched.

This phenomenon has highlighted the interconnectedness of the Earth, the night sky, and the space surrounding the Earth. Changes to the LEO environment are increasingly becoming visible in the night sky. Such changes not only affect professional astronomers, but also stand to radically alter humanity's view of the night sky from even the most remote places on the planet. In addition, a substantial increase in global diffuse sky brightness has the potential to impact the physiology and behavior of many species of wildlife, and it is unknown how species which utilize the stars or the Milky Way for navigation will be affected by the appearance of dozens or hundreds of visible satellites. Even the eventual reentry of satellites and other space hardware, as they burn up in Earth's atmosphere, can alter the chemical composition of the upper atmosphere, potentially causing unknown impacts to Earth's climate.

The astronomical community has sought solutions to reduce and mitigate impacts of satellite megaconstellations on their professional research. Some have led or participated in workshops and other initiatives focused on better understanding and minimizing these impacts. While many of the broader issues arising from the rapid deployment of satellite constellations are outside the professional concerns of the average astronomer, a growing number of astronomers believe that the astronomical community has an important role to play in safeguarding the night sky for the benefit of humanity and all life on Earth. In this presentation, I will delve more deeply into the perspectives and actions of such individuals, exploring their efforts to ensure that human activity in space can exist in harmony with, rather than harm, Earth and its inhabitants.

Name: Jack Hunter

Permaculture, Spirituality and Cosmology: Gardening in Harmony With Cosmic Principles

Abstract:

Permaculture is a design process for creating sustainable and regenerative garden systems with maximum yields by following the principles of ecology, and embodies a cosmology of interconnectedness and interdependence. It was developed in the 1970s by Australian ecologist Bill Mollison (1928-2016) and his student David Holmgren (Mollison & Holmgren, 1990). From very early on Bill Mollison stressed that permaculture was not a ‘spiritual movement’: “permaculture is not biodynamics, nor does it deal in fairies, devas, elves, after-life, apparitions or phenomena not verifiable by every person from their own experience, or making their own experiments. We permaculture teachers seek to empower any person by practical model-making and applied work, or data based on verifiable investigations” (Mollison, 1996, p. 623). At its core, then, permaculture is a scientific (broadly positivist and materialist), practical and hands-on approach to regenerating our badly damaged ecology.

Nevertheless, Permaculture is for many others something much more than 'just' a regenerative ecological design tool – it represents an holistic worldview based on the principles of ecology and systems thinking, that highlights the fundamental interconnectedness of all life on Earth. Permaculture gardens often become physical embodiments of this cosmological perspective, establishing mutually beneficial relationships between the human and non-human worlds, and aligning human behaviour with broader patterns in nature. Permaculture gardens often even partake of a sacred or spiritual character, incorporating features such as ‘mandala gardens,’ further blurring Mollison’s separation of spirituality from permaculture. David Holmgren has been much less critical of the possible role of spirituality in permaculture, asking “Can we really imagine a sustainable world without spiritual life in some form?” (Holmgren, 2006, p. 3).

The kind of spirituality present within permaculture might be understood in Bron Taylor’s terms as a form of ‘Dark Green Religion,’ characterised by: “a felt kinship with the rest of life […] accompanied by feelings of humility and a corresponding critique of human moral superiority, often inspired or reinforced by a science-based cosmology […] reinforced by a metaphysics of interconnection and the idea of interdependence […] found in the sciences, especially in ecology and physics” (Taylor, 2010, p. 13). Drawing on fieldwork observations and interviews with permaculture teachers and students on the Welsh borderlands, this paper explores the complexities of the scientific-ecological-spiritual-cosmological ideas that permaculture practice gives rise to.

Name: Krystyna Krajewska

The Way of Heaven: Chinese Cosmology and the Proper Order of Things

Abstract:
This paper is an exploration of the intertwined nature of human beings, Heaven, and Earth in early Daoist thought. The idea that health, wholeness and wellbeing is the result of a harmonious principle whereby there is a fitting place in the natural world for all of creation is common to both Western and Eastern philosophies. However, this paper suggests that counter to Confucian – and arguably, modern Western expectations – the harmonious order of the Way of Heaven as conceived by early Daoists might not conform to the morality, logic, and norms of society.

In Chinese thought human beings stand between Heaven and Earth. Critical to the Daoist perspective is an understanding of the role of human beings in the universe. By examining the Chinese character for Sky/the Heavens (tian 天) we hope to make the case that Daoists saw themselves as an integral part of a connected, emergent world whose flux and flow is created by cosmic forces.

This raises the question of where agency for harmonious action lies. Is harmony achieved by manipulating an objective world through ritual propriety and proper relational hierarchies between people as the Confucians argue, or is it to be found in the alignment of the intertwined matrix of one’s personal microcosm with the universal macrocosm? With examples from the ancient Daoist classics, The Daode Jing and The Zhuangzi, the paper argues that true harmony may be achieved by following the Way of Heaven, where spontaneity of action brings perfection not just to human life but to the whole cosmos itself.

Name: Géza Kulcsár

Oscillations: The History of Cosmological Consonance and Dissonance

Abstract:
From the very beginnings of cosmology, first arising as a mythical and initiatory discipline, the notion of harmony (sometimes implicitly, sometimes very explicitly) has been attached to all our theories and formalizations of the cosmos.

This talk aims at unfolding a history of creation (and of thinking about creation) through the lens of how the aim for harmony shaped science, philosophy and culture. At the same time, the talk fits in our series of investigations on how different cosmic stories can be told by starting from the same single principle: that of the original separation of the first ‘fiat’ - that of the ‘aoristos dyas’, the Platonic-Aristotelian principle of the essence of ratios and unfoldings, i.e., metaphysical music and the notion of cosmic spheres. Among the many conceptual streams flowing from them, the most important for us are those of oscillations, ratios and music.

There still seems to be an unbridgeable ontological gap between separation per se and and oscillation per se. But let us observe that oscillation, even if it occurs along a string of an instrument, presupposes the presence of a tension, which in turn presupposes separation. Indeed, on a mythological-religious plane (where this thinking originates), oscillation can be seen the essence of religio (lit. re-binding, almost the same meaning as in the Greek word for harmony), binding together the separated sides by a string.

Early modern physics displays a transitional phase between the Pythagorean and the 20th century understanding of oscillations, ratios, and with those, the spirit of music (in an age where aesthetics could also properly belong to the field of study of a physicist). Most notably, Kepler derives the musical theory of tonalities from the spheric concept of the cosmos.

The physical cosmology of our age claims that oscillations were the first movements to occur in matter, in the very first minutes of the universe. However, when we see (with Aristotle and the scientific worldview which arises in his work) oscillation not as something arising from the separation-’fiat’, but rather as something underlying and permeating the whole of creation (as in the ever-sounding Om of Hindu cosmology), harmony loses its meaning as an aim to be attained by spiritual work: or music becomes atonal, and our attachment to the world becomes disenchanted, even destructive. We have, luckily, still a few thinkers among us who see themselves as the heirs of Pythagoras, such as Michel Serres, who in his immense body of work always retells the same story: that music and nature both flow out of the same original separation, and that their oscillations reverberate in the cosmos as constant reminders, a call for reintegration. All we need is ears.

Name: Chris Mitchell

From Heavenly Harmony to Practical Politics

Abstract:

Christian, Jewish, and Muslim scholars in the medieval period shared the same view of the cosmos - a set of heavenly spheres through which divine influence flowed from Heaven to Earth. Despite the religious and political conflicts taking place at the time, this shared view meant that scholars worked together, shared views, and promoted the advancement of practical knowledge across Europe, and even helped open the door to modern science.

Name: Alina Pelteacu

The harmony of heaven and earth in Marsilio Ficino's work on health

Abstract:
The notion of the existence of a harmony between heaven and earth features remarkably in the writing of the Renaissance philosopher Marsilio Ficino (1433‒99): his life work was the synthesis of classical philosophy and Christian theology. That is to say that he aspired to bring together heaven and earth in the soul of the human being, which found its model in Platonism. And linked to the doctrine of the mind-soul is that of love, seen as the unifying and thaumaturgical principle of reality, as a cosmic connector. Ficino clearly expressed his adherence to Plato’s work and put the Symposium at the basis of the general philosophical education while relating the initiation towards what one loves to the advancement on a stair to heaven, and unfolding with widespread persistence that the expectation to climb the sky in health (both physically and spiritually) is given only to the wise.

Accordingly, at the centre of Ficino’s thinking was his therapeutic optimism in healing humankind. While he thought of himself both as a physician of the body, which for he was trained to be, and reborn as physician of the soul, inspired by Plato’s works, Ficino defined the human being as ‘a rational soul participating in the divine mind, employing a body’, and pointed to the idea that man is the ‘connecting link between God and the world,’ or the ‘centre of the universe’.

For Ficino, physical functions and psychological states were interdependent and the convivial scene ‒ the banquet ‒ is the place where both can reach maximum potential. Thus, in Ficino’s writings, a special place is dedicated to the complex world of food and what revolves around it. Ficino connected food’s essential vital factor with that pervading the entire macrocosm, which is one and the same with that connecting every individual with the sky. Thus, colours, sounds, metals, precious stones, herbs, potions are some of our allies to unite the physical (the earth) and spiritual world (the heaven).

This paper intends to illustrate the union of heaven and earth in Ficino’s work on health, approaching the notion of ‘spirit’, which he defined in medical terms, and as an element essential to all psychological life. In Ficinian thinking, spirit is the link between soul and the world, and also the food of the soul; through spirit, soul is nourished and thus continuously being created. Thanks to this adminicular which is present in various substances, and by the art of medicine, our body can become stronger and prepared to draw on the ‘quintessence’ (a celestial source of generation and growth) and so to attain good health and long life.

Name: Claudia J Rousseau

Celestial Harmony and Astrological Magic

Abstract:

My interest in the iconography of the astrological vault in the Sala dei Pontefici began during my research for my doctoral dissertation and was first presented there.1 Since then, two scholars, Mary Quinlan-McGrath and Giangiacomo Gandolfi, have put forward new research addressing the program, its arrangement and ultimately, its meaning in the context of art made for Pope Leo X in the Vatican Palace.2

The former claimed that the current ceiling underwent significant changes following the French occupation of the Vatican in 1798 directed by Pope Pius VII after 1800. These claims were based on an engraving by P. Montagnani that, if it were an authentic record of the pre-Napoleonic vault, would indicate that the position of parts of the fresco were different, and that it included figures in the center based on the so-called "Hours of Raphael." Responding to these claims, Gandolfi demonstrated clearly that Quinlan-McGrath's arguments were elegant, but incorrect. He cites an early copy confirming the current arrangement in the Palazzo Cesarini in Rome, and shows conclusively that the "Hours of Raphael" were a neo-classical forgery invented in the last years of the 18th C. Therefore, they could not possibly have been part of the original fresco in the "sala di papa", proving that the Montagnini print was a fiction, made to "update" the scheme by casting Raphael as the original neo-classicist.

Both of these scholars cite my previous interpretation. Quinlan-McGrath aimed to show that although she agreed that the program reflects Leo X's natal chart, the changes in the ceiling altered its astrological character. Gandolfi avoided any personal astrological interpretation and disregarded the nativity of Leo X as a primary source of its imagery.

In this presentation, I would like to discuss my understanding of the Pontefici vault. While some aspects of it have changed, I see the vault as reflecting the Pope's firm belief in his astrological destiny and in the power of astronomical images. Commissioned at a time when the Church was far from stable, it connotes celestial and terrestrial harmony and order. The original program, which would have included frescoes on the walls as well, would have presented an interplay of papal history and the celestial influences that accounted for Leo's accession--that is, the will of Divine Providence that was seen in his nativity by Marsilio Ficino at his birth. Further, there is evidence of a protective magical function for the vault decoration, including "angelic script" of the kind used in celestial magic. In emulation of Ficino, it is likely that fumigations, planetary music and other rituals were performed here in the hope of drawing benefic influence to the Pope and the Church at a critical historical moment.

1) "Cosimo I de' Medici and Astrology: The Symbolism of Prophecy," Columbia University, 1983 (unpublished).
2) Quinlan-McGrath, "The Sala dei Po

Name: Fabio Silva

Reckoning Time Between Heaven and Earth: converging conceptualisations of time in history and anthropology, and implications for archaeology

Abstract:

The origins, function and meaning of calendars have been explored separately by historians and anthropologists for well over a century. On the one hand, historians have largely focused on the calendars of early civilisations, especially their role in the religious, social and political domains (e.g. Stern 2012). On the other hand, anthropologists have noted alternative conceptualisations of time and have been trying to make sense of the time-reckoning strategies of traditional societies. In particular, two modes of time-reckoning – ecological/cyclical time and structural/linear – have been invariably proposed (e.g. Aveni 2002, Gell 1992). Any links between the distinct anthropological and historical understandings of time remain unexplored since the two fields have worked in isolation.

This paper aims to bridge this gap by looking at anthropological and historical data together, with relationality and the ontological turn in mind. It will be argued that the two modes of time-reckoning found in most societies result from the need to harmonise two apparently contradictory facts: the everlasting cyclicality of Heaven, and the finality of death on Earth. From this perspective, calendar must be understood as a third mode that both contains, and fundamentally disrupts, the other two. Finally, the implications of this model for the archaeological interpretation of time-reckoning devices and calendars in pre- and protohistory, including the role of structural alignments to celestial objects, will be discussed in some depth.

References:
Aveni, A (2002) Empires of Time: Calendars, Clocks and Cultures. Denver: University of Colorado Press.
Gell, A (1992) The Anthropology of Time. Oxford: Berg Publishers.
Stern, S (2012) Calendars in Antiquity: Empires, States & Societies. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Name: Anupam Kumar Suman

Harmony in Hinduism

Abstract:

This paper explores the concept of harmony in Hinduism. Harmony is generally defined as a reconciliation of opposites — a fitting together of desperate elements. Accordingly, the idea of harmony has been elaborated in many cultures in the matters related to mathematics, music, the human soul, and the cosmos which contains it all. Parallel theories of harmony are found in almost all the ancient world civilisations - Chinese ‘Tao’ is the mystical path of the union of male and female, Islamic ‘Haqq’ is the merciful decree of divine, Tibetan ‘Dharma’ is the law of righteousness and Greco-Roman ‘Logos’ is the universal form of reason. However, harmony as a form of order has been significantly important for Indo-European societies where it is represented by Greek harmonia, Sanskrit ṛtá, Avestan aša, and Persian arta, all of which descend from the same PIE root — *H2er (to become adjusted, to fit). If harmonia was an important cosmological and ethical concept for Greek philosophers, then, on the other hand, ṛtá is considered by many to be the quintessence of Hindu philosophy in understanding the abstract concept of order. The term ṛtá refers to three basic elements — activity, order and law; and through these elements the all-inclusive principle of cosmic and human order pervades all the aspects of life — the natural world, the human world, the social world and the moral world — in a traditional cosmo-centric society like India which believes that the universe is not amorphous and inconsistent but a harmonious ordered whole. Although the function of harmony generally exists in the ‘perfect’ things of all worlds, it particularly appears, as Ptolemy noted, in human souls and heavenly motions. The spiritual poets of Ṛgveda also recognise the presence of order in both the spaces — ‘heaven and earth exist in close unison in the womb of ṛtá’. In this way, similar to the Ptolemaic view, the principle of harmony in Hinduism governs and unifies both the outer cosmos (macrocosm) as well as the inner reality (microcosm). This all-encompassing but dichotomic realm of harmony in Hinduism required this essay to travel through four separate but interdependent components of Hindu philosophy. First, the macrocosmic order based on the concept of ṛtá where the universe is the expression of universal order; second, the microcosmic order developed on the idea of transcendental yogic practices which seek to achieve the status of divine harmony; third, the cosmological order originated from the theories and practices of Hindu astrology seeking to maintain the planetary balance; and finally, the spiritual order comprised of the three paths of divine attainment, namely jṇāna (knowledge), bhakti (devotion) and karma (action). While the first two — macrocosmic and microcosmic orders — are the main pillars of Hindu cosmology, the other two represent the human tools through which the cosmol