In the Theory of Celestial Influence Rodney Collin shows the relationship between the movement of the planets and the musical scale. He takes as a basis of this relationship the conjunction between the earth, the planet, the sun and the zodiac. Collin refers to this as a planet's major conjunction. Here is a description of this cycle as it pertains to Venus. From ESO European Organisation for Astronomical Research in the Southern Hemisphere, http://www.vt-2004.org/Education/edu1app5.html
This is the diagram on the zodiac that Venus makes in eight years. After that period, Venus, the Sun, the Earth and the stars are again in the same relative positions. It means that Venus, seen from the Earth, is in the same position with respect not only to the Sun, but also to the stars. This happens because five periods of Venus take eight years (When we round Venus' synodic period to a whole number 584, we can calculate that 584x5=2920 days, 2920/365 = 8 years). Take a particular point in a synodic revolution of Venus, for instance the greatest elongation east which places it in one zodiacal constellation. After an interval of 584 days (or nearly 19 months) later, greatest elongation east will take place again, this time almost seven constellations away. These events repeat every nineteen months and the result is that in eight years the eastern elongation point will return close to the point where it started - only about two degrees less - making a pentagram on the zodiac .
So here is the cycle in years for each of the classical planets:
Mercury 8
Venus 8
Mars 15
Asteroids 9
Jupiter 12
Saturn 30
According to Collin, "If these various rhythms be superimposed, we find a very interesting series of harmonic intervals developing in time, each stage of which is marked by the major conjunction of one or more of planets." Hence
Years Major Conjunctions
24 Jupiter X 2, Venus & Mercury X 3
27 Asteroids X 3
30 Mars X 2, Saturn X 1
32 Venus & Mercury X 4
36 Jupiter X 3, Asteroids X 4
40 Venus & Mercury X 5
45 Mars X 3, Asteroids X 5
48 Jupiter X 4, Venus & Mercury X 6
"...the series 24, 27, 30, 32, 36, 40, 45, 48, is familiar to us. These figures, taken as vibrations, represent the relative values of the notes of a major musical scale. And we are reminded of old stories that this same musical scale, ascribed by legend to the Pythagoreans, was invented by a special school of astronomers and physicists, to echo the music of the spheres. It is now clear that this is no legend, but actual fact. The octave or musical scale is a notation, adapted to man's hearing, of this harmony of the planetary cycles, which in turn is an echo of a great law which controls the development of all processes in the universe."
Collin further goes on to state, "Between human time and solar time lie 36 octaves; exactly the same interval separates the vibrations of human music from the vibrations of planetary motions. In literal fact the motions of the planets make music for the Sun." I think he derives his 36 octaves from Gurdjieff's teaching that time is breath (see In Search of the Miraculous by P. D. Ouspensky)
According to Collin the importance of this major conjunction is that it is the cycle of each planet's influence on the earth. A planet's influence the earth and man is greatly affected by that planets relation to the Sun and the stars as seen from earth.
