The Black Tapes · Pacific Northwest Stories

The Musica Mundana

January 12, 2020·35 min·2 clips

When Hippasus discovered that the square root of two is an irrational number — cracking Pythagoras' belief that the universe is composed entirely of whole-number ratios — Pythagoras had him thrown off a boat.

1. The Black Tapes Season 3 continues the serialized investigation by journalist Alex Regan into Dr. Richard Strand and the paranormal black tapes collected by the Strand Institute. 2. The episode is produced and mixed by Nick Silver, executive produced by Paul Bae and Terry Miles, and recorded in Seattle and Vancouver. 3. The episode's central arc advances the connection between three investigative threads: the cult of Tiamat and Howard Strand, the Pythagorean cult, and the content of the Black Tapes themselves. 4. Thomas Warren, of Deva Corporation, confirmed in a non-recorded meeting that Howard Strand had been working for a Deva subsidiary to secure an artifact called the Horn of Tiamat, which Strand was believed to have uncovered during a dig in Hilla, Iraq. 5. Simon Rees left a voicemail from Istanbul urging Alex and Richard to come to Turkey, warning that 'the world behind the world is coming' and that coming to Istanbul is necessary to see things clearly. 6. Alex interviews Professor Danielle O'Meara of Caltech, a specialist in the history of ancient Greek mathematics and author of The Thinkers, to explore a potential link between Pythagoras and the supernatural elements in the investigation. 7. O'Meara explains that Pythagoras formulated mathematical ratios based on string lengths and musical notes, then extrapolated these to a cosmological model: seven planets each orbiting Earth at distances that produced unique musical notes, combining to form the musica mundana — the music of the spheres. 8. O'Meara notes the musica mundana is inaudible to humans, but that Pythagorean ceremonies involved 'a summoning of sorts' with spirits to open up these mysteries, though the details are lost due to a scarcity of Pythagorean writings. 9. Pythagoras' school, the Semi-Circle, was divided into two groups: the mathematicoi, who meditated on the meanings of numbers and ratios under Pythagoras himself, and the acousmatics — meaning 'hearers' — an outer circle who solved riddles but were not permitted to look at Pythagoras. 10. Nick's research uncovers that a Deva Corporation numbered subsidiary has been continuously paying Howard Strand since the mid-to-late 1970s, and also paying Shannon Scarletti — and that the payments to both continue, even though Howard Strand is dead. 11. Alex walks to a former factory converted to live-work lofts in Seattle to find Shannon Scarletti, a painter with two dogs named Yin and Yang, who describes herself as Howard Strand's former 'watcher' — hired to watch, care for, and protect him. 12. Scarletti reads Alex's tea leaves, begins describing many voices, faces, and shadows, then suddenly turns white and ushers Alex out, claiming illness; Alex returns two subsequent days but receives no answer. 13. An email from listener Jonathan Talanga, author of Oracle of the Gods, draws a connection between Pythagoras, his student Hippasus, and a mathematical discovery that led to murder. 14. Talanga explains that Hippasus discovered the hypotenuse of a unit square requires the square root of two — an irrational number that cannot be expressed as a ratio of whole numbers — thereby cracking Pythagoras' foundational belief that the universe is governed by perfect whole-number ratios. 15. Because Pythagoras saw his mathematical system as a means to 'read the mind of God,' the discovery was existentially threatening; Hippasus was thrown off a boat at sea for telling people about it. 16. After Cylon led the revolt against Pythagoras and took over the Semi-Circle school, he reoriented it around the belief that the universe's musica mundana was not perfect but imperfect — composed of irrational ratios — naming the key to unlocking it 'acrismatica,' or the Unsound. 17. Talanga directs Alex to page 83 of his book, which shows Cylon's new school symbol: a circle containing one solid line above two broken lines — which Alex immediately recognizes as the upside-down face symbol seen in the Black Tapes and associated with the Order of the Cenefis. 18. The episode advances multiple mysteries without resolving any: Warren's confirmation of the Horn of Tiamat, Scarletti's terrified reaction, and the Cylon-Cenefis symbol link all remain open threads. 19. The episode blends documentary-style journalism performance with supernatural fiction, using interviews, voicemails, and on-location visits as narrative devices. 20. Best suited for serialized fiction fans who enjoy slow-build paranormal mysteries; requires prior episode knowledge to follow the main character relationships and symbol significance.

As heard by us

Pythagorean theory, Devacorp records, and a familiar symbol tighten The Black Tapes' central mystery.

Musica mundana gives The Black Tapes a strong bridge between cosmic theory and the show's practical investigation. Alex walks Nick through what she has learned about Pythagoras, then follows that line toward the Unsound, the Order of the Cenefis, and the possibility of traveling…

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Why you'd press play

You can trace the hum from Pythagoras and the music of the spheres into Devacorp paperwork, then end on a symbol that looks like an upside-down face.

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