The Perfect Fourth: Yielding

yielding, receiving, surrender, tolerance, inclusiveness, submittal Ratio: 4:3

Arising from the Perfect Fifth, the next harmonic in the Series creates another octave of the fundamental, this one at four times the fundamental’s frequency. The interval between the Perfect Fifth and that of this new octave is a Perfect Fourth.

The Perfect Fourth receives the Perfect Fifth; through it, the Fifth arises yet also returns to the Octave, to the source. The Perfect Fourth is the Divine Mother, the musical embodiment of the Receiving Force; through Her all things arise, and to Her all things return. In a casting, the Perfect Fourth indicates a purposeful yielding, a taking in, an embrace. It can also indicate a fearful or unconscious submission if it arises or plays out unconsciously.

It is of particular significance that the Perfect Fourth and the Perfect Fifth are inversions of one another. The two dyads are quite close in ratio and, for all of their differences, sound strikingly similar; within either, the presence of the other can always be heard. In the Fourth/Fifth conundrum, as in life, Yang is always on its way to Yin, and vice versa, and defining something as either/or is always a matter of perspective and context.