The Name of God is the Song of Creation

Creation

In Barddas, we read the following account of the Creation of the Universe, which is also an account of the creation of letters, and of music:

God, when there was in life and existence only Himself, proclaimed His Name, and co-instantaneously with the word all living and existing things burst wholly into a shout of joy; and that voice was the most melodious that ever was heard in music.
 

Parmenides

In the school of Iamblichus, one's education in the philosophy of Plato was crowned with two dialogues, the Timaeus and Parmenides. Timaeus, it was said, is concerned with physics, Parmenides with metaphysics. The bulk of Timaeus is occupied with a mythical account of the creation of the Universe by God-- what the eponymous character, a Pythagorean named Timaeus, calls "the likely story." The bulk of Parmenides, meanwhile, is occupied with a discussion of the nature of the One, or the First Principle of existence, by its own eponymous character, the Eleatic philosopher Parmenides.

The discourse of Parmenides on the One consists of eight hypotheses, each of which considers the implications either for the One or the Many (that is, the others, everything besides the First Principle) if the one either exists or does not exist. Here are the first three:

Hypothesis 1: If One. Yes, that sentence lacks a verb. The first hypothesis considers the One on its own. If anything at all can be said of the One, including its existence or nonexistence, then the One is no longer the One. This is because anything we might say about it adds something to it. Even if we say "The One exists," then we already have two terms: "The One" and "exists." Or, "Oneness and "Existence," or "One" and "Being." The One of the First Hypothesis is simply One. Thus we see that the First Principle is above even existence. That is why it is simply called "The One," and even to say this is to say immeasurably too much.

Hypothesis 2: If the One is. The moment the One exists, we have two terms, which we can call The One and Existence or Being. But we will see that if we look at each of these, they also contain two terms: The One which is has both oneness and being; the being of the One which is has both being and oneness; the oneness of the being of the One that is has both being and oneness; and so on, unto infinity. Thus the very moment the One comes into being, infinity also comes into being, and every possibility down to the last of things. To say it another way:

Hypothesis 3: Consequences for the Many if the One is. If the One is, then the Many will become One, both entirely and individually. That is: lacking oneness, the many have in no way any identity, because to be anything is to be one thing, and, in the absence of the One, there is no One Thing. If the One exists, however, each of the many is itself one, and also the Many as a whole are One, or One Whole.

Return to Barddas

The account of Creation in Barddas is given as a sentence, "God, when there was life and existence only in Himself, proclaimed His Name, and co-instantaneously with the word all living and existing things burst wholly into a shout of joy; and that voice was the most melodious that ever was heard in music." But this is actually an ordered series, in which the whole of theology is contained.

God : The One

When there was life and existence only in Himself : The One Being

Proclaimed his Name: For something to be named, it must be differentiated in some way from other things.

And co-instantaneously with the word all living and existing things burst wholly into a shout of joy : The moment the One Being exists, the Many exist as well, and each, containing all that is God within themselves, burst entirely into a shout of joy

And that voice was the most melodious that ever was heard in music : Music is harmony, and the "most melodious" is the "most harmonious." This is the ordered Whole which is brought forth into being by the creative power of the One.