The initials of the three chords sigma, epsilon and alpha form the English word “SEA”, meaning “sea”. In this context, the sea is understood as an image of the cosmos: a continuous space of waves, relationships and vibrations.
In the symbolic system of Solaria, this image takes on a precise meaning. The sigma chord contains all the intervals within the octave except the tritone. For this reason, what lies within the sigma represents nature, or the non-self-conscious cosmos, while the tritone excluded from the sigma represents the human being as self-consciousness: the standpoint capable of distinguishing itself from the whole while still belonging to it.
This exclusion should be understood in relation to the sigma chord, not in relation to the chromatic total: the tritone is outside the field of nature represented by sigma, but belongs to the overall world as the place of consciousness.
In this perspective, the SEA system is not merely a classification of musical structures, but also a symbolic synthesis. Alpha, epsilon and sigma represent three different degrees of concentration of the sonic material; the tritone, precisely by being absent from within the sigma, assumes the value of a separate and observing consciousness.
For the general meaning of the tritone as a symbol of self-consciousness, otherness and relationship, see the entry Tritone.