The Number Seven

Dear Reader,

The esoteric writer John Michell stated: “The division of numbers into the odd and the even reflected the division of the universe into positively and negatively charged elements.”

Michell further wrote: “Plato’s evident intention was to identify number as the archetype of creation and to draw attention to those particular numbers that constitute its core and that, in various combinations, generate the entire field of number.”

There are plenty of people who scoff at numerology, but since numbers played a significant part in the work of Plato and then, significantly, Pythagoras's work, perhaps it's not such a daft subject after all! Pythagoras was, after all, a magnificent spiritual teacher, not just the author of a geometrical theorem, which wasn't his anyway!

There are supposed to be certain very important numbers, and the number seven is one of the chief figures. The Pythagoreans, in fact, invested particular numbers with unique spiritual properties. The number seven was considered to be particularly interesting because it consisted of the union of the physical (number 4) with the spiritual (number 3). In Pythagorean numerology the number 7 meant spirituality.

In fact, when we examine the occurrences of 'seven', a fairly important list of facts materialises:

• seven oceans and seven continents; 
• seven vertebrae in the neck;
• seven days of the week;
• seven unique major notes in the musical scale;
• seven different basic crystal structures, or “classes,” in mineralogy;
• seven colours in the rainbow – the seventh colour being violet (spiritually important);
• the human body contains seven centres or “chakras” of spiritual energy.

These are instances of the occurrence of seven in provable cases, but adepts (or masters) aver that there are hidden spiritual dimensions where seven is meaningful but which are not so provable unless we strive to follow the spiritual path.

This website refers to a quotation taken from an old German newspaper that provides, perhaps, a further insight:

The number seven was considered sacred not only by all the cultured nations of antiquity and the East, but was held in the greatest reverence even by the later nations of the West. The astronomical origin of this number is established beyond any doubt. Man, feeling himself time out of mind dependent upon the heavenly powers, ever and everywhere made earth subject to heaven. The largest and brightest of the luminaries thus became in his sight the most important and highest of powers; such were the planets which the whole antiquity numbered as seven. In course of time these were transformed into seven deities. The Egyptians had seven original and higher gods; the Phœnicians seven kabiris; the Persians, seven sacred horses of Mithra; the Parsees, seven angels opposed by seven demons, and seven celestial abodes paralleled by seven lower regions. To represent the more clearly this idea in its concrete form, the seven gods were often represented as one seven-headed deity. The whole heaven was subjected to the seven planets; hence, in nearly all the religious systems we find seven heavens.

During the holy pilgrimage of Hajj, Muslims walk counterclockwise seven times around the Kaaba, the most sacred site in Islam, to represent rising from the lowest step of the soul, which has seven steps, to the highest one. The essence of the number seven is to journey inward, not stopping to rest until the journey is complete.

In the Old Testament of the Bible, mention is made of the 'Elohim', seven of whom (it is said, as instruments of the One God) have built this entire universe upon the harmonious and balanced blending of the seven spiritual rays or energies. These rays or energies are filtered to levels that the Earth and humanity can safely handle through another hierarchy of spiritual beings. And from here there is the linkage to the seven 'chakras' of the human body that can be consciously activated.

Humanity, in general, is mostly in bondage to fear and doubt, and all the selfish human desires that these two enemies of spiritual consciousness spawn. So, many have allowed themselves to imbibe intellectual pride, self-pity, self-justification, arrogance, greed, anger, hatred, revenge, and many other self-destructive habits. It is only as we make some effort to purify ourselves from these limiting human attachments that we can begin to awaken into becoming a blissful outpouring of the love, wisdom, and power of the Almighty - His 'light'.

The Qur'an contains a 'Verse of Light', in which it mystically states:

The lamp is within glass, the glass as if it were a pearly [white] star,
Lit from [the oil of] a blessed olive tree,
Neither of the east nor of the west,
Whose oil would almost glow even if untouched by fire.
Light upon light.

But Jesus was less mystical perhaps (Matthew 5:16):

You are like light in the world;

Your light must shine before people

so they will see your good things you do

and give praise to your Father in heaven.

In fact, if we (as people of conscience) were to become conscious of the damage incurred by our intellectual pride, self-pity, self-justification, arrogance, greed, anger, hatred and revenge, then we would surely turn to the spiritual path towards the light as a matter of course. Many - more than we perhaps think - do that, or try to. A spiritual form of philosophy - or 'love of truth' - is gradually gaining credibility, a philosophy that spans the teachings of all the great Masters and Prophets, whether Zoroaster, the Buddha, Lao Tsu, Jesus or Muhammed (and others too numerous to list). 

There is a 'Perennial (or Eternal) Philosophy' that is at the core of all the great teachings.

However, it is of course true that if we live our lives simply based on the love of creation (human or otherwise) then that in itself is spirituality at work. One's next Earthly visit may provide the opportunity to develop that orientation.

Certain sources explain that mankind has been through six great evolutionary stages and also mighty civilisations, including the fabled Atlantis. Five of these, at some point, reached transcendent heights both spiritually and materially as a result of a sufficient portion of the population staying in tune with their own inner Divine Source. And each of these civilisations eventually fell from these heights as a result of their people wandering away from spiritual principles, values and practices. Gradually they became entrenched in selfish human actions and activities. 

Eventually, these civilisations either destroyed themselves through warfare, or they were destroyed by cataclysmic action by the breaking up and sinking of the very continents upon which they stood. Most of these former civilisations were so completely destroyed that with the passing of time most traces of them have been erased from the earth’s surface. Without accepted physical evidence, belief in their existence is virtually zero in the rational, scientific, community.

The sixth civilisation - the current one - is coming to a close via a different route.

Humanity (it is said) is now coming into a seventh and victorious civilisation on this planet. It is said that this planet is entering into a Golden Age and that there will be a “new heaven and a new earth,” (Revelations 21:1 NIV).

Finally, from Dr. Keith Critchlow:

The notes in an octave are in powers of seven. The atomic world works in octaves of atoms. The atomic world is the power of all physicality. The word atom comes from the Greek a tom, a word for uncuttable, which means not that matter couldn't be cut but that it shouldn't be. Once cut, it releases forces. Nobody knew when they exploded the atom whether it wouldn't set off a chain reaction going round the world.

Thank you for reading this.

(Article inspired by this website)

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