Theosophy and the Number
Seven
A selection of articles
relating to the esoteric
significance
of the Number 7 in Theosophy
"The Number Seven"
by
A DEEP significance was attached to numbers in hoary antiquity.
There was not a people with anything like philosophy, but gave great prominence
to numbers in
their application
to religious observances, the establishment of festival days,
symbols, dogmas,
and even the geographical distribution of empires. The
mysterious numerical
system of Pythagoras was nothing novel when it appeared far earlier than 600
years B.C. The occult meaning of figures and their combinations entered into
the meditations of the sages of every people; and the day is not far off when,
compelled by the eternal cyclic rotation of events, our now sceptical
unbelieving West will have to admit that in that regular periodicity
of ever
recurring events there is something more than a mere blind chance.
Already our Western savants begin to notice it. Of late, they
have pricked up
their ears and
begun speculating upon cycles, numbers and all that which, but a
few years
ago, they had relegated to oblivion in the old closets of memory,
never to be
unlocked but for the purpose of grinning at the uncouth and idiotic
superstitions of our
unscientific fore-fathers.
As one of such novelties, the old, and matter-of-fact German
journal Die
Gegenwart has a
serious and learned article upon "the significance of the number
seven"
introduced to the readers as a "Culture-historical Essay." After
quoting
from it a few
extracts, we will have something to add to it perhaps. The author
says:
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.
The beliefs in the sapta loka of the Brahminical religion
has remained faithful
to the
archaic philosophy; and--who knows--but the idea itself was originated in
Aryavarta, this
cradle of all philosophies and mother of all subsequent
religions! If the
Egyptian dogma of the metempsychosis or the transmigration of
soul taught
that there were seven states of purification and progressive
perfection, it is
also true that the Buddhists took from the Aryans of India,
not from
disembodied soul,
allegorized by the seven stories and umbrellas, gradually
diminishing towards
the top on their pagodas.
In the mysterious worship of Mithra
there were "seven gates," seven altars,
seven
mysteries. The priests of many Oriental nations were sub-divided into
seven degrees;
seven steps led to the altars and in the temples burnt candles in
seven-branched
candlesticks. Several of the Masonic Lodges have, to this day,
seven and
fourteen steps.
The seven planetary spheres served as a model for state
divisions and
organizations.
satrapies.
According to the Arabian legend seven angels cool the sun with ice
and snow,
lest it should burn the earth to cinders; and seven thousand angels
wind up and
set the sun in motion every morning. The two oldest rivers of the
East--the
antiquity seven
principal rivers (the
the Yaksart, the Arax and the
of gold;
seven marvels of the world, &c. Equally did the number seven play a
prominent part in
the architecture of temples and palaces. The famous pagoda of
Churingham is
surrounded by seven square walls, painted in seven different
colours, and in
the middle of each wall is a seven storied pyramid; just as in
the
antediluvian days the
stages,
symbolical of the seven concentric cycles of the seven spheres, each
built of tiles
and metals to correspond with the colour of the ruling planet of
the sphere
typified.
These are all "remnants of paganism" we are
told--traces "of the superstitions
of old,
which, like the owls and bats in a dark subterranean, flew away to
return no more
before the glorious light of Christianity"--a statement but too
easy of
refutation. If the author of the article in question has collected
hundreds of
instances to show that not only the Christians of old but even the
modern
Christians have preserved the number seven, and as sacredly as it ever
was before,
there might be found in reality thousands. To begin with the
astronomical and
religious calculation of old of the pagan Romans, who divided
the week into
seven days, and held the seventh day as the most sacred, the Sol
or Sunday of
Jupiter, and to which all the Christian nations especially the
Protestants--make puja to this day.
If, perchance, we are answered that it is
not from the
pagan Romans but from the monotheistic Jews that we have it, then
why is not
the Saturday or the real "Sabbath" kept instead of the Sunday, or
Sol's day?
If in the "Rámáyana" seven
yards are mentioned in the residences of the Indian
kings; and
seven gates generally led to the famous temples and cities of old,
then why
should the Frieslanders have in the tenth century of
the Christian era
strictly adhered
to the number seven in dividing their provinces, and insisted
upon paying
seven "pfennigs" of contribution? The Holy
Roman and Christian
Empire has seven Kurfursts or
Electors. The Hungarians emigrated under the
leadership of seven
dukes and founded seven towns, now called Semigradyá
(now
With the Mussulmans "it was
besieged seven times and taken after seven weeks by the seventh of the Osman Sultans." In the ideas of the Eastern peoples,
the
seven planetary spheres are represented by the seven rings worn
by the women on seven parts of the body--the head, the neck, the hands, the
feet, in the ears,
in the nose,
around the waist--and these seven rings or circles are presented to
this time by
the Eastern suitors to their brides; the beauty of the woman
consisting in the
Persian songs of seven charms.
The seven planets ever remaining at an equal distance from each
other, and
rotating in the
same path, hence, the idea suggested by this motion, of the
eternal harmony
of the universe. In this connection the number seven became
especially sacred
with them, and ever preserved its importance with the
astrologers. The
Pythagoreans considered the figure seven as the image and model of the divine
order and harmony in nature. It was the number containing twice the sacred
number three or the "triad," to which the "one" or the
divine monad was added: 3 + 1 + 3. As the harmony of nature sounds on the
key-board of space, between the seven planets, so the harmony of audible sound
takes place on a smaller plan within the musical scale of the ever-recurring
seven tones. Hence, seven pipes in the syrinx of the
god Pan (or Nature), their gradually diminishing proportion of shape
representing the distance between the planets and between the latter and the
earth--and, the seven-stringed lyre of Apollo.
Consisting of a union between the number three (the symbol of
the divine triad
with all and
every people, Christians as well as pagans) and of four (the symbol
of the
cosmic forces or elements), the number seven points out symbolically to
the union of
the Deity with the universe; this Pythagorean idea was applied by
the
Christians--(especially during the Middle Ages)--who largely used the number
seven in the symbolism of their sacred architecture. So, for instance, the
famous Cathedral
of Cologne and the
No less an importance has this mystical number in the world of
intellect and
philosophy.
(grammar, rhetoric, dialectics,
arithmetic, geometry, music, astronomy). The
Mahometan Sheikh-ul-Islam calls in for every important meeting seven "ulems." In the Middle Ages an
oath had to be taken before seven witnesses, and the one, to whom it was
administered, was sprinkled seven times with blood. The processions around the
temples went seven times, and the devotees had to kneel seven times before
uttering a vow. The Mahometan pilgrims turn round Kaaba seven times, at their arrival. The sacred vessels
were made of gold and silver purified seven times.
The localities of the old German tribunals were designated by
seven
trees, under
which were placed seven "Schoffers"
(judges) who required seven
witnesses. The
criminal was threatened with a seven-fold punishment and a
seven-fold
purification was required as a seven-fold reward was promised to the
virtuous. Every
one knows the great importance placed in the West on the seventh son of a
seventh son. All the mythic personages are generally endowed with seven sons.
In
To attempt to cite all the things included in this mystical
number would require
a library.
We will close by quoting but a few more from the region of the
demoniacal.
According to authorities in those matters--the Christian clergy of
old--a
contract with the devil had to contain seven paragraphs, was concluded
for seven
years and signed by the contractor seven times; all the magical drinks
prepared with the
help of the enemy of man consisted of seven herbs; that
lottery ticket
wins, which is drawn out by a seven-year old child. Legendary
wars lasted
seven years, seven months and seven days; and the combatant heroes
number seven,
seventy, seven hundred, seven thousand and seventy thousand. The
princesses in the
fairy tales remained seven years under a spell, and the boots
of the
famous cat--the Marquis de Carabas--were seven
leagued. The ancients
divided the human
frame into seven parts; the head, the chest, the stomach, two
hands and two
feet; and man's life was divided into seven periods. A baby begins
teething in the
seventh month; a child begins to sit after fourteen months (2 X
7); begins to walk after twenty-one months (3 X 7); to speak
after twenty-eight
months (4 X 7);
leaves off sucking after thirty-five months (5 X 7); at fourteen
years (2 X 7)
he begins to finally form himself; at twenty-one (3 X 7) he ceases
growing. The
average height of a man, before mankind degenerated, was seven
feet; hence
the old Western laws ordering the garden walls to be seven feet
high. The
education of the boys began with the Spartans and the old Persians at
the age of
seven. And in the Christian religions--with the Roman Catholics and
the
Greeks--the child is not held responsible for any crime till he is seven,
and it is the
proper age for him to go to confession.
If the Hindus will think of their Manu and recall what the old Shastras contain,
beyond doubt
they will find the origin of all this symbolism. Nowhere did the
number seven
play so prominent a part as with the old Aryas in
but to think
of the seven sages--the Sapta Rishis;
the Sapta Loka--the seven
worlds; the Sapta Pura--the seven holy
cities; the Sapta Dvipa--the
seven holy
islands; the Sapta Samudra--the seven holy
seas; the Sapta Parvatta--the
seven
holy
mountains; the Sapta Arania--the
seven deserts; the Sapta Vriksha--the
seven sacred
trees; and so on, to see the probability of the hypothesis. The
Aryas never
borrowed anything, nor did the Brahmans, who were too proud and
exclusive for that.
Whence, then, the mystery and sacredness of the number
seven?
From The Theosophist, June, 1880
Theosophical Society, Cardiff Lodge,
Cardiff Lodge’s Instant Guide to Theosophy
Cardiff Lodge’s Gallery of Great Theosophists