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Seven is the number possessing the deepest and most far reaching symbology of the entire fundamental series running from I to 10. It represents rest, completion. After the work of the 6 Creative Days, there follows the divine consummation of the whole in the seventh, the Sabbath or the Holy Day.
Seven is the number of spiritual realization and consummation. Each of the 7 Creative Days is attuned to the vibratory rate of a specific number. Could we observe in the Memory of Nature, the impress of these Seven Days, we would see that the rhythmic motion, the color, and the formation of each object and being in the processes of creation harmonized with the keynote of the Creative Day to which they belong. The keynote of each of the Creative Days is that of the planetary body to which it is attuned and by which it is ruled. It was in the light of this knowledge that Pythagoras declared that all the world is made by number.
The Seventh Day "rest" does not refer to a cessation of activity but to the emergence from Chaos into a higher and a more perfect Order. Herein, therefore, lies the true work of the 7. This number does not enter into the turmoil of experience in its inception but becomes operative when the time is ripe to establish new conditions and to supersede the old by a new and higher series. This is its function under every circumstance and condition, and it applies not only to personal relationships but equally to its activity in national and international affairs.
The powers of 7 will decide on what plane an individual's activities are centered. For numbers, like the zodiacal signs, possess degrees of vibration, each ego responding to that degree which accords with his evolutionary status.
Seven at his highest is the victor, the conqueror, the invincible and spiritual master. The seventh sephira on the kabbalistic Tree of Life is "Netzach", meaning victory, and the Tarot symbol for 7 is that of a king seated in a chariot and driving two sphinxes, one white, the other black. On his head the king wears a crown composed of three golden pentagrams, the latter being a symbol of man. Here we have a representation of the highest phase of 7 — body purified, mind illumined, and spirit glorified. The victor indeed, "resting" from his sevenfold labors and ready to extend his accumulated and strengthened forces in this "seven day" experience into new and wider fields of progress and endeavor. 'Septos', the Greek for 7, means holy, divine, motherless; it is the emanation of that supreme power which descends from on high. Minerva, springing full-armed from the head of Jove, is representative of the powers of 7.
Plato, in Timaeus, declares that the soul of the world was generated from 7. Other ancient sages described nature as a golden egg surrounded by 7 natural elements, 4 visible, and 3 invisible. The 4 visible elements were designated as air, water, fire, and earth.
All the principal religions and schools of spiritual development embody in their teachings and symbology the fundamental principle of the number 7. The values of 7 are divided into the trinity of spirit and the quaternary of form. In spiritual science it is also taught quite universally that a sacred triad precedes the manifested 7, the 7 and 3 together constituting the perfect number 10.
Three, four, and seven, all bear a close relationship to each other; they are all powerful numbers of life, light, and union. The Trine typifies the spiritual and the Square the human. The union of the trine and the square signifies the interpenetration of the human and the divine. To realize such a union is the purpose of physical evolution. The process is embraced within the work of the seven creative days.
The sum of the first seven digits — 1,2,3,4,5,6,7, — equals 28. This number reduces to 10, the number of unity. The purpose of the cycles of earth lives is experience, and 7 marks the point in evolution when the gathered experience is synthesized and the resultant powers assembled for use as soul force. It was in keeping with this significance of the number that the way to the Ancient Mystery Temples was marked by 7 steps, symbolic of 7 degrees. At the end of the "septenary discipline", the 4 has been transformed into the perfect square, the Tetragrammaton, and raised to a point of union with the trine of spirit. This is the force that is working through any sevenfold path in the number scope.
To the early Christians, 7 was representative of the gifts of the spirit, and in that sublime vision of John upon the mystic Isle of Patmos which is depicted in the Book of Revelation, 7 is its most important and emphatically accentuated number. John's Apocalypse consists of 7 visions, and the instrumentalities by which these visions were produced are likewise composed of 7 beings or objects. There are 7 retributive angels and 7 vials of wrath. Seven thunders utter their voices, and 7 angels open the 7 seals which release upon the earth the long accumulated karmic consequences of its past actions. Seven trumpets are sounded, and the scarlet woman of abomination rests upon the 7 hills.
The Book of Revelation recounts the ultimate triumph of good over evil, and the complete subjugation of the lower or negative forces by the positive or higher. Since this is the essential significance of 7, it becomes Saint John's chief numerical vehicle for conveying to man the truths beheld in his sevenfold vision as these are presented in the Mystery Book which concludes the Christian Bible.
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The Secret Doctrine tells us that man is the septenary on the terrestrial plane of the One Great Unit (the Logos) which is itself the Seven-Vowelled sign, the Breath crystallized into the Word.
Seven may be considered the underlying keynote of nature because it governs the periodicity of all natural phenomena. There are 7 musical tones comprising the diatonic scale, 7 color rays constitute the visible spectrum, and 7 dominates the series of chemical elements. In cycles of a sevenfold rhythm is the human structure brought to completion. The first cycle of 7 deals with the physical building processes; the second cycle from 7 to 14 is marked by the development of feelings and emotions, the third cycle from 14 to 21 focuses the spiritual energy on the development of self will when the light of the spirit begins to dawn in the maturing consciousness. The period from 21 to 28 marks a most crucial period in that it brings a sort of recapitulation of the cycles preceding and also introduces the liquidation of causes generated in past lives. For this reason 28 is designated as the year marking the beginning of serious life. Thirty-three marks the synthesizing of the old and the beginning of the new. Thirty-five sees the fruition of the new, and 49, or 7 times 7, marks the climax of mental attainment.
The Bible account of the 7 lean years and the 7 full years represents a specific formula in relation to the operation of spiritual law. This cyclic periodicity of 7 in the inner realms is reflected in a corresponding interval in the motion, harmony, and rhythm of all being in manifestation.
All evolution, both secular and divine, moves in cycles of 7. This was the predominant number in the religions of both Babylon and Egypt. No ancient sage could boast of fame or fortune unless he bore some intimate connection with the number 7. It is the numerical power which is expressed by Jehovah. "Thou art the Seventh Light", chanted the priests in worship, and to which they added the affirmation that "we are the six lights which shine forth from the Seventh".
The mystery of 7 is concealed within that magical four-lettered Name of God with its threefold meaning, Yod-HeVau-He, or the Tetragrammaton. It is the "I am that I am" which became the prime motive power in the life and works of the great emancipator, Moses. The I AM is the eternal and ever-existent principle of truth. Only as a man awakens this I AM consciousness within himself, is he able to contact truth in all things about him.
The 7 is introspective and intuitive; it is attracted to the unseen and mystic side of life and being. This is because the number is founded upon and centered in the very mystery of life and being. It embraces the "Four that are seen and the Three that are secret".
The name Je-ho-vah is composed of 7 letters and represents the foundation of the Christian religion. The letters J H V are symbols of the Trinity. The second H in the name represents the feminine, the love, or the Holy Ghost principle. It is the development of this principle that will constitute man's special spiritual work in he New Age now dawning. The 3 will then become 4.
I AM is a 7 power word. A, or Aleph in Hebrew, is a masculine and a fire letter. M, or Mem, is a feminine and water letter. 1, or Yod, is the ego, or the threefold spirit bound to the cross of matter, which is 4, and remains so until it discovers the way of freedom from bondage through its own inner illumination. Seven therefore, is the number of completion, of attainment, of rest — that complete rest which comes only after regeneration has been accomplished and the spirit emancipated from all that limits and binds. The state of illumination will then have been attained.
That the formative and creative processes of nature operate in the rhythm of 7 is substantiated in minerology. When the molecules of salt in solution begin to solidify, their first appearance is triangular or pyramidal and their second manifestation is that of a square or cube. That the evolution of the present Fifth Root Race is attuned to the septenary keynote is instanced in the Noachic legend as recorded in the seventh chapter of Genesis: "Of every clean beast thou shalt take by seven . . . Of the fowls of the air by sevens. . . . For yet seven days, and I will cause it to rain upon the earth . . ."
Jehovah represents the threefold invisible spiritual essence by and through which all created things come into visible manifestation. Noah and his three sons, Shem, Japeth, and Ham, symbolize the fourfold or visible formations on the outer physical plane, and which are direct emanations from the hidden powers of the three-fold Godhead. Thus again we note the 4 proceeding from the 3 and producing the 7. In the story of the Flood we read that when the waters receded, the ark rested on Mount Ararat. Note here the geometrical and the numerical patterns and their symbolical significance. The ark is represented by a square, the mount by a triangle.
The name 'Ararat' digits 4; the word 'ark', 3. In both instances Spirit (3) is represented as conjoined to matter (4). It is a symbol of Spirit entering into matter and thereby spiritualizing it. It is God moving upon the face of the waters for the purpose of creation. The motive power in the process is the union of the powers of 3 and 4.
The strange, lilting measures of the thirtieth chapter of Proverbs are set to the rhythm of seven. Thus is the initial setting of the Fifth or post-Atlantean Race attuned to the powers of 7. Hence it is that 7 possesses the ability to take precedence above all numbers in wresting the secrets of nature from their hiding places, whether these secrets belong to the scientific or the metaphysical world.
Zoology, embryology, and medicine, as well as the sciences of music and color, all attest to the workings of the septenary cycles upon the earth plane.
The Secret Doctrine states: "There is a harmony of number in all nature, in the force of gravity in the planetary movements, in the laws of heat, light, electricity and chemical affinity, in the forms of animals and plants, in the perception of the mind."
That the earth is attuned to the septenary rhythm is affirmed by the sevenfold vision of John as given in Revelation. The seven sacred Logoi by whom all creation proceeds and whom John names as the Seven Spirits before the Throne of God are reflected on this plane of manifestation in the sevenfold earth, the seven Root Races, the seven subraces, and the sevenfold body of man. Pythagoras considered 7 to be the most sacred of all numbers and his students took their vows or obligations "by the number Seven".
The heavens also declare the glory of God in a septenary rhythm. In the constellations of both the Great and the Little Bear are to be found 7 conspicuous stars. Orion has the same number. In Taurus are the seven Hyades, with the brilliant orange-yellow Aldebaran. Seven prominent lights are to be found in the Corona Borealis, the "God of the Shining Crown", as it was termed in Babylon. The mysticism of 7 is borne out also in the 7 sisters of the Pleadies, 6 of which are visible, the seventh being 'lost', which is to say, secret or concealed.
It was upon the rhythms of the octave that Pythagoras founded his cosmic harmonies called the music of the spheres. The distance from the earth to the moon was counted as one tone; From Mars to Jupiter, a half-tone; from Jupiter to Saturn, a half-tone; and from Saturn to the Zodiac, a tone — thus completing the full octave in celestial harmony. John in Revelation refers also to this heavenly chorus.
The 7 vowels, the feminine forces of speech, reflect the vibratory rhythms of these same astral keynotes. The moon is a most potent reflector of this seven-rayed power. Through each calendar month its forces are attuned to the influences of 7. Occult and mysterious, it sets its signature in sevens upon all evolving and manifesting forms.
Libra, the seventh of the zodiacal Hierarchies, marks the turning point between spirit and matter. It is, therefore, appropriately referred to as the Gate of the Gods. Libra is the symbol in the heavens of the Fall of Man and again of his redemption, when he shall become once more the perfected Adam Kadmon, the Heavenly Celibate of the Kaballah.
Seven is necessarily the principal number of the Bible. Its prevalent usage throughout the Old and the New Testaments is familiar to all students and so needs no detailed enumeration in this study. We note a single instance only, namely the Book of Job. Job was the father of 7 sons and 3 daughters. In the mysteries of the Yod, 10 entered the assembly and 7 came out. Job possessed 7000 sheep and 3000 cattle. His friends sat with him 7 days and nights and were commanded to sacrifice 7 bullocks and 7 rams. Eventually Job's 7 sons and 3 daughters were restored to him and he lived 140 years, or twice 7 times 10.
It is the Tincture of the 7 Sacred Logoi before the Throne of God termed the Philosopher's Stone, or Azoth by the alchemists, that the Wise Men of all time have learned to imbibe. This is the water of Eternal Life spoken of by the Master and which alone yields immortality. This same Tincture of the Logoi is the keynote of the Book of Zachariah. It is done to the rhythm of 7. It is also the power by which Peter became the stone upon which the church is built.
Seven is always preceded and succeeded by 7 because it represents an ever ascending series. Hence it must necessarily become the fundamental number of our present earth evolution which advances on a constantly ascending series toward the Sabbath Day of Perfection.
Pythagoras taught that "the soul is a number which moves of itself and contains the number four". The color of 7 is indigo. Its symbol is the triangle and the square, of the Masonic Apron. Both 3 and 4 were conceded to be symbols of profound and fruitful meditation in the Pythagorean school of Crotona. In this ancient seat of learning, instruction was given in much of the concealed wisdom of esoteric Masonry. The candidates were required to meditate on the occult powers of the triangle. Its first line, he learned, represented the mineral kingdom, the second the vegetable, and the third the animal.
This study belongs to a three dimensional world. On this plane man and woman are both incomplete and so desire perpetuation in issue. This desire is a manifestation of a subconscious longing for creation. When the soul learns to respond to the 4 of which Pythagoras teaches, man will no longer desire external creation. Marriage as an institution for the perpetuation of the race will yield to the mystic marriage such as the angels know on the higher plane of fourth dimensional consciousness. The perfect equilibrium of 4 will be realized as man-woman, woman-man. In the words of the Master, "I am in you, you are in me". Man becomes the Christed individual.
The triangular pyramid resting upon a cubical or square foundation is the cosmic symbol of 7. In terms of color it manifests as purple. Here the full glory of the Tetragrammaton is revealed. The Sabbath Day of Rest is attained. The seven-branched candlestick of the Tabernacle represents the archetypal pattern of the earth and man. This pattern must be septenary so long as the labor is with 3 and 4.
"Seven is a perfect number and signifies completion or consummation. It follows six which stands for completion of process."
The ego knows times of inbreathing and outbreathing, periods of rest and activity during its cyclic sweep of incarnations.
— Corinne Heline
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