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Anciently the number of the bodies presumed to make up our solar system, to which number was ascribed a magical significance. Identified with them were the days of the week and the seven notes of the Diatonic scale. In 1666 Newton ascribed to them the seven hues of the spectrum.
Man was presumed to be a seven-fold being:
Sun:......His life-forces; the spiritual being within.
Moon:.....His psychic being; the vegetable kingdom.
Mercury:..His intellect; the realm of Mind.
Venus:....His divine, immortal self; the benevolent nature.
Mars:.....His bestial nature; the animal nature.
Jupiter:..His higher physical nature; the quality of optimism.
Saturn:...His physical being; the mineral kingdom.
The seven deadly sins of the ancient theologians were said to have been of astrological origin: Pride, Jupiter; covetousness, Saturn; lust, Venus; wrath, Mars; gluttony, Mercury; envy, Moon; indolence, Sun.
Also the seven virtues: Chastity, Moon; love, Venus; courage, Mars; faith, Jupiter; hope, Sun; wisdom, Mercury; and prudence, Saturn.
There were also seven wise men of Greece; the seven-fold Amen; the Seven Wonders of the World; the Book of the Seven Seals (Rev. 5,5), and the seven angels (Rev. 5,8).
The Seven against Thebes were the seven heroes who undertook an expedition to aid Polynices against his brother Eteoclus. The oracle promised success to whichever brother Oedipus favored; but he cursed both, and the brothers slew each other.
Seven has been explained as compounded of "The Ternary of God and the Quarternary of the world," as representing "three-fold and four-fold happiness," making 3 + 4 = 7 a sacred number: a reference to the 4 quadruplicities and the 3 triplicities. Any multiple of seven became a "great number": a jubilee year of restitution.
Since every seventh year from time immemorial was believed to form some material alteration, it has been observed in some professions as a sabbatical year of rest, comparable to the seventh day on which the Creator rested from his labors - as recounted in the Book of Genesis. For the Seven Ages of Man, v. Planetary, Ages of Man.
(Nicholas deVore - Encyclopedia of Astrology)
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The significance of the number seven in ancient Greece and its relation to Endocrinology
Menalaos L. Batrinos
Athens, University School of medicine Athens, Greece
Many ancients held various beliefs about the supernatural virtues of certain numbers. In ancient Greece, the school of Pythagoras (590 BC) taught the doctrine of the numerical essence of natural events. In accordance with this theory, the number 7 was considered a sacred number and thus vital to human life.
Solon (640-560 BC), one of the "seven sages" of Greek antiquity, was the first to notice that certain biological events lend themselves to numerical description and divided the ages of man into ten, each lasting seven years.
Hippocrates (640-370 BC), divided man's life span into multiples of 7. Thus, according to him, one is a child up to the age of 7 "during which period the emergence of the teeth is completed", a boy until the age of 14 (7´2) at which time "the sperm is produced", a youth until the age of 21 (7´3) when "the thickness of the beard is completed", a young man until the age of 28 (7´4), a man up to the age of 49 (7´7), a "presbyter" or elder until the age of 56 (7´8) and then on up to the age of 7´14 (98 years) an old man.
Aristotle (384-323 BC) states that the menarche occurs at "around the age of two times seven" (14 years) and the age of 21 (7´3) is the optimum age for childbearing. The age of menopause is indirectly mentioned by him in his writings to be the 50th year (7´7 rounded to 50) since he states that "for the most part, 50 marks in women the end of births".
Reflecting upon these ancient observations, one is tempted to remark that in both sexes, certain endocrine events also occur at chronological ages that are multiples of seven" adrenarche occurs at about the 7th year of age and menarche and sperm production close to the age of 14 (7´2). By the age of 21 years (7´3) the ortimum bone mass has been acquired and a pregnancy by this age protects from breast cancer. At about the age of 28 (7´4), the decline of growth hormone production begins, which thence falls by 50% every 7 years. At the age of 35 (7´5), a progressive decline in adrenal androgen production commences together with a steep diminution of ovarian follicles. The age of 42 (7´6) is believed to mark the beginning of the premenopausal period and the age of 49 (7´7) is the average age of menopause.
http://hormones.gr/preview.php?c_id=114
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The seventh letter of the Hebrew alphabet is "Zayin". It has a numeric value of "7", and also represents a "sword" that is used to "cut up" time.
- Shabbat - the 7th day of the 7-day week
- Shavu'ot - the 49th day after Passover
- Tishri - the 7th month of the year
- Shemitah - the 7th year of rest for the land
"The number seven has always been regarded in the Jewish tradition as the number of completion, wholeness, blessing, and rest."
- www.hebrew4christians.com
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"Seven is universally the number of completeness. The time-periods of creation were seven. The spectrum of light consists of seven colors; the musical scale of seven notes, our division of time is into weeks of seven days; our physiological changes run in cycles of seven years. Man himself is a seven-fold organism in correspondence with all these and the normal years of his life are seven multiplied by 10."
- Walter Leslie Wilmshurst, FURTHER NOTES ON CRAFT SYMBOLISM
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