The Number Seven

Seven, like all numbers, is an archetype; it has particular qualities and more than any other number it has a personality. It is through this personality of the number seven that the story of our stellar connection gets told.

The ancient star of seven points suggests that the personality of seven is like an angelic being that may visit us from the stars. It certainly is an archetypal form that has had a big impact on some of the major cultures of the world.

The seventh archetype {paralleled by its relationship to the archetype of number three} has been the creative power behind both vedic and christian esoteric, and metaphysical teachings. Whether described as seven chakras (energy circles) or seven seals, Seven sages or seven plagues, it is the personality of the number seven at work.

The Seven is like an engineer or mechanic, a maker of machines, and a planner of schemes. Ruling over the sense of sight, especially inner sight, the Seven declares himself as the master of structure and vision; like the creator who created creation out of an inner vision and took the seventh day to behold it.

Speaking of creation and the creatures within it, the Seven relates also to the the third kingdom which is that of animals and karma. It is animal like consciousness that gets us into karmic patterns of existence. Karma takes place mainly in the astral realms which fascinate us and thereby trap us in them.

Our personal manifestation of this trap is the aura which is at once both our prison and our protection. The aura is our personal astral flame; our ego fire which can give warmth or be destructive.

Finally lets look at the number seven just as a number and do a bit of mathematics by bringing seven into relationship to the infinite. Infinity by its nature, is free of the necessity of order and structure. Divided by seven however, the unity of the infinite comes into a very well defined order which has fascinated intelligent human beings since ever they began to count. Here is the formula -

10,000,000,000 etc. {i.e. the unity of infinity}

divided by 7 = 142857142857142857142857142857 etc.

In otherwords a repetition of the sequence 142857 is the result.

Now this sequence is known to be a mysterious one which contains within it the law of karmic generation involved in any process. Readers are encouraged to read Gurdjief, Ouspensky and Bennet for an extensive and in depth study of of the above mentioned law. It must not be forgotten, however, that there are other laws of the universe which work in harmony with, but are different from, the laws of cause and effect. Seven in this way provides the inner plan of creation from a human perspective. The meaning of this inner plan is fully understood when the seven is taken in its holistic and holographic relationship to the other basic numbers of our counting system; especially nine which is the outcome of a sevenfold plan. The ninefold manifested world works back on the seven through various routes, both modifying and sustaining it . When added up to a total the sequence 142857 gives the number 27 which reduces to 9. It could be said that our present counting system, which sees nine as the completion before beginning a new unit in ten, has arisen by a unified infinity becoming divided by seven {a division performed by infinity itself [God] or by human beings, who knows; perhaps co-operatively by both}. When the sequence 142857 is multiplied by seven it falls short of infinity by an infintely small amount i.e. 142857 times 7 = 999999 ---etc. The solar and lunar cycles also display an intimate entwining of the numbers seven and nine. Seven solar cycles, i.e. seven of our normal western years, takes the same duration as nine lunar years; a lunar year being ten months {the period of gestation from conception to birth}. It is infact the cycle of nine lunar years that gives the traditional seven year life cycles their significance.

A curiosity of the number seven is that any two opposite sides of a dice add up to seven. This illustrates how the three dimensions of space which make up the cube are ruled by the archetype of seven. Just as we need to throw a six to start the game so do we need trust in the all pervading, universal, wisdom in order to make the leap of faith that wins us forgiveness. The six sides of the cube are indicative of the six days of creation of the manifested world, while the seven represents the enjoyment of beholding the attainment, as well as the ability to see the other side of each plane of existence. It should not be forgotten however, that attainment is itself just the seed to a new process through which attained wisdom is applied in practice; the result being pure action or in other words, compassion expressed in altruistic action - which is sacrifice.