It was natural that in the early ages of human intelligence man should
attach a superstitious reverence to numbers. The mystery attached to the
number seven has been variously accounted for. Some have explained it by
the figures of the square and triangle, others by the stars of the Great
Bear nightly seen overhead. Gerald Massey says: "The Constellation of
the Seven Great Stars (Ursa Major) was probably the primordial figure of
Seven. Seven was often called the perfect number. Its name as Hept (Eg.)
is also the name for Plenty--a heap of food and good luck. The Seven
were the great heap or cluster of stars, an image of plenty, or a lot
that revolved together."* My own opinion is that the superstition arose
in connection first with the menstrual period, and then with the phases
of the moon as a measurer of time. Its period of twenty-eight days could
be twice divided until the week of seven days was reached, and
then further division was impossible. Hence we everywhere find the
superstition linked to the days of the week and the seven planets
supposed to preside over these days.
* Natural Genesis, ii., 219.
The Egyptians worshipped the seven planets, and Herodotus tells us of
their seven castes. So with the Babylonians. From them was derived the
Jewish week. Hesiod, according to Eusebius, said "The seventh is the
sacred day." What he says in his _Works and Days_ is, "On the seventh
day Latona brought forth Apollo"; and Æschylus, in his _Seven Against
Thebes_, says the number Seven was sacred to Apollo. The moon periods
were sacred as measuring time and also in connection with female
periodicity. Man discovered the month before the year. Hence the moon
was widely worshipped. The worship of the queen of heaven in Palestine
is alluded to in Jer. vii. 18 and xliv. 17. The superstition of the
new moon bringing luck has descended to our own time. When the year was
reckoned by thirteen moons of twenty-eight days, thirteen was the lucky
number; but when this was changed for the twelve months of solar time,
thirteen became one too many. The Parsee Bundahisli, according to Gerald
Massey, exhibits seven races of men--(1) the earth-men, (2) water-men,
(3) breast-eared men, (4) breast-eyed men, (5) one-legged men, (6)
batwinged men, (7) men with tails.
Section 7 of the Kabbalistic Sepher Yezirah* says, "The seven planets
in the world are Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Sun, Venus, Mercury, Moon. Seven
days in the year are the seven days of the week; seven gates in man,
male and female, are two eyes, two ears, two nostrils and the mouth."
Again, section 15 says, "By the seven double consonants were also
designed seven worlds, seven heavens, seven lands, seven seas, seven
rivers, seven deserts, seven days a week, seven weeks from Passover to
Pentecost, there is a cycle of seven years, the seventh is the release
year, and after seven release years is jubilee. Hence God loves the
number seven under the whole heaven."
* Trans, by Dr. I. Kalisch, pp. 27 and 81.
The Bible, it has been remarked, begins in Genesis with a seven, and
ends in the Apocalypse with a series of sevens. God himself took a rest
on the seventh day and was refreshed, or, as the Hebrew reads, took
breath. The Passover and other festivals lasted seven days; Jacob
bowed seven times; Solomon's temple was seven years in building; the
tabernacle had seven lamps, a candlestick with seven arms, etc. In a
variety of passages it seems, like 40, to have been a sort of round
number--as people sometimes say a dozen for an indeterminate quantity.
Thus in Daniel iii. 19 the fiery furnace was to be heated seven times
more than it was wont to be heated. In Proverbs (xxiv. 16) we are told
a just man falleth seven times and rises up again. One of the Psalmists
says (cix. 164), "Seven times a day do I praise thee because of thy
righteous judgments" (see too Lev. xxvi. 18, 28; Dent, xxviii. 7, 35;
Job ix; Psalm xii. 6, lxxix. 12; Isaiah iv. 1, xi. 15, xxx. 26; Jer. xv.
9, Matt. xii. 45). The week induced reckoning by sevens, and led to
such enactments as that the Jews on the seventh day of the seventh month
should feast seven days and remain seven days in tents.
The root idea of the number is that of religious periodicity. We find
it not only in the Sabbath, but in all other sacred periods. Thus the
seventh month is ushered in by the Feast of Trumpets, and signalised by
the celebration of the Feast of Tabernacles and Yom Kippur. Seven weeks
is the interval between Passover and Pentecost. The seventh is the
Sabbatical year, when bondsmen were to be released and debts go free.
With this custom is connected the binding of youths for seven years
apprenticeship, and of punishing incorrigible offenders for 7, 14, or
21 years. The year succeeding seven times seven is the Jubilee. The
earliest form, that of the menstrual period, is shown in the duration of
various kinds of legal uncleanness, as after childbirth, after contact
with a corpse, etc. So we have the sprinkling of the house seven times
with the water of purification (Lev. xiv. 51), the command of Elisha
to Naaman to wash in Jordan seven times (2 Kings v. 10). Hezekiah, in
cleansing the temple, offered seven bullocks, seven rams, and seven
he-goats for a sin offering. Septuple actions and agents abound. Thus
the blood of sacrifices were sprinkled seven times (Lev. iv. 6, 17; xiv.
7, 16, 27; xvi. 14, 15). So Jacob bowed to his brother Esau seven times
(Gen. xxxiii. 3). Balak built for Balaam seven altars, and prepares
seven oxen and seven rams (Num. xxiii. 1, 4, 14, 29), and Abraham
employed seven victims for sacrifice (Gen. xxi. 28, 30). We are reminded
of the lines in Virgil's Æneid (vi. 58).
Seven bullocks, yet unyoked, for Phoebus choose,
And for Diana, seven unspotted ewes.
The Hebrew verb _Shaba_, to swear, is evidently derived from _Sheba_
seven, and denoted a sevenfold affirmation. Herodotus (xiii. 8), tells
us the manner of swearing among the ancient Arabians included smearing
seven stones with blood. Sheba is allied to the Egyptian Seb-ti (5-2),
the Zend Hapta, Greek Epta, Latin septem. The Pythagoreans said that
Heptad came from the Greek _Sebo_ to venerate, but Egyptian and other
African dialects suffice to prove it is far earlier.
The writer of the Apocalypse had the mystic number on the brain. Dr.
Milligan has explained the 666 number of the beast, as a fall below the
sacred seven John of Patmos gives us seven golden candlesticks, (i. 1),
seven stars (i. 20), seven spirits and churches (iii. 1), seven seals
(v. 1), trumpets (viii. 2), thunders (x. 34), vials (xvi. 1), and seven
angels with seven plagues (xvi.) The beast has seven heads, horns and
crowns (xii. 3, xiii. 1, xvii. 7). The Lamb with seven horns and seven
eyes (v. 1 ). There are seven spirits before the throne of God (Rev. i.
4, etc.) like the seven Dhyani Chohans emanating from Parabrahm in Hindu
Theosophy.
So Christians have kept up legends of seven wise men, seven wonders of
the world, seven champions of Christendom, seven cardinal virtues, seven
deadly sins, seven devils in Mary Magdalene, etc. Of course there is no
better reason why there should be seven than the old idea of mystery and
completion attached to the number.
Modern Theosophists, too, go in largely for the number seven. There are
seven planets, seven rounds on each planet and seven races. Every ego
is composed of seven principles--Atma, Buddhi, Manas, Kamarupa, Linga
Sharira, Prana, and Sthula Sharira. It may seem strange that a lady of
Madame Blavatsky's undoubted powers of imagination should run in the old
rut. But the well-worn superstitions work the easiest, although to every
instructed person this one carries the mind back to the days when men
knew only of seven planets and measured their time by the moon.