Number Seven: Symbolic Meaning

Number Seven: Symbolic Meaning

Seven is known to be the number of creation, representing the live relationship between the human energies and the Divine world.

“Seven is the number of realization of the space-time.”
~Abellio

The essential process of creation consists in the polarization of Light, and its refraction through a prismatic perspective, turning the original Light into different frequencies of rays, each with a different wavelength, including the seven visible colored rays.

The seven emanations are seen by tradition as the Seven Rays of Creation. These seven luminous vibrations also correspond to the seven sound vibration tones that originated the Creation:

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God (…) through him all things were made; without him, nothing was made that has been made.”
~John 1, 3

The Original Vibration then multiplied and differentiated itself in form. These seven different vibratory planes of creation exist simultaneously and can be considered as successive emanations of the uncreated Source.  In other words, the seven dimensions of our immediate Universe, from which our seven chakras are the psychophysical manifestation.

The number Seven has been used since time immemorial to describe the creations and ordinances of God and the subsequent patterns that appear in the natural world.

Our physical Chakras referred to as “vortexes of power”, are the vehicles of manifestation of the pure cosmic energy; and, in its turn, designating seven different levels of manifestation of consciousness.

These 7 stages of consciousness were symbolized in the Atlantean tradition, as transmitted by the Egyptians, by the seven veils of the Goddess Isis. In ancient times, sacred dancers performed the ritual of the 7 veils as to reveal the world beyond the immediate reality gradually. Beneath these veils are concealed all the mysteries, ageless wisdom, and learning of the past.

“I am all that has been, that is, that shall be, and none among mortals has yet dared to raise my veil.”

“The Egyptians were sublime philosophers who had dictated theology to the world. And in Chaldea arose the first astrologers who watched the heavenly bodies with curiosity as well as with awe, and who made divine discoveries, and who called themselves The Interpreters of God.

To each star they gave a name, and to each day of the year, they gave a star.

And the Greeks and Romans, who were poets, wreathed these names into legends. Each name was a person; each person was a god.

From these stories of the stars originated the angels of the Jews, the genii of the Arabs, the heroes of the Greeks, and the saints of the Romish Church.

Now corruption grew upon corruption, and superstition flung a black and hideous veil over the doctrines of religion. Religion is lost as soon as it loses its simplicity: truth has no mysteries: it is deceit alone that lurks in obscurity.”[1]

Some examples of important 7 are:

According to Ouspensky there are 7 systems of Symbolism:

• Symbolism of numbers
• Symbolism of geometrical figures
• Symbolism of letters
• Symbolism of words
• Symbolism of magic
• Symbolism of Alchemy
• Symbolism of astrology

There are 7 stages of Alchemy: Calcination, Dissolution, Separation, Conjunction, Fermentation, Distillation, and Coagulation

7 in Christianity:

The Bible is full of Sevens:

• There were 7 days of Creation
• There are 7 Seals in the Book of Revelations.
• The number seven is mentioned 77 times in the Old Testament
• The 7 primary gifts of the Holy Spirit are Wisdom, Understanding, Counsel, Fortitude, Knowledge, Piety and the Fear of the Lord

There are Seven Sacraments in Christianity: Baptism, Penance, Marriage, Communion, Confirmation, Holy Orders, and Last Rites.

Tradition also speaks of the 7 Virtues in Christianity: Faith, Hope, Charity, Fortitude, Justice, Prudence, and Temperance.  Tradition also speaks of the 7 Vices:  Pride, Envy, Anger, Sloth, Avarice, Gluttony, and Lust.

The mystic Rudolph Steiner pointed out that the strongest prayer taught by Master Jesus to his disciples, the Paternoster, contains in itself seven distinct petitions.

Celestially, we are told that there is an influence and that influence is connected to the seven “up there” and the seven “on your back.”

In ancient times the Pleiades were called “The Guardians of the Sky" and they had the mystical task to have the account of Time Keeping. The Egyptian texts allude to Pleiades' archaic significance as Krittitas, judges of men, assigning them also to 7 planetary spheres as the seven Hathors.  The Pleiadean star system was the locus of our cosmic inheritance and the source of the mystical wisdom known by the High Initiates of the Mystery Schools of Isis.