Number 7

The Meaning of Number 7

Number seven is the number of
perfection, security, safety and rest.

Seven contains the
number three of the heavens and soul with the number four of the earth and body.

The Pythagoreans called the number seven "the Septad".

The seven colors of the rainbow.

Isaac Newton identified the seven colors of the rainbow as red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet.

There are seven notes to the diatonic scale.

Seven circles form the symbol called "The Seed of Life".

The Seed of Life symbolizes the six days of creation.

The central circle symbolizes the day of rest.

September means "the seventh month" in Latin.

Libra is the seventh astrological sign in the Zodiac. 
 (September 22 - October 24)

Nitrogen (N) has the atomic number of 7.

The opposite sides of a dice always equal the number seven when added.

Do Not Say Seven
It is common superstition that saying the word "seven" is bad luck at a craps table. Players refer to the number seven as "it". Some players may even refer to seven as "the devil". It is considered equally bad luck if the stickman gives a player dice with a total of seven face up.

According to an old superstition, breaking a mirror will bring you seven years of bad luck. 

Seven is the number of dwarfs
in the fairy tale, Snow White.
The seven dwarfs were named:
Bashful - Doc - Dopey - Grumpy -
Happy - Sleepy - Sneezy.

Andrew Jackson was the seventh president of the United States. 1829 - 1837.

Andrew Jackson supported slavery and Indian Removal. Around 45,000 American Indians were relocated. He owned over a hundred slaves who did hard work on his cotton plantation.

Jackson opposed The Second Bank of the United States. He was the first President to invite the public to the White House in honor of his first inauguration.




Andrew Jackson's signature

Roy Sullivan (1912 –1983) was hit by lightning seven times and survived all of them. He was a U.S. park ranger in Virginia. 

The seventh day of the Chinese New Year is known as "All Men's Day" or the birthday of everyone!

In Japan there are Seven Lucky Gods. They have a ship called Takarabune, the Treasure Ship. They arrive in town every New Year and give gifts to all worthy people. Children will often receive red envelopes decorated with the Takarabune. Inside they find money gifts.

The Seven Days of Kwanzaa

There are seven candles in the kinara, three red, one black and three green candles. One new candle is lit each day during the seven day- long celebration of Kwanzaa. The candles represent the seven principles of Kwanzaa.

Kwanzaa started in the 1960's in the United States. It is celebrated by some African Americans to honor their African heritage.
Kwanzaa is from December 26 - January 1.

Seven and the Red String
Some Kabbalists wear a red string tied around their wrist. Many believe it is an amulet that will protect them against the evil eye. Others say the red string helps them strengthen their character by remembering the good qualities of the biblical matriarch, Rachel. Long strands of red string are wrapped seven times around the tomb of Rachel before they are cut to make bracelets.
The tomb of Rachel is close to Bethlehem. Thousands of pilgrims visit the tomb every year. This picture is from 1910.

Legend of the Seven Sleepers

Seven men were accused of Christianity around the year 250 when Roman emperor Decius ruled. They took refuge in a cave and fell asleep. The emperor saw his chance to get rid of them once and for all and ordered the cave to be sealed.

Many decades later a farmer opened the cave and found the Seven Sleepers. They woke up believing they had only slept a day.

 In 1927 the "Gotto" near Ephesus was excavated. The ruins of a church was found and on the walls inscriptions dedicated to the Seven Sleepers.

The Big Dipper/The Plough is an asterism of seven stars.

The Cherokee peace flag had the seven stars of the Big Dipper as the motif. The stars were red on a white field. On the Cherokee war flag the colors were the other way around; seven white stars on a red field.

There are seven Cherokee clans. On the Cherokee flag the seal is surrounded by seven yellow seven-pointed stars. (The black star in the corner represents all those who died on the Trail of Tears.)

The Seven Sages of Ancient Greece were statesmen and philosophers famous for their wisdom. Plato lists these seven in the Protagoras Dialogue.

The Seven Sages of Greece were:

The liberal arts were already established in ancient Rome as the appropriate education for a free man.

The Seven Liberal Arts as identified by Martianus Capella (5^th century) were; grammar, dialectic, rhetoric, geometry, arithmetic, astronomy, and music.

There were seven recognized Liberal Arts in the medieval European Universities. The first three were called “the trivium” and the last four were called “the quadrivium”.

 Seven People Beheaded within the Tower of London

Seven Sisters is a district of the London Borough of Haringey, North London.

The name is originates from seven elms which were planted in a circle on an area known as Page Green. The group was known as the Seven Sisters by 1732 

Seven Sisters station is a National Rail and London Underground Victoria Line station.

The "Seven Sisters" of Moscow is a group skyscrapers designed in the Stalinist style.

The Seven Sisters is a waterfall made up of seven separate streams in Geirangerfjord, Norway. The tallest one has a free fall that measures 250 meters.

The Seven Bridges of Köningsberg

The city of Königsberg in Germany (now named Kaliningrad in Russia) was on both sides of the Pregel River, which included two large islands which were linked together and the mainland by seven bridges.

The Seven Bridges of Königsberg is a famous historical mathematical problem. The challenge presented was to find a walk through the city that would cross each  bridge completely once and only once. The islands could not be reached by any route other than the bridges.

Leonhard Euler (1701 -1783) was a Swiss mathematician and physicist. He set out to find a solution.
After taking on the challenge Euler concluded that the problem has no solution. The conclusion by Leonhard Euler in 1735 laid the foundations of graph theory.

 Leonhard Euler's signature

 The Seven S’s of the Nowruz – Iranian New Year.  
                                                                                                                     
Nowruz is the New Year celebration. This festivity has been celebrated since ancient times and occurs in late March. Nowruz is celebrated in many counties.

There are quite a few traditions associated with Nowruz.

One of the customs is to set the table with the Seven S’s.

The Seven S’s called the Haft Sin in Persian are the seven items each staring with the letter S in the Persian alphabet.  Haft means seven and Sin is S.

The picture is of the White House Haft Sin Table prepared by Laura Bush in 2008.

The items of the Haft Sin table are:

1. Sabzeh - wheat, barley or lentil sprouts growing in a dish – symbol of rebirth

2. Samanu - a sweet pudding - symbol of affluence

3. Senjed - the dried fruit - symbol of love

4. Sir - garlic – symbol of medicine

5. Sib - apples – symbol of beauty and health

6. Somaq - sumac berries – symbol of the sunrise

7. Serkeh - vinegar – symbol of age and patience.

If one of the Sin is missing it may be exchanged with another Sin for example sonbol - the hyacinth flower – symbol of spring
and the sekkeh - coins - symbol of prosperity

 The Seven Fruits - Afghanistan

In Afghanistan, they prepare Haft Mewa (meaning Seven Fruits) instead of Haft Sin. Haft Mewa is a fruit salad made from seven different dried fruits, served in the fruit syrup.
The seven dried fruits are:

Raisin - Senjed -  Pistachio - Hazelnut - Prune - Walnut -  Almond

Se7en (1995) is the title of an American crime film directed by David Fincher and written by Andrew Kevin Walker. It stars Brad Pitt, Morgan Freeman, Gwyneth Paltrow, R. Lee Ermey and Kevin Spacey. The murders in the movie correspond to each of the seven deadly sins.

The Seven Valleys of the Bahá'i Faith

The Nine-Pointed Star  is a symbol of the Bahá'i Faith.

The Seven Valleys, is a book written by the founder, Bahá'uillah (1817-1892). It describes the seven mystic stages of which a seeker must travel towards God. The Bahá'i Faith was founded in Persia. 

Bahá'i teaches monotheism and claim to be a fulfillment of all prior religions. Today they have followers around the globe.
 
The Seven Valleys are: 

1. The Valley of Search

2. The Valley of Love

3. The Valley of Knowledge

4. The Valley of Unity

5.The Valley of Contentment

6. The Valley of Wonderment

7 The Valley of Poverty and Absolute Nothingness
Bahá'i Temple in Panama

Chinese - The seventh month - The Ghost month

The entire seventh month of the lunar calendar is
considered the Ghost month.

During this month the gates of hell are opened. The ghosts are free to wander among the living. The ghosts are in need of good food and good entertainment.

It is told that these ghosts are the ancestors of those families that have forgotten to pay tribute to them after they died.

Family members take care to burn joss money to the dead. This money is only valid in hell. They may also burn paper houses, furniture and so on, as it is believed that the afterlife is comparable to the world of the living.

On the 15th day of the Ghost month feasts are held for the hungry, roaming ghosts. Food offerings are made to please the hungry ghosts. This is also done to prevent a lonely, miserable ghost invading ones home and thus bringing bad luck. At concerts the best seats are reserved for the ghosts. Music will be very loud as the ghosts appreciate high volume.

Fifteen days after the festival, the ghosts will hopefully find their way back to the underworld.

The seventh day of this seventh month is quite different. It is the day for lovers, much like Valentine's Day in the West.

 
One story goes (there are several versions of the story) that the Jade Emperor had a beautiful daughter. The Jade Emperor is the highest of gods. His daughter owned a magic robe which allowed her to travel to Earth.

Once while bathing in a stream, a cowherd stole her magic robe. Without the magic robe, she could not return to her father. The cowherd took the princess back to his home. They fell in love and got married.

The Jade Emperor was furious. One day the princess found the magic robe her husband had hidden. She put on the robe and went to visit her father. The Jade Emperor immediately asked all the rivers to flow across the sky (the Milky Way), making it impossible for the princess to return to her husband.

After a while the Jade Emperor did soften and decided to permit the young lovers meet on the bridge over the river on the seventh day of the seventh month every year. This is a special day for lovers, celebrated in many countries in Asia.

              From a concert during the Ghost month in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
                                            The red seats are reserved for the ghosts.