Symbolism of the number 7

Pythagoras

Classical world

Classical antiquity

• Seven deadly sins
• Seven Classical planets
• Seven Metals of antiquity
• Seven Heavens
• Seven days in the week
• Seven colors in the rainbow
• Seven Seas
• Seven Continents
• Seven against Thebes
• Seven Kings of Rome
• Seven hills of Istanbul
• Seven hills of Rome
• Seven Liberal Arts
• Seven Sages of the Bamboo Grove in China
• Seven Sages of Greece
• Saptarishi – Seven Sages concept in Ancient India
• Seven Wise Masters, a cycle of medieval stories
• Seven Wonders of the ancient world
• 7 was considered a God number in ancient Egypt. The Pharaoh usually ordered things in groups of multiples of 7. For a time, 7 was not even used in writings for the people of Egypt.
• 7 pure notes in the diatonic scale

  Religion and mythology

Old Testament

• Seven Hebrew words of Bereishit 1:1 / Genesis 1:1.

• Seven days of Creation e.g., God rested on and sanctified the seventh day.
• Anyone who dares to kill Cain "will suffer vengeance seven times over".
• Lamech in his "Song of the Sword" claims that "if Cain shall be avenged sevenfold", he himself shall be "seventy-sevenfold".
• Noah is commanded to bring seven pairs of every clean animal onto the ark.
• Seven years of plenty and seven years of famine in Pharaoh's dream.
• In regards to the sin sacrifice, the anointed priest was to sprinkle the bullock's blood seven times before the .
• Seven days of the feast of Passover.
• Seven-day week and the pattern concerning distribution and use of manna.
• The Menorah, is a seven-branched candelabrum lit by olive oil in the Tabernacle and the Temple in Jerusalem.
• Seven-year cycle around the years of Jubilee.
• Jericho's walls fall on the seventh day after seven priests with seven trumpets march around the city seven times.
• King David had seven older brothers.
• The child sneezed seven times after Elisha raised him from the dead.
• Seven things that are detestable to the .
• Seven Pillars of the House of Wisdom.
• The woman with seven sons in 2 Maccabees.
• Gad, whose name means good luck, is the seventh son of Jacob. Areli is the seventh son of Gad. Chronicles lists David as the seventh son of Jesse. An unnamed eighth individual appeared among the seven in 1 Samuel 16, then David as the youngest is brought before Samuel.

  New Testament

• Seven loaves multiplied into seven basketfuls of surplus.
• Peter asked Jesus if he should forgive up to seven times; Jesus responded by saying to forgive them "seventy times seven times", alluding to the Curse of Cain and the Song of Lamech in Genesis 4.
• Seven demons were driven out of Mary Magdelene.
• The seven last sayings of Jesus on the cross.
• Seven men of honest report, full of the Holy Ghost and wisdom.
• In the Book of Revelation, seven is a central figure of quantities: Seven Spirits of God, Seven Churches ;
• Seven of the following appear in Revelation: golden lampstands, stars, torches of fire Seven Seals, angels and their trumpets, last plagues, golden bowls, thunders, horns and eyes, diadems and kings. See :Category:Seven in the Book of Revelation.

• The Seven Gifts of the Holy Spirit.
• The Seven Corporal Acts of Mercy and Seven Spiritual Acts of Mercy of Roman Catholic, Anglican, and other traditions.
• The Seven deadly sins: lust, gluttony, greed, sloth, wrath, envy, and pride.
• The Seven Joys of the Virgin Mary in Roman Catholic, Anglican, and other traditions.
• The Seven Sacraments in the Catholic Church.
• The Seven Sorrows of the Virgin Mary in Roman Catholic, Anglican, and other traditions.
• There are seven suicides mentioned in the Bible.
• The seven terraces of Mount Purgatory.
• The Seven Virtues: chastity, temperance, charity, diligence, kindness, patience, and humility.
• In the genealogy in the Gospel of Luke, Jesus is 77th name in a direct line.
• The number of heads of the three beasts of the Book of Revelation, and the seven seals.

  Hinduism

• The Sanskrit word sapta refers to number seven.
• Indian Music has "Saptak Swaras", seven octats which are basics of music, using which hundreds of Ragas are composed.
• Celestial group of seven stars are named as "Sapta Rishi" based on the seven great saints.
• Seven Promises , Seven Rounds in Hindu Wedding and Seven Reincarnation.
• According to Hinduism, there are seven worlds in the universe, seven seas in the world and seven Rishies called sapta rishis.
• Seven hills at tirumala also known as Yedu Kondalavadu , ezhu malaiyan means "Sevenhills God".
• The seven virgin goddesses are worshipped in temples in Tamil Nadu, India.
• There are 7 Chakras in the basic model used in various eastern traditions and philosophies.

  Islam

• The number of ayat in surat al-Fatiha.
• The number of heavens.
• The number of hells.
• The number of circumambulations that are made around the Kaaba.
• The number of walks between Al-Safa and Al-Marwah pilgrims perform during the Hajj and the Umrah.
• The number of doors to hell is seven.
• In Verse 12:46 of the Quran, Joseph is asked to interpret the King's dream where seven fat cows were dreamt to have been devoured by seven skinny cows and seven green spikes, and others shrivelled.
• The number of the big sins or vices is seven which are from a Hadith of the prophet Mohamed: "Avoid the seven sins polytheism, witchcraft, the killing of the soul which Allah has forbidden except by right, consuming riba, consuming the wealth of the orphan, to escape from the battles and slandering chaste women".
• A naming ceremony is held for babies on their seventh day of life.

  Judaism

• Shiv`a ), is the number of days of mourning. Hence, one sits Shiva. As in Shiva.
• The weekly Torah portion is divided into seven aliyahs, and seven Jewish men are called up for the reading of these aliyahs during Shabbat morning services.
• Seven blessings are recited under the chuppah during a Jewish wedding ceremony.
• A Jewish bride and groom are feted with seven days of festive meals after their wedding, known as Sheva Berachot.
• The number of Ushpizzin who visit the sukkah during the holiday of Sukkot: Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Aaron, and David.
• The number of nations God told the Israelites they would displace when they entered the land of Israel : the Hittite, the Girgashite, the Amorite, the Canaanite, the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite.
• In Breslov tradition, the seven orifices of the face are called "The Seven Candles."
• The 7 Sephirot of primary conscious emotion that are attributes of the creator.

  Chinese [Tao]ism

• 7 Colors / 7th Element :

1. Golden Star
2. White Clouds
3. Blue Sky
4. B-lack Moon Empty Infinity Space / Earth
5. Green Wood
6. Red Fire

   Astrology

• The number of classical planets, viz. Sun, Mercury, Venus, Moon, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn.
• The number of daughters of Atlas in the Pleiades.
• The number of saints appearing in a constellation called "Saptharishi Mandalam" in Indian astronomy.

  Others

• The Seven Lucky Gods refer to the seven gods of good fortune in Japanese mythology.
• The number of archangels according to some systems.
• In Buddhism, Buddha walked 7 steps at his birth.
• In Khasi mythology, the seven divine women who were left behind on earth and became the ancestresses of all humankind.
• The number of sleeping men in the Christian myth of the "Seven Sleepers".
• The number of sages in Hindu mythology; their wives are the deities referred to as the Sapta Matrka or "Seven Mothers".
• In Iran, German, Spanish, and other cultures that speak Romance Languages, cats are said to have seven lives as opposed to English, where cats are said to have nine lives.
• In Irish mythology, the epic hero Cúchulainn is associated with the number 7. He has seven fingers on each hand, seven toes on each foot, and seven pupils in each eye. In the Irish epic Táin Bó Cúailnge, Cúchulainn is 7 years old when he receives his first weapons and defeats the armies of the Ulaidh and his son Connla is 7 years old when he is slain by Cúchulainn in "The Death of Aife's Only Son".
• In Galician folklore, a seventh son will be a werewolf. In other folklores, after six daughters, the seventh child is to be a son and a werewolf. In other European folklores, the seventh son of a seventh son will be a child with special powers of healing and clairvoyant seeing, and in other cultures that seventh son of a seventh son would be a vampire.
• In Guaraní mythology, the number of prominent legendary monsters.
• In the eponymous British folk tale, Thomas the Rhymer went to live in the faerie kingdom for seven years.
• Mahatma Gandhi's list of the destructive Seven Blunders of the World that cause violence: Wealth without work, pleasure without conscience, knowledge without character, commerce without morality, science without humanity, religion without sacrifice and politics without principle.
• The cosmogony of Urantia gives an explanation to the sacredness of the number 7 in some religions, including those based on a triple deity: 7 indeed is the number of all the possible combinations of three elements taken one by one, two by two, or by three. It therefore expresses all the associative possibilities of the three fundamental aspects of the absolute which organizes the Creation. The seventh of these combinations being the one that combines the three aspects, 7 therefore also expresses spiritual achievement.

• The number of main islands of mythological Atlantis.
• The number of gateways traversed by Inanna during her descent into the underworld.
• Cibola was one of the legendary Seven Cities of Gold the Spanish thought existed.
• In the Bahá'í faith, the text The Seven Valleys, by the Prophet-Founder Bahá'u'lláh, relates the journey of the soul through the seven "valleys" of Search, Love, Knowledge, Unity, Contentment, Wonderment, and finally True Poverty and Absolute Nothingness.

• Circle Seven Koran, the holy scripture of the Moorish Science Temple of America.

• The Seven-Branched Sword in Japanese mythology.
• The Theosophical teachings of Alice A. Bailey divide the human race into seven psychological types called the Seven Rays, which she calls "the basis of New Age psychology".
• The minor symbol number of yang from the Taoist yin-yang.
• The number of palms in an Egyptian Sacred Cubit.
• The number of ranks in Mithraism.
• The number seven is of particular significance within Cherokee cosmology.
• Most likely to be chosen as a favorite number by people around the world.

• In British folklore, every seven years the Queen of the Fairies pays a tithe to Hell in the tale of Tam Lin.