| Symbolisum Lesson Six |
| Celestial Sevens
Seven is one of the main astrological numbers. � Since 4 lunar phases made a complete lunar cycle of 28 days, each phase was 7 days, which defines the week. � There are seven stars in the Pleides. Many a night I saw the Pleides, rising thro' the mellow shade, Glitter like a swarm of fireflies tangled in a silver braid. � There are seven stars in the Big Dipper, the most prominent of the "indestructible" stars, the circumpolar. From Homer's Iliad we have; ". . . and the bear, which revolves in its place and watches Orion, and alone of [the stars] never takes a bath in the ocean." � There are seven colors of the rainbow: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet In the ancient world, they only knew of seven planets and identified them with the days of the week. Sun- Sunday Moon � Monday Mars � Tuesday Mercury � Wednesday Jupiter � Thursday Venus � Friday Saturn � Saturday |
| Here we finish the symbolic numbers. |
| We finish off with the number Ten.
Ten Digits Being the number of fingers or toes, ten became the base of the decimal number system. It is the number of completeness or finality. With ten as complete, nine comes into prominence as almost complete. Troy was besieged for 9 days and fell on the tenth. Odysseus wandered for 9 years and arrived home on the tenth. Ten Commandments From the Old Testament we have, of course, the Ten Commandments or Decalogue. The Old Testament also describes Tithing, to give a tenth part of one's income. Summarizing what we covered in some of our number symbolism, we have: One � Self, Deity, Source of all Numbers Two - Duality, Defect Three - All, Best, Holy, First Triangular Four - Astrological Number, Earth, First Square Seven - Astrological, Steps to Wisdom and Virtue Ten - Completeness, Finality, Perfection We may laugh now at some of the meanings given to numbers, but how many of us would be willing to stay in room 13 or on the 13th floor on Friday the 13th? So why did we do this? We're not so much interested in the numbers themselves but we are looking for frequently used art motifs, and maybe why a particular number was used, symbolically. |
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| Quiz: 1.) Give me two things that 7 play a major role in? 2.) In the ancient world, how many planets were they aware of and what did the associate them with? 3.) Being the number of fingers and toes, ten became the basis for what? 4.) Summarizing, what does �one� represent? 5.). If two is �both� what is three? 5.) What something happens once, it is an occurrence, if it happens twice, a coincidence, what is said if it happens a third time? 6.) What of the four lessons did you find most interesting? |
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