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Again, number seven is closely connected with the occult significance of the Pleiades, those seven daughters of Atlas, “ the six present, the
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seventh hidden.” In India they are connected with their nursling, the war god, Karttikeya. It is the Pleiades (in Sanskrit, Krittika) who gave the god their name, for Karttikeya is the planet Mars, astronomicall y As a god he is the son of Rudra, born without the intervention of a woman. He is a Kumâra, a “ virgin youth ” again, generated in the fire from the Seed of Siva — the holy spirit — hence called Agni-bhû. The late Dr. Kenealy believed that, in India, Karttikeya is the secret symbol of the cycle of Naros, composed of 600, 666, and 777 years, according to whether it is solar or lunar, divine or mortal, years that are counted ; and the six visible, or the seven actual sisters, the Pleiades, are needed for the completion of this most secret and mysterious of all the astronomical and religious symbols. Therefore, when made to commemorate one particular event, Karttikeya appeared, of old, as a Kumâra, an ascetic, with six heads — one for each century of the Naros. When the symbolism was needed for another event, then, in conjunction with the seven sidereal sisters, Karttikeya is seen accompanied by Kaumâra (or Senâ) his female aspect. He is then riding on a peacock — the bird of Wisdom and Occult Knowledge, and the Hindu Phœnix, whose Greek relation with the 600 years of Naros is well-known. A six-rayed star (double triangle) a Swastica, a six and occasionally seven-pointed crown is on his brow ; the peacock’s tail represents the sidereal heavens ; and the twelve signs of the Zodiac are hidden on his body ; for which he is also called Dwâdasa Kara,” (“ the twelve-handed ”), and Dwâdasâksha, “ twelve-eyed.” It is as Sakti-dhara, however, the “ Spear-holder,” and the conqueror of Târaka, “ Taraka-jit,” that he is shown most famous.
The years of the Naros, being (in India) counted in two ways — either “ 100 years of the gods,” (divine years) — or 100 mortal years — one can see the tremendous difficulty for the non-initiated in comprehending correctly this cycle, which plays such an important part in St. John’s Revelation. It is the truly apocalyptic Cycle ; yet in none of the numerous speculations about it have we found anything but a few approximate truths, because of its being of various lengths and relating to various pre-historic events.
It has been urged against the duration claimed by the Babylonians for their divine ages, that Suidas shows the ancients counting, in their chronological computations, days for years. Dr. Sepp in his ingenious plagiarism — exposed elsewhere — of the Hindu 432 in thousands and millions of years (the duration of the Yugas) which he dwarfed to 4,320 lunar years before the “ birth of Christ ” — as “ foreordained ” in the sidereal (besides the invisible) heavens, and proved “ by the apparition of the Star of Bethlehem ” — appeals to Suidas and his authority. But Suidas had no other warrant for it than his own speculations, and he
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was no Initiate. He cites, as a proof, Vulcan, in showing him as having, according to chronological claim, reigned 4,477 years, i.e., 4,477 days, as he thinks, or rendered in years, 12 years, 3 months, and 7 days ; he has 5 days in his original — thus committing an error even in such an easy calculation. (See Suidas, art. ῞Ηηλιος.) True, there are other ancient writers guilty of like fallacious speculations — Calisthenes, for instance, who assigns to the astronomical observations of the Chaldeans only 1,903 years, whereas Epigenes recognises 720,000 years ( Pliny. Histor. Natur. Lib. VII. c. 56. ) The whole of these hypotheses made by profane writers are based upon and due to a misunderstanding. The chronology of all the Western peoples, ancient Greeks and Romans, was borrowed from India. Now, it is said in the Tamil edition of Bagavadam that 15 solar days make a Paccham ; two paccham (or 30 days) are a month of the mortals, adding that such a month is only one day of the Pitar Devata ( Pitris ). Again, two of these months constitute a roodoo, three roodoo make an ayanam, and two ayanams a year — which year of the mortals is but a day of the gods. It is on such misunderstood teachings that some Greeks have imagined that all the initiated priests had transformed days into years !
This mistake of the ancient Greek and Latin writers became pregnant with results in Europe. At the close of the past and the beginning of this century, relying upon the purposely mutilated accounts of Hindu chronology, brought from India by certain too zealous and as unscrupulous missionaries, Bailly, Dupuis, and others built quite a fantastic theory upon the subject. Because the Hindus had made half a revolution of the moon, a measure of time ; and because a month composed of only fifteen days — of which Quint. Curtius speaks (Menses in quinos dies descriperunt dies. Quint. Curt. LVIII., c. 9) — is found mentioned in Hindu literature, therefore, it is a verified fact that their year was only half a year, when it was not called a day. The Chinese, too, divided their Zodiac into twenty-four parts, hence their year into twenty-four fortnights, but such computation did not, nor does it prevent their having an astronomical year just the same as ours. And they have a period of sixty days — the Southern Indian Roodoo, to this day in some provinces. Moreover, Diodorus Siculus (Lib. I. § 26, p. 30) calls “ thirty days an Egyptian year,” or that period during which the moon performs a complete revolution. Pliny and Plutarch both speak of it (Hist. Nat. Lib. VII., c. 48, Vol. III., p. 185, and Life of Numa, § 16) ; but does it stand to reason that the Egyptians, who knew astronomy as well as any other people did, made the lunar month consist of thirty days, when it is only twenty-eight days with fractions ? This lunary period had an occult meaning surely as much as the Ayanam and the roodoo of the Hindus had. The year of two months’ duration, and the period of sixty days also,
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was a universal measure of time in antiquity, as Bailly himself shows in his Traité de l’Astronomie Orientale. The Chinamen, according to their own books, divided their year into two parts, from one equinox to the other (Mem. Acad. Ins. T. XVI., c. 48, Tom. III., p. 183) ; the Arabs anciently divided the year into six seasons, each composed of two months ; in the Chinese astronomical work called Kioo-tche, it is said that two moons make a measure of time, and six measures a year ; and to this day the aborigines of Kamschatka have their years of six months, as they had when visited by Abbé Chappe (Voyage to Siberia, Vol. III., p. 19). But is all this a reason to say that when the Hindu Purânas say “ a solar year ” they mean one solar day ! It is the knowledge of the natural laws that make of seven the root nature-number, so to say, in the manifested world — at any rate in our present terrestrial life-cycle — and the wonderful comprehension of its workings, that unveiled to the ancients so many of the mysteries of nature. It is these laws, again, and their processes on the sidereal, terrestrial, and moral planes, which enabled the old astronomers to calculate correctly the duration of the cycles and their respective effects on the march of events ; to record beforehand (prophecy, it is called) the influence which they will have on the course and development of the human races. The Sun, Moon, and planets being the never-erring time measurers, whose potency and periodicity were well known, became thus the great Ruler and rulers of our little system in all its seven domains, or “ spheres of action.” *
This has been so evident and remarkable, that even many of the modern men of Science, Materialists as well as Mystics, had their attention called to this law. Physicians and theologians, mathematicians and psychologists have drawn the attention of the world repeatedly to this fact of periodicity in the behaviour of “ Nature.” These numbers are explained in the “ Commentaries ” in these words.
The Circle is not the “ One ” but the ALL.
In the higher [heaven] the impenetrable Rajah [“ ad bhutam,” see Atharva-Veda ” X., 105], it [the Circle] becomes One, because [it is] the indivisible, and there can be no Tau in it.
In the second [of the three “ Râjamsi ” (triteye), or the three “ Worlds ”] the one becomes two [male and female] ; and three [add the Son or logos] ; and the Sacred Four [ “ tetractis,” or the “ Tetragrammaton.”]
In the third [the lower world or our earth] the number becomes four, and three, and two. Take the first two, and thou wilt
* The spheres of action of the combined Forces of Evolution and Karma are (1) the Super-spiritual or noumenal ; (2) the Spiritual ; (3) the Psychic ; (4) the Astro-ethereal ; (5) the Sub-astral ; (6) the Vital ; and (7) the purely physical spheres.
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obtain Seven, the sacred number of life ; blend [the latter] with the middle Râjah, and thou wilt have Nine, the sacred number of BEING and BECOMING.” *
When the Western Orientalists have mastered the real meaning of the Rig Vedic divisions of the World — the two-fold, three-fold, six and seven-fold, and especially the nine-fold division, the mystery of the cyclic divisions applied to heaven and earth, gods and men, will become clearer to them than it is now. For —
“ There is a harmony of numbers in all nature ; in the force of gravity, in the planetary movements, in the laws of heat, light, electricity, and chemical affinity, in the forms of animals and plants, in the perception of the mind. The direction, indeed, of modern natural and physical science, is towards a generalization which shall express the fundamental laws of all, by one simple numerical ratio. We would refer to Professor Whewell’s ‘ Philosophy of the Inductive Sciences,’ and to Mr. Hay’s researches into the laws of harmonious colouring and form. From these it appears that the number seven is distinguished in the laws regulating the harmonious perception of forms, colours, and sounds, and probably of taste also, if we could analyse our sensations of this kind with mathematical accuracy.” (“ Medical Review,” July, 1844).
So much so, indeed, that more than one physician has stood aghast at the periodical septenary return of the cycles in the rise and fall of various complaints, and naturalists have felt themselves at an utter loss to explain this law. “ The birth, growth, maturity, vital functions . . . . change, diseases, decay and death, of insects, reptiles, fishes, birds, mammals, and even of man, are more or less controlled by a law of completion in weeks,” or seven days. † Dr. Laycock (Lancet, 1842-3), writing on the Periodicity of Vital Phenomena, records a “ most remarkable illustration and confirmation of the law in insects.” ‡
* In Hinduism, as understood by the Orientalists from the Atharvaveda, the three râjamsi refer to the three strides of Vishnu ; his ascending higher step, being taken in the highest world (A. V., VII., 99, 1, cf. 1 155, 5). It is the divo râjah, or the “ sky,” as they take it. But it is something besides this in Occultism. The sentence pâréshu, gûhyeshu, vrateshu, cf. 1, 155, 3, and IX., 75, 2 ; or again, verse X., 114, in Atharvaveda — has yet to be explained.
† H. Grattan Guinness, F.R.G.S., in his “ Approaching End of the Age.”
‡ Having given a number of illustrations from natural history, the doctor adds : “ The facts I have briefly glanced at are general facts, and cannot happen day after day in so many millions of animals of every kind, from the Larva or Ovum of a Minute Insect up to Man, at definite periods, from a mere chance or coincidence . . . I think it impossible to come to any less general conclusion than this, that in animals, changes occur every three and a half, seven, fourteen, twenty-one, or twenty-eight days, or at some definite number of weeks ” or septenary cycles. Again, the same Dr. Laycock states that : — “ Whatever type the fever may exhibit, there will be a paroxysm on the seventh day . . . the fourteenth will be remarkable as a day of amendment . . . ” (either cure or death taking place). “ If the fourth (paroxysm) be severe, and the fifth less so, the disease will end at the seventh paroxysm, and . . . change for the better . . . will be seen on the fourteenth day,
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To all of which Mr. Grattan Guinness, the author of “ The Approaching End of the Age,” says very pertinently, as he defends Biblical Chronology, “ And man’s life . . . is a week, a week of decades. ‘ The days of our years are threescore years and ten.’ Combining the testimony of all these facts, we are bound to admit that there prevails in organic nature a law of septiform periodicity, a law of completion in weeks ” (p. 269). Without accepting the conclusions, and especially the premises of the learned Founder of “ the East London Institute for Home and Foreign Missions,” the writer accepts and welcomes his researches in the occult chronology of the Bible. Just as, while rejecting the theories and hypotheses of modern Science and its generalizations, we bow before its great achievements in the world of the physical, or in all the minor details of material nature.
There is most assuredly an occult “ chronological system in Hebrew Scripture ” — the Kabala being its warrant ; there is in it “ a system of
namely, about three or four o’clock a.m., when the system is most languid.” (See “ Approaching End of the Age,” by Grattan Guinness, pp. 258 to 269, wherein this is quoted.
This is pure “ sooth-saying ” by cyclic calculations, and it is connected with Chaldean astrolatry and astrology. Thus materialistic Science — medicine, the most materialistic of all — applies our occult laws to diseases, studies natural history with its help, recognizes its presence as a fact in nature, and yet must needs pooh-pooh the same archaic knowledge when claimed by the Occultists. For if the mysterious Septenary Cycle is a law in nature, and it is one, as proven ; if it is found controlling the evolution and involution (or death) in the realms of entomology, icthyology and ornithology, as in the Kingdom of the Animal, mammalia and man — why cannot it be present and acting in Kosmos, in general, in its natural (though occult) divisions of time, races, and mental development ? And why, furthermore, should not the most ancient adepts have studied and thoroughly mastered these cyclic laws under all their aspects ? Indeed, Dr. Stratton states as a physiological and pathological fact, that “ in health the human pulse is more frequent in the morning than in the evening for six days out of seven ; and that on the seventh day it is slower.” (Ibid. Edinb. Med. and Surg. Journal, Jan. 1843.) Why, then, should not an Occultist show the same in cosmic and terrestrial life in the pulse of the planet and races ? Dr. Laycock divides life by three great septenary periods ; the first and last, each stretching over 21 years, and the central period or prime of life lasting 28 years, or four times seven. He subdivides the first into seven distinct stages, and the other two into three minor periods, and says that “ The fundamental unit of the greater periods is one week of seven days, each day being twelve hours ” ; and that “ single and compound multiples of this unit, determine the length of these periods by the same ratio, as multiples of the unit of twelve hours determine the lesser periods. This law binds all periodic vital phenomena together, and links the periods observed in the lowest annulose animals, with those of man himself, the highest of the vertebrata.” If Science does this, why should the latter scorn the Occult information, namely, that (speaking Dr. Laycock’s language) “ one week of the manvantaric (lunar) fortnight, of fourteen days (or seven manus), that fortnight of twelve hours in a day representing seven periods or seven races — is now passed ? ” This language of science fits our doctrine admirably. We (mankind) have lived over “ a week of seven days, each day being twelve hours,” since three and a half races are now gone for ever, the fourth is submerged, and we are now in the Fifth Race.
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weeks ” — which is based on the archaic Indian system, which may still be found in the old Jyotisha. * And there are in it cycles of “ the week of days,” of the “ week of months,” of years, of centuries, and even of millenniums, decamillenniums, and more, or “ the week of years of years.” † But all this can be found in the archaic doctrine. And if this common source of the chronology in every Scripture, however veiled, is denied in the case of the Bible, then the six days, and a Sabbath, the seventh, can hardly disconnect Genesis from the Purânic Cosmogonies. For the first “ Week of Creation ” shows the septiformity of its chronology and thus connects it with Brahmâ’s “ Seven Creations.” The able volume from the pen of Mr. Grattan Guinness, in which he has collected on some 760 pages every proof of that septiform calculation, is good evidence. For if the Bible chronology is, as he says, “ regulated by the law of weeks,” and if it is septenary, whatever the measures of the creation week and the length of its days ; and if, finally, “ the Bible system includes weeks on a great variety of scales,” then this system is shown to be identical with all the pagan systems. Moreover, the attempt to show that 4,320 years (in lunar months) elapsed between “ Creation ” and the Nativity, is a clear and unmistakable connection with the 4,320,000 of the Hindu Yugas. Otherwise, why make such efforts to prove that these figures, which are pre-eminently Chaldean and Indo-Aryan, play such a part in the New Testament ? We shall prove it now still more forcibly.
Let the impartial critic compare the two accounts — the Vishnu Purâna and the Bible — and he will find that the “ seven creations ” of Brahmâ are at the foundation of the “ week ” of creation in Genesis i. The two allegories are different, but the systems are all built on the same foundation-stone. The Bible can be understood only by the light of the Kabala. Take the Zohar, the “ Book of Concealed Mystery,” however now disfigured, and compare. The seven Rishis and the fourteen Manus of the seven Manvantaras — issue from Brahmâ’s head ; they are his “ mind-born sons,” and it is with them that begins the division of mankind and its races from the Heavenly man, “ the Logos ” (the manifested), who is Brahmâ Prajâpati. Says (V. 70 in) the “ Ha Idra Rabba Qadisha ” (the Greater Holy Assembly) of the skull (head)
* See for the length of such cycles or Yugas in Vriddha Garga and other ancient astronomical Sections (Jyotisha). They vary from the cycle of five years — which Colebrooke calls “ the cycle of the Vedas,” specified in the institutes of Parasâra, “ and the basis of calculation for larger cycles ” (Miscell. Essays, Vol, I., pp. 106 and 108) — up to the Mahayuga or the famous cycle of 4,320,000 years.
† The Hebrew word for “ week ” is Seven ; and any length of time divided by Seven would have been a “ week ” in their day, even 49,000,000 years, as it is seven times seven millions. But their calculation is throughout septiform.
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of Macroprosopus, the ancient One * (Sanat, an appellation of Brahmâ), that in every one of his hairs is a “ hidden fountain issuing from the concealed brain.” “ And it shineth and goeth forth through that hair unto the hair of Microprosopus, and from it (which is the manifest Quaternary, the Tetragrammaton) his brain is formed ; and thence that brain goeth into thirty and two paths ” (or the triad and the duad, or again 432). And again : (V. 80) “ Thirteen curls of hair exist on the one side and on the other of the skull ” — i.e., six on one and six on the other, the thirteenth being also the fourteenth, as it is male-female, “ and through them commenceth the division of the hair ” (the division of things, Mankind and Races).
“ We six are lights which shine forth from a seventh (light),” saith Rabbi Abba ; “ thou art the seventh light ” (the synthesis of us all, he adds, speaking of Tetragrammaton and his seven “ companions,” whom he calls “ the eyes of Tetragrammaton.”)
Tetragrammaton is Brahmâ Prajâpati, who assumed four forms, in order to create four kinds of supernal creatures, i.e., made himself four-fold, or the manifest Quaternary (see Vishnu Purâna, Book I. ch. V.) ; and who, after that, is re-born in the seven Rishis, his Manasaputras, “ mind-born sons,” who became later, 9, 21 and so on, who are all said to be born from various parts of Brahmâ. †
* Brahmâ creates in the first Kalpa (day one) various “ sacrificial animals ” pasu — or the celestial bodies and the Zodiacal signs, and plants which he uses in sacrifices at the opening of Treta Yuga. The esoteric meaning of it shows him proceeding cyclically and creating astral prototypes on the descending spiritual arc and then on the ascending physical arc. The latter is the sub-division of a two-fold creation, subdivided again into seven descending and seven ascending degrees of spirit falling, and of matter ascending — the inverse of what takes place (as in a mirror which reflects the right on the left side) in this manvantara of ours. It is the same, esoterically, in the Elohistic Genesis (chap. i.), and in the Jehovistic copy, as in Hindu cosmogony.
† It is very surprising to see theologians and Oriental scholars express indignation at the “ depraved taste of the Hindu mystics ” who, not content with having invented the “ Mind-born ” Sons of Brahmâ, make the Rishis, Manus, and Prajâpatis of every kind spring from various parts of the body of their primal Progenitor — Brahmâ (see Wilson’s footnote in his Vishnu Purâna, Vol. I., p. 102). Because the average public is unacquainted with the Kabala, the key to, and glossary of, the much veiled Mosaic Books, therefore, the clergy imagines the truth will never out. Let any one turn to the English, Hebrew, or Latin texts of the Kabala, now so ably translated by several scholars, and he will find that the Tetragrammaton, which is the Hebrew IHVH, is also both the “ Sephirothal Tree ” — i.e., it contains all the Sephiroth except Kether, the crown — and the united body of the “ Heavenly man ” (Adam Kadmon) from whose limbs emanate the Universe and everything in it. Furthermore, he will find that the idea in the Kabalistic Books (the chief of which in the Zohar are the “ Books of Concealed Mystery,” of the “ Greater,” and the “ Lesser Holy Assembly ”) is entirely phallic and far more crudely expressed than is the four-fold Brahmâ in any of the Purânas. (See “ Kabala Unveiled,” by Mr. S. L. Mathers, Chap. xxii., concerning the remaining members of Microprosopus).
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There are two Tetragrammatons : the Macro and the Microprosopus. The first is the absolute perfect Square, or the Tetractis within the Circle, both abstract conceptions, and is therefore called Ain — the Non-being, i.e., illimitable or absolute Be-ness. But when viewed as Microprosopus, or the “ Heavenly man,” the manifested Logos, he is the triangle in the square — the sevenfold cube not the fourfold, or the plane Square. For it is written in the same “ Greater Holy Assembly ” — (83). “ And concerning this, the children of Israel wished to know in their minds, like as it is written (Exod. xvii. 7.) : ‘ Is the Tetragrammaton in the midst of us, or the Negatively Existent One ? ’ * (Where did they distinguish between Microprosopus, who is called Tetragrammaton, and between Macroprosopus, who is called Ain, Ain the negatively existent ? )” †
Therefore, Tetragrammaton is the three made four and the four made three, and is represented on this Earth by his seven “ companions,” or “ Eyes ” — the “ Seven eyes of the Lord.” Microprosopus is, at best, only a secondary manifested Deity. For, verse 1,152 of the “ Greater Holy Assembly ” (Kabala) says —
“ We have learned that there were ten (companions) who entered into the Sod, (‘ mysterious assembly or mystery ’), and that seven only came forth ” ‡ (i.e., 10 for the unmanifested, 7 for the manifested Universe.)
1,158. “ And when Rabbi Shimeon revealed the Arcana there were found none present there save those (seven companions). 1,159.
And Rabbi Shimeon called them the seven eyes of Tetragrammaton, like as it is written, Zach. iii., 9, ‘ These are the seven eyes (or principles) of Tetragrammaton,’ ” — i.e., the four-fold Heavenly man, or pure spirit, is resolved into Septenary man, pure matter and Spirit.
Thus the Tetrad is Microprosopus, and the latter is the male-female Chochmah-Binah, the 2d and 3d Sephiroth. The Tetragrammaton is the very essence of number Seven, in its terrestrial significance. Seven stands between four and nine — the basis and foundation (astrally) of our physical world and man, in the kingdom of Malkuth.
For Christians and believers, this reference to Zaccharias and
For, this “ Tree of Life ” is also the “ tree of knowledge of good and evil,” whose chief mystery is that of human procreation. It is a mistake to regard the Kabala as explaining the mysteries of Kosmos or Nature ; it explains and unveils only a few allegories in the Bible, and is more esoteric than is the latter.
* Simplified in the English Bible to : “ Is the Lord (! !) among us, or not ? ” (See Exodus xvii. 7.)
† See Kabala Denudata, by S. Liddell MacGregor Mathers, F.T.S., p. 121.
‡ Translators often render the word “ companion ” (angel, also adept) by “ Rabbi,” as the Rishis are called gurus. The “ Zohar ” is, if possible, more occult than the Books of Moses ; to read the “ Book of Concealed Mystery ” one requires the keys furnished by the genuine “ Chaldean Book of Numbers,” which is not extant.
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especially to the Epistle of Peter (1 P. ii. 2-5) ought to be conclusive. In the old symbolism, man, chiefly the inner Spiritual man is called “ a stone.” Christ is the corner-stone, and Peter refers to all men as “ lively ” (living) stones. Therefore a “ stone with seven eyes ” on it can only mean what we say, i.e., a man whose constitution or (“ principles,”) is septenary.
To demonstrate more clearly the seven in Nature, it may be added that not only does the number seven govern the periodicity of the phenomena of life, but that it is also found dominating the series of chemical elements, and equally paramount in the world of sound and in that of colour as revealed to us by the spectroscope. This number is the factor, sine quâ non, in the production of occult astral phenomena.
Thus, if the chemical elements are arranged in groups according to their atomic weights, they will be found to constitute a series of groups of seven ; the first, second, etc., members of each group bearing a close analogy in all their properties to the corresponding members of the next group. The following table, copied from Hellenbach’s Magie der Zahlen, exhibits this law and fully warrants the conclusion he draws in the following words : “ We thus see that chemical variety, so far as we can grasp its inner nature, depends upon numerical relations, and we have further found in this variety a ruling law for which we can assign no cause ; we find a law of periodicity governed by the number seven.”
| Row | Group I |
Group II |
Group III |
Group IV |
Group V |
Group VI |
Group VII |
Group VIII |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| H 1 | ||||||||
| 1 | L 7 | Be 9.3 | B 11 | C 12 | N 14 | O 16 | Pl 19 | – |
| 2 | Na 23 | Mg 24 | Ai 27.3 | Si 28 | P 31 | S 32 | Cl 35.4 | – |
| 3 | K 39 | Ca 40 | – 44 | Ti 48 | V 51 | Cr 52.4 | Mn 54.8 |
 Fe 56. Co 58.6 Ni 58. Cu 63.3 |
| 4 | Cu 63.3 | Zn 65 | Ga 682 | – 72 | As 75 | Se 78 | Br 79.5 | |
| 5 | Rb 85.2 | Sr 87.2 | Y 89.5 | Zr 90 | Nb 94 | Mo 96 | – 100 | Ru 103 Rh 104 Pd 106 Ag 107.6 |
| 6 | Ag 107.6 | Cd 111.6 | In 113.4 | Sn 118 | Sb 122 | Te 125 | J 126.5 | – |
| 7 | Cs 132.5 | Ba 136.8 | La 139 | Ce 140 | Di 144 | – | – | – |
| 8 | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – |
| 9 | – | – | Er. 178 | – | Ta 182 | W 184 | – | Os 196. Jr 196.7 Pr 196.7. Au 197 |
| 10 | Au 197 | Hg 200 | Tl 204 | Pb 206 | Bi 210 | – | – |
The eighth column in this list is, as it were, the octave of the first, containing elements almost identical in chemical and other properties with those in the first ; a phenomenon which accentuates the septenary law of periodicity. For further details the reader is referred to Hellenbach’s
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work, where it is also shown that this classification is confirmed by the spectroscopic peculiarities of the elements.
It is needless to refer in detail to the number of vibrations constituting the notes of the musical scale ; they are strictly analogous to the scale of chemical elements, and also to the scale of colour as unfolded by the spectroscope, although in the latter case we deal with only one octave, while both in music and chemistry we find a series of seven octaves represented theoretically, of which six are fairly complete and in ordinary use in both sciences. Thus, to quote Hellenbach : —
“ It has been established that, from the standpoint of phenomenal law, upon which all our knowledge rests, the vibrations of sound and light increase regularly, that they divide themselves into seven columns, and that the successive numbers in each column are closely allied ; i.e., that they exhibit a close relationship which not only is expressed in the figures themselves, but also is practically confirmed in chemistry as in music, in the latter of which the ear confirms the verdict of the figures. . . . . . The fact that this periodicity and variety is governed by the number seven is undeniable, and it far surpasses the limits of mere chance, and must be assumed to have an adequate cause, which cause must be discovered.”
Verily, then, as Rabbi Abbas said : “ We are six lights which shine forth from a seventh (light) ; thou (Tetragrammaton) art the seventh light (the origin) of us all ; ” (V. 1,160) and — “ For assuredly there is no stability in those six, save what they derive from the seventh. For all things depend from the seventh.” (V. 1,161. Kabala, “ The Greater Holy Assembly.”)
The (ancient and modern) Western American Zuñi Indians seem to have entertained similar views. Their present-day customs, their traditions and records, all point to the fact that, from time immemorial, their institutions — political, social and religious — were (and still are) shaped according to the septenary principle. Thus all their ancient towns and villages were built in clusters of six, around a seventh. It is always a group of seven, or of thirteen, and always the six surround the seventh. Again, their sacerdotal hierarchy is composed of six “ Priests of the House ” seemingly synthesized in the seventh, who is a woman, the “ Priestess Mother.” Compare this with the “ seven great officiating priests ” spoken of in Anugîtâ, the name given to the “ seven senses,” exoterically, and to the seven human principles, esoterically. Whence this identity of symbolism ? Shall we still doubt the fact of Arjuna going over to Pâtâla (the Antipodes, America) and there marrying Ulûpi, the daughter of the Nâga (or rather Nargal) King ? But to the Zuñi priests.
These receive an annual tribute, to this day, of corn of seven colours. Undistinguished from other Indians during the whole year, on a certain day, they come out (the six priests and one priestess) arrayed in their
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priestly robes, each of a colour sacred to the particular God whom the priest serves and personifies ; each of them representing one of the seven regions, and each receiving corn of the colour corresponding to that region. Thus, the white represents the East, because from the East comes the first Sun-light ; the yellow, corresponds to the North, from the colour of the flames produced by the aurora borealis ; the red, the South, as from that quarter comes the heat ; the blue stands for the West, the colour of the Pacific Ocean, which lies to the West ; black is the colour of the nether underground region — darkness ; corn with grains of all colours on one ear represents the colours of the upper region — of the firmament, with its rosy and yellow clouds, shining stars, etc. The “ speckled ” corn — each grain containing all the colours — is that of the “ Priestess-Mother ” : woman containing in herself the seeds of all races past, present and future ; Eve being the mother of all living.
Apart from these was the Sun — the Great Deity — whose priest was the spiritual head of the nation. These facts were ascertained by Mr. F. Hamilton Cushing, who, as many are aware, became an Indian Zuñi, lived with them, was initiated into their religious mysteries, and has learned more about them than any other man now living.
Seven is also the great magic number. In the occult records the weapon mentioned in the Purânas and the Mahabhârata — the Agneyâstra or “ fiery weapon ” bestowed by Aurva upon his chela Sagara — is said to be built of seven elements. This weapon — supposed by some ingenious Orientalists to have been a “ rocket ” (!) — is one of the many thorns in the side of our modern Sanskritists. Wilson exercises his penetration over it, on several pages in his Specimens of the Hindu Theatre, and finally fails to explain it. He can make nothing out of the Agneyâstra. “ These weapons,” he argues, “ are of a very unintelligible character. Some of them are wielded as missiles ; but, in general, they appear to be mystical powers exercised by the individual — such as those of paralysing an enemy, or locking his senses fast in sleep, or bringing down storm, and rain, and fire, from heaven. (Vide supra, pp. 427 and 428.) . . . . They assume celestial shapes, endowed with human faculties. . . . . The Râmâyana calls them the Sons of Krisâswa ” (p. 297).
The Sastra-devatâs, “ gods of the divine weapons,” are no more Agneyâstra, the weapon, than the gunners of modern artillery are the cannon they direct. But this simple solution did not seem to strike the eminent Sanskritist. Nevertheless, as he himself says of the armiform progeny of Krisâswa, “ the allegorical origin of the (Agneyâstra) weapons is, undoubtedly, the more ancient.” * It is the fiery javelin of Brahmâ.
* It is. But Agneyâstra are fiery “ missile weapons,” not “ edged ” weapons, as there is some difference between Sastra and Astra in Sanskrit.
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The seven-fold Agneyâstra, like the seven senses and the “ seven principles,” symbolized by the seven priests, are of untold antiquity. How old is the doctrine believed in by Theosophists, the following section will tell.