The Magus, Book I: The Celestial Intelligencer: Chapter XXII: Of The Number Seven, And The Scale

THE number Seven is of various and manifold power; for it consists of one and six, or of two and five, or of three and four; and it hath a unity, as it were the coupling together of two threes: whence if we consider the several parts thereof, and the joining together of them, without doubt we shall confess that it is, as well by the joining together of the parts thereof as by its fulness apart, most full of all majesty. And the Pythagorians call it the vehiculum of man's life, which it doth not receive from its parts so, as it perfects by its

1 The veins, also, and arteries, as physicians say, are moved by the seventh number. Also, judgments in diseases are made with greater manifestation upon the seventh day, which physicians call critical, i. e. judicial. Also, of seven portions God creates the soul;--the soul, also, receives the body by seven degrees. All difference of voices proceeds to the seventh degree, after which there is the same revolution. Again, there are seven modulations of the voices: ditonus, semiditonus, diatesseron, diapente with a tone, diapente with a half tone, and diapason. There are also, in celestials, a most potent power of the number seven; for seeing there are four corners of the Heaven diametrically looking one towards the other, which indeed is accounted a most full and powerful aspect, and consists of the number seven; for it is made with the seventh sign, and makes a cross, the most powerful figure of all, of which we shall speak in its due place;--but this you must not be ignorant of, that the number seven hath a great communion with the cross. By the same radiation and number the solstice is distant from winter, and the winter equinoctium from the summer, all which are done by seven signs. There are also seven circles in the Heavens, according to the longitudes of the axle-tree. There are seven stars about the Arctic Pole, greater and lesser, called Charles Wain; also seven stars called the Pleiades; and seven planets, according to those seven days constituting a week. The Moon is the seventh of the planets, and next to us, observing this number more than the rest, this number dispensing the motion and light thereof; for in twenty-eight days, it runs round the compass of the whole Zodiac; which number of days, the number seven with its seven terms, viz. from one to seven, doth make and fill up as much as the

viz. the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and strength, the spirit of knowledge and holiness, the spirit of fear of the Lord,

THE SCALE OF THE NUMBER SEVEN.

119:1 There have been some exceptions to this affirmation, one of which fell under my notice of late years: Doctor Edward Spry, of Plymouth Dock, Philosopher, Cabalist, and Physician, lived upwards of two years upon a gooseberry a day in summer, and an oat cake and three glasses of white wine the rest of the season, per day: this gentleman was particularly abstemious in his diet.