You may have noticed, if you’ve been following such posts, that I have changed the title of this series to remove “seven” and replace it with “six”. By the end of the post I hope this makes complete sense. However, I had collected some information about the number seven and so I will still present it, even though it is now only background information to the eventual explanation of the number six. You will see what I mean as you read on!
The Seven
I have written several times about the seven orders – the septenary – the seven parts of the soul as it is diffracted into our solar-oriented and organised society. Much of this is common knowledge to most students of the esoteric arts and mystery traditions.
For the Solar-aligned cultures we have inherited such recognisable scales as:-
- The rainbow colours
- The chakras
- The planets
- The days of the week
- The number of heavens
These systems are a reflection of the seven-fold division of the soul – the rays of the original light diffracted. By tradition, five of the aspects of the soul are tangible and knowable, whilst two are hidden or esoteric and intangible. They are referred to as the five known and the two hidden, and this is a recurring theme. The upper two chakras are associated with spirituality – the Third Eye and the Crown chakras; in the days of the week two of the days are specially designated for not working.
Of the planets the ancients only wrote about the five major bodies (the ‘classical’ planets – Mars, Mercury, Venus, Saturn and Jupiter), plus the Sun and the Moon. They left out the farther planets, even though some researchers have suggested that ancient people knew of these outer planets in some detail – namely Neptune and Uranus [cf. Sitchin]. Although such knowledge is mainly based upon interpretation of ancient pictures, our dowsing in stone circles shows that some circles have quite deliberate alignments and influences from those two planets – in fact, they feature quite regularly.
In terms of the senses it was considered that there were five senses, but two additional ones that were hidden: our awareness of ourselves in space (vestibular), and our inner awareness (proprioceptive). Five known, two hidden, making a system of seven.
The Septenary is believed to have been the basis for the earlier culture, from which the dodecanery – the twelve – arose. Seven is associated with mystery, virginity and the divine. Twelve is the number of civilisation – it is the structural number. Twelve gives us the template from which to create our earth copies of the celestial perfection (“As above, so below”). Both seven and twelve are widely adopted by sun-worshipping civilisations all over the world. We can see therefore that when the divine mystery is mapped out in the heavens and brought to earth then we get paradise on Earth.
The concept of The Seven and The Twelve, and their relationship to human culture, is fully explained in a book by John Michell and Christine Rhone called “Twelve Tribe Nations“.
The Energy Body
The Seven for me are the internal forces that I have to learn how to absorb, diffract and integrate, and to control. They align with the seven chakra points, and their frequencies resonate at those points in my energetic body. My energy body is the aura of energy that permeates me, and extends beyond the confines of my physical body. The energy body contains filaments of energy and have several (seven or more) places where these filaments collect together, and these points are known as chakras.
Symbolically, I correlate those seven forces with the seven planets, as though to map my progress by the planets and their journey through the astrological associations that they have with their respective constellations. In this way I can also trace the astral factors that will affect the frequencies that I am trying to work with, and will be able to chart my progress with these powers of consciousness and magick over time by plotting them against the cycle of the stars throughout the year. In other words, the changes in energy of the year’s seasonal cycle also affect the energy coming into and out of my energy body.
The concept of working with each of the planetary influences up through towards enlightenment is an old idea that goes back to the Mystery Traditions, and has permeated into Indian Mysticism, Hermeticism, Alchemy and many other metaphysical techniques of human advancement.
Chakras and Astrology
The caduceus is two spiralling snakes that cross at seven points, linking the symbol of the snakes/dragon/subtle energy forces with the concept of consciousness.
“The central secret is to know that the various human passions and feelings and emotions in the human heart are not wrong in themselves; only they have to be carefully controlled and given a higher and higher direction, until they attain the very highest condition of excellence.” (Vivekananda – Indian religious leader and teacher 1863-1902)
The seven chakras fit alongside the planets and the astrological signs like this:-
FIRE
- (7) Crown chakra – Sun in Leo
- (6) Third-Eye chakra – Moon in Cancer
AIR
- (5) Throat chakra – Mercury in Virgo
- (4) Heart chakra – Venus in Libra
WATER
- (3) Solar Plexus chakra – Mars in Scorpio
EARTH
- (2) Navel chakra – Jupiter in Sagittarius
- (1) Sacral chakra – Saturn in Capricorn
Notice that in this chart, Venus is fourth and not fifth (a relationship I mentioned in my previous post in this series). There are many classifications such as this, but the chart above seems to work on many levels for me. You may find alternatives that work better for you. Justifications can be found for most numerological concepts, just as statistics can be made to say anything you want them to!
The Seventh (Crown) Chakra (or the Seventh Seal, or Seventh Heaven perhaps) is the last of the portals or gateways of the energetic body or aura. It represents the completion of a system. It is located at the top of the head, commonly referred to as the crown. Signified by a violet colouration the crown chakra is associated with a link to the higher self, the spiritual essence, whether that be within or without the energetic body. Some cultures go further and consider two further chakras outside of the body to be important for magical working and soul development, but these may be discussed at a later time.
Six – The overlooked number
“Ajna is white in colour, with 2 white petals. Inside of the pericarp is the Shakti Hakini, who is moon white, with 6 faces, and 6 arms, holding a book, a skull, a drum, a rosary, and making the gestures of granting boons and dispelling fears.” (source: Wikipedia)
From a concept of the life force (earth energy symbolised as the sacred number five) I was led to the spiritual force (magical energy symbolised as the sacred number seven). The combination of these two should have been twelve – the sacred number of accomplishment and total union, but instead I received information that the number I needed to embrace was…eleven. Neither I nor very many others, it would seem, are aware of a sacred significance to the number eleven.
How was The Six overlooked? Sometimes the dowsing rods can lead you one way in order for you to arrive somewhere else. I needed to examine and understand the Seven before I could understand the Six. By doing the sums with five, seven and twelve I saw how the solar-aligned person would arrive at this formula. Having been given the start of Five, and the end number of Eleven I was thus able to arrive at The Six by my own route, learning about the Seven and Twelve along the way.
Summing The Five and The Six
I had been taken through the associations of the number five. I had dowsed that I needed to work with the number eleven. The number seven seemed culturally to be the significant number, but mathematically the remainder would be six. Then I find the mapping table for the relationship of the chakra to its astrological equivalent and find that the lunar number is six. There it is! A society based upon man and life (5) and upon moon-worship and magic (6) would have created a veneration for that union by immortalising the number eleven. In homage to those more feminine-oriented cultures of the Megalith Builders I have a phrase to describe their system, even though it may never have even existed – The Unadenary, and that is what I will describe next.
Gwas.
