ruben stelzner

“The fates lead the willing, and drag along the unwilling.”

Seneca

“The fates lead the willing, and drag along the unwilling.”

Seneca

The Meaning of Number 7: The Beyond, the Irrational, Chance, and the Subconscious

The symbolism of 7 can only be understood once you know the principles of the numbers that come before it: while the numbers 4, 5, and 6 describe our tangible world (4), the individual that emerges from it (5), and that individual’s functional role within it (6), in other words, everything around our concrete, lived-in world, the number 7 brings an entirely different kind of principle onto the stage (for background on the previous numbers, see “The Principle of Numbers”). In the philosophy of numbers, the number 7 is the first representative of principles that seem to reach beyond our world. What does that mean? The 7 represents the unconscious, the inexplicable, and the mysterious.

It stands for what can’t be measured, the irrational, and often the beyond or the ungraspably divine: in other words, something we can never fully grasp, because it reaches beyond our own death. The same way we can’t remember our own birth, or ever fully understand what happens after death. Among the universal principles, the 7 also stands for chance and fate: things of a seemingly higher nature that we encounter in our lives. Because of this mysterious character, the number 7 has always held the greatest fascination of all the numbers. The 7 symbolically represents the “shadow world,” a mirror to our own world that lies beyond it, yet still has an influence on our world, the same way the subconscious, dreams, fate, and chance have an influence on us.

Mirror: A Symbol of the “Counter-World” (Number 7)

No number appears in fairy tales and myths as often as the number 7. It confronts the hero with what he’s missing, with his dark side, with the forces of evil he’d love to avoid, but has to face if he wants to solve the riddle. The truly great hero knows how to handle the symbolism of 7 instead of shutting it out, like Hans in Luck, who leaves his old master in his seventh year of service and keeps running into exactly what he needs, on his way home, to bring that need full circle. Or Snow White, who has to seek out the seven dwarfs behind the seven mountains before she can finally find deliverance from her stepmother. It’s the frog who brings the princess her golden ball up from the dark, otherworldly well, confronting her with exactly what she’s missing, something she’ll have to integrate into her life from that point on (see the post on Numbers in Fairy Tales and Schaefflertanz Munich).

Synonyms for the Number 7:

The subconscious, fate, chance, luck, and irrationality.
Symbols include the mirror, the scales, and the shadow world.

Question:

Have you ever had the experience where something that seemed to cross your path purely by chance turned out to belong to you somehow, and mattered more than you expected? The following story captures the principle of 7 vividly:

Good or Bad?

A poor farmer owns only one thing of value: a horse. One day, the horse runs off. The neighbor comes by and laments the terrible loss. The farmer listens, then shrugs his shoulders: “Is it good or bad?”

The next day, the horse comes back, bringing an entire herd of wild horses with it. The neighbor comes by again and enthusiastically welcomes this stroke of unexpected luck. The farmer listens, shrugs his shoulders, and says: “Is it good or bad?”

Then, one day, his son breaks a leg while trying to break in one of the wild horses. The neighbor comes rushing over again, grumbling about the misfortune, and the farmer answers: “Is that good or bad?”

A war breaks out, and the farmer’s son is the only one not drafted, since his broken leg makes him unfit for service. The neighbor doesn’t wait long, hurries over, and congratulates him on this fortunate turn of events. The farmer shrugs his shoulders and answers once again: “Is that good or bad?”

Quotes on the Meaning of Number 7:

„Our days may come to seventy years, or eighty, if our strength endures.“
(Psalm 90,10)

„The days of men are cast up by septenaries, and every seventh year conceived to carry some altering character in temper of mind or body.“
(Sir Thomas Browne)

„The number seven, by virtue of its occult powers, tends to bring all things to pass. It dispenses life and is the source of all change…“
(Attributed to Hippocrates)

Related Topics:

For the meaning of the other numbers, see: The Principle of Numbers.

Image credit: iStock.com/LagartoFilm (numbers on a green background)
iStock.com/Janis Abolins (mirror figure)