The Seven
The number of the planets, the days, and the stages.
The Seven: what does it mean in analytical psychology?
Seven was the number of the planets the ancients knew, and so of the metals, the days, the heavens, and the stages of the soul’s ascent; the alchemists counted the stages of the work in sevens as often as in fours. In 1916 Jung wrote a small Gnostic text of his own, Seven Sermons to the Dead.
The Seven: where does it appear in myth and tradition?
The seven days of creation, the seven heavens, the seven chakras of the later Kundalini texts, the seven sleepers of Ephesus, the seven deadly sins.
From the Sources
Silberer suggests that the dominance of the number seven may derive from the scientific doctrines of the seven planets, the seven metals and the seven tones of the diatonic scale.
“It may easily happen that the domination of the number 7 is to be derived from the infusion of the scientific doctrines (7 planets, 7 metals, 7 tones in the diatonic scale)”
Dr. Herbert Silberer, Problems of Mysticism and its Symbolism, Part III, Section II, 'The Goal of the Work'. Translated by Smith Ely Jelliffe, M.D., Ph.D.; New York: Moffat, Yard and Company, 1917 (Internet Archive OCR text). The text, read in part
Redgrove explains that because seven metals, seven planets (counting the sun and moon) and seven days of the week were known, an occult connection was concluded between the planets, metals and days.
“It so happened that the ancients were acquainted with seven metals and seven planets (including the sun and moon as planets), and the days of the week are also seven. It was concluded, therefore, that there was some occult connection between the planets, metals, and days of the week.”
H. Stanley Redgrove, Bygone Beliefs: Being a Series of Excursions in the Byways of Thought, Chapter VI, 'The Belief in Talismans'. Project Gutenberg eBook #1271. The text, read in part
Each passage is quoted from the text named, which the press fetched and read, and was checked word for word against a fresh copy of it; the link opens that copy. Passages are given as printed, without the editors’ footnote numbers, and with words broken across lines joined.
Where to Read
- Septem Sermones ad Mortuos (1916), in Memories, Dreams, Reflections and The Red Book
- Psychology and Alchemy, CW 12
Jung’s writings are cited by the volume of the Collected Works (CW), Bollingen Series / Princeton, 1953–79.
Related Symbols
Also among Numbers
“Learn as much as you can about symbolism; then forget it all when you are analysing a dream.”
Cite This Entry
“The Seven.” In Symbols of the Psyche, the Symbolarium. The Thinking Press, 2026. https://thethinkingpress.org/symbolarium/psyche/seven.
Nearby in the alphabet: Separatio: Dividing the one into two, so it can be known. The Serpent: The chthonic, the healing, and the wise. The Shadow: The side of the personality one does not wish to be. Silver: The metal of the moon.