7 is one of the most important number in history. It would be hard to ignore :
Why is 7 such an important number? What are the other societies it had an important place in?
In Ancient Egypt, the numer seven was considered a symbol of perfection and efficiency. In many myths, the number 7 is used for both good and bad events.
Then Ra repented. His fierce anger passed away, and he sought to save the remnant of mankind. He sent messengers, who ran swifter than the storm wind, unto Elephantine, so that they might obtain speedily many plants of virtue. These they brought back, and they were well ground and steeped with barley in vessels filled with the blood of mankind. So was beer made and seven thousand jars were filled with it.
In the seventh hour-division sits Osiris, divine judge of the dead.
You can find these texts and more here. Wikipedia lists a lot of occurences of the number 7.
This idea of perfection and completeness is found in judeo-christian beliefs as well :
Roy Alan Anderson in Unfolding the Revelationi notices that to the Hebrew: 6 represented unrest, 7 perfection and 8 victory. When the number is repeated then it signifies an eternal quality. For example 666 would signify eternal unrest.
Note that the repetition is 3 times - three being the number of holiness.
The number 7 is extremely frequent in Christianity - the Book Of Revelations mentions 7 churches, 7 trumpets, 7 bowls, 7 seals and 7 spirits. This tends to confirm that 7 is used to make a complete set.
While the reason about the origin of the number 7 in Egypt is hard to know, there are sources trying to explain where the 7 came to mean "perfection" in christian myths.
The Greeks considered 6 to be a perfect number, because of its divisibility. A sixth is one, or unity. A third is two, a half is 3, etc. The foot is also a sixth of the human size, so 6 represented the human. Finally, it is the sum of its divisers. More here.
Pope Gregory I found similar properties in the number 7, aswell as considering it representing eternity according to Dialectics and Humanism, vol. VII, no. 2. One of the reasons given for his fascination with the number is its presence in Antique history : the Seven Wonders, the seven stages of man, the seven planets...
The number Seven always represented a complete set.
This changed a lot - While Saint Augustine wrote that the world had been created in 6 days, this changed to 7 in the Middle Ages.
The reason behind the Seven Sages of Greece seems thus not to be linked to mythology or religion.
It is said that that there are 7 chakaras in Human body. Please search "7 chakras meditation" on Google Images. Which are at times said to be related to the 7 colors of rainbow, Which are also in the same sequence, VIBGYOR. From Head to toe. Having activated all the 7 chakras in a human body is a person which complete knowledge of the spirituality, about the Jiv,atma, Janardana, and relation of jiv -atma-janardana. These chakras can be activated by particular humming or chating sound of typical letters. As mythology and Hindiuism always have expressed phsycological conserns about human mind, I believe that 7 have has to be related to these chakras.
One example of sevenness is that there are seven "planets" normally visible to the naked eye. Since ancient times, this has been expressed in the length of the week: seven days.
By "planet", I mean a celestial object that moves against the background of the fixed stars. So the list includes both the Sun and the Moon but not Uranus, which is visible but only on very dark nights by those with keen eyesight.
These "planets", listed in Chaldean order, namely in order of how fast they move against the fixed stars, from slowest to fastest, are
Given a day of 24 hours, start by labelling the first hour of the week after Saturn, the second after Jupiter, and so on, returning to Saturn after the Moon. Each day is said to be governed by the planet after which its first hour is named after (hours numbered 1, 25, 49, etc.).
In Latin:
This correspondence is still seen in the names of the days in French, except for Sunday (dimanche):
