Chapter 707

[←698]

Hippocrates said that number seven “by its occult virtues tended to the accomplishment of all things, to be the dispenser of life and fountain of all its changes.” The life of man he divided into seven ages, as did Shakespeare, for “as the moon changes her phases every seven days, this number influences all sublunary beings,” and even the Earth, as we know. The teeth of a child appear in the seventh month, and he sheds them at seven years; at twice seven puberty begins, at three times seven his mental and vital powers are developed, at four times seven he is in his full strength, at five times seven his passions are most developed, etc. Thus also for the Earth; it is now in its middle age, yet very little wiser for it. The Tetragrammaton, the four-lettered sacred name of the Deity, can be resolved on Earth only by becoming septenary through the manifest Triangle proceeding from the concealed Tetraktys. Therefore, the number seven has to be adopted on this plane. As written in the Kabalah (“The Greater Holy Assembly,” v. 1161): “For assuredly there is no stability in those six, save (what they derive) from the seventh. For all things depend from the seventh.” (S. L. MacGregor Mathers’ Kabbalah, p. 255.)