Silver Jewelry Alchemy And The Number 7 – Part II The 7 Days Of The Week

Seven days of creation, seventh heaven, seven seas, seven continents, seven wonders, seven pillars of wisdom, seven heavenly virtues, lucky seven, the magnificent seven, seven up, seven eleven …it seems as if the number seven surrounds us.

Over 7000 years ago, after the discoveries of the gold, silver and copper the first ‘Seven Metals Of Antiquity’, there existed a culture of visionaries who lived in the Mesopotamian city of Babylon, they were known as the Chaldaean oracles. The Chaldaeans were fundamentally alchemists believing ‘As it is above, so it is below’.

According to the Chaldaeans everything was inextricably linked. They believed the interpretation of events on earth, of men’s characters and dispositions, were made possible by observing the movements of the planets. We have come to know their prophecies as astrology. While observing the motions of the stars above, the Chaldaeans realized the existence of order in the procession of the planets in the sky, they translated this order into numbers. We have come to know these mathematical prophecies as astronomy.

Expressing the movements in numbered measurements the Chaldaeans developed the 12-month ‘Solar’ calendar, conceptualized the twelve signs of the zodiac, this in turn led to the establishment of the two 12 hour divisions of night and day. They went on to establish the monthly period, derived from the 28-day Lunar cycle with each period possessing it’s own full Moon. One theory is that the Chaldaeans based this time period on the female reproductive cycle. This may also explain why the Moon has always had a female identity being governed over by female deities of fertility.

Being alchemists the Chaldaeans, basing the existence of time on the movements of the seven celestial bodies above, followed by recreating a microcosmic mirror image on Earth below. The Chaldeans already associated each of the seven planets with the names of the Babylonian gods: Moon Nanna, Jupiter Marduk, Venus Ishtar, Saturn Ninib, Mercury Nebo, Mars Nergal, Sun Shamash, they then connected each planet and its god to a designated time period.

These systems were later adopted and developed by the Greeks, and subsequently the Romans, who after replacing the original Babylonian deities with their own assigned each of the seven planetary bodies with a day. Later, in northern Europe, the Teutonic and Nordic tribes, who spawned the Anglo Saxon language, added to the list of deities.

Under Judeo-Christian influences the sequence of the 7 days of the week was calculated on the proximity of each of the 7 planets to the Earth, starting with the Moon, then Mercury, Venus, Sun, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn. The planets were then placed in reverse order and numbered in running rotation through a 24 hour period starting with Saturn: 1=Saturn, 2=Jupiter, 3=Mars, 4=Sun, 5=Venus, 6=Mercury, 7=Moon, then repeating the cycle again 8=Saturn, 9=Jupiter…until 23=Jupiter, 24=Mars. The name of the next day came from the next planet in the cycle from where the previous day had left off: 1=Sun, 2=Venus…23=Venus, 24=Mercury. Then the next day: 1=Moon, 2=Saturn…etc.

If you look at the planet assigned to the first hour of each day, you notice that the planets come in this order: Saturn – Saturday (from the Roman god Saturnus), Sun – Sunday (from the Roman god of the Sun Sol), Moon – Monday (from the Roman goddess of the Moon Luna), Mars – Tuesday (from the Nordic god Tiw), Mercury – Wednesday (from the Nordic god Wotan), Jupiter – Thursday (from the Nordic god Thor), Venus – Friday (from the Nordic god Frejia): this is the exact order of the 7 days of the week. At the time of Christ, during the Judeo-Christian period, Saturday with its designated planet Saturn was the day of rest making Sunday the first day of the week.

Read Silver Jewelry Alchemy And The Number 7 – Part I The 7 Metals Of Antiquity

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