Just a Few More Egyptian Sevens

  • In ancient Egypt, the idea of ‘7’ was associated with a person’s birth. At birth, the Seven Hathors determined the fates in an individual’s life. People were free to try to evade this destiny by prayer or magic. There were seven souls:

     as (1) The Soul of Blood — the formative; (2) The Soul of Breath — “that breathes”; (3) The Shade or Covering Soul — “that envelopes”; (4) The Soul of Perception — “that perceives;” (5) The Soul of Pubescence “that procreates”; (6) The Intellectual Soul — “that reproduces intellectually”; and (7) The Spiritual Soul — “that is perpetuated permanently.

  • A legendary famine lasted seven years. This is likely the one that Joseph of the many-colored coat predicted.
  • The Seven Wonders of Ancient Egypt:
    • 7. The Valley of the Kings
    • 6. Queen Hatshepsut’s Temple of western Thebes
    • 5. The Karnak Temple Complex
    • 4. The Temple of Ramesses II at Abu Simbel
    • 3. St. Catherine’s Monastery Mount Sinai
    • 2. The Sphinx
    • 1. The Great Pyramid of Giza
  • The lowest amount that the Nile flooded to solve the famine was seven cubits. The highest was four times seven (28) cubits.  The flooding of the Nile provided nearly all the water and the rich silt needed to grow all the food for the Egyptians. The Nile would turn red during the flood, reminding everyone of the red beer that Sekhmet drank.
  • A doomed prince climbs a tower seventy (ten times seven) cubits high with seventy (ten times seven) windows to reach his bride, similar to some Celtic hero stories. He is doomed to be killed by either a dog, a serpent or a crocodile. His wife manages to kill a snake that comes to bite him. The story does not have a conclusion because part of the manuscript is missing. So we’ll never know how it comes out.
  • Egyptian Symbol for the word "pool" with seven lines.

    pool

    The Pool symbol, representing water, contains seven zigzag lines. In the desert, a pool, especially a man-made one is a luxury, and sometimes a persona was shown as sitting above a pool, to indicate the abundance of water.

  • gold

    gold

    The Gold symbol has seven spines on its underside.

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15 Responses to Just a Few More Egyptian Sevens

  1. bexvankoot says:

    Fascinating stuff! I’ve just recently reformed my personal spiritual practice to include a seven-element system. It’s so interesting to see how numerology plays such an important role in language and mythology.

  2. brookand says:

    Love it. Thanks. and remember the 7th wave…

  3. Love your band with above…Lady and the frog. I came over from UBC. Don’t much about Myth stuff but with the net one sure can find out amazing things.
    I always have the coffee on.

    • It’s from my novel, if you didn’t recognize it. Maven, the fairy godmother character, loves coffee and is the only one in Faery who can make it. She has a thing about turning anyone who aggravates her into a frog.

  4. Sue Mosher says:

    Here’s one from more recent times: Seven Egyptian monks are said to be buried at Disert Ulidh (or Uilaig), which is somewhere in Ulster (Northern Ireland). Some sources (e.g. http://www.earlychristianireland.org/antrim/antrim_dundesert.shtml) identify it with Dundesert, near Crumlin, county Antrim, which is to the north-west of Belfast, between Belfast International Airport and Templepatrick.

    • Glad to hear from you, Sue. What a fascinating mystery of seven Egyptians in Ireland. They must have thought they were in some kind of desert, judging from the names of the places.

      • Sue Mosher says:

        Yup, the wild places in Ireland and Scotland were to the monks there what the desert was to those in Egypt and the “Disert-Dysert-Desert” name is all over the place. I’ve been plenty unnerved in some of those places myself.

  5. Fascinating information. I’ve always enjoyed they symbology of numbers. Keep posting!

  6. Sue Walker says:

    Did you know that when Andy Murray won the men’s singles title at Wimbledon on Sunday 7/7, it was 77 years since the previous British male winner? Prior to that the women’s singles title was last won by a British woman, Virginia Wade, in 1977? Watching the match on-line in the last game of the match I spotted 77 mph on the screen after a second serve and said to my husband that it was an omen that Andy Murray would win. Definitely the power of 7!

  7. That led me to the series of sevens that make up the magical numbers of the weeks and the pasages in our lives. Each week aligns with a phase of the moon, 28 days in total, and a year and a day in the lunar year of 13 months. More on that through the week.

  8. Bill E. Ross says:

    Maven is the star of this story, and down on her luck by the time it starts. She’s an unemployed, homeless ex-teacher who ends up wishing herself into quite the situation: a job as a fairy godmother in the land of Faery! So the fun begins! Pretty soon, Maven finds that her new job is not going to be easy, and that the magical land she’s jumped into is in great danger of crumbling around her. Add in the mystery of a mentor who might not be as nice as they seem, and you’ve got one awesome spin on the world of fairy tales. Maven is definitely going to need her sixth sense or “Bump of Direction” for this one!It’s very rare that a main character becomes my favorite, but Maven is one of the few who managed to do it! She somehow pushes her way through all obstacles in the story with an awesome attitude, following that Bump of Direction against the unsuredness. I liked her from chapter one, but she became my instant bias when she jumped into a crazy world on the promise there would be dragons!There were a few typos here and there, but mostly formatting (spacing and the like). This book was definitely well-written and carefully edited, and I would still suggest it, as the few formatting uh-ohs are really easily forgotten in this awesome tale. Definitely a must-read for any age!