(or: Okay! I get it! Seven is significant! And your point would be???)
I had a peculiar but interesting experience last month to do w/ the number seven. In July.
Seven crows ‘escorted’ me to work, sort of. For a few blocks down the main street I walk. And there were a bunch of other sevens going on as well.
Well, I woke up humming a song from my 1980s adolescence this morning, and could NOT get why that was.
When you’re on a theme, or jag, and you’re in the middle of a journey or lesson, much of the material being dredged and roto-rootered is already there in your subconscious. Or at least that’s what I’ve always suspected. I am not saying this in that idealistic “we’re born knowing all there is to know” bullshit kind of way, because it’s not true. Rather, I am making the simplistic observation that nothing really goes completely unnoticed, and much of it makes its way beyond your basic sensory data into either long-term memory, or limbic memory, and/or the subconscious. And because everyone’s subconscious is a unique repository the symbolisms might be really out there, or anything but universal. The only symbolism today is numeric, for example.
So what was the song? Don’t laugh, it’s a song from one of the first records I bought right before 7th grade. Duran Duran’s ‘The Seventh Stranger’, off an album titled Seven and the Ragged Tiger. It’s a good song IMHO, but the lyrics don’t really lend themselves to anything related to my current situation. But when I look back at that time when I was buying vinyl records, and decompressing a lot with music, and listening to indie and college radio, it was a real renaissance. It was the birth of all kinds of interests and goals, some of which I’ve actually accomplished, others of which were shelved as they grew irrelevant.
Alternately, there was a lot going on in the world leading up to 1984. The arms race got kicked up several notches by Ronald Raygun (as my mom used to call him), for starters. We were watching made for tv movies like The Day After, and people were of course paranoid about nukes. To my mind, the world was a powder keg back then. Of course it is now, too, and don’t forget that Mother Nature could just wash her hands of us and decide fuck ‘em, humans are just a waste of oxygen and raw materials, and then we have some super volcanoes go kaboom and some tsunamis, and that’s it.
So, I’m going to contemplate 7 for the rest of the day. Saturday, the seventh day, of course. Maybe I should listen to some Sun Ra and His Arkestra and contemplate Saturn as well. He said he was from there. Coming up with a talisman would probably be a useful exercise, too.
While I go looking for Sun Ra tracks, here’s the seventh track (one of my favorites even) off a CD I haven’t listened to in ages:
Edited to add: I found some Sun Ra 
The guy was incredibly prolific and much of his music was self-recorded to be sold at his shows and/or in limited release, or bootlegged.
And here’s Pharoah Sanders’ ‘The Creator Has a Master Plan’, just because:
This is of several parts, part 2 is here.
Dang… from 80s pop to 90s electronica to innovative jazz in one post. My head is spinning.
7 Responses to “this episode of The Number Seven has been brought to you by your subconscious”
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7 – the obvious stuff – seven planets, seven days of the week – makes me think it refers to either the end of the seven (Saturn/Saturday) or perhaps to completeness, as in don’t leave anything out, include all seven.
I have a feeling it is a nudge to be starting and/or planning 7-day spells right now, too. Talk about a metaphysical clobbering, though. I lost count of how many instances of seven I saw the rest of the day on Saturday, and then yesterday. I think part of this is a nudge, okay, a shove, to get my ass in gear with some things. I have two 7s left, as it were, to accomplish some goals.
So, I think your observation as to completeness is very apt. It also means I cannot cut corners, cannot take short cuts, cannot ‘mickey mouse’ or ‘cookbook’ what I am working on. Oh, and there was a James Bond movie on the tv last night. Double-o-SEVEN. Criminy. On the ABC affiliate, which is channel 7 where I used to live.
I don’t remember where I read this, but there is a belief that we regenerate every seven years….from blood cells and marrow to emotional/spiritual death/rebirth…change happens every seven years. I wish I can remember where I read it….My memory is like a sieve!
Lol! Yep, I think you are totally right about the completeness thing. Leave no stone unturned.
Every seven years, huh? That is not unlike the whole ‘our hair grows in 9 yr cycles’ adage. Your hair follicles are good for 9 years and then they let go of hairs. Of course, I shed like a cat regardless. And the dood is unofficially The Third Cat in the household, because he sheds more than I do even.
I am thinking seven years might be an increment for a specific age. But don’t ask me where I pulled that from. Today was full of sevens. I went with it and bought some Saturn incense for when I am working outside with offerings, et al.
Seven would be relevant to Saturn and its aspects in your natal chart. Saturn returns to the place it was in one’s natal chart approximately every 29 years – hence you hear references to one’s ‘Saturn return.’ They are significant, and tend to occur and be active between ages 29 -31, and 57-59. Seven is relevant to the equation because it is the interval of years at which Saturn hits points that are square, and in opposition to (the stations of the cross, so to speak) where it was in your natal chart as it makes its 29 year transit around one’s chart.
Just went and had a look at your chart Sara and laughed out loud! Your natal Saturn is a corner of one of *3* grand trines in air signs… Link to a quick description here: (http://www.drstandley.com/astrologycharts_grandtrine.shtml ) It is also in opposition to Neptune, but it’s a really wide orb, so I would say the influence is moderate to minimal. You would be crossing, or have just crossed one of those seven year intervals right around now… looking at your chart, and the current transits, I would highly recommend you consider spending some time studying it, (those grand trines give you amazing facility with, and affinity for, symbols and symbolism – no surprise there eh?) Or find yourself a decent astrologer and get a reading on your current chart.
Thanks, Lisa. When you explain this stuff I have a bit more confidence about it
I’m plumbing the symbolisms and not-so-capricious conjunctions for magical inspiration right now, and it’s clicking stuff together in ways I am not quite used to, but am willing to take advantage of right now.