777 facts about the number 7

page five

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In Irish Celtic Myth, an unsuccessful alliance between the Tuatha de Danaan (Old Gods / Faerie race) and the Fomorii (sea demons) was followed by a war that took seven years of preparation.

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In Celtic Myth the healer Jeermit was away seven years on his expedition to the Land-Under-Waves.

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The standard 3-chord trick for playing guitar: pick a chord - any chord - now add the chords seven frets up and seven frets down, and you can play any song by Status Quo.

456

457

The Xmas Islands, the largest atoll in the Pacific, has the fastest growing population in the world – 7.7%.

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464

In the Bible, Joshua’s siege upon the walls of Jericho was conducted in silence save for the blasts of seven ram’s horns. On the seventh day of the assault, Joshua’s men made seven circuits around the walls and the walls fell following mass shouting at the end of the seventh horn-blast.

465

When I visited the Bodies Revealed exhibition on the last day of September 2004, there was a side room displaying human foetuses, in stages between 6 and 20 weeks development – there were seven of them.

466

In 1990, American mathematicians Persi Diaconis and David Bayer suggested that seven shuffles are sufficient to achieve an acceptable degree of randomness in a deck of 52 cards. With six or fewer shuffles, the original order of the cards is still strongly in evidence. Beyond seven shuffles, nothing is gained in terms of increased randomness.

467

Planet Earth’s escape velocity (the speed necessary to escape its gravitational field) is seven miles per second.

468

When you divide any non-multiple-of-seven number by seven, you get an answer with the same series of recurring digits after the decimal point, but which begins at a differing point in the sequence: 142857 (repeat). Hence, the answer to 'the amazing enigma which is pi', 22 divided by 7, is a number without end - 3.142857142857142857142857142857142857142857 (etc.)
I expect a mathematician will contact me to dispute this fact. If it was such a simple solution, surely people wouldn't have been calculating pi to millions of decimal places for years . . ? or maybe they haven't. Perhaps that's just an urban myth.

469

The three primary colours may be mixed to produce only seven colours including themselves: Red and Yellow to create Orange, Red and Blue to create Purple, Yellow and Blue to create Green, and Red, Yellow and Blue to create Black.

470

A painting of a cat-faced demoness by the artist Fay Pomerance is entitled Lilith of the Seven Tales. 

471

The Gnostic text the Pistis Sophia states that ". . . there are seven heads, each of them having as its true face the face of a cat."

472

In the film The Royal Tenenbaums there are seven candles displayed in an unusual sloping holder during the wedding scene . . . at least, I think it was the wedding scene. Or, actually, was it the tail end of the film So I Married An Axe Murderer that I caught the end of after the video of The Royal Tenenbaums had finished? . . . it was late and I was tired. I might have fallen asleep a bit. Anyway, it was a lovely, unusual candle display.

473

The venomous sting of some species of scorpion is potent enough to kill a dog in seven minutes.

474

Kurt Vonnegut tells us, in his Address to Graduating Class at Bennington College, 1970 (from his book Wampeters, Foma and Granfalloons) that ”. . . About seven hundred years ago, Thomas Aquinas had some other recommendations as to what people might do with their lives . . . He praises the Seven Spiritual Works Of Mercy, which are these:
To teach the ignorant, to counsel the doubtful, to console the sad, to reprove the sinner, to forgive the offender, to bear with the oppressive and troublesome, and to pray for us all.
He also admires the Seven Corporal Works Of Mercy, which are these:
To feed the hungry, to give drink to the thirsty, to clothe the naked, to shelter the homeless, to visit the sick and prisoners, to ransom captives, and to bury the dead.

475

According to Cola Alberich, the fox with seven tails is the evil genius of the Chinese, among whom it is traditional that the saints and sages have seven holes in their hearts. On the seventh day of the seventh month, great popular festivals were held all over China. The Chinese also hold the lotus with seven petals to be a magical amulet similar to our four-leafed clover.

476

A time-honoured religious tradition of Italians is to fast for the day preceding Christmas Eve then feast on a meal of seven different sea foods. Whether the seven fish represent the seven sacraments, the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit, or the fact that seven of the Apostles were fishermen is not clearly remembered.

477

The Seven Wonders of the Mediaeval World were regarded as Stonehenge, the Great Wall of China, the Catacombs of Alexandria, the Coliseum of Rome, the Leaning Tower of Pisa, the Mosque of St Sophia at Constantinople, and the Porcelain Tower at Nanking.

478

The Babylonian cosmology epic The Enuma Elish was unearthed at Ninevah (seven letters) near Mosul in Iraq carved upon seven tablets.

479

Three star constellations have always been particularly prominent in man's view of the heavens, partly because of the brightness of their stars and partly because of their positions. They are the bright north circum-polar group, the Great Bear, the south circum-polar group, the Southern Cross, and the most prominent constellation on the celestial equator, Orion. The first-named is used as a pointer to the north pole star; the second, together with the very bright pair, Alpha and Beta Centauris, is used to find the position of the south celestial pole and the last is used, by the time of its rising, as a marker of the seasons. The bright stars in all three of these constellations number seven.

480

The aquatic larvae of Alder Flies (Family Sialidae) have seven pairs of feathery gills on their abdomen.

481

King Croseus of Lydia sought to test the reliability of divination by having seven Oracles simultaneously questioned as to his current activity. Only the Oracle of Apollo at Delphi answered correctly that the King was busy boiling a lamb and a tortoise in a bronze pot.

482

In George A. Romero’s 1968 cult film Night of the Living Dead, seven people are trapped in a farmhouse surrounded by zombies.

483

When six members of the Japanese Aum cult went to murder meddlesome lawyer Tsutsumi Sakamoto and his wife and child in November 1989, one of the six – Dr. Tomomasa Nakagawa – carried seven syringes full of potassium chloride.

484

When Shoko Asahara entered the Aum cult’s political party, the New Supreme Truth Party, in the Japanese elections of February 1990, all 25 (2+5=7) Aum candidates went down to miserable defeats. Aum had spent $7 million on the race.

485

At the start of Tony Hancock’s film The Rebel, the train arriving at the platform has the number seven on the front.

486

William Empson (1906-84) wrote a book (which was published in 1930) titled Seven Types of Ambiguity.

487

Leo Tolstoy’s wife copied his manuscript of War And Peace by hand seven times.

488

Hippocrates said, "The number seven, because of its occult virtues, tends to bring all things into being; it is the dispenser of life and the source of all change - for the moon itself changes its phase every seven days. This number influences all sublime beings".

489

Each phase of the moon takes seven days to complete. There is a seven-day period between neap tide and spring tide, and again between spring tide and neap tide.

490

We find in Japanese folklore seven gods of luck:

• Benten, the goddess of love
• Bishamon, the god of war
• Daikoku, the god of wealth
• Ebisu, the god of self-effacement
• Fukurojujin, a god of longevity
• Jurojin, another god of longevity
• the Hstei, the god of generosity

These gods are related to the seven Buddhist Devas who are said to be responsible for the welfare of humanity.

491

The Japanese celebrate a birth on the seventh day; they mourn their dead on the seventh day and the seventh week after the passing.

492

In Chris Morris’s television series Nathan Barley, there is a TV channel called Channel Seven, the logo of which is the following seven-digited hand.

493

In the Animals episode of the investigative TV journalism series Brass Eye, Chris Morris can be seen hanging upside down alongside six butchered animal carcasses to deliver his line to camera, making a total of seven animal carcasses (one of them being alive and wriggling, if not actually kicking).

494

In the biblical Book of Daniel, when the three Jewish exiles, Shadrach, Meshach & Abedgno refused to obey the will of the Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar, he ordered that they be cast into a furnace raised to seven times its regular temperature.

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On 13.6.2004 Michael Schumacher won the Canadian Grand Prix in Montreal. Not only was this his seventh win of the season, as well as being his seventy-seventh career victory, but it was also the first occasion that anybody had ever won the same Grand Prix seven times.

498

A human being has as many brain cells as seven million insects combined. 

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Walking from the Rural Youth Base in Kirkham, UK to Carr Hill High School along the path leading to the back of the sports hall, there are seven stone steps leading downwards, each painted with a white line along its leading edge.

501

The expression 'to be in the seventh heaven of delight' comes from the Mohammedans, who recognise seven distinct heavens.
The first heaven is of pure silver. It is the abode of Adam and Eve and in it all the stars - each with its attendant angel - are hung on golden chains like lamps.
The second is made of pure gold and is the abode of John the Baptist and of Jesus.
The third, of pearl, is the domain of Joseph. In this heaven, Azrael, the Angel of Death, continuously writes and erases the names of human beings in a great book.
In the fourth heaven, of white gold, the domain of Enoch, the Angel of Tears never ceases to weep for the sins of men.
The fifth heaven is made of silver and is the dwelling place of Aaron and of the Avenging Angel who presides over elemental fire.
The sixth, of ruby and garnet, is the home of Moses. It is presided over by the Guardian angel of Heaven and Earth, who is half snow and half fire.
The seventh is the 'real' heaven of indescribable divine light. It is the domain of Abraham and it is said that here each inhabitant is bigger than the whole earth and has 70,000 heads, each with 70,000 faces, each face having 70,000 mouths, each with 70,000 tongues, each speaking 70,000 languages and all are continuously engaged in chanting the praises of the Most High.

502

A Sumerian king, Lugulamnemundu, built a temple to the goddess Nintu at Adab. The Temple had seven gates and seven doors and, at its dedication, seven times seven animals were sacrificed.

503

To knock seven bells out of someone is an old naval term for giving someone a beating.

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To subdivide a circle into equal segments, mark off successive points along the circumference using the radius. Using one point in the centre and six points along the circumference, totalling seven points, you will have created a hexagon.

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In ancient Phoenician belief, Lotan was a seven-headed dragon that represented primordial chaos.

507

Mark 12:17
18 And there came to him the Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection; and they asked him, saying: 19 Master, Moses wrote unto us, that if any man's brother die, and leave his wife behind him, and leave no children, his brother should take his wife, and raise up seed to his brother. 20 Now there were seven brethren; and the first took a wife, and died leaving no issue. 21 And the second took her, and died: and neither did he leave any issue. And the third in like manner. 22 And the seven all took her in like manner; and did not leave issue. Last of all the woman also died. 23 In the resurrection therefore, when they shall rise again, whose wife shall she be of them? for the seven had her to wife. 24 And Jesus answering, saith to them: Do ye not therefore err, because you know not the scriptures, nor the power of God? 25 For when they shall rise again from the dead, they shall neither marry, nor be married, but are as the angels in heaven.
1:10  I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day, and heard behind me a great voice, as of a trumpet, 1:11  Saying, I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last: and, What thou seest, write in a book, and send it unto the seven [original Christian Churches or Kuriakon] churches which are in Asia; unto Ephesus, and unto Smyrna, and unto Pergamos, and unto Thyatira, and unto Sardis, and unto Philadelphia, and unto Laodicea. 1:12  And I turned to see the voice that spake with me. And being turned, I saw seven golden candlesticks.

508

In 1984, cosmonauts on board Soviet Space Station Salyut 7 reported seeing seven angels hovering outside the portals of their craft.

509

The Chippewa Medicine Wheel, as utilised by the Shaman Sun Bear, has an inner circle of seven stones surrounding the central Creator Stone. These seven stones represent (moving in sun-wise direction) - Earth Mother, Father Sun, Grandmother Moon, Turtle Clan, Frog Clan, Thunderbird Clan and Butterfly Clan.

510

In the short film Kevin Turvey – the Man Behind the Green Door, when Kevin Turvey asks Mick the lodger how many fish he thinks are in the lake, Mick replies ‘seven’.

512

The legend of the Seven Sleepers of Ephesus concerns seven Christian Ephesians, called Constantine, Dionysius, John, Malchus, Martinian, Maximian and Seraption. During the persecution of Decius (c250) these seven hid in a cave - in which, by the order of Decius, they were then immured. They fell into a deep sleep, and didn't wake up until, 187 years later during the reign of TheodosiusII, the obstructing stones were removed from the cave-mouth. Little realizing that they had slept through the alarm, they sent one of their number into Ephesus to buy food. In no time it was generally realized that a miracle had taken place, and the locals hurried to the cave to be blessed.
The Seven Sleepers of Ephesus than all dropped down dead.

513

Seven things Jesus said when he was on the cross:

• “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.”
• “Amen I say unto thee, today with Me shalt thou be in the Paradise.”
• “Behold my mother.”
• “ My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?”
• “I thirst.”
• “It is finished.”
• “Father, into your hands I commend my spirit.”

514

Here is a photo of me taken with seven carved wooden cowboys at a service station near Warrington, England, on the M6 motorway (on route to Stoke), 23rd July 2004, 5:37pm.

515

The aquatic larvae of the Scavenger Beetle (Berosus Luridus) has seven pairs of tracheal gills.

516

In the Bible, when the Prophet Elisha ressurected the dead Shunammite boy, the child sneezed seven times upon revival. Elisha also cured the Syrian commander Naaman of leprosy by instructing him to bathe seven times in the River Jordan.

517

The pyramids could tentatively have been designed around the number seven, having a square (4) base and triangular (3) sides. Measurements have also been taken of the Great Pyramid of Cheops, and the angle at which the sides slope is 51° – this is, as near as matters, the angle which is one seventh of a complete circle.

518

In Classical Greece:
The lyre of Orpheus had seven strings; There were seven Hesperides; Niobe had seven sons and seven daughters; Seven kings attacked Thebes and seven kings defended it.

519

You must be seven years old or younger to be invited to the annual Easter Egg Roll at the White House.

520

In Indian folklore we find the tale of The Seven Fools:
Seven men were going off to see the Dalai Panaken, the Living Buddah. Along the way, one of them was lost, or so they thought - because many times they counted each other and found only six, since each counter forgot himself.  When they came to the Dalai, he counted seven and was credited with bringing the missing man back to life. (He felt no need to explain just how this was accomplished, which made him the smart man he was).

521

“A fool can ask more questions than seven wise men can answer.”

522

Francesco Lentini, who died in hospital in Jackson, Tennessee on 22nd September 1966, set a bizarre world record – at the age of 77, he had become the longest-living three-legged man. He was one of thirteen children, and had seven sisters. At the age of seven, his parents took him to an institution for severely handicapped children, where he saw blind, crippled and atrociously deformed youngsters far worse off than himself. ‘From that time on,’ he cheerfully said later, ‘I never complained. I think life is beautiful and I enjoy living it.’

523

After the first discovery of Pluto’s moon, another seven years passed before it was observed again.

524

At the speed of light it would take seven hours to get to Pluto.

525

Seven out of ten people who become infected with necrotising fasciitis die as a result (this disease, caused by group A streptoccus penetrating the throat lining, will usually cause great disfigurement in survivors).

526

The element of atomic number seven is nitrogen (N), a colourless, odourless gas whose inert molecule N2 makes up 78% of the atmosphere. Nitrogen is important to life in many ways: the amino acids are characterized by the presence of the NH2 group, and without amino acids there would be no proteins.
Nitrates are important fertilizers - but the most interesting nitrate, nitroglycerin, is well known for other reasons. Aside from its use in blowing things up, it can be taken in pill form to relieve angina pectoris.

527

On the Seventh of September (which was originally the seventh month and is named as such, using the prefix ‘Sept’ meaning seven) 2004, I tutored the seventh arts and crafts session in a course of eight for adult learners at a venue in Blackpool.

528

Every seven seconds somebody is being bullied in the UK.

529

There are seven chakras according to the traditions of hatha yoga.

530

After Naofumi Ishimaru (of Japanese recording stars Yximalloo) stayed with me in June 2004, he flew from Blackpool Airport to Dublin, Ireland. When his luggage was weighed at check-in, it was seven Kg overweight, and when he reached immigration in Dublin, he was kept waiting seven minutes before his passport was stamped.

531

The Hindus, no less than the Buddhists, regard seven as a sacred number. The Prajapatis, the mind-created children of Bramah, number seven and there are seven Rishis or sages and seven Manus, or rulers of the world, each reigning for a Manvantara. (14 Manvantaras are equal to one Kalpa, which is a period of 12,000,000 divine years, each consisting of 360 ordinary years).

532

In Homer's Odyssey you will read very much the same stories as in Sinbad, but one character in particular deserves special mention in the book of sevens – the Minotaur.  He was a creature composed of the lower part of a man and the torso of a bull.  It was his wont to eat seven little boys and seven little girls once every seven years.

533

One of the most popular freak show troupes in Victorian England was the Seven Sutherland Sisters, all of whom had hair which literally trailed behind them on the ground. Their trellised locks earned them fame and fortune towards the latter end of the 19th century; whether or not they actually all were sisters is uncertain. What is for sure is that their hair colourings were not the same and so, when exhibited, their flowing carpet of hair must have had something of a stunning rainbow effect.

534

In Hindu thought, man is conceived as existing on seven planes: those of sensation, emotion, reflective intelligence, intuition, spirituality, will and intimations of the divine.

535

In the classic 1960’s film The Italian Job, during the scene where the mafia ambush the British crooks on the winding Italian country road (for either the first or second time – I can’t remember which) (but I think it’s the second) there are seven mafia goons holding machine guns lined up very photogenically in a ‘stepped down’ formation down the angle of the hill.

536

The verb 'to swear' is literally translated from the Hebrew as 'to come under the influence of seven things' - in the bible seven ewe lambs appear in the oath between Abraham and Abimelech (Genesis 21:28) and Herodotus mentions an Arabian oath where seven stones are smeared with blood.

537

The Seven Sorrows of the Virgin Mary were: (1) the prophecy of Simeon ("You see this child: he is destined for the fall and for the rising of many in Israel, destined to be a sign that is rejected – and a sword will pierce your own soul too- so that the secret thoughts of many will be laid bare" - Luke ii 34-5); (2) the Flight into Egypt; (3) Christ missed; (4) the betrayal of Christ by Judas; (5) the Crucifixion; (6) the removal of Christ's body from the cross; and (7) the Ascension.
Her Seven Joys were: (1) the Annunciation; (2) the Visitation; (3) the Nativity; (4) the adoration of the Magi; (5) the presentation of Christ in the temple; (6) the discovery of Christ among the doctors; and (7) the Assumption (her transport to Heaven at the age of 75).

538

According to Pythagoreans, seven was the number of opportunity. This was apparently because seven seemed to turn up so often in the process of individual human development: a boy-child could be born seven months after conception, cut his teeth seven months after birth, reach puberty 2 x 7 = 14 years after birth, grow a beard seven years later, etc.

539

Enola Gay, the American Bomber that dropped "the first weapon of mass destruction" (the 3-metre long atomic bomb Little Boy) on Hiroshima on August 6th, 1945, appears to have had a crew of seven people.

540

John Wesley (1703-1791) claimed that every seven years he burnt all his old sermons - on the basis that "it is a shame if I cannot write better sermons now than I did seven years ago".

541

The heptagon, or seven-sided polygon (plane geometrical figure), is the polygon with the least number of sides which cannot be constructed in the classical geometric fashion - that is, by the use of straight-edge and compasses alone.

542

There are seven vowels in the Greek alphabet.

543

In the UK pubs are often called The Seven Stars. The seven stars in question are the seven bright stars of the Plough (part of the constellation Ursa Major, the Great Bear), and not the Pleiades, as one might expect.
In popular superstition - and indeed in Revelation - this subconstellation is associated with the Virgin Mary. Like many other pub names, therefore; this one is of religious origin.

544

Adolf Hitler was convinced that his lucky number was seven. His preference for ordering army assaults on the seventh day of months was a contributory factor to his downfall.

545

The worst recorded accident in the history of motor-racing occurred in 1955 at Le Mans, when the Mercedes of Pierre Levegh went out of control, hit a wall and exploded, killing 77 people (including Levegh himself). Unimpressed by all this carnage, the racing authorities insisted that the race continue.

546

The element of atomic number 77 is iridium (Ir), a hard white metal of interest in that it is the element most resistant to corrosion at room temperature. It was discovered in 1803 by the British chemist Smithson Tennant, who gave it its name because its compounds seemed to display a whole spectrum of colours.

547

The sequence of the Genesis story of the week of creation may be summarised as follows:

• The first day, God created the heavens and the Earth, light, and the succession of day and night.
• The second day, He created the vault of Heaven, separating the waters of the skies from the waters of the Earth.
• The third day, He drew the seas together so that dry land emerged from them, and he populated the land with seed-bearing plants and fruit-bearing trees.
• The fourth day, He created the sun, moon and stars.
• The fifth day, He created the fish, sea-monsters and birds.
• The sixth day, He created the animals, reptiles and finally, in His own image, man.
• The seventh (or Sabbath) day, he rested.

(The word 'day', in this context, means simply 'period of time').

548

On 12th September, 2004, I received a picture of seven dogs by e-mail.

549

It is sometimes stated that Leviathan, the monster of the biblical Old Testament & Apocrypha, had seven heads.

550

There are seven people in the film Cube, who find themselves trapped inside a labyrinth made up of cubic rooms. I don’t know anything else about it, because I recorded it off TV on my video recorder the other night, and I’ve not watched it yet.

551

The façade of Louis Tussauds Waxworks on the seafront at Blackpool, England has seven yellow stars surrounding the red name.

552

Matthew 18:21: “Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, "Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother when he sins against me?  Up to seven times?" Jesus answered, "I tell you, not seven times, but seventy times seven.”

553

There were terrorist bombings in London, UK on 7th July, 2005:

• The digits 2+0+0+5 =7, so the date was 7/7/7 (or 7X3)
• The serial number of the Tavistock Square bus was 17758, the digits of which add up to 28 (or 7X4)
• The train bombings were executed at 8:51 - the digits of which add up to 14 (or 7X2)
• The time between the train and bus bombings was 56 minutes (or 7X8)
• (Al Qaeda has 7 letters)

554

The astonishing case of the ‘Drip-Die Man’ was reported in the Medical and Physical Journal of London on 25th February 1885. A 77-year-old man, of previously good health, began to sweat profusely for no apparent reason, and continued to do so until he died of exhaustion after three months of continual perspiration.

555

In the film Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, seven snakes make up the lock of the door that Harry opens with his wand inside the Chamber of Secrets.