How the Old Alchemists Relied on Seven.
There are seven bodies in alchemy, each having its planet. They are: gold, the sun; silver, the moon; iron, Mars; quicksilver, Mercury; lead, Saturn; tin, Jupiter; and copper, Venus.
The Seven Deadly Sins are pride, wrath, envy, lust, gluttony, avarice, and sloth; while the Seven Virtues are faith, hope, charity, prudence, justice, fortitude, and temperance.
Ancient teaching had it that the soul of a man was composed of seven properties, each under the influence of a planet, thus: fire animates, earth gives the sense of feeling, speech is gained from water, air gives taste, sight comes from mist, flowers give hearing, and the south wind gives smelling. Here are the seven senses, and then, too, as the boys at school are fond of saying, there are seven holes in one’s head: two ears, two eyes, two nostrils, and the mouth.
The Seven Sleepers were seven youths of Ephesus who fled from persecution to a cave and slept therein for many years. Their names were Constantine, Dionysius, John, Maximian, Malchus, Martinian, and Serapion.
There are two groups of Seven Wonders of the World. The antique group consisted of the Pyramids, Babylon’s Hanging Gardens, Mausolus’s Tomb, the Temple of Diana at Ephesus, the Colossus of Rhodes, Jupiter’s Statue by Phidias, the Pharos of Egypt, and the Palace of Cyrus (which was cemented with gold).
The seven wonders of the Middle Ages were the Colosseum, the Catacombs at Alexandria, the Great Wall of China, Stonehenge, the Leaning Tower of Pisa, the Porcelain Tower of Nankin, and the Mosque of St. Sophia at Constantinople.