I have considered a number of songs for this task including: Seven Lives by Enigma, which is a great song to chill out to but lyrically unsophisticated; and, 7% by Sunna which is a stunning and mystically erudite song but isn't strictly anything to do with the number 7. In any case, they are both artists that I want to return to in future posts. The song I want to springboard-off into a discussion on the number 7 is Wandering Star by Portishead:
Please could you stay awhile to share my grief
For its such a lovely day
To have to always feel this way
And the time that I will suffer less
Is when I never have to wake
Wandering stars, for whom it is reserved
The blackness of darkness forever
Wandering stars, for whom it is reserved
The blackness of darkness forever
Those who have seen the needles eye, now tread
Like a husk, from which all that was, now has fled
And the masks, that the monsters wear
To feed, upon their prey
Wandering stars, for whom it is reserved
The blackness of darkness forever
Wandering stars, for whom it is reserved
The blackness of darkness forever
(Always) doubled up inside
Take awhile to shed my grief
(Always) doubled up inside
Taunted, cruel...
Wandering stars, for whom it is reserved
The blackness of darkness forever
Wandering stars, for whom it is reserved
The blackness of darkness forever
*******************************
Its a pretty dark and moody song and is full of galactic foreboding but as with many such songs I can't help but focus on the silver lining around the cloud. You'd be quite entitled to ask, what on earth has this song got to do with the number 7? Well its a fair question and hopefully the answer will also shed some light on why 7 developed such mystical importance.
The title of the song is Wandering Star which is the literal meaning of the word now more commonly used: planet. In antiquity the planets were literally stars that wandered across the apparently fixed celestial background, and there were seven of them: The Sun, The Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn. The outer planets were not discovered until after the "invention" of the telescope at the start of the 17th Century.
And from this knowledge, the power of the number 7 has been reflected across almost all cultures and has worked its way into all walks of life. There are dozens of good websites that show he deeply this number has infiltrated our world, but it is commonly accepted that the number 7 represents divine perfection, completeness. It was the sages, wisemen, astrologers and adepts that had this knowledge and let it infiltrate the entirety of our modern world.
The many religious references to the number 7 are testimony to this, but the connection goes even deeper. Sure the days of the week are an obvious clue:
The Goths had 7 Deities from whom come the English names of week days; Sun, Moon, Tuisco, Wotan, Thor, Friga, Seatur, corresponding, of course, to the planets.
But what about the 7 colours, or the 7 notes in music, or the 7 directions? These would have been more difficult to artificially manufacture . . . unlike days of the week, names of Gods or references in scripture.
So for me - this song is all about the number 7, and the number 7 is a great (literally daily!) reminder of the divine immanent in all - the core of the mystical revelation.
"To see a world in a grain of sand, And a heaven in a wild flower, Hold infinity in the palm of your hand, And eternity in an hour."
William Blake's Auguries of Innocence
