Why Does the Number 7 Appear Everywhere in Religion?"

[@ReligionForBreakfast]

Celebrating 777,000 subscribers! Support us on Patreon here!: www.patreon.com/religionforbreakfast

[@jubeju6237]

🎉🎉

[@joyoussnake]

was just about to say, you've struck the jackpot with this video!

[@fariesz6786]

congrats! and great move to use this as a milestone 👍 here's to the path to 7,777,777 subscribers

[@rdm3990]

I saw what you did there...

[@sharifulislam3664]

I read in a Tafsir that in Arabic there are singular, dual and plural number. In ancient Arabic 3 to 7 is plural. After that they start like eight and one more. I don't know whether its applicable to all the sematic languages.

[@mikotagayuna8494]

'Misinformation in the Internet multiplies seven times.' - Gilgamesh

[@4473021]

LOL

[@marcobuncit7539]

"This makes me cries seven times for seven years." -- Enkidu roommate

[@jonathandewberry289]

Mithros was born on July 7th

[@lowenzahn3976]

Once on X, once on Facebook, once on Instagram, once on TikTok, once on KZbin, once on Reddit, and once on Telegram.

[@Cjnw]

Normie

[@winterthemuteson]

Your channel, as well as Esoterica and Let's Talk Religion, were what got me to change my major to History. I graduated in December with my BA.

[@finalpixel224]

Congratulations!!

[@davidc1878]

Yes, congrats! I am in my 50s and have had a life-long interest in history... and the great thing is that the more you age the more you learn so your best years are ahead of you. 😀.

[@Zevelyon]

Esoterica was accomplice to the Pearl High School massacre. He has a video about the Satanic panic where he gaslights his audience about it. Ironically, he was part of a satanic cult alongside the shooter. He’s also not Jewish. He just dresses that way for clout.

[@goofballbiscuits3647]

Congrats!!! 🎉🎉🎉🎉

[@architeuthis3476]

I used to watch Esoterica, but I was banned for explaining why some of the content of the videos on that channel was inconsistent with the source materials (specifically that he was repeating the words of people presenting themselves as experts rather than doing his own research). Do yor own research before repeating anything said on that channel

[@SpaveFrostKing]

When I was 4 I confused the concepts of "seven" and "several", so it would make sense to 4 year old me that seven meant a lot.

[@rainynight02]

Norse "9" is similar. Every time 9 is used in Norse mythology, it's apparently not meaning a literal 9 things but "many." So the 9 realms means many realms.

[@Laotzu.Goldbug]

In ancient Chinese/Daoist/Confucian tradition it is likewise for 10,000. e.g. "The Ten Thousand Things" means everything

[@Tzizenorec]

@@rainynight02 There are 9 realms listed with specific names in Norse mythology, so that's a pretty bad example.

[@fructiferous]

it took a long time for me to accept that several doesn't specifically mean "seven or more". i would use "few" to describe 3 to 6 until i was like... 20

[@MightyoNe-MiT1]

​​@@Tzizenorec That is only because they used a base 10 system. Use a base 7, and everything sums to 7 if starting from 1 , 8 if starting from 0.

[@poundcakeboi3104]

Love how you posted this while you have 777k subscribers.

[@Nwmguy]

Amazing.

[@anond2015]

He mentions this in the video.

[@nightal78]

I think it was planed

[@ElektrykFlaaj]

And the length of the video is… 767 seconds

[@berlineczka]

I am watching it at the time it has 77k views. Love the coincidence.

[@BurlapAndPlywood]

You're still that floppy haired grad student to most of us - thanks for all you do!

[@peff-_-babe]

Henry inspired Dr. Sledge to create Esoterica.. Let's just ponder that for a second. For all we know, free and open scholarly education of religious studies would never have been the same without him. He's a true legend.

[@alanpennie8013]

​@@peff-_-babe Heavens! We owe him a debt.

[@pshaw8406]

I prefer the floppy hair to the non-floppy hair.

[@qxz9p]

@@peff-_-babe really? I had no idea. I’ve been watching a lot of esoterica lately and have been loving Dr. Sledge Work. I need to find a way to weasel into one of his DnD campaigns if he’s still DMing lol

[@Jigardo]

I'd say his hair doo is more wavy than floppy

[@misterOphilies]

7 is also a very important number in traditional Cherokee religion and society. Thus the 7-pointed star on the crest and flag of the Cherokee Nation in Oklahoma territory.

[@NightsideOfParadise]

Then its propably very very old concept.

[@whatabouttheearth]

7 days is a moon phase, the people that wrote the Bible used the lunar calendar, as did all ancient people initially because the ease of tracking the moon through its 4 phases of 7 days that we now call weeks of the moonth. This is why 7 comes up as an important number in alot of peoples myths

[@misterOphilies]

@@whatabouttheearth For the Cherokee, it's often tied to the Pleiades.

[@lyamainu]

Seven clans, the seven directions (north, south, east, west, up, down, and within), seven pointed star….

[@raidaiwik2006]

even in our hinduism culture

[@redhatfactory]

Never heard the word seven so many times. The echo lives on in my head

[@charlesrb3898]

Marketing studies show that a products name must be repeated at least 7 times in a commercial before it starts to sink in.

[@redhatfactory]

I dont know if thats serious or not, but funny it is :) @@charlesrb3898

[@zacharyh.9565]

Does it echo seven times?

[@redhatfactory]

seven times seven@@zacharyh.9565

[@Ofallthings089]

Seven

[@ow4744]

I can't commit to a Patreon subscription at the moment, but I have so appreciated finding this channel and learning so much from an expert in religious studies. There are so many great educational KZbin channels, but yours is an underrepresented field. That is a shame, since it is an area where so much of what the average person knows are half-remembered myths. I hope to watch the second instalment of this video when you reach 7,777,777 subscribers!

[@SkepticGamerNerd]

This is one of my favorite channels. Congrats on the 777k subscribers and keep up the great work!

[@SolracCAP]

Patterns like these remind me that we are the continuation of thousands of years of thought and belief.

[@dashawnhector4205]

That’s deep 😮

[@Orion225]

Collective unconscious?

[@RonJohn63]

@@Orion225 nah. We're "just" (1) a cultural species, who (2) can talk, (3) are superstitious, (4) are _great_ pattern recognizers, but (5) don't/can't think deeply/specifically about _everything_ (because otherwise, we wouldn't have time to hunt, gather, take care of children, etc).

[@lourdespachla6516]

And of being better than the competition, i mean, if we survived and we are stupid enough to believe hot dogs are sandwiches, i seriously dont want to know what the competition was like.

[@kylematthews5438]

This was uploaded 7 hours ago. Awesome.

[@theintelligentmilkjug944]

This comment has 7 likes.

[@TheProGamerMC20]

7 days ago

[@Envy_May]

and now it has 17 likes

[@CaroLMilo-yz7fk]

Im reading you 7 months after!!!

[@jithu__1474]

I see this comment after 7 months😂😂😂

[@Language_Guru]

Congratulations on 777,000 subscribers! I love your content.

[@Envy_May]

77th like

[@sheadobson9910]

Theology was my minor. I still study it on my own time and follow you because I know you will give knowledgeable, unbiased overviews. Keep up the great work

[@commonpike]

I enjoy watching religionforbreakfast because, paradoxically, it is so extremely scientific. Tidy and concise.

[@Flozone1]

Seven is also interesting from a linguistic perspective or rather it looks suspiciously similar in several Eurasian languages. You have the Indo-European septḿ̥ from which you got septem, saptan in Sanskrit and so on. Looks similar to Akkadian shabat and related Semitic words. There is also Prototurkic *žēti for seven. In Uralic languages, seven is the last "normal" number, while 8 and 9 are (ten-minus-one) and (ten-minus-two).

[@hedgehog3180]

Why wouldn't it be similar though? Most of these languages are related or border each other.

[@Flozone1]

@@hedgehog3180 Because none of the other numbers are an usually those numbers which are loaned are higher, like 1000 or 10000. Also they border each other, but over a vast geographic area. Maybe they borrowed each other close in the past. If it is connected, then it is a very ancient connection, but it might be none at all too. In any way it seems interesting. After all languages inherit words from ancestors instead of diffusing into each other via geographic proximity.

[@joalvarado8506]

Semitic is likely not indigenous to Eurasia as all farming-related words seem to be borrowed. Afro-Asiatic is from the Horn of Africa and is more than twice as old as Indo-European is.

[@whatabouttheearth]

7 days is a moon phase, the people that wrote the Bible used the lunar calendar, as did all ancient people initially because the ease of tracking the moon through its 4 phases of 7 days that we now call weeks of the moonth. This is why 7 comes up as an important number in alot of peoples myths.

[@hedgehog3180]

@@Flozone1 Of course the connection would be ancient, you're literally talking about Indo-European languages that are directly related and thus share a common ancestors. The only other languages you list are all surrounded by Indo-European languages and thus obviously had a ton of influence from them.

[@hamadebezem9751]

In Damascus we still have a saying that someone has a tongue with seven tips about a cheeky or sharp-tongued person.

[@hedgehog3180]

In Denmark if you want to say that you're definitely keeping a secret you'll say “my mouth is shut with seven seals”.

[@hamiltonkeener9078]

Man your channel is one of my favorites on KZbin. I always feel like I’m learning so much and your voice is very calming. Thanks so much for the great videos!

[@arc7818]

I liked this video 7 times. Great work as usual!

[@rvind000]

Saptrishis (7 Sages), it is said that they mastered 7 different dimensions of Yoga, together they cover all 112 ways or Tantra (techniques) in multiple of 7.

[@svanimation8969]

Thala for a reason 🤡🤥😬😆

[@michaelwright2986]

When you offered the answer that 7 means "to the max", like "cranking it up to 10," I can't have been the only person who thought of Spinal Tap. So it was delightful to see that possibly, given the sexagesimal number system, 7 *is* 11. Shows that finding answers is a bit of a crap shoot. I also thought of "The magic number 7..." I don't think it's necessarily right to simply dismiss that idea as speculation, provided we stop trying to look for a single cause. Seven is the recurring, para-sacred, number, for whatever reason, and it means "completeness," let's say. If that's true, its use is reinforced by the apparent fact that, on average, a list of 7 items is pretty handy for humans to remember (and hence maybe??? the prevalence of lists of 7: the seven capital sins, the seven deadly virtues, the seven wonders of the world). Full explanations need not just "causes," but maybe causal feedback loops.

[@meeb_consumer]

I'd say it symbolizes completion, but not just that; achievement. The magic of life. True livelihood, that one thing in life that is the basic unit of good that we cannot define. That simple fulfillment by existing, and the fulfillment of having done what was needed of you in your time on earth.

[@timewave02012]

Avenged Sevenfold 🤘

[@succadick2424]

7 is *not* 11 in a sexagesimal base (base 60). It is 11 in a seximal base (base 6). The mesopotamian sexagesimal base here though is actually not a pure sexagesimal system though. the sub-base was base 10.

[@michaelwright2986]

@@succadick2424 Oh dear, yes. I never could resist a silly joke, though.

[@Risenphantom]

Wouldn't 11 in sexagesimal base be 61?

[@sol_mental]

Man, you're one of the best channels out there, I could not be more happy to hear you say you'll double down on it.

[@joeychico1768]

As usual, quality content! 7/7!

[@colinm.3419]

I have placed the 7th like on your comment, 7 hours after you have posted it!

[@zsqu]

@colimn.3419 and it’s 77 likes for me!

[@Sacrengard]

7 Chakras, 7 Colors, 7 Musical notes.... it goes on and on

[@shanekc3502]

There’s more than 7 musical notes and colours

[@Sacrengard]

@@shanekc3502 of course there is more than black and white, there are gray scales. Rainbow has 7 distictive colors even tho they transition from one another in a gradient. 7 Main musical notes taken as basis, aka chromatic scale. It is reduntant and obvious and my point is that WE like to cathegorize things in groups of 7 ... more examples, 7 days of the week, 7 visible celestial objects in our solar system, 7 archangles, 7 deadly sins, 7 virtues, 7 princes of hell, etc etc

[@shanekc3502]

@@Sacrengard yes but there’s 12 musical notes

[@Sacrengard]

@@shanekc3502 7 named notes: A, B, C, D, E, F, G (Do, Re, Mi, Fa, Sol, La, Si) the others are variations of those names, minors and Majors

[@shanekc3502]

@@Sacrengard sharps and flats names are just made up there are 12 notes on a piano. Minor and major is for keys and chords

[@andersonklein3587]

Great content, honestly the origins being with either the planet count or the hexa-base number system were both very compelling. The later reminds me about how we say someone or something is a "10" when they are perfect, ie "this pizza is a 10" is "this pizza is the best". It's a shame we lack the context for those early cultures, because for instance in United States I've observed people use "A" as a maximum since letter grades are common, instead of the 10 scale. I believe also that once you get such a powerful cultural snowball rolling, as with all that previous religious work, new writers are compelled to use this inherent association for flavour. If I wrote a book, for no reason other than the sensations it evokes, I'd use things in groups of 3 and 7 like "7 artifacts" or "7 enemies" etc.

[@Roxor128]

I rather like the idea of a fictional culture that loves the number 4, and uses base-4 numbers, puts their metric prefixes at multiples of 1024 (4^5), likes squares and tetrahedrons, offers deals on 4 or 8-packs of goods, and defaults to using powers of four when they need to pick a number, so where we decimal users would pick 100, they'd pick 64 or 256.

[@dan_asd]

Divisibility factors seem to work with another important number in a very popular modern religion- 3, the thrinity. It is the first whole number to not divide 10.

[@haywardgarner4850]

This same subject popped up on NPR this last week. Seven was the “It” number for a lot of people. Love this deeper dive!

[@whatabouttheearth]

Modern people would be confused by this because we don't even look at the natural things in front of our faces. 7 days is a moon phase, the people that wrote the Bible used the lunar calendar, as did all ancient people initially because the ease of tracking the moon through its 4 phases of 7 days that we now call weeks of the moonth. This is why 7 comes up as an important number in alot of peoples myths. The lunar cycle is the most obvious trackable natural calendar system.

[@preparation.kaician]

I took a screenshot but then realized there is no way (that I can see) to post it in this comment. But, as I watch this video, you have 777k subscribers and this video has 77k views, which is excellent

[@Lancetronium]

Thank you for what you do, and I hope the support continues to grow.

[@jasonengel]

I wonder if the number 7 was important for a similar reason many native american cultures appreciate the number 7 particularly in reference to generations: I might be lucky to meet my great-grandparent in person and they may have met their great-grandparent in person and been able to tell me about it. That's 7 generations, and represents the most number of generations that might be able to directly relate to each other (I can recall my great-grandfather telling me about time he spent with his great-grandfather, that is the extent of a direct connection).

[@SHAD0WZOMBIE]

Its possible to have direct comunication between more than 7 generations. Say they all had kids at 15..

[@us3rG]

My people in Africa use to count seven gen before marriage, if your sixth great grand dad f cked up, you ain't getting my lil daughter. Remember it's Cain's and Seth descendents that were punished not cain. Cain lived, multiplied and prospered even when he knew he f cked up

[@robertpawlsoky2910]

Thanks!

[@BoerChris]

Nice timing: this appeared just in time for our 7th wedding anniversary :D

[@us3rG]

Seven ladies seven kids and infinite headache. What a great life

[@afrbyoutube]

I found your channel after I saw minutes ago on my phone clock -- 07:07 on this day of 07/07. I wondered and wandered. Thank you for creating this. This gives a wonderful feel and thought to things. Will definitely be back as religion & faith traditions are truly interesting subject matter, to say the least.

[@graphixkillzzz]

combine three of the most important things to ancient people: - 7 celestial bodies - 7 stars connected to the North Star - 364 days between solstices or equinoxes, 364 is divided evenly by 7, equaling 52 weeks, and 13 lunar cycles. combine how absolutely important all of those things are to ancient people for everything from religious/cultural identity, to travel, to agriculture, and i think it's a pretty good bet that this is the best explanation for this phenomenon 🤔 but I'm no scholar so obviously I'm wrong 🤷‍♂️✌️😅

[@bjornfeuerbacher5514]

"but I'm no scholar so obviously I'm wrong" Huh? Your first two point where already mentioned in the video as possible explanations brought up by scholars, so why should anyone say that you are wrong on this?! The only thing which is not exactly right is the "364 days between solstices or equinoxes", but it's right to a quite good approximation.

[@nikokapanen82]

The real reason why 7 is so profound and is considered the number of wholeness and completion is that God the Holy Spirit is actually Seven Spirits combined. In the book of Revelation, it is written that God has 7 Spirits, these seven are the Holy Spirit so God acts according to His nature. And this is why, if you have not noticed, the number 7 is found outside religious texts, like the 7 main colors in the rainbow, or the 7 notes in music etc. So the number 7 is literally ingrained into the fabric of reality. because it represents God's nature.

[@bjornfeuerbacher5514]

@@nikokapanen82 It's precisely the other way round: Because 7 had already been considered to be a "holy" number, the author of revelations simply made up the assertion that "God has 7 Spirits". There is no evidence at all that this assertion actually is true. The 7 main colors in the rainbow are just convention, one could also argue for fewer or more colors. This is not even the same number in all cultures! Same goes for the 7 notes in music etc. "So the number 7 is literally ingrained into the fabric of reality." Totally unproven assertion.

[@nikokapanen82]

@@bjornfeuerbacher5514 Yes, to an atheist it is this way.

[@bjornfeuerbacher5514]

@@nikokapanen82 To any thinking person it's that way. Even most religious scholars will agree on that. Only the most fundamentalist, indoctrinated believers will argue otherwise.

[@snazzypazzy]

I think this channel is so interesting and important, but I would really love to see captions added. That helps to open up the information to so many groups, including those who are Deaf/hearing impaired, but also people with a whole range of neurodiverse brains, English learners, etc. It would really help and I'd be super happy :)

[@anxofernandez3344]

Maybe it's a combination of factors. The lunar month would have been noticed very early on in human history, then when people started looking at the stars and saw the 7 "planets" or heavenly bodies, then someone started grouping the stars they saw according to what those groups looked like from their perspective and there were a few constellations that had seven stars. Then that Sumerian sexagesimal system and the number 7 being different from 1-6. It's a series of coincidences but I can see how they'd influence culture and religion in the Levant and surrounding areas and why it persists these days.

[@whatabouttheearth]

Do you think ancient people saw Saturn or Neptune? 🙄 7 days is a moon phase, the people that wrote the Bible used the lunar calendar, as did all ancient people initially because the ease of tracking the moon through its 4 phases of 7 days that we now call weeks of the moonth. This is why 7 comes up as an important number in alot of peoples myths. The lunar cycle is the most obvious trackable natural calendar system.

[@us3rG]

The ancients knew stars more than 99 percent of us now, they knew their geometry vary well but top leaders hid knowledge in order to continue leading. The Greeks even had a computing device for the sky People nowadays assume to know better but we just have microscope and telescope. Most of us will never know the physical world(mother nature ) as they did.

[@adriancanham3101]

You inspired me to pursue a minor in relgious studies, keep up the great work!

[@bugzyhardrada3168]

Thank god you said "in" religious studies" rather then *"for"* ...... (Im kidding of course...)

[@us3rG]

You must've choose English ​@@bugzyhardrada3168

[@zacharymathey3901]

Thank you for teaching Religionforbreakfast!! :D

[@emmanuellaxo9701]

My phone is at 77% as I am watching this. Thanks for the video, sir :)

[@emmanuellaxo9701]

I just looked up and the car parked in front of me has the license plate "777H777"

[@emmanuellaxo9701]

All these heptumnal coincidences were just fun facts to add to your engagement. Thanks again RFB team!

[@NightsideOfParadise]

Mine is 69

[@Crichi404]

now you have 7 likes on your comment!

[@naomicrook150]

i can’t wait for you to get 1 million! you deserve all the support!

[@renanpesciotta]

I really like your content and will adhere to your Patreon.

[@ecemilgun9867]

Teşekkürler.

[@achilles01]

Rica ederim.

[@TurtleMarcus]

The Seven Classic Planets connection brings my mind to astro-theology; the theory that the first religion of humanity was the worship of stars, or that theology was a natural development from astrology.

[@Napoleonic_S]

wasn't human worshipped landmarks, flora and fauna first?

[@Ofallthings089]

Mario’s religion.

[@whatabouttheearth]

A. Do you think the ancients saw Saturn or Neptune? 🙄 B. Astro theology was not the first religion of humanity, I'd advise you to read 'Rivers of Life' by JGR Forlong for more of a hint that is not as based on modern anachronistic concepts as "Astro theology" 7 days is a moon phase, the people that wrote the Bible used the lunar calendar, as did all ancient people initially because the ease of tracking the moon through its 4 phases of 7 days that we now call weeks of the moonth. This is why 7 comes up as an important number in alot of peoples myths. The lunar cycle is the most obvious trackable natural calendar system.

[@Kriophoros]

There's another interesting connection: number 5 is ubiquitous in Chinese philosophy due to the Five Elements, namely Metal, Water, Wood, Fire and Earth. This system originally refers to, respectively, the five planets, Venus, Mercury, Jupiter, Mars and Saturn. Thus the astronomical explanation works well here too; the Chineses simply don't group Sun and Moon into the rest.

[@TrippyEverythingVisuals]

Thank you so much for what you do!!! I love your videos.

[@IcarusRuthven]

You've just connected some tangential dots for me. Gustav Holst's "Planet Suite" is pretty clearly an influence on Marty O'Donnell's original soundtrack for Destiny, but O'Donnell wrote pieces for Sol and Luna instead of Uranus and Neptune. Now I have a clue as to why. There are other musical choices related to a sort of classical numerology he makes - the vocal themes for certain sections seem to reference the old "Music of the Spheres" idea that, say, Earth's elliptical orbit corresponds to the variance in pitch between mi and fa in the solfege scale. Thousands of years later, and we're still imparting significance to numbers in attempts to unify the whole.

[@Gameowner71]

Glad to have been here for the least two and a half years of it, great content as always 🎉

[@Talalansardeen33]

Thank you! May the seven be with you! 👏✨💐👍💗🌞🙏

[@gohamorgohome]

Thanks for educating me, I really enjoyed this one.

[@shadbakht]

In the Arabic numeral system, 9 represents completeness, as it's the largest single number

[@ZETA14.88]

base-10 counting systems predate arab

[@LincolnDWard]

​@@ZETA14.88 that's true, but why say it here? Nobody was asserting that the Arabs were the _first_ to use a base-10 system, just that 9 has special significance in Arabic culture _as a result_ of using a base-10 system.

[@Unlimi-PT]

It's also 7

[@moayyadalouh582]

If you're talking about Arab/Muslim culture, I'm both and I've never heard of 9 representing completeness, but we love to use 7, 70, 7000, etc. If you're talking about the whole base ten positional numeral system - a numeral system doesn't include numbers representing things?

[@us3rG]

​@@ZETA14.88no it doesn't lol Arabs( desert people /tent people, nomadic people) predate base ten...they also next to India and the numbers are actually called Arabic lol

[@OURPROMISEDLANDISAFRICA]

Congratulations! 🎉 You're content is Awesome! Thank you, and your Team, for sharing with us. Great Work! 🙂

[@LogosFlow]

There's a channel, theoria apophasis, where he rediscovered the Pythagorean/geometric basis of seven. Phi, and each of it's powers up to phi cubed and down to phi to the negative three, seven sections, all have metaphysical meanings, and with these seven sections all of reality is represented, and the 36-36-108 golden triangle can demonstrate this as a geometric symbol. The math and metaphysics are solid and you could read all further cultural references to seven as versions of this basic geometrical/metaphysical understanding.

[@rrrosecarbinela]

Congrats! And thank you so much. I have learned much from you and look forward to more.

[@madnessbydesignVria]

Congrats on your sacred number of subs! Your content remains high-quality educational material that also entertains - which is so rare... :)

[@NathanaelFosaaen]

in eastern Native American philosophy 7 is also kinda a big deal. it represents all space (north , south, east, west, up, down, and center.

[@experience741]

In my country there is a symbolic sentence regarding the number 7. "7 generations their wealth will not run out". Usually this sentence is used to refer to families who have been very rich for generations Sorry for my bad English

[@Arclibs]

Your English was perfect, well done! Don't give up learning =)

[@sarfrazmh31]

You must be North Indian or Pakistani ?

[@experience741]

@@sarfrazmh31 no, I'm from southeast Asia

[@sarfrazmh31]

​@@experience741 Your ancestors naybe from North India or Pakistan then. Such beliefs are passed down from generations by idle talk at home.

[@experience741]

@@sarfrazmh31 I don't know. But in past my country had trade relationship with ancient india so maybe this sentence was brought by ancient Indians merchants. I don't know if this sentence also in India and Pakistan

[@lizycole8999]

congrats on the auspicious number of subscribers!

[@SHAD0WZOMBIE]

"Chunk" is a technical term in computing to refer to quantifiable collection of data.

[@bunnygodofchaos574]

I have always valued this objective and research focused perspective on religion, something which is normally only covered in extremely emotional and argumentive sermons or hate pieces. Thank you for your dedication to education and knowledge.

[@mayanksinghfartiyal5290]

It all started with sapt rishis or 7 Sages which started with Jyotisha Shastra calendar in which there were 7 days a week after calculations. One of which is Rishi Kashyap on whose name Caspian sea is named

[@Ihavenobadintentions]

There were also 7 chakras in human body according to hinduism

[@svanimation8969]

​@@Ihavenobadintentions 7 = Thala for a reason 🤡🤥😬😆

[@trytrum2ice254]

Any modern society accepts a week as 7.days which the 7th day is rest day. The fulfilling of Resting does effect an importance in having great respond.

[@TheGajknight]

Why does the number 7 appear everywhere in religion? Because 7 8 9, duh

[@Ross1950art]

Seven is the cannibal number.

[@ian-nator2685]

SEVEN STRONGH

[@amy_pieterse]

That cannibal

[@h.huffen-puff4105]

🤦‍♀️

[@bootblacking]

If Yoda tells that joke it's because 6 7 8

[@vickygao3347]

Just a small point but I love how you called it the Chinese correlative cosmology haha, bcs that’s exactly what it is (the interplay of the elements). It’s such an important system in daoist/general Chinese folk cultural thought and to hear it named so precisely was validating.

[@patrickgreene5028]

The fact that the Norse seem to have used 9 in a similar capacity does lend some credence to the 7 +/- 2 hypothesis. At the very lease, being odd numbers each with their own mathematical intrigue, I wouldn't be surprised if the true answer is "all of the above". The fact that 7 is vaguely around the limit of ideas you can juggle, the fact it is an early stand out in mathematical operations (especially base 60), and the fact that there were 7 wandering celestial bodies. 5 is half of 10, and the number of fingers on a hand. 9 is one less than 10, and is also 3x3, 3 being itself fairly special as being the first number to qualify as "many". Having spent my life with numbers, either in music, or in physics, or in software, I can attest that different numbers have different feels. 5, 7, and 9 all have a vibe, while numbers like 4 and 8 feel quite dull (being "just" multiples of two). 6 feels a bit special, but in a comfortable way. It's nice because it combines 3 and 2, so you can look forward to a lot more tidy integer division. And 10 of course resets the counter in our base ten system, and has a lot of practical relevance to our interaction with the world.

[@2ms2]

I would argue 4 can be special if you look for it. 4 cardinal directions, 4 elements, 4 extremities, etc... Honestly, as long as the number is not too big or weird you can pretty much find it everywhere. It just comes to what a culture holds as important.

[@Noqtis]

Norse myth focuses on the 3 and 9 because in their culture, existence itself relates to the number 3 and 9. in their believe reality is woven by 3 women symbolizing the past, the present and the future. 3 goddesses weave 3 threads = 3 x 3 = 9, which stands for reality itself. you can also spot the number 3 in many of their runes.

[@coregoon]

@@Noqtis Small quibble, but there are more than 3 norns, it's just that only three are named. Those three are referred to as Jotnar, but the sources say that the Nornir came from many backgrounds, specifically including gods, elves, and dwarves.

[@gardariker]

I should note that the number eight plays a similar role in Japanese culture. For example, the term for all existing gods in Shinto is "yaoyorozu no kami", or "eight million gods". This is just one of many expressions in which this number symbolizes completeness. Sometimes it just means many: "yatsuzaki" means tearing someone apart, or into eight pieces.

[@ryandevries8931]

When learning to transition to a farming lifestyle, one key element was to let the land rest in the 7th year to regain its nutrients.

[@hiimryan2388]

I don’t know if this adds to anything but I learned in psych class that we generally can only remember 7 unrelated things for short term memory

[@us3rG]

If you add a moon in your head you can have three more seven set of memories. Derived from month, we call those memorith

[@MJ-dh6zx]

Mentioned in the video :) around 8:17

[@RubelliteFae]

If it were only one specific thing, people wouldn't have found it significant. But when people see a pattern over and over it makes, or can seem to make, a pattern. So yes, I think it's the 7 planets-seen as 7 deities-which have been associated with the 7 days of the week since the Vedic peoples (that's also from where we get the associations). It's also important that ancient astronomy (which allowed for large scale farming) developed in tandem with mathematics and greater works of architecture. It's what allowed humanity to go from just dealing with the whims of fate to actually shaping one's own fate. Taking the fruits of the earth and forming them into things people could benefit from-and these benefits were rapid and noticeable. So yes, 7 being a sort of mathematical oddity would have been a part of that. But something unmentioned that I think is important is geometry. 6 points for a 3D volume + 1 for temporal displacement. But that's also really 6 points in the first point of time and 6 in the second point in time: 6+6+1. This brings the other sacred number: 13. (It's only in the last century 13 has been seen as unlucky, btw.) Often 7 is represented as complete/whole/maximum in the form 6+1. We also see this with 13: 12+1. It's the larger number coming together and the last one completes the set. An example Westerners can latch onto is the 12 disciples + the 1 who leads them. The extra 1 is that metaphysical something that gives the rest of the bunch significance. It's what takes a nice divisible number like 6 and makes it esoteric. It's not just "completion" but the divine capstone upon the mundane multitude. But, that's all just my opinion. The impression I've gotten from years of reading ancient religious & philosophical works. Nothing from formal papers. I have a lot more to say about it, but this message has gone on too long already.

[@AustinMitchell-x7y]

Congratulations! In Japan, this is the year of the Seven Gods of Fortune, shichifukujin, which is another fun association to your milestone.

[@LukasShannon]

This video was great! There's one theory relating to math / geometry you didn't mention: the radius of a circle wraps its circumference 6 times, then a 7th is needed to complete it, but with extra (taken from Mathieu Pageau).

[@AbramelinWoW]

Really enjoyed how this video dives into the mystery of the number seven across different cultures and religions. It's amazing to see how a simple number can hold so much meaning and connect so many beliefs throughout history. The part about the stars and planets making seven a special number was especially cool. It shows how people long ago looked up at the sky and found something sacred that we still talk about today. Thanks for sharing these fascinating insights and reminding us how connected our world is through numbers and stories. Keep up the great work on making complex religious topics easy to understand!

[@patrario4847]

In my study of Quran, it mention 7 in purpose. For example to illustrate the countless impact of giving alms for society, like a seed which grows seven branch and each grows hundreds (2:261). Seem, with literature study it shows and emphasize the benefits that will produce many benefits in future. After watching this, I think it doesnt only want to show that but to be fully understood for people in Arab that day which have a lot of these previous religion adherents and linkage tradition by generation, and their place is surround by this 7 number usage civilizations.

[@baahbb]

In a lunar cycle, the most reasonable division of time into smaller cycles is to quarter it. That leaves you with 7 days. As a prime, it is then I realistic to divide further, which would make 7 Complete

[@alanpennie8013]

This is not quite true. But it's approximately true.

[@joshuasims5421]

I think this answer makes a lot of sense. Four 7-day weeks in a month -> 7 is the end of a week -> seven is complete -> seven is special. In fact, since the moon and sun are so visually different than the planets, it almost makes more sense to me that they were added to the other planets in astrology to add up to 7, which was already special.

[@shasan2393]

The problem i have with this is that the lunar cycle is 29.5 days, not 28. Then, with 12 lunar months, thats 354 days, 11 days shorter than 365.25 days in a full year. Nothing about 7 fits with lunar cycles or the calendar Side fun fact, the Islamic calendars uses lunar months, which is why for example, Ramadan occurs 11 days earlier each year, “moving around” the calendar. Additionally, since lunar month is 29.5 days, theres a 50% chance each month will be 29 or 30 days (it averages out through the whole year). Often the determination is based on local moon visibility, which is why certain holidays may be celebrated on different days in different areas

[@iLEZ]

I scrolled down, and I watched this 7 hours after publication. WooOoOo.

[@knasigboll]

The lunar calendar feels like the biggest reason, given it’s importance in many cultures

[@LilBrownieD]

Love this channel and your fascinating content

[@daveharrison84]

a 7 day week is one phase of the moon. Also in many languages the days of the week are named after the 7 planets.

[@ericjohnson6665]

It's actually quite simple. There are 3 members to the Trinity: Father, Son, Mother Spirit. When they are combined jointly or singly, they produce 7 variations: Father-Son-Spirit, Father-Son, Father-Spirit, Son-Spirit, Father, Son, & Spirit. These combinations give rise to the Seven Master Spirits [per The Urantia Book]. So yeah, 7 x 70 pretty much means everything, or an endless amount.

[@ryanmaass5360]

Every metalhead going "waitaminute..." at 4:35

[@garvielloken8494]

Avenged Seventhold?

[@Ice_Karma]

"The magical number seven, plus or minus two" turned out to be about the length of the phonological loop vs. the pace at which a language is spoken. It's about 7 for English, but about 9 for Mandarin.

[@JaneDoe-dg1gv]

neat.

[@mme725]

7 being a shorthand for "to the maximum" reminds me of how we use "turn it up to 11" as a way to go beyond the maximum. Interesting coincidence that 11 is the next prime number after 7 as well 😛

[@happytofu5]

Its over 9000!!!

[@switzerlandful]

7:42 60 is a superior highly composite number (SHCN). So is 2, 6, 12, 120, 360 (degrees in a circle), 2520, 5040 (a number spoken of by Plato and is 7 factorial), 55440, and 720720.

[@switzerlandful]

It is interesting that 7 is a prime number (opposite of a SHCN) but 7 factorial ends up being a SHCN.

[@travisr9839]

Glad to support your work. Just joined your Patreon. ❤

[@kkupsky6321]

You’re the best. Keep going mate. Awesome content. Thanks.

[@kkupsky6321]

I wouldn’t call that hair floppy. Screamo?

[@aceofspades3973]

This basically explains the Faith of the Seven in the world of A Song of Ice and Fire. I definitely think it's an intentional choice on GRRM's part based on the importance of the number seven in real-world religions.

[@alanpennie8013]

Definitely.

[@hedgehog3180]

He's also continuing a romantic literary tradition since his works are inspired by romantic era texts. In romantic literature the numbers 3,7 and 13 often showed up as a direct reference to the bible. A Song of Ice and Fire is both very much inspired by national romantic works like Ivanhoe but also something of a subversion of them so a lot of similar motiffs will show up.

[@Sylkis89]

I remember at school I was taught that 7 and 2 are the most stable numbers of electrons around the atom or bonds between atoms or something like that. I don't remember what it was I was always bad at chemistry. But whatever it was, all atoms always would go into a state of having either 2 or 7 of whatever it was, that we don't know what it is that makes it so but it's just a fact about the universe we must accept and yet need to figure out why this happens. That was always making me think of how numbers 7 and 12 are always so special in our culture. 12 for obvious reasons if you know anything about ancient history and base-12 or base-60 systems, and I just thought that 7 is because it's one more than 6, so one more than a dozenal half, that this must have been somehow symbolically useful/significant. But it also made me wonder whether there is some hidden deeper connection that we gravitated towards liking this number subconsciously in the same way we like the golden ratio in aesthetics and stuff which, as it turns out, is just a very practical design for a lot of things in nature. That maybe there is something about how the universe is built that manifests both in physics/chemistry as well as our culture, that the link is completely indirect of course, way deeper than what we could see at our stage without going into some ridiculous new age mumbo jumbo nonsense. Or it could be just a coincidence lol

[@alicia1463]

In terms of chemistry, atoms with 7 electrons in their outer shell are generally not stable. With low atomic numbers, atoms with 8 electrons in their outer shells are stable (noble gasses).

[@evropej]

1 indivisible 2 union 3 totality 4 corners of the earth 5 imbalances 6 imperfect without good will 7 perfect only when five senses third eye mind and good will Etc with spiritual meanings

[@whatabouttheearth]

4 corners of the earth? Where?

[@evropej]

@@whatabouttheearth news north east west south No geography back then or science Remember what religion did to scientists who said that the earth goes around the sun?

[@Stevefrenchie]

5:45 “just to name 7” gave me a laugh I’ll admit

[@bothewolf3466]

When the shop clerk looks at my ID they ALWAYS say :You have a lot of sevens.....like...EVERY time. Or the remember: They guy with 'the sevens"

[@Takisoss]

Me too 7/7/77 and they add you must be really lucky😁

[@bothewolf3466]

@@Takisoss Lol, right?

[@jimwyatt9894]

Excellent. I watched it seven times!

[@A_Rider_On_The_Storm]

When I was 15 years old, I had an incredible experience one evening whilst camping. It was so uniquely powerful that it can hardly be conveyed through words, but in the months following I learnt that it would be called a 'mystical experience.' The reason I bring this up is because simply put, the overriding insight granted by this experience was that there are 7 layers to existence, all superimposed on one another, descending from the divine One, and while the material realm is only one of these layers, human consciousness can traverse beyond it. At this time in my life, I had a very limited understanding of religion. I had a 'sunday school' level of thought about religion, mainly Christianity, and zero exposure to mysticism, numerology, esotericism etc. Besides knowing that the creation story of Genesis involved 7 days, I had no knowledge of the significance of the number 7 within religious history. The profundity of this experience motivated me to explore religious history in order to find some kind of precedent for what I had experienced, and I must confess that I was almost scared, yet somehow not surprised, at discovering just how completely widespread this notion of 'seven levels of heaven' and similar is throughout religious history. This one experience, in which I was thrown into an altered state of consciousness for perhaps only a few minutes, sent me on a path of discovery that I never would have gone down otherwise. It is ultimately because of this experience that I eventually started watching youtube channels like Religion for Breakfast, Esoterica, Let's Talk Religion and so on. That years later you would make a video on the topic of the spiritual significance of '7' is therefore quite poetic to me, and I thus felt the need to write this comment. In the time since this experience, I have studied neo-Platonism, Merkavah, Gnosticism, Catholic and Orthodox mysticism (Dante, Teresa of Ávila, Meister Eckhart, Seraphim Rose, Pseudo-Dionysius etc), Sufism, Hindu cosmology and spirituality, the Dream of Scipio, the Mithras liturgy and so much more. In reading about these topics I am endlessly blown away by the cross-cultural parallels that exist between my personal mystical experience and the mystical experiences of numerous other individuals across space and time. It's true that my interest in them began with the fact they contain insights that paralleled my own, but that these parallels exist at all is remarkable to me and suggests shared acquaintance with the same spiritual phenomena. For myself, this process of discovery has not really been about 'learning' new religious teachings, but rather about finding external confirmation for what I 'learnt' in this one mystical experience, and I must say that it is remarkable how much external validation there is historically for what at first glance would appear to be quite a bizarre idea. Really, this whole journey, which still continues, has just been a long process of 'working back from' and unpacking the huge amount of spiritual insight I gained in this one overwhelming mystical experience. That I could find such an astonishing number of precedents for these insights (which seemed to come to me out of nowhere) tells me I am certainly not the first one to have had a mystical experience of this specific nature. I cannot explain this experience, and have never experienced anything remotely close to it before or since, yet it truly felt like I was being momentarily granted some insight from the divine. Looking back, it was probably the single most profound experience of my life, and it has been burnt into my brain ever since.

[@SantaRPG]

Thank you for sharing this. It helped me understand something that happened recently

[@ribkan4759]

6:13 Solom 6:17 Varro 7:36 sexagesimal 9:15 seven classical planets

[@RAJ-_-WONDERZ]

💥🔥💥 It has significance in almost every major religion. In the Old Testament the world was created in six days and God rested on the seventh, creating the basis of the seven-day-week we use to this day. In the New Testament the number seven symbolizes the unity of the four corners of the Earth with the Holy Trinity. The number seven is also featured in the Book of Revelation (seven churches, seven angels, seven seals, seven trumpets, and seven stars). The Koran speaks of seven heavens and Muslim pilgrims walk around the Kaaba in Mecca (Islam’s most sacred site) seven times. In Hinduism there are seven higher worlds and seven underworlds, and in Buddhism the newborn Buddha rises and takes seven steps‼️

[@bjornfeuerbacher5514]

In Egypt. dividing a month into four periods, each lasting seven days, was usual thousands of years _before_ the Bible. Probably the writers of the Bible got the idea of the seven-day creation week from there (or from Babylonia, where this idea was also known). So it is questionable if actually the Bible was the basis for our seven-day week. "In the New Testament the number seven symbolizes the unity of the four corners of the Earth with the Holy Trinity." Where does the NT say that? Most of your other examples where already mentioned in the video. Why do you bring them up again?

[@Incredabad1337]

Longtime viewer, first time commenter, can we get a video about the acts of Thomas? I just rewatched your videos on the subject because I went back and have read the Gospel of Thomas about 6 times now and just started the acts and was hoping you’d cover the subject sometime! Keep doing all you do, your channel has been a well of knowledge for me and all I share it with.

[@theloafabread4341]

The video is 12 minutes and 47 seconds long… 1+2+4 = 7… factor that with the additional 7 on the end and this cannot be considered a coincidence

[@bezbezzebbyson788]

😰😰😰😰😰😰😰😰

[@Im_Tekoa]

I noticed that too!!! How amazing!

[@saityavuz76]

You forgot about the seven layers of heaven and earth in Islam.

[@lore.keeper]

Very interesting! I've always wondered why *7* in particular was their obsession

[@nikokapanen82]

The real reason why 7 is so profound and is considered the number of wholeness and completion is that God the Holy Spirit is actually Seven Spirits combined. In the book of Revelation, it is written that God has 7 Spirits, these seven are the Holy Spirit so God acts according to His nature. And this is why, if you have not noticed, the number 7 is found outside religious texts, like the 7 main colors in the rainbow, or the 7 notes in music etc. So the number 7 is literally ingrained into the fabric of reality. because it represents God's nature.

[@spacebwoy]

1:19 surely if he's landed on a mountain he's already found dry land... Oh and you had 777K subscribers when I wrote this! Crowley would be pleased.

[@joeyc9418]

I would really like to see you delve back into American Indian religion. One thing that interests me is how the mythological heroes of many tales like Coyote or the hero twins play into indigenous ceremony. To many westerners these figures would be classified as deities but they are often spoken of as if they're something else

[@Pacal_II]

Weren't the seven days of the week in ancient Rome and Greece named after the seven classical planets and their associated gods?

[@Cesaryeyo]

In Spanish the seven days still have names clearly rooted in them Monday= Lunes = Luna (moon) Tuesday= Martes = Marte (Mars) Wednesday= Miércoles = Mercurio (Mercury) Thursday= Jueves= Júpiter (take a guess) Friday= Viernes= Venus (take another guess) Saturday=Sabado=Saturno The exception is Sunday= Domingo, might be related to "dominar", being the big one, but that's just speculation on my part

[@AnotherCraig]

Then they did a find-and-replace with some germanic gods, and here we are. Happy Thor's-Day!

[@hedgehog3180]

In most Germanic languages they're named after the Germanic (mostly known as Norse) gods.

[@ineffableartistsmusic4109]

Would you maybe do 12 (Zodiac and Disciples) or 13 (...unlucky but conversely, the center of the circle...enlightenment) at some point?

[@LimeyLassen]

666 as well!

[@welcometonebalia]

Thank you Thank you Thank you Thank you Thank you Thank you Thank you

[@gospelofthomas77thpearl22]

In the Gospel of Thomas two of the most important sayings are Thomas 7 & 77. Hence the title of the book- 77th Pearl: The Perpetual Tree. 🙏🏼