Spiritual Meanings Of Number Seven

I was having a conversation with my friend the other day and she told me she did not like the number 7. This remark surprised me as seven is one of my favorite numbers, but once I mentioned that there are seven continents in the world, seven sacraments and the seven chakras this eased her superstition; but not my curiosity so I had to delve deeper into some of the spiritual meanings behind the number 7.

Seven is a prime number, said to be a mystical and holy number that has been revered in ancient pagan religions throughout the world. There are seven sacraments, seven days of the week, and Sanskrit's most antiquated sacred book, the Rig Vega, details seven concentric continents, seven stars, and seven layers of existence. There are seven archangels of the Bible, and seven factors of enlightenment in Buddhism. Which are Mindfulness, Investigation, Energy, Happiness, Tranquility, Concentration and Equanimity. 

I even remember when I was doing some healing work with a shaman, years ago, and he told me to take seven steps on the earth each day for seven days as part of my journey. So what else can we know or learn about the number seven? 

The ancient Egyptians outlined seven pathways to heaven; the world was built in seven days according to the Bible and the dove returned to Noah's ark on the seventh day. The newly born Buddha took seven strides and Allah created an Islamic seven layered heaven and earth. Seven is integrated throughout ancient texts and in the book of Proverbs 9:1 wisdom has seven pillars.

Yet there is also a great deal of superstition around the number 7 for many of the same reasons I suppose. After all, there are the seven deadly sins, while in the Quran hell has seven gates. Not to mention that Satan is surrounded by the number 7 in the Book of Revelation, as well as there being seven angels of the Apocolapse.

Maybe it all started with our need to measure time? The Babylonians (and others) divided the phases of the moon into 4 parts, each with 7 days. Although not perfectly accurate, it is a useful division and gave us our seven day week.

It is said to be a highly spiritual number associated with intuition, however, the number 7 may not be particularly important in the physics of the Universe, I will let you be the judge.