Heptad

In this system, we seek to define a very special kind of 'change', which we call transformation. That there are quite different kinds of change is vaguely acknowledged by most people, but little or no research has been devoted to this. With the heptad, we concern ourselves with a complex structure of action in which the quality of action itself is changed. If we consider an entity, then (i) the entity realizes itself (ii) it acquires properties not even potentially present before (iii) without losing the identity it is integrated into a greater totality. The third aspect is the key to the integration of independent events into a total history, hence progress.

Transformations are comparatively rare but of major importance in human life. The few totally dedicated artists and scientists undergo this with respect to their art or research. Transformation is usually reflected in the struggle with and resolution of a complex problem. That is why this system has proved of heuristic value in understanding the concrete structure of 'problem-solving'.

The terms of the system can be regarded as 'levels' and 'stages', providing it is not assumed that transformation is simply a passing along the series of terms. It is also important to take into account the individual qualities of each element, which are present throughout the total action. There is both a structural distinctiveness of terms and a blending between them. The terms are therefore designated states, the word signifying a synthesis of qualities and stages.

References for the Heptad:

Gurdjieff on the Law of Seven as quoted by Ouspensky in In Search of the Miraculous

Ancient

• Elohim
• Seven Planets
• Seven Day Week

• http://www.vic.australis.com.au/hazz/number007.html

• Tone Numbers (Sumer)
  • The deified Sumerian numbers, taken over by Babylon, are 10, 12, 15, 20, 30, 40, and 50, all fractional parts of "father" Anu/An = 60, head of the pantheon. Their fractional values and god names are indicated here with a brief description of their mythological functions.
  • Anu/An, 60, written as a large 1, "father of the gods" and earliest head of the pantheon, is any reference unit. He is equivalent in our notation to 60/60 = 1, where he functions, according to modern concepts, as "geometric mean in the field of rational numbers."
  • Enlil, 50 (5/6), "god on the mountain" possessing fifty names, is mankind's special guardian and was promoted to head the pantheon circa 2500 B.C. Enlil deities in base 60 what the Greeks knew as the human prime number, 5, in their base-1O harmonics. By generating major thirds of 4:5 and minor thirds of 5:6, he saved Sumerians tremendous arithmetical labor, as we shall note in due course.
  • Ea/Enki, 40 (2/3), "god of the sweet waters" and perhaps the busiest deity in Sumer, "organizes the earth," including the musical scale. He deities the divine prime number, 3, in the ratio of the musical fifth 2:3, the most powerful shaping force in music after the octave. (Notice that the trio of highest gods (40, 50, 60) defines the basic musical triad of 4:5:6 (do, mi, sol, rising, and mi, do, la, falling). The ratio 4:5 defines a major third and the ratio 5:6 defines a minor third, taken either upward or downward within the matrix of the musical octave.)
  • Sin, 30 (1/2), the Moon, establishes the basic Sumerian octave matrix as 1:2 30:60.
  • Shamash, 20 (1/3), the Sun, judges the gods.
  • Ishtar, 15 (1/4), is the epitome of the feminine as virgin, wife, and everybody's mistress.
  • Nergal, 12 (1/5), is god of the underworld.
  • Bel/Marduk, 10 (1/6), the biblical Baal, originally was a minor deity but eventually became head of the Babylonian pantheon in the second millennium B.C. He inherited all the powers of the other gods, including Enlil's fifty names, in a giant step toward a "Pythagorized" monotheism built on the first ten numbers.
• Hindu octave
• Tradition of Seven
  • http://www.crystalinks.com/numerology3.html

Occult

• Rosicrucian
• Seven Levels of Consciousness
  • 1 Elemental: Moon
  • 2 Mineral: Saturn
  • 3 Vegetable: Venus
  • 4 Animal: Mars
  • 5 Human: Mercury
  • 6 Demi-God: Jupiter
  • 7 God: Sun
• Philosophers Stone

• The diagram above represents the philosopher's stone, the active principle of alchemy. It was copied by none less than Isaac Newton, with numbered colouring instructions written alongside it. He quite clearly believed in the possibilities of alchemy, if the half-million words he wrote on the subject are anything to go by. The drawing shows a central disk surrounded by seven smaller disks, each segmented by a seven-pointed star. Signs of the seven most notable heavenly bodies (the planets Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn, plus the Sun and the Moon) are assigned to the points of each star, and inscribed in rings around each disk. The use of occult symbolism seems at odds to the modern eye, especially at the hand of the man who established our understanding of the solar system. But, on one level, the planetary signs were merely the common symbols for metals - Venus was copper, and Saturn lead, for example. The seven metals - lead, tin, iron, copper, mercury, silver and gold - were basic ingredients for any alchemist and, for Newton, they were transformed by a vital spirit. Code-named 'magnesia', 'mercurial spirit', 'body of light', etc., it was responsible for all growth and decay, and represented God's will at the heart of all matter.

• Colour-Music and Newton
  • Newton saw a strong relation between colour and music, and was the first to divide purple into violent and indigo as a basic colour, yielding seven that matched the five whole tones (red, yellow, blue, green, violet) and two semitones (orange and indigo). Kepler had argued that musical harmony was the basis of the universe. By the 19th century music was widely considered the highest and unifying art, in effect replacing theology and philosophy and neatly managing to sidestep much ethical tradition.
  • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Color_vision
• Seven alchemical operations
  • However, certain of the operations seem to recur more often in the literature and experience. We could consider these as the skeletal frame of the alchemical process. Their order switches around also. Edinger lists seven operations which seem to typify the major transformations of the alchemical process. These include: calcinatio, solutio, coagulatio, sublimatio, mortificatio, separatio, and coniunctio. Other major operations include nigredo, albedo, rubedo, solificatio, multiplicatio, projectio, separatio, circulatio, and more.
• Seven Stages of Alchemical Transformation
• Seven Rays (Alice Bailey)
• Phi (Dee Finney)

History

• 7 Stages of Athenian Democracy
  • 1. Solon (c. 600 - 561)
    • Debt bondage and loss of holdings to creditors led to political unrest. The rich non-aristocrats wanted power. Solon was elected archon in 594 to reform the laws.
  • 2. Tyranny of the Pisistratids (561-510)
    • Benevolent despots took control after compromise of Solon failed.
  • 3. Moderate Democracy of Cleisthenes (510 - c. 462)
    • Factional struggle between Isagoras and Cleisthenes following the end of the tyranny. Cleisthenes allied himself with the people by promising them citizenship. Cleisthenes reformed social organization and put an end to the aristocratic rule.
  • 4. Radical Democracy of Pericles (c. 462-431)
    • Pericles' mentor, Ephialtes, put an end to the Areopagus as a political force. In 443 Pericles was elected general and re-elected every year until his death in 429. He introduced pay for public office (jury duty). Freedom at home and domination abroad.
  • 5. Oligarchy (431-403)
    • War with Sparta led to the total defeat of Athens. In 411 and 404 two oligarchic counter-revolutions tried to destroy democracy.
  • 6. Radical Democracy (403-322)
    • Stable time with Athenian orators Lysias, Demosthenes, Aeschines debating what was best for the polis.
  • 7. Macedonian and Roman Domination (322-102)
    • Democratic ideals continued despite domination by outside powers.

Octaves

• Hermetic Octave (Botticelli)
• Octave of energy
• Gurdjieff octave
  • http://www.quartavia.org/inglese/shock.htm
• Gurdjieff on the Enneagram
• Ray of Creation
• Mouravieff
• Octaves of Existence

Analytical

• The Magical Number Seven, Plus or Minus Two: Some Limits on Our Capacity for Processing Information (George A. Miller)
• Reflexive Universe – Arthur M. Young
• Seven Levels of Biological Organization
  • Cell
  • Organ
  • Organism/Individual
  • Group/Team
  • Organization
  • Society/Community
  • Supranational System/Earth
• Stages of Grief
  • Grief is a normal, natural part of life. It is important that grief be regarded as a healing process. There are seven recognized grief stages. An individual will experience each stage during their grief; however, it may not be in order and some stages may be visited more than once. The stages of grief are (1) Shock or Disbelief that the loss has occured. (2) Denial is the stage in which the person refuses to accept the loss has occured. (3) In the Bargaining stage, the person attempts to reconcile the loss by making deals with other people, sometimes also with Diety. (4) Guilt is marked by statements of "if only I had done/been . . . ". (5) Anger is a natural stage everyone must pass. Anger may be directed toward the loss, the person lost, or even Diety. (6) Depression is a stage that comes and goes throughout the grief process. Resignation at the end of the depression indicates that the truth of the loss has been accepted and the person is ready to move on. (7) Acceptance and Hope means that you understand your life will never be the same but it will go on with meaning and hope.
• Heraldry
  • The seven elementary virtues include the three theological virtues of faith, hope and charity and the four cardinal virtues of justice, prudence, temperance and fortitude: black represents prudence, blue justice, green fortitude, purple or violet temperance, with gold or yellow representing faith, silver or white hope, and red charity. These seven virtues (three plus four) take the form of a crescendo, commencing with prudence and culminating in charity, the greatest virtue of the Christian faith.
• Primal Therapy
  • Primal Therapy is experienced in seven dynamic, overlapping, temporal stages. This is an original concept of Primal Therapy as an orderly and cohesive process with predictable stages. Each stage seems to be a necessary precondition for each subsequent stage, and each subsequent stage emerges logically out of what has already occurred. Still, experiences that seem to characterize a particular stage may also occur at other stages. The stages are as follows:
  • Stage 1. Initiation: The person learns how to make contact with her real self and how to do primal work. She typically begins therapy wrestling with the issue of commitment to the therapy--as it seems risky--but ultimately accept the demands of the therapy. During this period it may be difficult to feel, and she may become very frustrated. Nevertheless, when she does contact feelings, they seem deeper and more powerful than anything previously experienced. She acknowledges the tremendous intensity of these feelings and learns that she can have these feelings in therapy without "going crazy." She now sees herself as a feeling person and as starting a new phase of life.
  • Stage 2. Alienation: The person feels himself separated from his network of social relationships, and from who he was before beginning the therapy. Painfully alone on this journey, he feels as if others are incapable of understanding what he is going through. He tends to feel different from--perhaps even superior to--people who have not experienced the primal process. The world seems a little crazy. People seem "unreal." He may want to "turn on" the whole world to Primal Therapy, while simultaneously worrying that his own therapy may not work or that he may be incapable of enduring it. He sometimes wonders whether others in the therapy might be getting more out of it than he is. The primaler is confused much of the time, and learns to allow this confusion. Afraid of the outside world, the person tends to withdraw.
  • Stage 3. Despair: The person arrives at a distinct point of hopelessness and profound aloneness in the world. Attempts to avoid the loneliness, pain, and struggle are seen as futile. Often it seems that she isn't getting anywhere, that she will never get through her old feelings nor get what she needs. The primaler wonders whether the therapy is worth all the pain. She often hopes for a "magical primal" that will instantly relieve her of this unbearable pain. Still, there are moments, often after a productive therapy session, when faith is renewed that the therapy may work for her and that she may find contentment.
  • Stage 4. Acceptance: The primaler begins to accept the painful reality of his early life--that he did not receive nearly enough sustenance and support. He realizes that it is too late for his childhood needs to be met; and so, giving up the false hope of ever finding the love that he was lacking early in life, he resolves to stop struggling for that love in the present. He accepts that there is no payoff for his pain and that he is alone in the world. He becomes aware of himself as truly separate from, yet deeply sharing with, everyone in the world. The person is now more tolerant of others and accepting of their feelings. He now accepts that he must turn inward. Primal Therapy begins to feel like an integral part of life. He realizes that, whoever he has become, it is impossible to return to being who he was.
  • Stage 5. Expansion: The person turns inward and discovers a sense of great personal power, and overwhelming compassion, emanating from her center. She is becoming aware of an inner love and beauty, and she realizes that it can be shared with others. She begins to take a more active role in her therapy, and assumes a new sense of responsibility for her life; she disengages from dependence on others and moves toward self-reliance.
  • Stage 6. Integration: Newly-discovered feelings of personal power and compassion are now integrated into the primaler's personality, as he discovers how to live from this new identity. The person now reacts differently in familiar situations. He is more honest and straightforward than before, and relationships seem easier and less complicated. He realizes that he is capable of surviving on his own, becomes less dependent on others, and gradually feels less anger and attachment toward his parents. He begins to consciously live life in terms of his own needs, rather than in efforts to please others. The primaler actively counteracts "neurotic" habits from the past in order to gain a healthier mode of functioning in the present. He begins to accept the uniqueness of his own reality and to trust that his vision is deep and accurate.
  • Stage 7. Disengagement: The person feels stronger, clearer, and more whole . . . and no longer so dependent on the therapy. Having accomplished the major work of therapy, she is faced with the task of separating from formal therapy. In therapy, she begins to focus more on current feelings, although old feelings now tend to be deeper and more terrifying than ever. The primaler still feels the inevitable hurts of daily living but is capable of feeling and moving through this pain. Primal Therapy has begun to assume a less central place in her life, and she is less anxious about "doing the therapy right" or being "a primal person." The person feels able to meet life's challenges and wants to explore other avenues of growth.
• Public Opinion
• Yogic
• Creative Process

• http://www.mgtaylor.com/mgtaylor/glasbead/SFA.htm

• Development
  • 1. Searching for Truth
  • After the age of ten (though some begin earlier or later than usual), indigos begin to search for their truths. Through intuition-driven research, we begin to develop what they see as beliefs. Most indigos do not even realise what they are doing - we naturally ask “why” when something puzzles us! This is the time when we use our finely tuned lie-detector to decide what is true, what is half-true (for example; myths, legends, and stereotypes), and what is a deliberate lie. The lies and half-truths are tossed away or filed somewhere for further scrutiny.
  • 2. Gathering Knowledge
  • When we find something that feels true - a sensation that rises from deep within us - we find out about it. Usually this is through asking questions or, if the resources are available, learning about it through the internet, books, and television. When indigos get to this stage they begin to question themselves and their choices on religion, eating habits, sleep patterns, etc.
  • 3. Shifting
  • Questioning leads to dramatic changes. Indigos at this point are trying things out and trying to find something manmade that will suit them. This is where the starseed and other kinds of theories came from; indigo children, teenagers, and adults looking to explain their presence on Earth. We also change our religious attitudes significantly, jumping from faith to faith is beneficial in forming an opinion about our own tendencies.
  • 4. Awakening
  • The outcome of all this outside searching is a spontaneous moment of insight. That moment is the exact instant of awakening, when we finally discover that we cannot shape our beliefs to suit the moulds of society - something is always out of place or missing. Usually we stop looking for answers (at least for ourselves) in outside sources and turn inward to find our truth because it was never really lost in the first place - we just buried deep within to keep it safe.
  • 5. Remembering
  • This step is like the top of the hill; once you reach it the rest of way is much easier to complete. Knowledge begins to come back to us as small bursts of wisdom (indigos usually experience this throughout their lives because they act like magnets, in a way) and slowly we develop an all-inclusive memory again.
  • 6. Becoming
  • When you begin to remember your mission it is only natural to return to your state of full awareness. Sometimes this can time because emotions like fear, hate, and embarrassment may hinder your progress. As you become your true self you will see that you no longer have need for unhealthy things in life whether they be emotional, physical, mental or spiritual.
  • 7. Being
  • The final step, the ultimate goal - when you succeed at reaching this point you know that you are capable of anything and everything. Fear no longer takes an effect and embarrassment is replaced by courage and logic. Hate will seem useless because your knowledge will tell you how to fix something unhealthy. Your body will finally be able to request wholesome food intake and sleeping patterns and receive them without emotional or mental issues blocking the way.
• Change

And is it mere coincidence that Saturn's Main A ring is held in place by 7 moons?