Sterling Silver Jewelry: Silver & The Seven Days

Seven days of creation, seventh heaven, seven seas, seven continents, seven wonders, seven pillars of wisdom, seven heavenly virtues, lucky seven, the magnificent seven, seven up, seven eleven, …it seems as if the number seven surrounds us.

Over 7000 years ago, after the discoveries of Silver and the first ‘Seven Metals Of Antiquity’, there existed a culture of visionaries who lived in the Mesopotamian city of Babylon, they were known as the Chaldaean oracles. The Chaldaeans were fundamentally alchemists believing ‘As it is above, so it is below’.

According to the Chaldaeans everything was inextricably linked. They believed the interpretation of events on earth, of men's characters and dispositions, were made possible by observing the movements of the planets. We have come to know their prophecies as astrology. While observing the motions of the stars above, the Chaldaeans realized the existence of order in the procession of the planets in the sky, they translated this order into numbers We have come to know their mathematical prophecies as astronomy.

Expressing the movements in numbered measurements the Chaldaeans developed the 12-month ‘Solar’ calendar, conceptualized the twelve signs of the zodiac, this in turn led to the establishment of the two 12 hour divisions of night and day. They went on to establish the monthly period, derived from the 28-day Lunar cycle with each period possessing it’s own full Moon. One theory is that the Chaldaeans based this time period on the female reproductive cycle. This may also explain why the Moon has always had a female identity being governed over by female deities of fertility.

Being alchemists the Chaldaeans based the existence of time on Earth upon the movements of the stars and the seven visible planets above. The seven visible planets were the Moon, Mercury, Venus, Sun, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn: Uranus, Neptune and Pluto weren’t discovered until the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries A.D. respectively.The Chaldeans already associated each of the seven planets with the names of the Babylonian gods: Moon = Nanna, Jupiter = Marduk, Venus = Ishtar, Saturn = Ninib, Mercury = Nebo, Mars = Nergal, Sun = Shamash, they then connected each planet and its god to a designated time period. These systems were later adopted and developed by the Greeks, and subsequently the Romans, who after replacing the original Babylonian deities with their own assigned each of the seven visible planetary bodies with a day.

At this later time Mediterranean cultures, deemed pagan under their Roman satraps, calculated the sequence of the days of the week based on the planets in outermost order to the Earth starting with the furthest Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Sun, Venus, Mercury and finally the closest the Moon. This procession of planets was then numbered from 1 to 7 and run repeatedly through a 24-hour period, the name of each day came from the planet assigned to the first hour of each 24 hour period:

1=Saturn, 2=Jupiter, 3=Mars, 4=Sun, 5=Venus, 6=Mercury, 7=Moon 8=Saturn, 9=Jupiter, 10=Mars, 11=Sun, 12=Venus, 13=Mercury, 14=Moon 15=Saturn, 16=Jupiter, 17=Mars, 18=Sun, 19=Venus, 20=Mercury, 21=Moon 22=Saturn, 23=Jupiter, 24=Mars....1=Sun, 2=Venus, 3=Mercury, 4=Moon 5=Saturn, 6=Jupiter, 7=Mars, 8=Sun, 9=Venus, 10=Mercury, 11=Moon 12=Saturn, 13=Jupiter, 14=Mars, 15=Sun, 16=Venus, 17=Mercury, 18=Moon 19=Saturn, 20=Jupiter, 21=Mars, 22=Sun, 23=Venus, 24=Mercury....1=Moon, 2=Saturn, 3=Jupiter, 4=Mars, 5=Sun, 6=Venus, 7=Mercury, 8=Moon 9=Saturn, 10=Jupiter, 11=Mars, 12=Sun, 13=Venus, 14=Mercury, 15=Moon 16=Saturn, 17=Jupiter, 18=Mars, 19=Sun, 20=Venus, 21=Mercury, 22=Moon 23=Saturn, 24=Jupiter....1=Mars, 2=Sun, 3=Venus, 4=Mercury, 5=Moon 6=Saturn, 7=Jupiter, 8=Mars, 9=Sun, 10=Venus, 11=Mercury, 12=Moon 13=Saturn, 14=Jupiter, 15=Mars, 16=Sun, 17=Venus, 18=Mercury, 19=Moon 20=Saturn, 21=Jupiter, 22=Mars, 23=Sun, 24=Venus.....1=Mercury, 2=Moon 3=Saturn, 4=Jupiter, 5=Mars, 6=Sun, 7=Venus, 8=Mercury, 9=Moon 10=Saturn, 11=Jupiter, 12=Mars, 13=Sun, 14=Venus, 15=Mercury, 16=Moon 17=Saturn, 18=Jupiter, 19=Mars, 20=Sun, 21=Venus, 22=Mercury, 23=Moon 24=Saturn....1=Jupiter, 2=Mars, 3=Sun, 4=Venus, 5=Mercury, 6=Moon 7=Saturn, 8=Jupiter, 9=Mars, 10=Sun, 11=Venus, 12=Mercury, 13=Moon 14=Saturn, 15=Jupiter, 16=Mars, 17=Sun, 18=Venus, 19=Mercury, 20=Moon 21=Saturn, 22=Jupiter, 23=Mars, 24=Sun....1=Venus, 2=Mercury, 3=Moon 4=Saturn, 5=Jupiter, 6=Mars, 7=Sun, 8=Venus, 9=Mercury, 10=Moon 11=Saturn, 12=Jupiter, 13=Mars, 14=Sun, 15=Venus, 16=Mercury, 17=Moon 18=Saturn, 19=Jupiter, 20=Mars, 21=Sun, 22=Venus, 23=Mercury, 24=Moon.

If you look at the planet assigned to the first hour of each day, you notice that the planets come in this order: Saturn, Sun, Moon, Mars, Mercury, Jupiter and Venus. At the time of Christ, when most of the Mediterranean area was under Roman rule, Saturday with its designated planet Saturn, was the day of rest making Sunday the first day of the week.

However, this pantheon of planets and their names bares little resemblance to the English language’s 7 days of the week. The Romans, who had unofficially adopted this ‘Pagan’ order of days, termed the first day of the week ‘Dies Solis’ which translated into ‘Sun’s Day,’ which became Sunday. They also termed the second day ‘Dies Lunae’ or ‘Moon’s Day,’ which transformed into Monday. And finally, the seventh day ‘Dies Saturni’ meaning ‘Saturn’s Day,’ now Saturday. Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday were all derived later in northern Europe, from the Teutonic and Nordic tribes and their gods Tiw, Odin, Thor and Freyja, who spawned the Anglo Saxon language.

During these ancient periods, civilizations from Mesopotamia, Egypt, Anatolia, Greece venerated the seven visible planets and their respective deities to such an extent that all were allocated seven metals. For the Egyptians gold was the metal of the sun and its god Amun, silver was appropriated to the Moon and the ‘Mother Heaven’ Isis. The Greeks appointed copper, used in ornamentation and jewelry, to the planet and goddess of beauty Venus. The Greeks used iron for the fabrication of instruments of warfare, and thus associated it with the planet and god of war Mars. Accordingly lead was associated with Saturn, tin with Jupiter and Mercury of course speaks for itself.

This article was written by David-John Turner for the Silvershake website, an online retailer of silver jewelry at wholesale prices. Purchase today and get gemstone silver jewelry worth up to $60...Free!
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