I have long been obsessed with the number "7" along withthe rest of the world, only to me it seemed to especially apply for I was born on the 21st in the 7th house of the Zodiac in 1949. In 2001 I read a piece to a group of writers and actors at the Gay Pride Loft off of Taylors Square, Sydney, for an evening of readings titled "Dangerous Desires". I told the audience of about 100 theatre fans my piece was called "7 Fucks in a Sex Shop" from a work in progress titled "The 7 Lives of Toby the Punk Poofy Cat" and I got a big laugh at this. The play-come-short story was a distillation of all my angst-ridden experiences in the utopianist modern capitalist enterprise of 'sex industry backrooms', years of pain, fear, horror, frustration, desire and pleasure that nearly had me cutting my wrists at times, such was the disappointment swamping the few highs. It was a personally intimate, revealing story and I was terrified of putting the spotlight on my fetishes, weakenesses and bad behaviours but the audience belly-laughed, screamed, giggled and roared all the way thru and at the end gave me an uproarious applause, they'd loved the material, for all my cringe-worthy performance.
A year later out came a play at a pub-theatre in the same area called "7 Acts of Love as Witnessed by a Cat" by an already famous writer and I spewed peevish chips that the number "seven, "cats" and "acts of love" had become "in" before I myself could find a publisher. Then the other night I was going past the Seymour Centre Theatre a couple of blocks in the other direction and I saw a huge marquee advertising a play "7 Blowjobs" and again I winced, thinking such close titular parallels can't be coincidental and maybe I'd let the cat out of the bag all those years ago and it had been perculating into the creative environment ever since. But then I recalled previous famous movies, "The Seventh Seal", "Seven Brides for Seven Brothers", "Seven Samurai", "The Magnificent 7", "Seven Beauties", "Seven Years in Tibet", "Se7en", "Seven Keys to Baldpate", "The 7th Victim" and I figured the number had long been hot, embedded within world culture for 7 millenia at least and was perfect for including in script titles as it was always the perfect quantity, not too big or too small.
So I've decided to write the "Book of Se7ens" with every 7 I can come across to show how big it is in our collective psyche and why I should see it as lucky and not a hindrance.
I'll begin with "Snow White and the 7 Dwarves" and the 7 colours of the rainbow.
The seven days of the week and the 7 celestial objects as seen by the naked eye in Babylon.
Seven notes in a musical key. 7 comes up most often on infinite throws of the dice.
The seven Seas and the seven Continents. The Seventh Heaven and 7 Levels of Hell.
The seven bodily orifices, the seven glands of the endocrine system and the 7 Chakras.
The 7 Deadly Sins and the 7 Virtues. The Dance of the 7 Veils and the 7 Year Itch.
The 7 Hills of Rome and the 7 Hills of Lisbon. 7 Hills of Sydney and 7 Hills of Kampala.
Portugese peasant women wear 7 petticoats.
Hindu Brides and Grooms walk around the sacred fire 7 times at their wedding.
7 is the perfect number for a people's activist cell. 7 years in gaol is common for many crimes.
The 7 branches on the Jewish Menhorra. The seven wonders of the world.
The Seven Pillars of Wisdom. The Seventh Day Adventists. 7 Up.
Seven Lucky Gods (Japan). The 7 Virgins in Paradise. The Seven Fates.
The 7 Cities of Delhi. The Seven Voyages of Sinbad the Sailor.
The Seven Royal Companions of Alexander the Great.
Seven years bad luck on breaking a mirror.
7 million years ago the ancestors of Humans split from the ancestors of Chimpanzees.
In the 7th week of a human embryo development the presence of the Y chromosome turns the
'bipotential' gonad into a testes, a male.
Economic downturns typically endure for seven years after severe banking crisis.
The Seven Oracles of the Never Ending Story.
A piece of paper can't be folded more than seven times.
Mary Magdalene had seven demons exorcised out of her and in her old age she was taken up to heaven by seven angels seven times a day.
Maybe the planet can only handle 7 billion people before there is environmental collapse.
There were seven manned missions to the Moon.
It took seven villages to support a knight and his castle in medieval times.
The human body renews itself every seven years.
The sonic boom from the Krakatoa Volcano explosion went around the world seven times.
7 Sisters constellation on the horizon was like an alarm clock for planting crops in the northern hemisphere.
7 Pyramids of the Moon in the Teotihuacan cosmic city of Meso America built on celestial plan.
7 weeks sensory deprivation in a Tibetan cave brings on Nirvana.
7 Preciousities of Tibetan Buddhism, (gold, silver, jade, coral, turquoise, ivory, amber.)
To catch the 7th wave to freedom in novel "Papillon."
In Hinduism marriage results from a relationship that has endured for 7 births, (lives).
Moslem martyrs believe they'll get 70 virgins when they enter paradise.
The 7 great virtues such as zeal, chastity, generosity etc.
Jesuit saying, "Give me the boy till he's seven and I'll give you the man."
Custer's 7th cavalry and James Bond 007.
Ghandi's 7 social sins.
Cursed or blessed down to the 7th generation.
The Angel on the 7th step.
The 7 tasks of Hercules.
The 7 Sacraments and The 7th Seal.
Nagarjuna's Sevenfold Negation.
A year later out came a play at a pub-theatre in the same area called "7 Acts of Love as Witnessed by a Cat" by an already famous writer and I spewed peevish chips that the number "seven, "cats" and "acts of love" had become "in" before I myself could find a publisher. Then the other night I was going past the Seymour Centre Theatre a couple of blocks in the other direction and I saw a huge marquee advertising a play "7 Blowjobs" and again I winced, thinking such close titular parallels can't be coincidental and maybe I'd let the cat out of the bag all those years ago and it had been perculating into the creative environment ever since. But then I recalled previous famous movies, "The Seventh Seal", "Seven Brides for Seven Brothers", "Seven Samurai", "The Magnificent 7", "Seven Beauties", "Seven Years in Tibet", "Se7en", "Seven Keys to Baldpate", "The 7th Victim" and I figured the number had long been hot, embedded within world culture for 7 millenia at least and was perfect for including in script titles as it was always the perfect quantity, not too big or too small.
So I've decided to write the "Book of Se7ens" with every 7 I can come across to show how big it is in our collective psyche and why I should see it as lucky and not a hindrance.
I'll begin with "Snow White and the 7 Dwarves" and the 7 colours of the rainbow.
The seven days of the week and the 7 celestial objects as seen by the naked eye in Babylon.
Seven notes in a musical key. 7 comes up most often on infinite throws of the dice.
The seven Seas and the seven Continents. The Seventh Heaven and 7 Levels of Hell.
The seven bodily orifices, the seven glands of the endocrine system and the 7 Chakras.
The 7 Deadly Sins and the 7 Virtues. The Dance of the 7 Veils and the 7 Year Itch.
The 7 Hills of Rome and the 7 Hills of Lisbon. 7 Hills of Sydney and 7 Hills of Kampala.
Portugese peasant women wear 7 petticoats.
Hindu Brides and Grooms walk around the sacred fire 7 times at their wedding.
7 is the perfect number for a people's activist cell. 7 years in gaol is common for many crimes.
The 7 branches on the Jewish Menhorra. The seven wonders of the world.
The Seven Pillars of Wisdom. The Seventh Day Adventists. 7 Up.
Seven Lucky Gods (Japan). The 7 Virgins in Paradise. The Seven Fates.
The 7 Cities of Delhi. The Seven Voyages of Sinbad the Sailor.
The Seven Royal Companions of Alexander the Great.
Seven years bad luck on breaking a mirror.
7 million years ago the ancestors of Humans split from the ancestors of Chimpanzees.
In the 7th week of a human embryo development the presence of the Y chromosome turns the
'bipotential' gonad into a testes, a male.
Economic downturns typically endure for seven years after severe banking crisis.
The Seven Oracles of the Never Ending Story.
A piece of paper can't be folded more than seven times.
Mary Magdalene had seven demons exorcised out of her and in her old age she was taken up to heaven by seven angels seven times a day.
Maybe the planet can only handle 7 billion people before there is environmental collapse.
There were seven manned missions to the Moon.
It took seven villages to support a knight and his castle in medieval times.
The human body renews itself every seven years.
The sonic boom from the Krakatoa Volcano explosion went around the world seven times.
7 Sisters constellation on the horizon was like an alarm clock for planting crops in the northern hemisphere.
7 Pyramids of the Moon in the Teotihuacan cosmic city of Meso America built on celestial plan.
7 weeks sensory deprivation in a Tibetan cave brings on Nirvana.
7 Preciousities of Tibetan Buddhism, (gold, silver, jade, coral, turquoise, ivory, amber.)
To catch the 7th wave to freedom in novel "Papillon."
In Hinduism marriage results from a relationship that has endured for 7 births, (lives).
Moslem martyrs believe they'll get 70 virgins when they enter paradise.
The 7 great virtues such as zeal, chastity, generosity etc.
Jesuit saying, "Give me the boy till he's seven and I'll give you the man."
Custer's 7th cavalry and James Bond 007.
Ghandi's 7 social sins.
Cursed or blessed down to the 7th generation.
The Angel on the 7th step.
The 7 tasks of Hercules.
The 7 Sacraments and The 7th Seal.
Nagarjuna's Sevenfold Negation.
