For as long as Saturn remained the boundary of the solar system, the Sun, Moon and five planets explained and defined the totality of human experience in a remarkably complete and comprehensive way. Symbolically, the number seven is a number of completion, harmony and balance. There are seven notes in the octave, seven colours in the rainbow, seven wonders of the world and seven 'ages of man', describing our expanding awareness as we grow to maturity:

All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players: they have their exits and their entrances; and one man in his time plays many parts, his acts being seven ages. [24]

The Planetary days

The seven days of the week are particularly significant astrologically, since each of the days in the week is named after one of the planets. The table below describes the derivation of the names of the days of the week.

What is interesting about the seven-pointed star above is that, if you follow the arrows from planet to planet, they describe the order of the days of the week. In addition to this, the planets around the outside of the star follow the ancient 'Chaldean' order of the planets, based on their increasing speed from the point of view of the earth: Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Sun, Venus Mercury Moon. You may even remember the traditional nursery rhyme describing the characteristics of people born on each day of the week:

Monday's child is fair of face (round and pale like the Moon)
Tuesday's child is full of grace (the strength and grace of an athlete - Mars)
Wednesday's child is full of woe (after Wotan or Wodin, inventor of language and writing, compared to Mercury)
Thursday's child has far to go (after the wide-ranging and restless god Thor, Norse god of thunder)
Friday's child is loving and giving (with the qualities of Venus)
Saturday's child works hard for a living (with the qualities of Saturn)
But the child who is born on the Sabbath day (Sunday) is bonny and blithe and good and gay (with the qualities of the Sun)

The point about this is that for thousands of years astrology has been based on the idea of seven as the number of completion. Saturn represented the ultimate temporal authority, the 'ring pass not' of the solar system and of the psyche. The discovery of the three outer planets and of Chiron has catapulted us into a very new world indeed, and we will look at these next.

"Mapping the Psyche"