We must not close this Part on the Symbolism of Archaic History, without an attempt to explain the perpetual recurrence of this truly mystic number in every scripture known to the Orientalists. As every religion, from the oldest to the latest, claims its presence, and explains it on its own grounds agreeably with its own special dogmas, this is no easy task. We can, therefore, do no better or more explanatory work than to give a bird’s-eye view of all. These sacred numbers (3, 4, 7) are the sacred numbers of Light, Life, and Union — especially in this present manvantara, our Life-cycle; of which number seven is the special representative, or the Factor number. This has now to be demonstrated.

Beginning with the discovery of Uranus in 1781, Neptune in 1846, and then the discovery of Pluto in 1930, the revelations of the outer planets marked a time of unprecedented change in our...