Today's topic is the 7 deadly sin's, and the virtues or antidote's. The number 7 has held a special importance throughout our past 3,000 years. The seven seas, later 7 continent's were considered favored in numerology. 12 was also a highly revered number with the 12 gods of Greece and Rome, the 12 apostles of Jesus, the 12 notes to our octave, divided as 7 whole and 5 half's for 12 notes per octave.
The 7 deadly sin's first came out of Egypt, and Hermes with their 7 antidote's. The would later be captured within the stoic movement of Greece and then part of the original considerations of the Church of Rome in the 4th century. In these version's, the solution's are the 7 virtue's, but the antidotes and virtues are virtually identical.
The sin's are sloth, gluttony, lust, anger, envy, greed and pride, with the solutions being vigilance, abstinence, chastity, loving kindness, gratitude, service and humility. These 7 elevated sins align perfectly with the 7 chakra's of the Hindu energy system in Ayurveda (the science of life). These sin's occur in the flesh, in the mind and emotions, and in the spirit. A sin of the body is not honoring the body with best food, exercise and movement. Sin's of the mind and emotions involves the upper three sins, envy, greed and pride, all counter productive to our emotional and mental well being. Sin's of the spirit involves pride, disobedience to the common welfare of other's, and failing through sloth, to apply a discipline of spiritual practice. The esoteric order holds that the 7 sins, are like rungs of a ladder, and throughout or many lives, we are needing to climb all 7 levels of the physical growth, and then we begin the emotional 7, and finally, what Underhill calls the upper school, we climb the final 7 spiritual rungs, arising at a point of spiritual breakthrough or enlightenment.
Seven Deadly Sins
Seven Virtues
Sins Bodies Virtues*
Pride Seventh Humility
Greed Sixth Liberality
Envy Fifth Kindness
Anger Forth Patience
Gluttony Third Abstinence
Lust Second Chastity
Sloth First Diligence
*From Psychomachia (“Battle for the Soul”) Prudentius, c. 410, but dates back at least to Hermes
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