The mystery of the seven stars that you saw in my right hand and of the seven golden lampstands is this: The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches, and the seven lampstands are the seven churches. Revelation 1:20
Earth
Before the arrival of organized religions, our ancestors had a belief system whose main focus was related to the Earth on which they dwelt. This way of thinking gave rise to Animism, Shamanism, Totemism and similar indigenous beliefs. Whatever you like to call it, they all have one thing in common – these people lived in perfect harmony with nature.
Jupiter
In ancient Greece, the chief deity was Zeus, the thunder god – a Jupiter for Romans. In astrology, Jupiter is the planet that brings prosperity and abundance. Something that was very true of the ancient Greek society.
Mercury
From Vedic teachings of the East sprang Buddhism, and Buddha – its founder, carries the name of another planet – Mercury. Mercury governs the higher intellect, and in Alchemy, it signifies the balancing force, positioned in the middle between the gold and the silver (the Sun and the Moon) just like its day (Wednesday) is positioned in the middle of the week, and the main teaching of Buddhism is “the middle way“.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Budha (planet)
Sun
As for Christianity, the parallels between the Christ and the Sun are nothing new. We have all heard that the date of Christmas falls precisely on the winter solstice. Or that the 12 apostles relate to the zodiac signs. In virtually all esoteric teachings, Sun represents the higher, enlightened soul. A soul that is purified and on the way to salvation – in a nutshell, the main message of Christianity.
Moon
Then again, Christianity is very closely related to Judaism, whose one God is called Yahweh, but it is a less known fact that his name bears a striking resemblance to the moon good of the ancient Egyptians – Iah.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iah
Besides that, the main prophet of this religion was Moses, whose name is probably derived from the Egyptian “msy” meaning “son”. Another popular theory states that the similarity between the words “Sun” and “son” is not an accidental one. If we apply the same logic here, there is a parallel with the Mesopotamian lunar deity Sin, that many authors already saw as a prototype for Yahweh.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sin_(mythology)
This way of thinking could also explain the etymology of Slavic (and Indo-European) word for Moon – mesec. But I do not wish to drift from the main topic of this story and will leave it at that. The Moon symbolizes human intellect and material wealth.
Saturn
As for Islam, there are many alternative theories that connect it to the planet Saturn. Most of them revolve around the worship of the black stone of the Kaaba, but there are some other interesting theories as well. You can check most of these claims by simply typing “Islam Saturn” in your internet search. Some of these articles and videos are insulting to Islam, calling it a Satanistic religion because of this alleged Saturn worship. This is not my personal view, and I believe that this kind of logic comes mainly from ignorance.
Like any other planet, Saturn has positive and negative aspects. His influence is equally important as that of any other planet. Saturn is known as “the great teacher”. Some of its influence relates to discipline, hard work, rulership, and structure, as well as restrictions.
Mars
Of the seven planets known to the ancients, only Mars and Venus remain. Here it gets a bit tricky, but I would argue that Mars was of high importance to ancient Romans. Maybe even more so than Jupiter, who is traditionally regarded as a chief deity that was copied directly from the Greek pantheon. The red colors or Rome, as well their whole history, still recall an image of a war machine, an image that has survived for millennia. But even without this parallel, we can be certain that a war-god was a chief deity in many prehistorical societies.
Venus
Venus, the morning star, was worshiped under many names, in virtually all periods of history. But there is another important religion, one of the world’s oldest, whose primary focus may have revolved around this planet, ever since the time of the matriarchate. That religion is Zoroastrianism. Its dualistic teachings target mainly the individual soul, trapped in the world of passions – the one that Venus represents. Moreover, the name of its founder, Zoroaster, whose name was first recorded by Greeks, already carries the Greek word for the star – aster. The first part – zoro, may relate to Indo-European “zar” – light, from which came the Slavic word “zora” – dawn. This etymology is debatable but personally, I find it much more convincing than “he who manages camels”.
Conclusion
In the end, here is how our list would look like. To spice things up, I added the seven wonders of the world of the ancients. They could also be related to the planets, just like many other things that revolve around the number seven.
| 1 | Animism | Earth | Seven wonders |
| 2 | Vedic religion / Buddhism | Mercury | Lighthouse of Alexandria |
| 3 | Zoroastrianism | Venus | Hanging Gardens of Babylon |
| 4 | Ancient Greece | Jupiter | Statue of Zeus at Olympia |
| 5 | Judaism | Moon | Temple of Artemis at Ephesus |
| 6 | Ancient Rome | Mars | Mausoleum at Halicarnassus |
| 7 | Christianity | Sun | Colossus of Rhodes |
| 8 | Islam | Saturn | Great Pyramid of Giza |
So that was my hypothesis. One could argue that the ancient Greeks did not worship only Zeus, and that ancient Romans did not worship only Mars, and therefore this is all just an unusual coincidence. But I do not think that it was that simple. Just like modern music is based on the 7 notes and 12 semi-tones, the influence of the 7 planets and 12 constellations may have been divided in religion. Similar to musical modes, each of these teachings carries a certain overtone, but at the same time consists of all other notes/influences. In short, all of these teachings carry a part of the message that is necessary to understand the whole harmony. Was this done by some divine intervention, supreme human intellect or is it just a strange coincidence, you can decide for yourself. I am just putting it out there.
Here is a little exercise. Below is one of the charts with basic planetary influence. Can we relate this influence to the above-mentioned religions? And could some other ancient beliefs be on this list (Egyptian, Nordic…etc.)? How would they look on a chart that has 12 instead of 7 spots?
An example of the basic planetary influence.
