29:16 ·The weekdayheptagram.In ancient times theseven-day week was not used. In the Pharaonic empire that existedalong the shores of the Nile about 4,500 years ago a ten-day week was used. That ten-dayweek was prevalent in both Egypt and Greece, and even in Asia Minorand the Euphrates-Tigris region, until after the death of Jesus. Aremnant of this method of dividing time is found in the astrologicaldecanates, a division of the zodiac signs into three parts of tendegrees or days, each with a certain planet as ruler.
At the beginning of the first millennium B.C. in Assyria a five-day week was used. In ancient Israel, however, they used a seven-dayweek, but it is not known just how long they used this method ofdividing time.
It was with the adoption and widespread use of the seven-day weekthroughout the Hellenistic world of mixed cultures that this heptagramwas created. If we arrange the planets known at that time in order ofthe length of their orbital times (with the sun's orbital time onbehalf of the geocentric perspective of astrology taking the place ofthe earth's) the result is the following: Moon, Mercury, Venus,Sun, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn. If we place them in this order at eachpoint of the heptagram, and then take a pen and follow the lines as ifwe were drawing a heptagram in one line without lifting the pen fromthe paper, we discover the planets that correspond to each of theseven weekdays in due order:
,Sunday(dimanche, domingo);
,Monday(lundi, lunes);
,Tuesday, Tyr'sday (in Latin countriesMars'day, mardi, martes);
,Wednesday (Woden's orOdin'sday in the Nordic countriesMercury's day, mercredi,miercoles, in Latin countries);
,Thursday (Tor's day in Nordic countriesJupiter's day, jovedi, jueves, in Latin countries);
,Friday (the day of the goddess Freja in the Nordic countries,Venus' day, vendredi, viernes, in Latin countries);
,Saturday, Saturn's day (lördag lögaredag, bathing and washing day, in the Nordic countriessamedi,sabado,in Latin countries).
