The seventh Commandment ominously reads: "Thou shalt not commit adultery."

On the seventh day of Creation God rested from His labors. If a child is prematurely born after seventh months' gestation, it has a good chance of surviving — but not after six months. The number seven stands for complete manifestation wherein nothing can be easily upset. The shadow of death does not threaten as under the rulership of six, which governs form.

The seventh zodiacal sign is Libra; its symbol is the scale or balance. In the body Libra principally governs the kidneys. An esoteric understanding of the kidneys will help give a clearer understanding of this Commandment.

Unlike other organs, the kidneys are not held in place by any distinct ligaments, but only by pressure and counter-pressure exerted upon them by neighboring organs. The right kidney, the right bowl of the scale, is somewhat lower than the left. Therefore, none of us have attained Libra balance. The right side of the kidney is out of balance because the liver weighs upon it. The liver is the organ of unbalancing emotions, the seat of our desire nature

The kidneys have three functions, which affect four organs. The best known function is filtration and selection of urine from the blood. The portion which is not sent away constitutes the material of the reproductive fluids. This is the second function. By the third function the blood of the kidneys is ripened and rendered more subtle and vaporous by the body electricity from the spleen. It is then sent to four organs: heart, spleen, stomach, and lungs. Through this ennobled blood, the Spirit of man has the power to radiate ecstasy, exhiliration, inspiration, love, and bliss over the entire body. Balanced kidneys express themselves in calm, joy, and cheerfulness. That is what man would have were he to obey the Seventh Commandment.

After six months of prenatal life the pattern of the animal-man is complete in form. During the seventh month the process continues to bring about the birth of the man-god. Man is more than bodily perfection. He is also soul and spirit. In the seventh month the Spirit spins its threads between the organs of the body; it links and binds itself to the body and becomes indwelling. A similar function takes place all through life by means of normal, healthy kidneys. The shining soul body weaves its bond of marriage by means of the kidneys. The exquisite shiver that runs through our bodies in times of exhilaration is the work of the kidneys reaching out to the soul, inviting it to be indwelling. "And man became a living soul."

The world calls desire and emotion love, but esoterically that is incorrect. Love is a virtue, and belongs to the realm of the heart, not the kidneys. But it is Libra and the noble function of the kidneys that raise feelings and desire to the heart and convert them into purified love. Nevertheless, it is desire, intense desire, mistakenly called love, which is the prerequisite of all creation. Without it Sun and Moon, men and atoms, could not exist. Without desire they never could be kept alive.

In true partnership, reached not only through pure love but also through intense desire, the wavering uncertainty of incompleteness and imbalance comes to rest in dynamic equilibrium. Such partnership, such marriage, the union with our Higher Self, is our seventh day of creation, our day of rest. There we find that portion of ourselves without which we are incomplete.
— Rays from the Rose Cross Magazine, September/October, 1995