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The number seven has juice like no other number. For thousands of years, civilizations have empowered seven with a special mystique and significance. Just look around…

— The week has seven days.

— The Earth has seven continents. (Not really, but it sounds good.)

— God created the world and rested on the seventh day.

— The Koran and the Talmud both speak of seven heavens.

— Hinduism describes the existence of seven “upper worlds” out of 14.

— Hell, according to the Jain religion of ancient India, consists of seven levels.

— The Japanese are protected by the Seven Gods of Fortune.

— Christianity teaches of the Seven Deadly Sins. Dante listed them as avarice, envy, gluttony, lust, pride, sloth, and wrath.

— Catholicism tells of the Seven Heavenly Virtues — justice, fortitude, prudence, temperance, faith, hope, and charity.

— The Japanese code of Bushido sets down the Seven Virtues of a Samurai warrior.

— In some parts of the world, the seventh son of a seventh son is said to have supernatural powers.

— Spouses, beware of the seven-year itch.

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— We define a rainbow as having seven colors (red orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet).

— The earth has seven major oceans — aka the “Seven Seas” — the North Atlantic, South Atlantic, North Pacific, South Pacific, Indian, Arctic, and Antarctic.

— We celebrate not the five, not the 10, but the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World — specifically, the Great Pyramid of Giza, the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, the Mausoleum of Halicarnassus, the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus, the Colossus of Rhodes, the Lighthouse of Alexandria, and the statue of Zeus at Olympia.

— Shakespeare described the Seven Ages of Man (helpless infant, whining schoolboy, emotional lover, devoted soldier, wise judge, on the decline, and incapacitated).

— The seven visible stars in the constellation Taurus, known as the Seven Sisters, are named for the seven daughters of Atlas from Greek mythology (Alcyone, Asterope, Celaeno, Electra, Maia, Merope, and Taygete).

— In the world of gambling, seven is the big kahuna. Score triple sevens on a slot machine and reap the big payout.

— Dice are six-sided, with opposing sides of one and six, two and five, and three and four. In each case, a total of seven.

Seven’s legacy dates back to the dawn of civilization, and it remains on a roll today.

— In Rogers & Hammerstein’s “The Sound of Music,” the Von Trapp family had seven children: Brigitta, Friedrich, Gretyl, Kurt, Liesel, Louisa, and Marta.

–– The 1954 movie “Seven Brides for Seven Brothers” could have been about any number of brothers and brides, but seven it was.

— Also in 1954, the acclaimed Japanese film “Shichinin No Samurai” (Seven Samurai) celebrated the gallant warriors Kambei, Gorōbei, Shichirōji, Kyūzō, Heihachi, Katsushirō, and Kikuchiyo.

— In 1960, the same story became an American western, “The Magnificent Seven.” This time, the warriors were gunslingers Chris, Vin, Bernardo, Britt, Harry, Lee, and Chico.

— The Brothers Grimm published the fairy tale “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” in 1812. The Disney cartoon version in 1937 popularized them as Bashful, Doc, Dopey, Grumpy, Happy, Sleepy, and Sneezy.

— Between 1940 and 1962, Bing Crosby and Bob Hope made seven “Road to” movies. The seven destinations: Singapore, Zanzibar, Morocco, Utopia, Rio, Bali, and Hong Kong.

So, what’s going on with the number seven? Why the attraction to that number above others? The experts have some thoughts about that.

First, of course, we are conditioned to see seven as special because of its long history of being linked to the mystical, the spiritual, and the superstitious. No surprise there.

Second, seven is unique in actual fact. It’s a prime number. It can’t be divided neatly into smaller parts. It has two syllables, whereas all the other single-digit numbers have one. And it sounds good. “Six Brides for Six Brothers?” The Eight Dwarfs? Puh-leeze.

Third, there is scientific evidence that we are naturally attracted to the number seven because of the way our brains function.

In 1956, psychologist George Miller argued that our short-term memories seem to function best when handling between five and nine — ideally, seven — chunks of information.

That theory was bolstered in 2008 by a study of neurons in the hippocampus, the brain’s memory specialist. The study found that the neurons appear to function best when their dendrites have seven branches.

(I looked it up. Dendrites are spiny little extensions on nerve cells. The job of the dendrites is to transmit information via chemical synapse. Seven spines per dendrite is thought to be the most optimal for learning and memory.)

So, our brains seem to have a natural affinity for the number seven. The science is, of course, subject to change when new information surfaces, as it assuredly will.

But for the moment, it appears that we gravitate to the number seven because it feels right. And it feels right because it’s ingrained in us — hard-wired in our brains down to the very synapses.

Which probably explains why your lucky number is seven.