As numbers go you can’t do much better than Twelve, as it is a truly extraordinary and a profound number that astrology is based on, and also much of the rest of our society. Pythagoras, the classical genius, who discovered math and modern music taught that the number 12 had divine, and mystical meaning. How right he was.
How this number touches our lives is truly impressive and immeasurable. In English, twelve is the largest number that has just one syllable. We find it the 12 characters of Western and Chinese astrology and virtually all other forms of astrology, in our clocks which are basically an astrological wheel with hands on them. It is the number of months in a year, the number of grades of school, in inches, rulers and feet and there is the common use of a dozen of something, like 12 eggs. We have the 12 days of Christmas, and the AA 12 step program.
This number is mentioned in the Bible 187 times, which also contains 12 books of history. In the Book of Revelation there were 12 gates in the God’s kingdom, guarded by 12 angels. There were 12 beautiful stones to be used in the New Jerusalem’s foundation. Elijah also built an altar that was made of 12 stones. The Virgin Mary stayed 12 years in a temple. Jesus spoke his first words when he was 12 years old. There were 12 administrators in the kingdom of Solomon. In the Book of Revelation (22:2) it is said that the tree of life will bear 12 fruits. After Jesus finished the feeding the of 5,000, his disciples gathered 12 basketfuls of leftovers. Abraham’s sons, Isaac and Ishmael, each had 12 sons each. Jacob also had 12 Sons. There were the Twelve years of blood, The 12 stars of the crown, The 12 Gates of Jerusalem, and of course the 12 Apostles of Jesus.
In Islam we find The Twelvers of Mithraism who a had the son of God followed by 12 disciples. There were Twelve Olympians of Greek mythology. The Twelve Labors of Heracles. The ancient Zoroastrians had 12 divinities and observed a 360-day calendar of 12 months. The Arthurian legend had 12 knights who sat at the ROUND table. In Jainism, they divided the sky into 12 regions of power. Their Lord Mahavira had twelve disciples called the Ganadharas.
The Jain Kalachakra turns through 12 divisions of time. Buddhism has The 12 Stations of Life and The Buddhist Wheel of Becoming is divided into twelve segments and scenes.
The Gnostics describe the 12 apostles of the pagan god Mithras to be symbolic of the waning and waxing moon throughout the year.
Odin of Norse mythology sat on a chair that overlooked all of creation, and had 12 sons.
The ancient Egyptians divided the day into 12 hours of the day and 12 hours of the night.
Islam has God appointing 12 leaders to the people of Israel.
The Hadith of the 12 Successors of Muhammad describes the 12 Muslim rulers succeeding him.
The Sumerian government was comprised of 12 people.
In Hindu Shaivism, there are 12 Jyotirlingas, representing the god Shiva. The Ancient Hindus revered the number 12. It was common practice for a boy from a religious home to leave at the age of 12 and live for 12 yeas with a guru or teacher.
We find this number in the Flag of the European Union. 12 people sit on a jury. The basis for ancient Roman law was the Lex Duodecim Tabularum, or The Twelve Tables.
The United States of America is divided into 12 Federal Reserve Districts.
There are twelve systems of the human and mammalian body, (cardiovascular, digestive, etc.). There are twelve pairs of ribs in the human body. There are 12 cranial nerves. Additionally, the weight of blood is about 1/12 of our body.
Mathematicians get very excited about the number 12, as it is a highly composite number, which means that it has more factors than any smaller positive integer, as it is is one of the lowest easily-divisible numbers. It divides by 6, 4, 3, 2, an 1. Twelve is a so-called sublime number, meaning it has a perfect number of divisors, the sum of which is also a perfect number.
The sum of all natural numbers when added up to infinity is -1 12th. We also find this magic number in geometry. A 12-sided polygon is called a dodecagon. A 12-faced polyhedron is a dodecahedron.
All of this is no coincidence. The reason that there are twelve tribes of Israel and twelve disciples and twelve in all other religious representations, is because they are the twelve archetypes of humanity and represent themselves in all systems. If we look at all these many religious references of 12 sons and change them to 12 SUNS, it becomes astrology. As each SUN sign last for approximately a month. It is astrology and so are all the other mathematical and physiological demonstrations of it. DaVinci clearly understood this as his LAST SUPPER painting groups the apostles together in a way to clearly reprent that the apostles represent the 12 constellations moving around the son or the SUN of God.
These are the archetypes that are represented in every story in history and every story that will ever be told, as they represent consciousness in all of its manifestations. 12 is the representation and delineations of consciousness; the number of space and time. That’s why these two numbers (1+2) when added together become the number 3 which represents the third dimensional plane in which we exist.
It is the number 12 that illustrates polarities and synthesis. This is because it contains both numbers 1 and 2 in a unified whole. It is the merger of the SUN AND THE MOON, because in Chaldean numerology 1 is the SUN and 2 is the MOON, and so it is the THE UNIFICATION OF OPPOSITES and of the two celestial bodies with the greatest direct impact on our world. It is ADAM AND EVE, CHRIST (the SUN) and MARY (the MOON), the MASCULINE and the FEMININE, GOLD and SILVER. It represents the the highest vibration of the 3-dimensional world where polarity comes together to create all of existence. This is why the 12th HOUSE in astrology is depicted by PISCES as it is the sign that has karmically moved through all the other signs and gained wisdom, understanding and compassion from them. And once it finds true synthesis, it finds enlightenment. It is completion. It has fused the conflict between polarities, as it is the last sign of duality. Here it finds the ONENESS of 12 through the merging of contradictions and moves beyond a dialectic reality.
© Ian Boyd 2021 (All Rights Reserved)