Divine Number 12

Number 12 has carried religious, mythological and magical symbolism, generally representing perfection, entirety, or cosmic order in traditions since antiquity. It is ubiquitous, it's the number of months in a year, hours on a clock face and of members on a typical court jury.

Starting out as an immensely useful number for counting and dividing things, number 12 became a number revered by mathematicians and early astronomers as a perfect number, a positive integer that is equal to the sum of its proper divisors.

And so the skies and the stars were divided into 12 constellations (3000 BCE) as were the months of year, reflecting the annual Zodiac movement of heavenly bodies.

Superstitions and religious beliefs were piled on top of respect for the number 12 and it was adopted by multiple early civilizations. The sky, divided into 12, has each portion ruled by a personification, a God, a divine being; a teacher; a Prophet or a son of the Sun.

Coincidentally, 'Odin of Norse' mythology sat on a chair that overlooked all of creation, and had 12 sons.

The Babylonians had the longest lasting influence upon our calendars, timekeeping, mathematics and religions; all of which emphasize the number 12. Their most ancient myths defined zodiacs, where, each portion was ruled by a different God (some good, other evil).

Buddhism consist of 12 stations of life. In East Asian Buddhism, the ‘12 Heavenly Generals’ or ‘12 Divine Generals’ are the protective deities. The Jains of ancient India divided time into 12 segments, each with 24 teachers, the latest of which had 12 disciples and whom attained enlightenment aged 72.

Jainism of the 5thC BCE is full of mythology encompassing 12s, 24s and 72s.

The ancient Zoroastrians had twelve commanders on the side of light (light being a symbol for the sun), and in Judaism and the Hebrew Scripture Moses was told to strike a rock with his staff. This piece of magic resulted in 12 rivers springing from the rock, and each tribe "knew where to get its own water". This odd radial division of land and people is purely mythical; nowhere are there 12 rivers stemming from one rocky source, and, never have the Hebrews been divided into 12 tribes each with its own source of water. As the story goes for the 12?spies, whom, Moses sent to explore the Land of Canaan.

Later on the Greeks imagined 12 Gods on mount Olympus. Mithraists, and then Christians also believed that their savior had 12 disciples. It was later Christian clerics who concocted the idea of 12 Sibylline Oracles.

Shi'a Muslims list 12 ruling Imams following Prophet Muhammad s.a.a.w.s. Such holy persons are depicted with a bright solar light around their heads such as occurs when any object approaches from the sun and now stands in front of it.

Although many ancient religions such as the Gnostics understood things like the 12 disciples of Mithras to be symbolic of the stages of the waning and waxing sun throughout the year, later religions took it literally and believed in an actual 12 disciples, and some still do.

Some contend that, now we understand what stars, planets and stellar objects are, it makes no sense to retain the mystical, nonsensical connotations of the 'holy', 'perfect', 'divine' or 'special' number 12.

If the number is employed in a practical sense to divide time, measurements, or angles, then the chances are it makes awesome mathematical sense to utilize such a factorable number as the number 12. But if you see it used in a superstitious, religious, magical, paranormal, holy or weird way, then watch out, because you have entered the world of flat-earth delusion. It is, after all, only a number, and whenever you see myths, stories and theologies divide things up into 12s, you know you've entered human-invented fiction rather than the realm of truth.

Food for thought!