Just as with seven, the significance of twelve can be traced back to Sumerian astrology, namely to the division of the heavens into twelve parts: the Zodiac. Along with astrology, this took the same paths as we saw before in case of the number seven. The Sumerians always had twelve great gods, a sort of ruling class, or elite. This continued in following cultures throughout the ancient Middle East and spread into Europe. The Greeks had twelve great gods, as had the Romans and the Germanic peoples all the way up to Scandinavia. We can still see this in Hinduism, and In Christendom this tradition continued in form of the twelve Apostles.
The fact that the year was divided into twelve months is probably an influence from the Zodiac's division into twelve parts.
It is worth noting, however, that according to Islam, God explicitly created the months. The Qur'an (9:36) states: "Surely the number of months in the sight of Allah is twelve, in accordance with His decree from the day He created the heavens and the earth, out of which four [months] are sacred."
In Alchemy there were various correspondences between the Zodiac and different processes. There is no reason to go deeply into that here and now, but Alchemy has been tremendously influential to the thinking of Europe, so let us just take one example to illustrate the thinking.
J. Pernety listed the following in his Dictionnaire Mytho-Hermétique (Paris 1787):
1. calcinatio (oxidation) Aries
2. congelatio (crystallisation) Taurus
3. fixatio (fixation) Gemini
4. solutio (dissolution, melting) Cancer
5. digestio (dismemberment) Leo
6. distillatio (separation of the solid from the liquid) Virgo
7. sublimatio (refinement through sublimation) Libra
8. separatio (separation, division) Scorpio
9. ceratio (fixing in a waxy state) Sagittarius
10. fermentatio (fermentation) Capricorn
11. multiplicatio (multiplication) Aquarius
12. projectio (scattering of the lapis on the base metals in
the form of dust) Pisces.
There is an interesting observation about the numbers seven and twelve in relation to music. While seven is the number of tones in a diatonic scale, twelve is the number of tones, or pitches, in a chromatic scale. This is a scale based on semitones or half steps. You can play one on a piano. Start on any tone, say C, and play all the keys, black and white, until you reach c.
Then you get:
C - C sharp - D - D sharp - E - F - F sharp - G - G sharp - A - A sharp - B - (c).
12 tones!
(More on this in The Octave & The Music of the Spheres.)
Read the whole series:
(This material has previously been published in TMA/Meriondho Leo and in my e-book “Numericon”.)
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