Questions That the Number 12 Brings to Mind: Why do all religions have the number 12 ? – Ali Aksoy

Of course, some He will say, “When I see or think about the number 12, I can’t think of any questions.” This question only pops up in the minds of people who think about religions and symbolism, or in other words, symbolism in religions.

So let’s start asking these questions:

Why are there 12 months in a year?

Why is a day divided into two time zones of 12 hours each?

Why is there a symbolism in all religions that is persistently indexed to the number 12, such as 12 Gods, 12 sons, 12 brothers, 12 plains, 12 apostles, 12 springs, 12 imams?

What is the mystery of the number 12?

The number 12 has appeared in various forms in the past. When we do research on these, we see the most common use in the zodiac, which is the 12 animal calendar. The 12 division Zodiac calendar actually describes the sun’s soaring across the sky through 12 constellations.

In ancient times, when there was no calendar, no writing was known, and human culture did not reach the stages we know today, people used to look at the sky and decide what to do according to the movements of the Sun, in order to follow the seasons, during the transition from hunter-gatherer to agricultural society. As it can be understood from the content of the subject, the issue was not only knowing the seasons but also a necessary knowledge for survival.

In very different parts of the world, in very different geographies of the world, all people tried to understand the seasons and the movements of the sun in order to survive by looking at the same sky.

Human beings, who did not have shields such as fur and hide to protect themselves from the cold, and were almost naked, were trying to protect themselves from the temperature difference between summer and winter and continue their lives.

Especially for agriculture, you need to know the plant you will plant, the seed you will plant at what stage in which season, you need to know and determine in which season it will be planted and planted, in which season it will yield and in which season it will be harvested.

It was necessary to follow the movements of the sun in this vital existence process. They noticed that some stars in the sky just before sunrise were in similar positions. They divided some of these stars into segments that we will later call constellations.

In order to facilitate the relationship of these constellations with each other and to make others understand similarly, they tried to connect the constellation points and express them with some figures.

It was not enough that the constellations were expressed with certain figures. To make them more memorable, people wrote some stories about these ideas, told some stories.

The purpose of all this was to enable different people, when looking at the same sky, to understand which constellations were in the sky before sunrise.

Because the sun was rising from the places where the same constellations were located at certain times in certain seasons during long periods. They discovered that if people could identify the constellations and arrange the constellations seen in the sky before sunrise in a regular diagram, in a logic, they could know the seasons and the changes of the seasons.

Thus, through long periods of observation and storytelling, they were able to determine which constellations the sun passes through in summer, winter, autumn and spring.

Although these constellations do not have equal durations with each other, they were divided into 12 basic groups. Each of these 12 basic groups represented a month. So the number 12 was not a random choice, but rather a number related to the sun’s trajectory and the number of constellations visible above it. It has even been seen that in some cultures 13 constellations are counted instead of 12. But the most accepted and most used system is based on 12 constellations.

Later, people tried to count and calculate the duration of the days and nights. As a result of this effort, 4 solstices were determined.

March 21 and September 21 were two critical time periods. In these two time periods, the duration of day and night were the same. Apart from these, 21 June and 21 December were again two critical time periods. Longest day and shortest night on 21 June; On December 21, the shortest day and the longest night were experienced. The threshold of March 21 became a symbol heralding warmer days and longer days, where the days are longer and will last until June 21, from a stage where the day and night are equal.

After celebrating its longest day record on 21 June, its victory over night, the sun fell into a weakness and the long days were shortened until 21 September, and with the cooling of the weather, the day and night were again equal in time on September 21. September 21 was a time of decision. Because after this date, the days will now be shorter than the nights and the winter months will be entered when the seasonal conditions will get harsher.

For people, the period from September 21 to December 21 would be described as a hell. The depiction of hell was put forward with an allusion to difficulty, not heat. These difficulties, that is, this hell, would begin on September 21, reach its most severe and deepest state on December 21, and finally end on March 21.

In all stories in the oldest languages of humans, the main protagonists are usually found on these solstices, namely March 21, June 21, September 21, and December 21. However, among all these solstices, the solstice, which is mostly processed and mainly dealt with in Semitic religions, is December 21. Because for people, the most vital, the most difficult time period is December 21st.

On December 21, the nights are the longest and the days the shortest. The coldest season is experienced at this solstice. When you design December 21 as the southernmost point, June 21 as the northernmost point, March 21 as the left extreme, and September 21 as the right extreme on the zodiac chart, the horizontal line you will draw between March 21 and September 21 is heaven and hell, good and evil, light. and it is the greatest line of dualism that divides and separates darkness, hot and cold.

This most basic Zodiac teaching told the solstices, the seasons and the months in various stories and was passed on to the next generations as the most valuable information for survival. This was such a valuable piece of information that it was perhaps treated as the most basic data in all religions for this reason.

This is the real meaning of the number 12 in all religions, the real reason for existence. I will continue to write on these topics.

Ali Aksoy – 22 August 2020

(Translated with google translate)

For the original article, see:

12 Rakamının Akla Getirdiği Sorular: Neden bütün dinlerde 12 rakamı var ? – Ali Aksoy