HOLY NUMBER 12

This is inspired by a post by @steveB. Therein he asks "Why 12?" insofar as why is that number so prevalent in esoteric writings, ranging from scripture to theology.

Well, my answer is that 12 has many properties that make it a good fit for not only esoteria but also science and music.

It is incredibly versitle in terms of factors, a highly composite number with 2, 3, 4, and 6 as it's proper factors. This means you can sub-divide, break up, any 12 objects in various ways including 3x4, 4x3, 6x2, 2x6, 3x2x2, or 2x3x2, or 2x2x3.

It is also versitile in terms of automorphisms, (1, 5, 7, 12). This means you can count in modulo-12 forwards (1 and 7) and backwards (1 and 5).

It is bookended by two primes, which means if you take one away from 12 or add one to it, you lose the factorization property and this makes for good error-correction.

You can count to 12 on one hand: using your thumb, count the number of phlanges on each of your fingers: you have 3 phalanges per finger and 4 fingers, ie 12 phlanges. Further, if you use your other hand to count completed 12's, you can count up to 144 (12x12) on one hand!

What about science? We based all our physical science on base-10 notation (metric system) with computer science making forays into base-2 notation (binary system). In principle, any number in any base can be converted to any other number and that is true. BUT, some bases are easier to use than others.

Moreover, with base-12, we can use these three most common fractions without having to employ fractional notations. The numbers 6, 4, and 3 are all whole numbers. On the other hand, with base-10, we have to deal with unwieldy decimals, ½ = 0.5, ¼ = 0.25, and worst of all, the highly problematic ? = 0.333333333333333333333.

The dozenal system is exceptionally friendly to computer science. The number 12 has two factors that are prime numbers, 2 and 3. This means that the reciprocals of all smooth numbers (a number which factors completely into small prime numbers), such as 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, have a terminating representation in duodecimal.Twelve just happens to be the smallest number with this feature, thus making it an extremely efficient number for encryption purposes and for computing fractions — and this includes the decimal, vigesimal, binary, octal, and hexadecimal systems.

What about music? The 12 tone equally tempered octave (12-TET) has been the standard for westerm music for, coincidently, almost as long as science has been the standard for western investigations. There are 12 notes (7 natural, 5 acidental... the sum of two primes which is not unique but the goldbach conjecture is still unproven), there are 12 keys as well. Further, my personal investigations have shown that when we choose 7 numbers from 12 and make a heptatonic (7-note) scale, we have a rich structure which AFAIK is unique to all number! In effect, choosing the number 12 to base our music upon leads to the richness that we have in western music (ask me more about my music theory if you are curious!)

What about esoteria? Here we get more speculative but based on the strong mathematical properties inherent to number 12, I believe that while it was not specifically chosen for those properties, it must have been a factor (pun intended) in it's chosing. 12 months neatly divide into 4 seasons. A whole year can be two semesters of 6 months. 24 hours can be broken up into 4 cycles of 6 hours each or 2 of 12 hours. When it comes to zodiac or apostled, the fact that it can be factored so easily makes it easier to "chunk" and remember. In other words, it's easier to remember 12 than to remember 11 or 13 becuase you can chunk 12 but not 11 and 13.

Anyways, there is a whole society dedicated to the pursuit of the number 12, the dozenal society of america, and while I'm not a member, I wholly endorse the power of the number 12!!!