Key Numbers of The Solar System
"...The secret numbers of the Hindu Yugas lie in a combination of the year of Jupiter, expressed in earth-years which is approximately 12, and the Saturn-year expressed in earth-years which is approximately 30. Multiply 12 by 30 and you have 360. (Page 4)...Our solar system is an organic entity, an organism, in other words an individual, as much an organism as is a man's body.

(Dr. G. de Purucker was international Head of the Theosophical Society from 1929 until his death in 1942. The following excerpts from his book, STUDIES IN OCCULT PHILOSOPHY, are reprinted with the permission of the Theosophical Society. This book was first published by the Theosophical University Press in 1945.) Starting on Page 3 he says:

Key Numbers of The Solar System

"...The secret numbers of the Hindu Yugas lie in a combination of the year of Jupiter, expressed in earth-years which is approximately 12, and the Saturn-year expressed in earth-years which is approximately 30. Multiply 12 by 30 and you have 360. (Page 4)...Our solar system is an organic entity, an organism, in other words an individual, as much an organism as is a man's body.
        ...while the years of every one of the planets of the solar system clearly prove that all these planets move synchronously together, yet the orbit of every one of these planets is not a multiple of some other lower orbital revolution or year. There is always a discrepancy. The year of Jupiter for instance is 11.86 of our Earth years, not quite 12. The year of Mars is not exactly two earth-years, but 1.88.
        ...It is these fractions which show that while the planets are working synchronously as a machine does with wheels interlocked, yet each planet itself is an individual, and has a certain liberty of movement...so that as time goes on, the pattern of the planet changes; and this introduces the varied fortunes and destinies not only of mankind and of the inhabitants of the other planets, but also brings about the karmic changes and modifications of the solar system.
(Page 5)...The planet Mercury in one Jupiter year has 48 of its own years, approximately, of course. 48 is 4 X 12.
...Venus has approximately 20 years to one Jupiter year. This 20 is not divisible by 12, but if you will take a longer cycle, say the cycle of 360 (18 X20) years, then 12 goes into that 30 times. Note that 18 equals 12+6 or half of 36, which is 3 X 12, and 36 is 1/10 of 360. Every calculation you make in these interlocked planetary movements is divisible by 6 or 12 or 60 or 30 as factors.

The Circle of 360 Degrees

        (Page 8) It is from Babylonia, but originally from India, that we of the West got our manner of dividing the circle into 360 degrees. ...The number 360 arises from an old Theosophical teaching of the ancient God-Wisdom of mankind, to the effect that the true number of days in a year is 360, the cycle of the seasons. But as the ages passed, and due to the fact that the earth is an individual with a will of its own, it does things at times, not exactly disobeying the mandates of the system in which it is enmeshed, but determined, as are the other planets, to move a little on its own. So that as the ages pass along?taking the mean of 360 days in a year?the daily rotation of the earth quickens a little bit for a while, and the days become 361, and then 362, in a year, and then 363, 364 and now at the present time our year consists of 365 days and a fraction. Then this libration returns to the normal 360 days in a year; and then the Earth slows down its rotational period, so that for ages, any one of our Earth years is less than 360 days: 359, 358, 357, 356, until it reaches the end of that libratory cycle. Then it begins to swing back; and thus the earth continues to follow this libration.
        That is why the Babylonian initiates, getting their ancient wisdom originally from India, divided the circle into 360 points or degrees; because in their Temple-crypts and Initiation-chambers they were taught that the true earth-year consists of 360 days. Thus the circle became adopted in mathematics as divided into 360 points, cogs, degrees?call them what you like. It is a wheel, a wheel of time, which actually applies to the earth.

The Important 5040 Cycle

        (Page 6)...One of the most important cycles mentioned even by Plato in his Dialog called THE LAWS is 5040 years. This figure is remarkable for several features, amongst which is that it is divisible by 58 different divisors among which are the key-numbers 5, 6, 12, 30, 60, 36, 72, and 360; but what is noteworthy about this cycle of 5040 is that it is likewise divisible by 7, giving us the quotient 720?in which we see the key-number 72 again, X 10.
        Furthermore, this figure of 5040 is arrived at by multiplying by each other the simple arithmetical series of the first seven digits taken in order, to wit: 1 X 2 X 3 X 4 X 5 X 6 X 7 = 5040. By using this cycle, we find that the year-period of every planet used as a divisor will divide into 5040 without remainder. In other words, 5040 is a cycle which contains the planetary years of all the planets in the solar system, and thus links them up through having as one of its factors the number 7 ? a most interesting fact, and one worthy of study.
        ...All these astronomical cycles and key figures, are based on the calculated key numbers of Jupiter and Saturn 12 and 30 as factors. One year of Uranus includes 7 Jupiter years. One year of Neptune contains 14 Jupiter years.

The Famous Babylonian Cycle

(Page 7) ...I wish to call your attention once more to this 60. Remember that it is 5 times the Jupiter-year, the Jupiter-year being 12 of our years, and two times the Saturn-year, the Saturn-year being 30 of our years approximately. It is 1/10 of the Babylonian Neros of 600 years; and take the square of 60 and you will have the famous Chaldean or Babylonian Saros, 3,600 years. This cycle of 60 years is of course the root-figure of the famous so-called Babylonian sexagesimal method of reckoning, to wit reckoning by 60s. Berosus in the fragments left to us informs us that the famous Hindu Yuga figures, based on 4 3 2, were likewise as well known in Babylonia as in India. The sexagesimal root-figure of 60 is of course a factor of 4320 with various ciphers added according to the length of the cycle. One of the commonest time periods known in Chinese writings is the mention of the cycle of 60 years.
        In connection with the number 5, I would also remind you that the Latin lustrum was a period of 5 years observed by the Roman State and held very sacred indeed. They also knew of the cycle of 60 years, i.e., one Jupiter year times five.

Dawns and Twilights

Divine Years: 12,000 Solar Years: 4,320,000

        (Page 10) ...You know how they make 72 out of 60...? What is 1/10 of 60? 6. Put down 6 for the Dawn, another 1/10 for the Twilight: 6+60+6 = 72. In the same way you will see in the Table that there is a Dawn and a Twilight for every cosmic period; and the dawn and the twilight are in all cases of relative equal length, and in all cases are 1/10 of the cycle period.
        ...Now a further interesting thing about this 72: Do you know what the average pulse-beat for a human being is? 72. It is 60 pulse-beats plus the increment of beginning plus the increment of lapsing into the next pulse-beat. 60 plus 12; 5 X 12 + 12. You see how these numbers recur? 72 is twice 36.
        ...In enumerating the years of the different planets I intentionally did not speak of the Moon, for your minds are so enwrapped with the astronomical teachings of the West in which the Moon is not considered a true planet, that I did not want to confuse you. Yet so thoroughly does Nature work throughout, after the same laws, the same rhythms, the same principles, the same pulsing, that do yu realize that what the astronomers call the minor Saros, that is the eclipse-cycles, the cycle of years in which the eclipses begin again and repeat themselves nearly as they were before is 18 years and some 10 or 11 days? We can here drop the days.
        (Page 11) Here is a very interesting fact. The sunspots, according to modern astronomy come, or the maximum is reached every 11 years and a fraction. But here again we must allow for librations; and taking everything together, all the factors included, and the way the solar system has all its bodies enmeshed together like the cogs of wheels, yet each having a little independent movement of its own, which in time changes the pattern?a very interesting fact is that the sunspots coincide with the perihelion of Jupiter. When the perihelion of Jupiter takes place, the sunspots reach their maximum, roughly between 11 and 12 years.

The Pythogorian Tetraktys

(Page 8) The Pythagorean Tetraktys was so holy amongst the ancient Pythagoreans that they swore oaths by it. Why did they think it so holy? They gave the answer: because it adds up to 10. It was 4 + 3 + 2 + 1 = 10. What is 1/10 of 10? 1. Add 1 as a Dawn; add another 1/10 of 10 as a Twilight, and you will have 12. They sometimes figurated the Pythagorean Tetraktys as thus, one sphere, then two spheres below it, then three spheres, then four spheres. 1 + 2 = 3, + 3 = 6, + 4 = 10. (as shown below)

0
00
000
0000