Numbers in our faith?

[Grimlord]

When did numbers enter our ancient ways? I don't remember seeing or reading anything about what , if any revelence they have / had. Please excuse my ingnorance on this matter.

[Norsk Blod]

numbers? what numbers? like numbers of people or the numbers 0-9 ?

[Grimlord]

0-9 numbers. Specifically , dates ,quantitys , etc. I just find it odd that I've never ran across any info on this. Were the Roman numbers used? I was just curious if there was a numbering system exclusive to our ancesters.

[Liffrea]

As far as I know the ancient Germanic people did not really bother with numbers as such. They did not count years the way we do but marked them as a passing of seasons. Their day for example began with dusk not dawn. As for numerals the Roman numerals were the first to enter Germanic and Celtic cultures as was their way of marking years, the first year in their calendar was the equivalent to 753BCE the legendary founding of Rome. With Christianity of course we get our current calendar, which originally in England was the Julian, named after Caesar its inventor, then repalced by the current Gregorian. The numerals 0-9 are Arabic and were adopted in the west in the late 15th century. Largely because of the number 0, which of course does not exist in Roman numerals.

[pinlighter]

It's a very good question, and I don't know the answer.

The builders of Stonehenge and other kindred sites were astronomers and were capable of calculating the movement of the stars and planets to some extent.




http://www.archlsa.de/sterne/bilder/scheibe-restauriert.vs.jpg


http://www.astro.uni-bonn.de/~dfischer/mirror/243.html




Germany's »Sky Disk« seen as key for archaeoastronomy
Much more has been learned about the mysterious bronze (age) disk unearthed in Germany (see Update # 236), now that the actual context of the discovery has been revealed: The perpetrators of the illegal dig have surrendered themselves to the police in July, the exact site has been located and professional excavations have begun on August 20. And while only a small fraction of the extended site on a hill near the town Nebra in Saxony-Anhalt has been investigated so far, it is already being hailed as a »German Stonehenge« in some circles.

While much cannot be seen there by the untrained eye, the local archaeologists now describe a circular wall of about 200 meters diameter, surrounded by a complex system of trenches - a site which, according to some artefacts found so far, has been in use for a thousand years (i.e. from about 1600 to 700 BC). The only direct astronomical clue is the geographical location: From the hill (»Mittelberg«) the Sun sets at the summer solstice directly behind the important Brocken mountain 80 km away. And many names of landmarks in the area carry astronomical-sounding names.

On the Mittelberg site the Sky Disk (the new offical name being »early bronze age bronze disk with a representation of the sky from Nebra«) had been buried for unknown reasons but with care. Thanks in part to the ongoing criminal investigation we even know its original orientation in the ground, which yields some clues for the interpretation of the celestial phenomena and geometrical figures put onto the disk (the authenticity of which is no longer in any doubt, thanks to several physical lab investigations):

* There are two arcs, opposite to each other, of 82.7° each - exactly the distance between the northern- and southernmost points of sunset and sunrise from Saxony-Anhalt in the bronze age. Thus we have a mathematical clue as well that the disk belongs to the Nebra area.
* The short arc in between the two big ones was on the bottom of the disk in the orientation it was found: This supports the interpretation as a »sun barge« travelling between sunset and sunrise. Another interpretation had been that we are dealing with a particularly bright section of the Milky Way.
* The meaning of the two largest objects is uncertain: the Sun and the Moon or rather the Full Moon and a lunar crescent - or even phases of a lunar eclipse? Astronomers favor the latter view: It probably would have been too big an act of abstract thinking for our bronze age artist to visualize the Sun in a sky full of stars.
* Seven of those stars form a tight pattern, the only one on the whole disk. While this could equally well mean the Plejades and the Praesepe star cluster or the small constellation Delphinus, preference is given to the Plejades: In contrast to the other interpretations this asterism plays a significant role in ancient texts.
* The other stars are distributed on the disk in as random a fashion as possible when one actively tries to avoid the formation of any pattern - this has actually been demonstrated by experiments at Bochum University. A true random distribution with Poisson statistics would look much more clumpy.

What else do we know about the Star Disk? Its age is known to be 3600 years only because of other artefacts found in close proximity, esp. two swords - the design of which points to the Balkans or even ancient Greece. And we have evidence that the disk was reworked several times: Some original stars were removed when the horizon arcs were added some time later, and the rim of the disk was punched later still in an almost brutal fashion.

[Hengest]

Numbers are immensely important in our faith and there are holy numbers. 3 and 9 are particularly special. Look at the lore and you will see.

[Sigurd]

Hmmm...I liked the number nine before I was introduced into our faith. It certainly appears at many points. What I have also noticed is that it links up well to, as 9 is the only number which by multiplying from 1x9 to 10x9 goes through all the numbers 0 to 9

It is also the number of the ending

Lastly the ionteresting thing there, too is, that this of course links up with the fact that, just stating this, our solar system has 9 planets. So the nine can be found in a number of places, even in the cosmus :)

[Grimlord]

Thanks for the reponses. White Horse , I'll be keeping an eye out (Odin pun ) for those numbers in my re-aquantince with Asatru. I've been a part of various groups for the past 20 yrs., but as I have gotten older I have a need for something more spiritually fulfilling for my family and I , so bear with me. When I first had an intrest in this , there was no internet to further my knowledge , just a handfull of books.

[Grimlord]

Numbers are immensely important in our faith and there are holy numbers. 3 and 9 are particularly special. Look at the lore and you will see.
AH , of course , the 3 levels , 9 worlds , the Valknot...

[sticko_69]

3 and 9 are not the only numbers that are big in the faith what about 13 there are 13 months in a year in many nordic countries this being that aparently the moon circled the earth 13 times a year however this is incorrect and the moon dose not circle the earth 13 times a year which makes me think why they had 13 months when they had astronomers they would have known this fact. can any one explain that?