Sacred Numbers and Cyclical Time: The mathematical logic of Zarathushtra's Gathas Quatrains (Bibliotheca Iranica: Zoroastrian Studies, 4)

This study highlights the patterns of complex parameters in the Gathas, defining their pervasive numerology. Fundamentally, conceptual pairings and distributional patterns of terms suggest that the composer of the Gathas presented, and through them taught, the TRUTH of the WORLD to be re-created anew daily. In doing so, each WORD and WORD SET accompanying the ritual action is marked both for its specific frequency, its NUMBER, and for its relative POSITION along the time-line of the textual NET-WORK, as the words are “spun” and interwoven, in the process of building up the cycle of the most complex, yet ordered dynamic cosmic coordinate systems that culminate in the Coda. Most unexpected is the recognition that the cosmic vision of the Iranian Gathas matches that of early Greek philosophy and science, in particular Pythagorean and Platonic, but also includes calendrical patterns datable to the early Christian era which suggests multiple layers of adjustments to advances in scientific knowledge, including the knowledge of planets and planetary conjunctions. Read more