We find similar temporal symbolism as the part of the cosmological symbolism of the Temple at Jerusalem. According to Flavius Josephus, the twelve loaves of bread on the table signified the twelve months of the year and the candelabrum with the seventy branches represented the decans (the zodiacal division of the seven planets into tens). The Temple was an imago mundi; being at the Center of the World, at Jerusalem, it sanctified not only the entire cosmos but also cosmic life – that is, time.
-Mircea Eliade, The Sacred and the Profane: The Nature of Religion
Yes. The high priest is dressed in the cosmos as well, as God’s angel on earth.
Please allow me to congratulate You, dear Sir, in the name of all Romanian phyletists world-wide, for quoting Mircea Eliade.
See also, *The Gate of Heaven: the History and Symbolism of the Temple in Jerusalem* by Margaret Barker (London, 1991: SPCK)