The word mystery itself derived from Greek "Mysterion", meaning secret knowledge where lips and eyes are closed from the non-initiated. Only the initiated can see the truth, which is hidden from the outsiders. Nothing is sinister about the mystery. The mystery does not mean nonsense, pseudoscientific new age cultic doctrine. It is a simple yet profound truth that the outsider cannot see and hence hidden from them, and hence called a secret or mystery. But it is a truth, nonetheless, for those who are rightfully initiated by self-discipline. For example, in case of a miraculous/(?virgin!) birth of a child, its is a mystery for us to ponder who was the real biological father but for the mother of that child it is not a mystery. She knows who is the real father but her lips are closed, hence it is a mystery for the outsiders. Similarly, the word myth derived from Greek "Mythos", simply means a thought or story delivered by the word of mouth. Myth does not automatically mean something false. It simply means a story, but the real rationale behind the story is not immediately visible. Let's analyze a simple, modern myth that says "Diabetics should not eat sugar". Doctors and educated people would immediately label this statement as a myth, because they will say, even the diabetics need some sugar or carbohydrate in their diet, with or without insulin. The diabetics actually need to take a modest amount of carbohydrate in their diet. The lay people will accept the expert's opinion when they declare "Diabetics should not eat sugar" is simply a myth and hence false. But did you realize what truth you just missed, if you label that statement as just another myth? When people originally discover the disease diabetes mellitus, they came to realize that the diabetics cannot handle the sugars in their diet and excessive sugar is definitely bad for diabetics. In order to alarm the people the danger of diabetes and prevent harm, they overstated the truth as "Diabetics should not eat sugar". They knew that any food you eat, even the vegetables or meat has carbohydrate in them in modest amount, so apparent sugar-free food would be just fine for the diabetics, based on their long observation of diabetic people. Additionally, if you warn the danger of sugar for diabetics lightly, people will take it lightly. So the effective way to communicate the truth of the relation of the diabetes and the sugar for the lay people can be expressed simply by overstating it, in the pithy format of "Diabetics should not eat sugar". This is the real truth behind this myth. But you have to deconstruct the myth and analyze the hermeneutics to see the truth and why the wise people in the past have created the "myth" in first place. This is how myths are always developed around a tiny nidus of truth, but often overstated or embellished. Over time, people's fantasy and cultural garbage that deposits on top of that nidus have become so large that now it is hard to find the underlying core truth that drove the original mythogenesis. In fact, some of the underlying wisdom is so important to communicate and to disseminate that the authors resorted to add even false stories, allegories and fantasy to embellish the message, palatable for the time and culture where it was started. They just want to express the core idea, even at the cost of being obviously fantastic.
The next word that we need to focus is Mandala. The Mandala is a symbol representing an abstract, profound concept that cannot be expressed in words. The word mandala comes from Sanskrit, which means a geometric construct involving a circle that typically includes one or more squares and triangles to represent the universe in context of macro- and microcosm relations. In the deeper level, it is a way to express an ineffable idea with the help of geometric patterns. Symbols are ubiquitous from ancient to modern time. Even the mathematics, equations, and physics are all full of symbols. There is nothing occult or sinister about the mandala. It is simply a tool to express the idea beyond the words. People will often dismiss a Mandala immediately as a "Woo" or "pseudoscience" but they have no problem in accepting a similar symbolic expression like E = mc^2 as a concrete science. The only difference among them is your level of understanding. Just because, you cannot understand something does not mean that you need to reject them as untrue or utterly bogus. When you really see the meaning behind those Mandala/symbols or the equations, you will perceive the idea what they represent. The next comes the word mathematics, which is derived from Greek "Mathematos", from root *mendh- which means "that which is learnt". So mathematics is a tool for learning, not the knowledge itself. It is a tool to help you think clearly, which will lead you towards learning. So the mathematics is a faithful "tool" or "slave" to do the job of "learning", but not the Master. If you make the "slave" into the Master, everything will go awry. The Numbers and Symbols in mathematics are the Mandala for the Science. So, do not treat the mathematics unduly as the master. Instead, mathematics is just like the tools of a Master Carpenter or a Master Mason, NOT vice versa. A symbol can be a number, an alphabet, a geometric shape, an inanimate object, a living creature or statute of it. Thus, focus on the meaning behind those symbols, not the symbol/mandala per se.
Next comes the concept behind the word itself. The most evolve form of the symbols are the Alphabets/Letters, Phoneme, Morphemes, the Words and the Language, either oral, written or conceptual. Words that carry an abstract idea is the most primordial of all concept that we can imagine. This is why the concept behind the Word has been also been known variously as the "Buddhi/Nous", "Poimandres", "Logos", "Rta/Asa", "Ma'at", "Tao", "Aql/Kalima" etc. But over time, the corrupted minds of the people failed to see the original meaning and hence they started to add additional corruption. If you do an archaeology on any words, even the nouns will show some beautiful meanings. In those times, it was never just a noun or name as we used to think in modern days of nominalism. Originally, every noun represented an idea or a story, composed of subjects, objects, adjective and verbs. The Ancients did not treat a noun as meaningless nominal words as it is today. Actually, at that time there were no nouns or grammars to make the separation of inseparable meanings. We separated those and now blame the ancients for their meaningless "Babel". On the contrary, names or nouns are the most virulent agent in modern English language against understanding. Originally, the ancient people under different kings used different words to convey same meaning or even same deity, but in modern worlds, things gets more confusing. Today, even if you try to change a word instead of another to preserve the original meanings, people will start to protest vehemently, so the "public relation" agents nowadays do not change the words. They just change the meaning, keeping the words the same. This pollutes the original meaning of the words, even further and people even do not know, what are they missing and hence more tamed! And the last and most vicious attack on the words comes from the general public who either by the virtue or vice, start to corrupt the words so much that the original meaning is almost entirely lost. Even if somebody had deciphered the meaning of some words in the past, people will eventually start to call it by a mere name or noun in their own preference, thinking that "what difference does it make". They thought they are just playing an innocent act of naming and calling things according to your own will and preference. Most rampant of those examples are the abbreviations, those are treated as a simple noun like, AIDS for Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome Or "Yolo" for "You Only Live Once". The outsider will not understand the what the words AIDS or Yolo actually means. Unwittingly, day by day, we are just adding additional layers on words that creates extra burden against understanding the original meaning of those words. We are not aware of how much havoc we are setting up for the posterity. Unless you are very careful, you will not see the fact that almost all nouns, especially before the advent of modern language, were concepts from either adjectives, adverbs, verbs, an event or occurrence. Only a few can see the original, but hidden meanings behind the mystery of Words. For example, the name "Isis" represents the empty throne from where you come to know the real and secret Names of all things. The name "Baal Shem" means the Master of Names. Knowing the real Name of anything [i.e. the concept behind the name] is the Mastery of that Name itself! But the names can be also a trap if you are not extremely careful. If you accept nouns as meaningless names, then you will be lost in the labyrinth of language like the story of the tower of the Babel. Additionally, names can also create the opportunity of playing the "semantic game" by any other people. On the other hand, the same Name/Word can liberate you from ignorance. You are in the driver's seat!
Having discussed the preliminary concepts behind Mystery, Myths, Mandala, Mathematics and the Words, now you can see the fact that, just like myths or mandalas, the higher mathematics and equations are the placeholder or symbols to communicate a concept that does not have a physical representation. A concept that is inexpressible by words can be still expressed with the symbols of mathematics. For example, let's consider the imaginary number i. What a monster it is! We know there cannot be a complex/imaginary plane out there in space-time, but we have no problem in accepting it as if a "real" thing. We consider i as real as an apple or a cow that we can do arithmetics with. But if someone introduces a myth to express the inexpressible in ordinary language, people will automatically and instantly reject it as if they are devoid of any intrinsic scientific value. They forgot, i is a kind of myth just like Zeus. Myths start with some assumptions that cannot be proven. For example, Zeus is the immortal and this assumption you have to accept in toto. Similarly, you have to take the dogma of science and mathematical axioms without questions. The mathematical axioms, like the i, are very narrow, hence, typically their flaws are hidden from unsuspecting eyes, hence more believable, but the Zeus myth, which is broader and blatant but qualitatively they are still assumptions, nonetheless. Myths try to tell you the idea behind the story. Mathematics is also telling you a story behind the equations and numbers. As mythic stories cannot be proven by another story, similarly mathematics cannot prove by mathematics itself. As long as you cannot prove the mathematics, it is still a story, albeit a much sophisticated story, but a story nonetheless. Just as science and equations are trying to improve human conditions, myths were also designed to improve the human conditions because all of the myths have a teaching for the betterment of the individual and the society of that time. In the similar lines of reasoning, myths or the symbol i both are trying to do the same things. They are trying to deal with the paradox, just like we are trying to deal with the paradoxical nature of reality with science. Unfortunately, we think myths are just a bunch of bulls, but equations are the cosmic truths written in stones. Actually, myths are full of the Bulls (Ptah/Osiris, Shiva/Nandi, Rishabha, Vishnu/Prithu/Govinda, Gautama [The Best Ox]/ Buddha, Marduk, Tammuz, El/Elohim/Baal/Yahweh) but those "Bulls" actually mean something far more powerful than any equations that scientists have ever come across. There is no way you can show that the equations are better than myths in expressing the concepts that does not have a physical representation. Both the "Bulls" or Bull slaying has some important meanings. Just because Theseus (Minotaur), Mithras (Tauroctony), or Gilgamesh (Gugalanna) killed the Bull or Moses broke the Golden Calf idol does not automatically mean that the Bull is the Demon. Actually, it means something far deeper. If you train your mind, you will see what those almost ritualistic bull slaying really means.
Finally, let's consider the case of Numbers, the "Sacred Cow" of science and mathematics. Originally, the numbers were introduced as a symbol of certain abstract concepts and their relation to one another. You will see soon that the whole business of numbers are cram filled with mythical relationships between other numbers. For example, every number theorist will appreciate that the number one is the beginning of all numbers and 1 is inside all other numbers. 1 is like the abstract concept of a point in geometry. Dimensionless, non-space consuming, indivisible entity. But, how 1 comes into the existence out of nothing is not explained at all! You have to blindly and obediently accept the creation myth of 1. If you accept this myth, there comes another paradox out of that mythology of 1. If 1 is really dimensionless, non-space consuming, indivisible entity as described, then how can you accept anything less than 1, like 1/2 or 1/4 or 0. But they have made you swallow that unreasonable myth that you never argued against. The next case about number 2 also needs another supernatural/preternatural mythological explanation. How the number 2 came out of 1 as a next number? Nobody explained that miracle to me in my schools or universities. Because they cannot explain how 2 popped out, they proposed that when 1 and another 1 get united it becomes 2. Now where does the other 1 found another identical 1 for the purpose of becoming 2? Did it come from the heaven? How mythic is that?! Now you can appreciate that when you do any math you already swallowed some gigantic creation myth (even worse than Sumerian or Biblical creation myth) but you are going to deny it because you already bought into the myths that created the science. If the First spirit principle is the Purusha of Hinduism, Buddha of Buddhism, Ptah of Egyptian religion, Phanes of the Greek/Orphic tradition, Adam Kadmon of the Jewish Kabbalah, Elohim of Mormonism, and Adam of Abrahamic Monotheism, then in the similar way, the Spirit child of the Religion of Scientism is the Number. If you believe in Purusha etc, you will be considered as just a superstitious dumb, but if you accept the Numbers, you are just smart! How ironic it is! Please, do not give your bull of mathematical equations to people as being superior than the myths of the real "Bull". However, I am not saying that number, mathematics and science in general are not powerful and useful, but I am saying they are not infallible and not particularly superior in expressing "the ineffable" that the words, symbols and myths. Consequently, instead, one should try to find what is the secret mystery hidden behind in the deepest recess of those words and mythic stories, expressed in symbols, mandala and mathematical numbers.