Sixth Sense

So by now you must’ve cracked my mysterious code to figure out that the next number in line is the 6; sorry, just had to add a little sarcasm to spice up the intro. At this point, the hyperactive 5 is exhausted and gives way to the peaceful and restful 6, as if it’s being nudged to take it easy for a while. Indeed, the 6 can, similar to some aspects of the 2, traditionally represent things like harmony, peace, balance and love. Alternately, it has been suggested that it may also represent a state of relative perfection, and I tend to agree with this idea. Then of course, comes other mentioned associations of the 6 with that of material concerns, much akin to some aspects of the 4, especially having to do with our human senses and resulting vices if pursued without self-control, as well as material wealth, luxury and comfort.  However, we also must consider the idea that 6, whilst representing such material concerns, may also be representative of psychic abilities such as the “sixth sense” of intuition for instance.

To begin with, let’s explore the 6’s connection with things like rest, harmony, peace, balance and love. In fact, the representation of rest and balance is almost expected. Allow me to explain: nature eternally plays on the duality of opposites to maintain a precise balance; naturally then, if we consider the furious activity of the 5 as the storm, then the following 6 is the calm after the storm. Subsequent to the busy activity of the 5, there is simply no choice left but to drop in exhaustion, rest, recuperate and slip into relaxation of an equal magnitude to the preceding activity in order to balance things out. It’s much like a pendulum that’s swung too far in one direction; it has no choice but to swing in the opposite direction with (almost) an equal magnitude to balance the disturbance out (I said “almost” here since friction with air would slightly decrease the the counter-swing). Anyways, the same can be said about how the daytime must give way to the night, and then back to the day again, with neither of them being able to remain indefinitely (at least on any spinning planet), or a tsunami wave: before it comes along, you first get a deep sinking in the water level as a warning, followed by the massively tall and wide wall of water afterwards, or even a bow and arrow, where you must first pull backwards on the bow to fling the arrow forwards; of course, it’s the same idea with a slingshot or a coiled spring. Now, these examples of balance are especially pertinent to the Duality article, where the 2 is the principal indicator of balance, but the 6 shares it as well, but we’ll delve further into this later on. Anyways, returning to the example above, the activity of the 5 has served its purpose and has attained a goal through its overdriven activity, which is now equally “rewarded” with a period of restful enjoyment in the 6, which, concurrent with all even and balanced numbers, leads again to a state of equilibrium and inertia. However, in order to explain the 6’s relationship to things like harmony, peace and love, we can put a new spin on the meaning of the 5: that of strife and conflict, and this really isn’t a big stretch to make since themes like fighting, battles and even competition all involve the aforementioned “5” traits of intensity and the busy heat of extreme activity; also, I did link the word “crisis” to the 5 previously anyhow. Now, it follows then that the 6, being an even number, would bring a type of completion to the unbalanced, wild, volatile and maximum energy of the odd number 5; in turn, this would bring it to a calm standstill and replace it with peace, harmony and love. These qualities are even emphasized just by studying the smooth, easily curving, flowing spiral shape of the 6 digit itself. In fact, the 6 has been previously associated with the concepts of nurturing and family as well. I would concur with this, since it fits in with themes of peace and harmony, and the fact that nurturing often helps bring us into a sense balance as well; also, remember that the 3 introduced the idea of a family via progeny, so here, I feel the 6 is the next level of development in the concept of family life by focusing more on the aspect of nurturing and love between its members. Now, these traits of harmony, peace, love and balance could be implicated in relationships, in the world at large, with nature and the environment, or even with life itself. But, I would like to stress that although this seems like the same description of the 2, I feel the 6 embellishes these qualities by leading to a more profound sense of these at all or multiple levels of life; this means on physical, mental, emotional, social and, for those inclined, spiritual levels of one’s existence. In contrast, the 2 is more of an immediate balance of two simple elements, or a balance of one aspect of life. So, this association of the 6 with an enhanced sense of love, harmony, balance and peace is likely why it’s traditionally linked to the planet Venus. But, let’s return for a moment to this idea of a comprehensive harmony and balance, where all the gears of your life are turning smoothly in sync; if ya think about it, this is a type of perfection in itself, which brings me to my next point.

The 6 may be regarded as a number of early perfection, in the sense that the addition of 1+2+3 yields the sum of 6. Why is this important? Because it may signify that this summed up number contains all the elements of its individual addends seamlessly integrated together. See, the preceding 3 could also be thought of as a certain rudimentary type of perfection as well, though more basic than the 6, because it’s the sum of the preceding two numbers, 1 and 2, thereby reaching a harmonizing completion beyond the primal, raw, self-serving and unbalanced 1 energy, and the sophisticated, refined, altruistic and usually balanced 2 energy, and so it may possess both the qualities of the 1 and the 2 in a perfectly blended balance. Well, the addition of the 3 to the 1 and 2 to produce the 6 means that the 6 may contain traits of the 1, 2 and the 3 altogether; but, even more than that, we can also think of it as a higher octave of the 3. Why? Because it’s literally the 3 doubled and multiplied by a factor of two. Now, since the 3 is illustrative of social activity and self-expression, the 6 may be representative of a mastery of these things. So, you’d find a certain mastery of social ability, which would make sense with the aforementioned harmonizing and balancing aspect of the 6 as pertaining to our interactions with other people. Additionally, you could find a highly skilled sense of self-expression, like being an acclaimed artist, or a professional pianist, for example, through the 6. In fact, I would like to think that perfection in art would be fittingly exemplified by this number because of the aforementioned link to the planet Venus, which is about things like beauty and art according to astrologers. But I would like to stress that one aspect of the 6 is specifically physical beauty, which means there is an emphasis on the material facet of things, and this flows nicely into the next concept.

The number 6 has a traditional connotation with materialism and the material world, similar to how I described the 4. In fact, the specific association of the 6 to sensory pleasures is aptly depicted through the Christian biblical reference to the number “666” as representing “The Beast” as a symbol of all lower animalistic qualities as an opposition to higher spiritual ideals, the potential for both of which tend to exist in most ordinary humans. And again in line with the 4, this could range from sensory indulgences like gluttony, greed or lust, for example. But, I think the 6 differs from the 4 in that it has a relaxed and easy quality of enjoyment, versus the solid, hard, tight, rigid, controlling and restrictive nature of the 4. In fact, the way I see it, there’s an interplay between both these numbers: I would venture to say that the 6 could epitomize the initial stage of leaping headfirst into the enjoyment of sensory pleasures with blind, wanton, impulsive adolescent abandon, whether that be alcohol, drugs, gambling, or even things like work (yes, think workaholics) etcetera. Yet, later on, without sufficient self control, the rush of these indulgences may become so overwhelming that one slowly, even insidiously, becomes totally dependent on these for any kind of happiness and pleasure in life, and voila, an addiction is born. Now, being bound, stuck and chained to a prison of addiction sounds very much like “4” qualities, and indeed I would say that this stage, the actual addiction, would be heralded by the 4. But anyways, let’s get back on track here. The positive flip-side of material vices could translate into an enjoyment of material luxury and actual wealth in relation to possessions like flashy vehicles, houses and furnishing, or even simply savouring the taste of an exquisite cuisine, for example. But, as the next paragraph reflects, I don’t feel the 6 is limited strictly to material things.

Though traditional numerologists seem to paint the 6 only as a “materialistic” number, I believe it stretches beyond the five physical senses to give us the “sixth sense,” so it may even therefore be representative of a transcendence of the world of our basic senses, and even a jump into the world of intuition and psychic abilities, which is a part of the “spiritual” world. Since the 7 is always regarded as a combination of being mystical, mysterious, spiritual and divine, and since this differs from the basic human dimension of the 5, the 6 could be the regarded as the bridge that connects the ordinary human world (the 5) to the world of the superhuman or the divine (the 7), almost like a path, if you will, towards higher development. In regards to this, the emergence of the sixth sense may be a sign, but not an exclusive one, that one is on their way towards spiritual growth. So if we think of 6 as a bridge like this, as a transition point linking two different states of existence, it would only make sense that it would contain elements of both the spiritual and material worlds.

In hindsight, oddly enough, in this sixth and final paragraph (I swear it wasn’t intentional), the frequent sighting of the 6 could show you a few things. It could be pointing towards a period of rest and relaxation after a period of exhausting activity, or maybe the need for this. It’s also possible that this number is heralding a period of well deserved upcoming celebrations after some type of significant achievement after a colossal effort, whether that be in your career, or victory in a long standing lawsuit, or even after recovering from a life threatening illness. It could also be telling you of the need for bringing back harmony and peace into your life, whether that be with other people, with your surroundings, or even within yourself, your mental health and your emotions, for instance. Next comes the association of the 6 with a certain level of harmonizing perfection or wholeness, and so, seeing it could be a reassuring message that your life as a whole is running smoothly, or alternately, that you need to bring balance into your life if a part of it is off-kilter. Yet, it could also be alerting you to a highly developed creative and artistic talent of yours that you may not be aware of, or have neglected somehow. Moving on, the 6 can predict a period of enjoyment and pleasure, and even the acquisition of wealth or material goods; yet, it can also forewarn the opposite: that you have an excessive focus on materialism or a weakness towards a certain pleasurable habit that can quickly turn toxic and addictive, like smoking or uncontrolled alcoholism, for instance. Lastly, we conclude with the idea that paradoxically, the hedonistic and materialistic 6 may flip around to become a spiritual compass, guiding us forward to develop our spirituality, one aspect of which can be symbolized by the growth of our sixth sense beyond the banal five senses: our intuition and psychic ability.