In East Indian theology, Siva 
represents the principle
of Fire; Vishnu 
the principle of Water. When the upright
and the inverted triangles are interlaced they form
what is called
Solomon's Seal. This same figure is also called the Philosopher's
Diamond. A remembrance of this fact will help us to understand
something of the inner meanings contained in the following
words by Rabbi Abba; "We are all six lights shining forth from a
seventh. The great work is to unite the sixth to the seventh."
The number 6 is essentially a working, building number. The work of creation was completed in six days. The Book of Genesis which contains the creation account, is keyed to 6. The Chinese say: "Six Breaths produced all things in silence." Jeremiah, one of the principal workers and builders for the New Age new dawning, also responded to the vibratory rhythms of 6.
Six pertains to the interrelationship of the human and the divine. In the power of 6 the human and the divine meet but not as a result of the divine descending to the human as it does under the power of 1, but through an elevation of the human to the higher levels of the divine. Since, then, the association of the human and the divine is dependent upon the upliftment of the former, the number 6 is one of preparation through purification.
Six is a feminine number. It was dedicated by Pythagoras to Venus, the goddess of human love. It is through the sorrows growing out of personal love that the soul awakens to the new and the higher life which lead to resurrection or illumination. From the sixth to the ninth hours, the face of the earth was darkened as the Master agonized upon the cross in his great service for humanity. The work which the Six must undertake, that is, the experiences through which he must pass, in order to learn all the lessons of his numerical mentor, will result in a soul radiance, a light such as "never yet lay on land or sea." St. Martin says that six should not be regarded so much as a separate and active number, but rather as an eternal law impressed upon all numbers. It is only in the light of the foregoing that we can fully understand this statement of Martin.
Six belongs to Venus and bears the signature of Beauty. It belongs to the soul quality which results from a blending of justice and mercy. The latter are products of a life that has experienced alternating light and shadow, and that has interwoven the forces of man with those of God. The human and the divine are brought into a working partnership.
It is the feminine potency in man (represented by 6) which is the motive power of redemption. In harmony with this fact, 6 bears the characteristics of the Cosmic Mother which is identified astrologically as Virgo, the sixth sign of the Zodiac. The color belonging to 6 is heliotrope, a color rendered luminous through suffering.
The beautiful idyl of Ruth and Boaz offers a helpful study of the number 6. We read in the Book of Ruth, 3:15: "Bring the mantle that is upon thee, and hold it; and she held it; and he measured six measures of barley and laid it on her." It was only after the period of preparatory work, symbolized by the six sheaves of barley, had been accomplished, that Ruth was ready for the rites of the mystic marriage. It is also interesting to note in this connection that barley symbolizes purity, and that it is, moreover, associated with Virgo or the Virgin.
In Egypt, the Lunar Sabbath was celebrated on the sixth day. Osiris was called the Lord of the Sixth Day Festival. The rites were concerned with the opening of the sacred eye which occurred on the sixth day. It was also on the sixth day that the Annunciation came to the Blessed Virgin. In many lands the sixth day has been observed by some religious festival in honor of the powers and offices of motherhood.
The Pythagoreans assigned to 6 the perfections of all parts. The reason for this arises from the fact that the number is formed by the multiplication of 3, the first odd number beyond 1 or unity, and the first even number. It signifies the union of male and female in generation. Hence 6 has been associated by many numerologists with the forces of sex or generation.
The early Christians taught that 6 represented sex or sin. Since chastity was with thema fundamental teaching, the words were normally interchangeable and synonymous and represented the same thing.
The vibratory powers of every number express themselves on higher and lower levels according to the development of the individual coming under their special influence. A Six person passes through the lower cycles of his number's nature before responding to its highest values. In the earlier stages of development, the tendency is to abuse rather than to rightly use the holy creative life force. But at length through sorrow and suffering the lesson of conservation and transmutation is learned. The Six in its highest aspects is exemplified in the love idyl of Ruth and Boaz. It is also expressed in the exquisite portrayal with which John the Divine opens his Gospel; it is to be noted, too, in the wedding feast at Cana in Galilee where the Christ transformed 6 pots of water into the luminous wine of immortality. It is in the light of this high, sacred meaning of 6 that we may understand that ancient reference to this number which says: "There is but one perfect number between One and Two and that is Six."
Cosmically 6 is a commingling of the "three Philosophical Fires and the three Philosophical Waters from whence comes the procreation of the elements and all things." Biblically this is the work of the sixth Creative Day which is described thus: "God created man in His own image, in the image of God created He him, male and female created He them. And God saw everything He had made, and behold it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day." (Gen. 1:27,3:1)
At its highest, 6 is the unknowable in man. It is the urge of this unknown divine factor within man that gradually expands his consciousness until it rises to heights of majesty and glory, where it can declare with St. Paul: I was caught up into the third heaven and there saw wonders which it is not lawful for me to reveal." The Book of Revelation also throws light on the inner significance of 6. Four Recording Angels surround the Throne, each of which possesses six wings. The adoring elders that surround the Throne are four and twenty in number, 4 and 2 and 0 giving the value of 6. Thus we find the operations of 6 in the creative processes on the physical plane as recorded in the creation story of Genesis and also on the higher spiritual planes as revealed to John in his beatific vision on the Isle of Patmos.
The esoteric orientalists know well the tremendous potency resident in numbers and from Tibet have come some powerful incantations which, rightly used, could change the lives of individuals. When employed by an adept they are capable of producing sweeping transformations in an entire nation. These magic formulas or incantations have been composed of six syllables.
In that supreme treatise of magic and mysticism, the Book of Revelation, power was given the beast that he might become dominant upon the earth for forty and two months. Again the number 6. This period of three and one half years, it may also be noted, is one half the cycle of 7. Six is the power that is active beneath the surface, the force within which is incessantly striving for attainment and completion. This is equally true whether the force be directed to good or evil objectives.
The Lord Christ was manifest in the Master Jesus for a period of 42 (6) months. King David, founder of the House of Israel, reigned in Jerusalem the great City of Peace, for 33 (6) years. During that time the creative powers of 6 were manifest in Jerusalem as never before, and the Holy City became a center of such beauty and magnificence that it attracted the attention and admiration of the world.
The highest degree conferred by Freemasonry is the honorary 33 degree. The true Mason who lives up to the full significance of this exalted degree enters upon the inner path of six, whereon sex force is transmuted into higher powers such as enable him to travel in foreign lands and visit the mystic city of Jerusalem, there to know the powers of a true ascended master.
Within the wondrous and intricate organism of man there are 33 (6) vertebrae protecting the spinal canal through which the transmuted life forces pass from the lower generative center to the higher faculties in the head. This vertebral column with its 33 "steps" is the Ladder of Jacob. On it the aspirant climbs to heavenly heights where he, too, may exclaim with the patriarch of old: "Surely this is God's house and I knew it not."
Some savants have taught that a World Teacher appears every 600 years for the purpose of furthering the emancipation of mankind and restoring the earth to its Edenic state of purity and spiritual well-being.
The interlaced triangle, as previously observed, represents the powers of 6, as these descend from the divine into the human. The swastika, also a symbol of 6, is a cosmic glyph of all things that are and are to come. It indicates the dynamic urge to become reunited with the higher self. This urge lies back of all spiritual legend, allegory, and parable, and testifies to the ceaseless activity of 6.
The significance of the swastika is similar to that of the mallet in Freemasonry. It is an instrument by which something may be beaten or whipped into a new form. Biblically it is expressed as the separation of "the real from the unreal, the false from the true." The illumined six lives in rhythms that bring forth the new. Its spirit is voiced by Oliver Wendell Holmes when he utters the exhortation: "Build thee more stately mansions, O my soul."
No teacher has ever taught more beautifully or more decisively of the numbers in relation to human life than did the Master Himself. The Parable of the Laborers; Matthew, twentieth chapter, is recommended to the student for careful meditation. In this parable the Master deals with the spiritual operation of the numbers 3, 6, 9, and 11 in their relation to human life, the primary urge of each being a return to unity, an atonement with the divine. The "wages" for which the laborers worked were 1. Three is the first perfect number and has to do with the upliftment of spirit, soul, and body. Six signifies beauty and harmony established through the magnetic law of equilibrium. This is represented in the Kaballah as Tipherath, the light which shineth no longer in the darkness. It is the light which comes with the attainment realized during the "mystic span of 33 years" previously mentioned. Nine trebles the forces of 3; under that triune power the three principles of man comprising the body, the soul, and the spirit, are united into a single functioning unit. Each of these three principles is triune in its nature. The threefold body (physical, etheric, and astral) is joined to the three-aspected spirit (created in the likeness of the triune God), and these united trinities bring into being the soul, the essence of experience garnered by the spirit when incarnate in form and this soul is also of a threefold power corresponding with the two trinities of body and spirit from the coupled activities of which it comes into being. Ultimately the 3 plus 3 powers of body and soul will be absorbed by the threefold spirit which will then possess the powers of 3 plus 3 plus 3 or 9. In these facts we have the reason for considering 9 the number both of humanity and of Initiation.
Eleven is the signpost of Mastership, the activity in whom the work described has been consummated. Eleven works well spiritually with numbers specified in connection with that work. Astrologically these numbers correlate with Gemini (3), Virgo (6), Sagittarius (9), and Aquarius (11). These signs, like their related numbers, represent definite principles in he body of the macrocosmic Man, and steps which lead to Mastership and the New Age of equality and unity.
In Genesis, 6 is working for the illumination which it attains in the Parable of the Laborers in Matthew's Gospel. In its highest aspects, 6 guards with brooding wings of beauty and harmony the Throne Eternal of the Supreme Power of Love.
A Six person finds his best working opportunities derived from a partnership with one of the opposite sex. Six is fundamentally a subjective worker, and a close association with one of an opposite polarity proves advantageous from the viewpoint of both the inner and the outer life.
In the life experience of a highly spiritualized Six, such a partnership relation with one of the opposite sex is not essential because the soul emanation of Six is masculine-feminine; it embraces the blended forces of both the Sun and the Moon. This high state of development is most aptly represented by the Sun-clothed woman of Revelation standing with her feet upon the Moon.
The vibratory rate of the cosmic force which impresses the powers of 6 upon any form of creation, proclaims the fact that the evolution of form is perfected, and that henceforth it is the urge of spirit that becomes paramount. God always sees that the work of the sixth day is good and a preparation for the "rest", or subjective interlude of the seventh. Therefore it follows naturally that a Six person does not usually succeed amid the objective activities of the world. He is more often the inner, the secretive, the secluded worker. Six will invariably, like Nicodemus, "come by night" to "display his wares' before his Lord.
The inner workings of 6 are to be found throughout all nature in both the mineral and the flower kingdoms. In the Bible, two of the most widely used words, words concealing vast treasures in the hidden mysteries of Christ's teachings, are six-power words, namely, wine and fish. The word Genesis, which is with esoteric as well as academic appropriateness the name of the Sacred Book of Creation, is also a word bearing the impress of the forces that lie behind the number 6.
In the Tarot the sixth hieroglyph is called "The Lovers," and is represented by a young man standing between two female figures. One is crowned with the leaves of the vine, symbolic of sense intoxication; the other is crowned with flowers and represents wisdom. Every ego must choose which of these feminine attributes he will develop within himself, for Aphrodite or Minerva, the lower and the higher feminine within, are each struggling for recognition and conquest.
Six is feminine, subjective, formative, creative, Venusian. A Six year is a marrying year, a love year. Six, in its personal aspects, invites to sexual excesses. In its spiritual attributes it points to the mystic Madonna of the Immaculate Conception. The ego is free to choose the path it would follow.
"Through the various folk legends of the world, we find Six constantly recurring as the numerical exponent of perfection."
In the formation of numerals we may find a key to their symbolic meaning. Straight lines are masculine and spiritually aspiring. Curved lines are feminine and occult, mysterious.
1. What do you find to be the signification of 6?
2. What is the relationship of 6 to the sixth sign of the zodiac, Virgo?
3. What biblical character is an exponent of the powers of 6?
4. Give some keywords descriptive of 6.
Note: These lessons are not intended for casual reading, but for careful study and meditation wherein it is hoped that by a lifting of consciousness, the student may be able to contact more fully the inner man, the source of wisdom and light eternal which makes life complete both within and without.
— Corinne Heline
