The term ‘Number 6’ occupies a curiously liminal position within the depth-psychology corpus. It appears with greatest density in the commentarial literature surrounding the I Ching, where the ‘Six’ designates a yin or yielding line — the fundamental building-block of hexagrammic structure. In Wilhelm’s authoritative translation and the cognate work of Richard Wilhelm and Cary Baynes, phrases such as ‘Six in the fifth place’ or ‘Six at the top’ recur as technical markers of feminine, receptive, or yielding energies positioned within a six-stage developmental arc. The hexagram itself is composed of precisely six lines, and the progression through those six stages constitutes the full cycle of a situation’s transformation — a structural fact that gives the number 6 its implicit cosmological weight. This six-fold completeness resonates with Plotinus’s Enneads, where Number as an Intellectual principle underlies all living form, and with Plato’s discussion of perfect and imperfect numbers in the Republic. In Tarot numerology and Jungian-adjacent symbolic systems, 6 intersects with questions of harmony, balance, and the soul’s purpose across lifetimes. The corpus does not consolidate a single authoritative doctrine about Number 6, but the convergence of hexagrammic structure, Neoplatonic number-theory, and symbolic numerology marks the term as a node of considerable psychological and metaphysical resonance.
This hexagram is the only one in which all the lines stand in their proper places. It is the hexagram of transition from T’ai, PEACE (11) to P’i, STANDSTILL (12).
The passage establishes the six-line hexagram as a complete structural unit in which every line occupying its proper place signals cosmological perfection and imminent transition.
, The I Ching or Book of Changes, 1950thesis
This hexagram is the only one in which all the lines stand in their proper places. It is the hexagram of transition from T’ai, PEACE (11) to P’i, STANDSTILL (12).
Parallel to the Wilhelm entry, this passage frames the six-fold arrangement of lines as the singular moment of structural completeness within the entire hexagrammic system.
, The I Ching or Book of Changes, 1950thesis
When the six stages of the hexagram have passed, the new era dawns. That which is a man’s own cannot be permanently lost. It comes to him of its own accord.
This passage explicitly names the six stages of the hexagram as a complete cycle whose exhaustion ushers in renewal, investing the number 6 with temporal and transformative significance.
, The I Ching or Book of Changes, 1950supporting
When the six stages of the hexagram have passed, the new era dawns. That which is a man’s own cannot be permanently lost.
The Baynes-Wilhelm version reinforces the concept of six stages as a completed temporal arc signalling the dawn of a new era.
, The I Ching or Book of Changes, 1950supporting
Number exists before every living thing, before the collective Life-Form. Again: Man exists in the Intellectual and with him all other living things.
Plotinus argues that Number in the Intellectual realm is ontologically prior to all living forms, providing the Neoplatonic metaphysical backdrop against which specific numbers, including 6, acquire archetypal dignity.
, The Six Enneads, 270supporting
In the Intellectual the Beings are determined and with them Number, the number corresponding to their total; in this sphere of our own we take each image of Being and form a corresponding image of number.
Plotinus locates Number within the Intellectual realm as determined and finite, grounding the symbolic use of specific numbers like 6 in a Neoplatonic ontology of form.
, The Six Enneads, 270supporting
He also speaks of a human or imperfect number, having four terms and three intervals of numbers which are related to one another in certain proportions; these he converts into figures.
Plato’s distinction between divine and human numbers in the Republic establishes the theoretical framework within which any specific number, including 6, carries cosmological and generational meaning.
, Republic, -380supporting
The natural number plays the essential role in most of them. Jung says in the same paper: There is something peculiar, one might even say mysterious, about numbers. They have never been entirely robbed of their numinous aura.
Von Franz, citing Jung, affirms the numinous quality of natural numbers as the foundation for all divinatory systems, contextualising Number 6 within a broader psychology of numerical symbolism.
, Creation Myths, 1995supporting
Using your birth date you can numerologically calculate your Personality and Soul Numbers. The corresponding Personality Card indicates what you have come into this particular lifetime to learn.
Greer situates number as a key to soul purpose in Tarot practice, a system in which Number 6 corresponds to the Lovers card and themes of harmony and choice.
, Tarot for Your Self: A Workbook for the Inward Journey, 1984supporting
Sixth Line: Galling limitation. At times we must severely limit our inferiors in order to save the situation.
Anthony’s commentary on the sixth line of the Limitation hexagram illustrates how the final position in a six-line structure carries its own specific qualitative meaning within the I Ching interpretive tradition.
, A Guide to the I Ching, 1988supporting
If one adds all the digits that come up to this number (Kabbalistic addition process) one gets the number 28; for 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + 5 + 6 + 7 = 28.
Rudhyar’s kabbalistic summation explicitly includes 6 as a constituent element in a numerological series whose total yields cosmologically significant cycles, linking Number 6 to astrological and developmental periodicity.
The number seven is composed of the number three, which is in motion, which is still part of a process, and the number four, which is expressive of external form.
Hamaker-Zondag’s analysis of number composition implies that 6, as the immediate predecessor to 7, occupies the threshold between processual incompletion and the sacred heptadic unity, giving it structural significance in Jungian Tarot interpretation.
, Tarot as a Way of Life: A Jungian Approach to the Tarot, 1997aside