The Master Teacher

Personality

Thirty-three is the third master number, recognised by many but not all modern numerologists; those who accept it leave it unreduced instead of making 6. The 33 life path is described as Six's care and responsibility raised to a selfless pitch, with the inspiration of 11 and the constructive power of 22 behind it. Thirty-threes are pictured as teachers and healers by nature, people whose concern for others is the centre of their lives.

Strengths

The strengths of Thirty-three are compassion, wisdom and devotion. Thirty-threes are said to be warm, patient and encouraging, able to help others grow without needing credit. They are described as creative, emotionally perceptive and capable of great self-giving in the service of family, community or a cause.

Challenges

The tradition warns that such idealism carries real burdens. A Thirty-three may take on others' suffering as their own, neglect their health, become a martyr or feel responsible for everything. Some may also preach rather than teach, or hold others to impossible standards. As with the other master numbers, numerologists say a 33 may live largely as a Six until later in life. The lesson assigned is to care for oneself as well as others, and to let love free people rather than bind them.

Love and friendship

In relationships Thirty-threes are described as tender, loyal and nurturing partners who build a warm home. They are said to need appreciation and a partner who can care for them in return. As friends they are the confidant to whom everyone turns.

Work and calling

Numerology links 33 with teaching, healing and guidance: medicine, nursing, counselling, ministry, social work, education, the caring professions and the arts when they serve to uplift.

In history and symbolism

Christian tradition holds that Jesus was about thirty-three when he was crucified, a figure inferred from Luke's statement that he was "about thirty years of age" at the start of his ministry and from the length of that ministry; the exact age is uncertain. Dante divided the Purgatorio and the Paradiso into thirty-three cantos each, with thirty-four in the Inferno, making a hundred in all. The Vedic tradition counts thirty-three gods, and Buddhist cosmology names the Heaven of the Thirty-three (Buddhist cosmology). Many Muslims recite three short praises of God thirty-three times each after prayer. The Scottish Rite of Freemasonry has thirty-three degrees. The idea of 33 as a master number is a twentieth-century development within numerology.