The Nurturer

Personality

Numerologists describe the 6 life path as warm-hearted, responsible and protective. Six is the number of the home and the community in the modern tradition: Sixes are said to feel most themselves when caring for others, making a place beautiful or putting something unfair to rights. They are pictured as the friend people turn to for advice and the relative who holds the family together.

Strengths

The strengths of Six are compassion, loyalty and a strong sense of duty. Sixes are described as generous, dependable and fair-minded, with an eye for beauty and proportion and a gift for creating comfort. They are said to be good counsellors, able to see what someone needs and to offer it without fuss.

Challenges

The tradition warns that Six's care can turn into control or self-sacrifice. A Six may take on too much, worry over others, offer advice that was not asked for, or set such high standards for home and family that no one can meet them. Numerologists also mention a tendency to put one's own needs last and then feel unappreciated. The lesson assigned to this number is to love without possessing, and to let others carry their own load.

Love and friendship

Six is often called the number of love and marriage. Sixes are described as devoted, romantic and family-minded partners who seek a settled home and lasting commitment. They are said to need appreciation and to be wounded by carelessness. As friends they are hospitable and constant.

Work and calling

Numerology links Six with service and care: teaching, medicine, nursing, social work, counselling, hospitality, design, the decorative arts and community leadership. Sixes are said to find meaning where they can help others directly and see the results.

In history and symbolism

Six is the first "perfect number" of Greek mathematics, equal to the sum of its divisors (1 + 2 + 3 = 6), as Euclid defined the term; the next is 28. Christian writers connected this with the six days of creation in Genesis, and Augustine argued in the City of God that six is perfect in itself, not merely because God completed the world in six days. Six is also the number of the hexagram, the six-pointed star later known as the Star of David and in Islamic and magical tradition as the Seal of Solomon (see Solomon's ring). In Kabbalah the sixth sefirah, Tiferet, Beauty, sits at the heart of the Tree of Life, balancing mercy and judgement, a fitting image for the number numerologists associate with harmony. The tarot's card VI is the Lovers. Six is the root of the master number 33.