Cast & Chart

Birthday number

6

Reduced form: 6

Numbers describe tendencies in a symbolic tradition. They cannot decide health, money, law, marriage or children.

About this number

Alfred Tennyson was born on the 6th of August 1809, and Clement uses him to describe this day: a dreamer's idealism, musical and artistic gifts, and strong intuition. That is one writer reading backward from a famous poet, which is worth remembering whenever a handbook reaches for a celebrity.

Westcott records why mathematicians prized this figure: 6 equals the sum of its own parts, 1 and 2 and 3, and so is a perfect number. Cheasley's 1916 list is domestic by contrast, with home, friendship and responsibility near the top. Balliett in 1905 called the people of 6 finishers, cheerful about finishing work already well under way, and Walton thought it resembled 2 on a wider scale.

Where this text comes from

Statements credited to an older writer follow the scanned text named here and are paraphrased unless quoted. The modern readings are labeled as modern and come from none of these works.

Our own plain wording. It is not a translation of any single source.