AUTHOR’S NOTE: In Dawn Jackson’s “Hedgewytchery” system of playing-card divination, one general keyword for the number Six is “paths,” which ideally means “a way forward” and not merely the avoidance of stagnation by retracing one’s steps or traveling in circles. But this progressive advancement should really be considered in light of the following sequence of Seven and Eight.

In cartomancy, Seven is a challenging number that usually brings difficulty, but as an “active” odd number it can also stimulate recovery and produce opportunity. In esoteric number theory, one assumption is that it represents “taking a step in a new direction” that should not be attempted without adequate preparation; I usually see it as overthrowing the idle complacency of the Six as a rebuttal to the way that the latter reins in and rectifies the instability of the Five. The tarot Sevens are similarly unsettled, with the Thoth titles bearing this out: “Valour,” or desperate courage in the face of daunting odds (7 of Wands); “Debauch” or “Lord of Illusionary Success” in the Golden Dawn canon, which I read more as emotional misapprehension than as immoral behavior (7 of Cups); “Futility” or “Lord of Unstable Effort” according to the Golden Dawn, which is self-explanatory (7 of Swords); and “Failure, which in Golden Dawn parlance is the less-ominous “Lord of Success Unfulfilled” (7 of Disks or Pentacles).

The passive, even-numbered Eight once again restores binary equilibrium and is generally fortunate in cartomantic terms (depending, of course, on the nature of the suit). In esoteric theory it is viewed more as off-balance and striving to compensate for the divergent trajectory of the Seven (which could result in over-correction). Thus, although it has a similar stabilizing connotation, it is not nearly as harmonious as the preceding binary Six. In cartomancy it sometimes carries the broader sense of “communication,” which from another perspective I might link to the Qabalistic correspondence to Mercury. (See the Thoth 8 of Wands for a good example of this.)

The tarot Sixes best express the concept of “favorable progress” in the Thoth deck, with its adherence to the Golden Dawn’s seminal vision. The 6 of Wands conveys “Victory” (aka “Lord of Victory”), which brooks no setback; the 6 of Cups revels in “Pleasure” (or “Lord of Pleasure”), a clear message of unimpeded enjoyment; the 6 of Swords embraces “Science” (“Lord of Earned Success” to the Golden Dawn), which denotes a rational approach to furtherance of one’s objectives; and the 6 of Disks or Pentacles embodies “Success” (or, more on-point, the Golden Dawn’s “Lord of Material Success”).

The Sixes of the Waite-Smith deck are not nearly as convincing in this regard, primarily because Smith’s prosaic narrative vignettes depart so radically from both their Golden Dawn roots and Waite’s source material in the Pictorial Key to the Tarot. (Professional opinion among many tarot historians is that Smith was “let off the leash” by Waite when it came to the Minor Arcana and was allowed to introduce her personal assumptions.) Two of the RWS Sixes follow the original script: the 6 of Wands is plainly about “triumph,” which is consonant with the idea of “victory,” while the 6 of Swords displays forward motion in no uncertain terms (although it has a downtrodden feel to it).

On the other hand, the “nostalgia” ascribed to the 6 of Cups with its portrayal of two innocent children has nothing to do with the more “adult” persuasions of “pleasure” (Crowley cites the Sun in Scorpio and its sexual implications) and is more backward-focused than forward-looking; the 6 of Pentacles, with its intimations of generosity and charity, is almost completely misaligned with the straightforward achievement of “material success,” which is more about receiving largess than distributing it. That doesn’t necessarily make Smith’s impressions “wrong,” just out-of-tune with the Golden Dawn baseline, and I for one import many of the Thoth meanings when I work with the RWS deck

I once wrote an exhaustive essay on the RWS Sixes that is pertinent here. My “Tarot 101” study material on the Sixes – which correlates the Golden Dawn, RWS and Thoth background material to my own definitions – is also worth contemplating.

https://parsifalswheeldivination.org/2019/07/19/what-about-those-sixes/