I dream vividly and often.

Being only human, I record it as faithfully as I am able, which is to say, imperfectly.

When I am in the habit of writing down my dreams, each night yields, on average, as many as six written pages of dream-stuff.

THAT’S A LOTTA DREAMS

An essential part of the process, therefore, is mining the old journals for interesting and significant stuff.

Flipping through my current dream journal recently, an isolated sentence without any context caught my eye. It’s on page 4 of the dreams I had during the night of April 11:

Melissa of Little Fox Tarot questions the three $2 bills on my altar, asking, “What is the significance of the number 6?”

That’s all. Then the text returns to normal stress dreams about school and cereal.

The Number 6 is the number that shows the dividing path of Virtue and Vice. It signifies the strife between conscience and passion, the choice between the two paths of good and evil. It denotes the antagonism of natural forces.

— Sepharial, The Book of Charms and Talismans

Melissa is someone savvy who I absolutely trust; obviously, a dream question from her ought to be answered.

And hey, here’s the thing: I really do have three $2 bills on my altar.

So what is the significance of the number 6 in this context?

My childhood home phone number – the number that’s still listed in my contacts as “Home” – contains three sixes, three twos, and a three. For me these numbers are profoundly associated with the sensations of security, safety, and family – the union of disparate individuals beneath one roof, and the special protection afforded by such sacred safe space.

Six is the number of the tarot card The Lovers. We love, we fight, we forgive, we work together.

Six feels green. She is verdant with life and decomposing towards death at the same time; that old familiar duality.

It is the duality of dealing in money. You gotta spend it to make it.

The Good Lord giveth and the Good Lord taketh away.

Six is temptation and willpower.

She is pulled in two different directions. It is pleasure and pain to be so affected; to walk the path of virtue and responsibility while living with one’s own potential for self-destruction, waste, excess, and piss-poor decisions; to hold money in your hands and then let it slip through your fingers.

It is the endless tugging of the tides, retreating and returning again to us. Money waxes and wanes like the moon but owes its brilliance to the wealth of the sun.

The happiness and fulfillment we experience in the Sixes give us the self-confidence and energy to move on to the next phase in our lives.

— Joanna Powell Colbert, Journey Through the Gaian Tarot

My Six demands responsible money management.

xoxo