“Five or Six” as a dream symbol

Often in my dreams and in dreams I’ve heard, the dreamer will report that there were “five or six” of something, such as “five or six people in the room,” or “five or six feet away.” It seems an insignificant detail, a bit of dream not quite remembered precisely. Yet the dream could choose anything to put in there. I could, for example, be sure it’s five people, or three people, or thirty. I could know that the box is exactly six inches wide. The uncertainty isn’t accidental, and in fact carries a meaning that to my mind is always worth bringing up when discussing the dream.

As humans, we have our usual five senses—sight, hearing, taste, touch, and smell. What we refer to as the sixth sense is usually psi abilities like psychic knowing, telepathy, or deep and expansive intuition. Body workers might argue that the sixth sense is balance, or there could be a number of other, alternative sixth senses.

When the dream offers the option of “five or six” it’s worth asking the dreamer whether a sixth sense has been employed, or could be employed. Or, whether it’s even recognized by the dreamer.

For me, five and six and other, very personal meanings. Five always evokes my family of origin, which had five members. So when five shows up in a dream, I consider the possibilities of childhood roots for the situation the dream illustrates for me. And six has been my lucky number since I was six years old. So for me, six is a very personal number, a number that makes me think of how I am an individual and different from the other members of my family. When “five or six” shows up in a dream then, one question that is always present for me whether I’m viewing the problem from the point of view I was raised to have, or the point of view that is true at my core. Depending on the situation, they may be the same, or they may be very different.