Tiphareth = The Beast?

I try not to make a habit of flaunting my ignorance, but in this case I must make an exception... this is a question that has been bugging me for some time:

I have only a rudimentary knowledge of the Qabalah, but I have come across the assignation of the four sixes of the tarot to the sixth Sephirah, Tiphareth. I also understand that scholars of the Qabalah are also commonly numerologists and attribute each letter and number with a certain significance.

My question is (after much rambling): Why are the sixes, so often associated with the Devil (in Revelations, anyway) also associated with this Sephirah, the central element of the Tree of Life? I have often heard comparisons made between Tiphareth, and Messiah-figures (Odin, Jesus, Dionysus, etc.), and to me this just doesn't jibe. I am aware of the positive denotations of the sixes in tarot, but the connotation of the number still raises doubt in my mind.

I appreciate any light that can be shed on the subject!

Fascinating correlation there NiftyKracker!

Before making some comments, I should (probably again) mention that traditionally the Tarot and the Kabbalah are quite independent, and that various attributions have been made to the Sefirot by various people.

Personally, however, as I pair the Major Arcana cards in ascending order upon the Tree, I also place both V the Pope/Hierophant and XV the Devil within the Sefirah.

Wirth and others, who descend with the Major Arcana upon the Tree (beginning with, of course, I the Magician), place VI the Lovers therein.

With regards to the Beast and the number, it should be remembered that it is not six, but six hundred and sixty-six (using as we do Hindo-Arabic numerals, this is expressed as a triple 6). The Tarot having four suits, it is the quadruple six which would there be placed.

18 (three sixes) has somewhat different connotations to 24 (four sixes). Yet your point is worth deeper considerations and acknowledgement to see where it leads.

Six, in Hebrew, is (written with the letter) Vav - one of who's meaning is often considered to be the Sword.

Tifaret is often considered to be assigned the Sun, and two aspects of the Sun in certain esoteric circles are, on the one hand, the 888 of the Christ figure, but also the place where hides the powerful force of the 666 Deamon of the Sun (which too has a name). Again, both are found related to, through this association with the Sun, Tifaret.

What is again interesting, if one links the previous paragraphs, is the relevance of both the sixes and the triple eights (whose product is the previously mentioned twenty-four). Here then, not only are we dealing with the sixes, but also with the triple eight of the Christ figure of the Sun...

I realise that to many, the above may sound a little gibberish-ly. I suggest, however, that such numerical and traditional analogical considerations leads to deeper appreciations of what may even have gone into the development and production of both the Tarot and the Kabbalah.

Thank you, jmd, you were most helpful and have given me much more to contemplate as I meditate upon the tree. I think what you said makes perfect sense, and I'm sure I will rest a bit easier with this knowledge in mind.