Six of Swords
Minor Arcana · Swords
What the Six of Swords means — upright and reversed, with keywords.
✦ 6Six of Swords
What this card is
A ferryman poles a flat boat away from choppy water toward a calmer shore, a cloaked woman and a child sitting still, six swords standing upright in the hull. Nobody in the picture is happy yet, and nobody is drowning. This is the card of a passage: leaving something that was not working, taking the weight of it along because you cannot simply set it down, and letting distance do part of the work.
Upright meaning
KEYWORDS
passagecalmer watercarried weight
Moving from rough water toward something quieter, bringing the weight along because it will not be set down.
Reversed meaning
KEYWORDS
stuck mid-crossinglooking back
Half left and half stayed, judging the journey by its uncomfortable middle.
People also ask
- What does Six of Swords mean?
- Keywords: passage, calmer water, carried weight. Moving from rough water toward something quieter, bringing the weight along because it will not be set down.
- What does Six of Swords reversed mean?
- Reversed, the keywords shift to stuck mid-crossing, looking back. Half left and half stayed, judging the journey by its uncomfortable middle.
- Is Six of Swords a good card?
- Neither, and the question is worth resisting. Upright it speaks of passage; reversed, of stuck mid-crossing. The same card is encouraging in one spread and a warning in another — what decides it is the question you asked and the cards around it.
- Where does Six of Swords sit in the deck?
- Six of Swords belongs to Swords, the suit of thought, conflict, and communication. Its rank carries things moving into harmony after difficulty. Suit tells you which part of life is speaking; rank tells you how far along it is.
- Which cards are read alongside Six of Swords?
- The same rank in the other suits: Six of Wands, Six of Cups and Six of Pentacles. Comparing them side by side is the quickest way to feel what the suit contributes and what the number contributes.Six of WandsSix of CupsSix of Pentacles