Minor Arcana · Swords · Number 6
Six of Swords
Moving away from a difficulty that is not fully resolved.
Keywords
Upright
- leaving difficulty
- transition
- unresolved problems
- support
- quieter conditions
Reversed
- unable to leave
- practical barriers
- private departure
- unspoken decision
Upright
The Six of Swords describes a change of circumstances that creates distance from a problem. The swords travelling in the boat are a reminder that unresolved matters can come with you.
Reversed
Ways to understand the reversed card: Something prevents action Something is happening privately
Something prevents action: A practical means, destination or necessary support for leaving is missing.
Something is happening privately: You remain visibly involved while privately regarding yourself as no longer part of the situation.
Applying this card to your question
- Love
- Upright Consider what changing circumstances would alter and what unresolved issues would travel with you.
- Reversed Distinguish missing practical means to leave from privately withdrawing while remaining visibly involved.
- Career
- Upright Examine what a change of work setting would address and what would remain.
- Reversed Check whether support or a destination is missing or disengagement has happened privately without a visible change.
- Money
- Upright Identify the actual resources a change requires and obligations it would not remove.
- Reversed Separate unavailable means of transition from privately considering yourself outside an ongoing arrangement.
- Growth
- Upright Notice the difference between gaining distance from a problem and resolving it.
- Reversed Ask whether practical support for change is missing or your withdrawal remains unspoken.
- Decision
- Upright Compare what each change would improve in circumstances with what it leaves unresolved.
- Reversed Distinguish a blocked practical departure from a private decision to disengage that others cannot see.
Traditional symbolism
What the Rider-Waite-Smith tradition depicts. This is not a description of any Ultimate Tarot Trainer illustration.
- swords standing in the boat
- unresolved concerns carried into a change
- the ferryman with the pole
- practical help with leaving
- water smooth on one side
- a difference in how difficult the conditions feel
- the further shore
- a destination that is not yet described
Advice
- Upright
- Ask what the change would alter and what would still need attention afterward. Distance and resolution are different things.
- Reversed
- Ask what a real change would require and what you have communicated about your position.
Learning this card
Common misreadings
- The card does not instruct you to leave a particular situation or promise that moving on will improve it.
- The card does not decide whether to stay or leave or promise that new circumstances will be better.
- Use the facts of the situation to choose an interpretation. The card alone does not establish what is happening.
Memory hook
Moving away from a difficulty that is not fully resolved.
Practice
Write a short example of a situation where this meaning could be useful. Ask what the change would alter and what would still need attention afterward. Distance and resolution are different things.
Historical sources and editorial notes
Lineage: golden-dawn-rws · attribution confidence: traditional
Mercury in the second decan of Aquarius follows the Golden Dawn attribution; Book T titles the card Earned Success. Waite's published meanings, checked against the Pictorial Key, give a journey by water, route, way, envoy and expedient, with a note that the course is smooth and the freight light. UTT reads structural transit and declines the literal-travel reading as the primary sense, while recording that it is the older one. Waite's reversal gives declaration, confession and publicity, which this record does not carry.