A ferryman poles a boat carrying a cloaked figure and a child; six swords stand upright in the hull.Six of Swords

Swords · Number 6

Six of Swords

The Six is the crossing. Leaving difficulty for somewhere calmer, carrying what you cannot put down. Not triumphant. The card is quiet, sad, and moving in the right direction.

Arcana
Minor
Suit
Swords
Number
6
Element
Air
Planet
Mercury
Zodiac
Aquarius
Decan
Aquarius 2
Yes / no
Leans yes
Traditional timing
About 6 weeks

Affirmation

“I go, and I bring what I have to bring.”

Draw a readingSix of Swords in love

Overview

The Six is the crossing. Leaving difficulty for somewhere calmer, carrying what you cannot put down. Not triumphant. The card is quiet, sad, and moving in the right direction.

Upright meaning

Transition, moving on, gradual improvement. Travel, often literal. You are taking your history with you and going anyway, which is the correct order of operations.

Reversed meaning

Unable to leave. Stuck between where you were and where you are going. Or a departure that solves nothing because what you needed to leave came along.

Love & relationships

Moving on from a difficult relationship. Recovery in progress. Reversed, unable to leave, or leaving without processing.

Career & work

A move to a better role or company. Relocation. Slow improvement after a bad period.

Money & finances

Financial recovery beginning. Moving from crisis toward stability.

Spirituality

Passage. The journey between states that has to be travelled rather than skipped.

Health

Gradual recovery. Moving out of an acute phase. Do not expect it to be fast.

For reflection and entertainment. Not medical, legal, or financial advice.

Symbolism

A ferryman poles a boat carrying a cloaked figure and a child; six swords stand upright in the hull. The water is choppy behind and flat ahead. The swords are coming with them, unremoved.

History

Golden Dawn titled it Earned Success. The detail most readers return to is that nobody removes the swords. The card explicitly does not promise you leave the pain behind.

Keywords

Upright

  • transition
  • moving on
  • passage
  • gradual recovery
  • travel

Reversed

  • stuck
  • unresolved baggage
  • unable to leave
  • delayed departure

Journal prompts

  • What am I carrying across that I will need to deal with when I land?
  • What does calmer water actually look like from here?

Common questions about Six of Swords

About this page

Written by Memento Arcana against the Rider-Waite-Smith deck and the Golden Dawn attributions it was built on. No part of it was generated by a language model. Last updated 7 August 2026.

Where traditions disagree about this card, the page says so rather than picking one quietly. How we write these, and our sources.

Discussion

How Six of Swords has actually shown up for other readers.

Nothing here yet. Be the first to say how this card has landed for you.

Learning the cards

Guides to reading this card alongside the other 77.

How to Read Tarot Card Combinations

Two cards together mean more than two cards apart. A four-step method: dominant card, elements, the tension between them, then back to your question.