Tarot card meanings · Swords
What does Six of Swords mean in tarot?
In A. E. Waite's Pictorial Key to the Tarot (1910), the Six of Swords upright means “Journey by water, route, way, envoy, commissionary, expedient”, and reversed “Declaration, confession, publicity; one account says that it is a proposal of love”.
Upright
Journey by water, route, way, envoy, commissionary, expedient.Waite, The Pictorial Key to the Tarot, Part 3
Reversed
Declaration, confession, publicity; one account says that it is a proposal of love.Waite, The Pictorial Key to the Tarot, Part 3
What does the picture show?
A ferryman carrying passengers in his punt to the further shore. The course is smooth, and seeing that the freight is light, it may be noted that the work is not beyond his strength.Waite, The Pictorial Key to the Tarot, Part 3
Where does the Six of Swords fall in a reading?
Six of Swords belongs to the suit of Swords. On this site you draw three cards, which take three of the places in the ten-card method Waite describes: “This covers him”, “This crosses him”, “This is before him”. The same card reads differently in each place, and the I Ching cast beside it may agree or disagree.
Ask one question. Draw three cards, and cast an I Ching hexagram beside them to see where East and West agree. Free.
Draw three cardsWaite's words are quoted as printed, and left out where they speak of money, law, illness or disaster. The pictures are the 1909 deck drawn by Pamela Colman Smith. For entertainment and self-reflection.