Card Meaning: Six Of Swords
General
Some fights in life you just can't win. This is one of the lessons from the
previous card - the Five of Swords. Maybe we are just fighting the wrong
ones? What can we do than? The lesson of the Six of Swords is that sometimes it
is best to let it go and find some other goal worth fighting for. We need to
rechart our territory and see what is coming next and what makes sense, where
can we go from here. On this card we see ferryman transporting two sad figures
over to the distant shore. We see that the waters are rough behind but infront -
the water is calm, obviously there is a solution or at least relief for former
not so happy state, maybe the relief we couldn't see before because of the constant
strife that sucked all of our energy. Retreat sometimes seems cowardly but the
air element represented by the Swords suit relies much more on reason and logic
than on heart and passion. There is a sense of depression in this card what is
natural seeing that people on the card are leaving something they have been
fighting for, but also we can feel that they are leaving the problems behind and
that there are happier times and calmer waters where they are heading.
Reading
Positive:
journey away from pain, leaving the difficulties behind, recovery, respite,
brighter future, regaining a balance, getting support in the trouble,
gaining objectivity.
Negative: struggle, stalemate, no hope, procrastination, refusal to face the
problems.
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. Divinatory Meanings: journey by water, route,
way, envoy, commissionary, expedient. Reversed: Declaration, confession,
publicity; one account says that it is a proposal of love.
— The Pictorial Key to the Tarot, by A.E. Waite