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.

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