Six of Swords tarot card meaning: upright, reversed and symbols

The Six of Swords shows a ferryman poling a small boat across the water toward a distant shore. A hooded woman and a child sit in the boat, with six swords standing upright in front of them. It is a card of transition, moving on and slow healing. Here is what the Six of Swords means upright and reversed, the symbols Pamela Colman Smith drew and a spread for leaving troubled water.

At a glance

• Upright keywords: transition, moving on, healing
• Reversed keywords: resistance to change, emotional baggage, stalled transition
• Number: 6 in the suit of Swords
• Suit and element: Swords, Air Later tradition
• Astrology: Mercury in Aquarius Later tradition
• Yes or no: Yes Modern

The element and the planet in a sign (one of the 36 ten-degree slices of the zodiac called decans) come from the Golden Dawn system of the 1880s and 1890s, not from the first tarot decks. The yes or no lean is a modern reading habit. Use these layers if they help you remember the card, and skip them if they get in the way.

The card: what Pamela Colman Smith drew

Waite wrote: “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.” Smith drew the water rough on one side of the boat and smooth on the other.

Rough and smooth water

The water near the boat is choppy on one side and calm on the other. They are leaving trouble behind.

The swords in the boat

The six swords travel with them. You carry your memories and lessons with you, even when you move on.

The ferryman

Someone else is steering. Healing in this card often comes with help: a friend, a counselor, a community.

Upright meaning

Upright, the Six of Swords is passage: leaving troubled water for a calmer shore, often with company or guidance. Healing here is gradual. You carry what you have learned, including some weight, while the boat moves. The destination may not be paradise, but it is calmer.

Accept help on the crossing. Plan the move, the change or the recovery in small steps. It is all right to be sad and hopeful at the same time.

Reversed meaning

Reversed, the Six of Swords can show resistance to change, emotional baggage or a stalled transition. The boat may be stuck, or you may be trying to row back to the old shore.

Ask what you are afraid of on the other side. Lighten the load where you can. If you cannot leave yet, find one way to bring calm into where you are.

Reversals are optional. Many readers never use them and read every card upright, and that is a complete way to read. If you do use them, decide before you shuffle what a reversed card will mean for you, and keep to that choice for the whole reading.

In love, work and spirituality

Love

Upright, moving on from a hard time together, or after a breakup. Reversed, carrying old hurt into a new relationship.

Work and money

Changing jobs, moving for work or a calmer period after stress. Reversed, a transition that keeps stalling.

Spirituality

A slow, guided healing journey. Reversed, refusing to let a past hurt go.

As feelings

As someone’s feelings, the Six of Swords shows relief and a wish to move on. They may be recovering, quietly.

The Six of Swords as past, present, future and advice

• Past: You left a hard situation, and you are still healing.
• Present: You are moving toward calmer water. Keep going.
• Future: A move or transition is ahead.
• Advice: Accept help on the crossing.

A Minor Arcana card usually describes the everyday texture of a situation: a mood, a conversation, a task or a step. If the Six of Swords appears next to a Major Arcana card, let the Major name the big theme and let this card show how it is playing out in thought and the other things Swords rule. If it keeps coming back over several days, write down what was happening each time.

Is the Six of Swords a yes or a no?

In modern yes or no readings, the Six of Swords leans yes. Moving on points to yes. Tarot is better at showing the shape of a situation than at handing down verdicts, so if the question really matters, turn it into an open question such as “What do I need to know about this?” and draw again.

Affirmation and journal prompts

Affirmation: I cross toward calmer ground one practical step at a time.

Reversed affirmation: I loosen the baggage that keeps me from leaving.

Journal prompts:

• What am I leaving behind?
• What am I carrying with me, and do I need it?
• Who is helping me cross?

What the Six means in tarot

Six is repair, reciprocity and movement back toward balance. After the trouble of the Five, the Sixes bring help, recognition, gifts or a journey to calmer ground.

Here is how the Six looks across the four suits:

• Six of Wands: success, recognition, victory
• Six of Cups: nostalgia, memories, reunion
• Six of Swords (this card): transition, moving on, healing
• Six of Pentacles: generosity, charity, balance

Learning a rank across the suits is one of the fastest ways to learn the Minor Arcana: the number or court rank gives you the shape, and the suit gives you the setting.

The history and art behind the card

In most decks before 1909, the number cards showed only a pattern of suit symbols, the way a playing card does. The Sola Busca deck from late 1400s Italy is the famous exception. Pamela Colman Smith gave every Minor Arcana card a scene with people in it, and that choice is a big reason the Rider-Waite-Smith deck is still the easiest deck for beginners. In Italian decks the suit is Spade and in the Tarot de Marseille it is Épées, curved blades woven into patterns. Smith drew straight swords and big skies full of wind and cloud. Air is the element of the mind, and her Swords scenes are often about what we think and say more than what we physically do.

A ferryman punts a boat across the water, carrying a woman wrapped in a cloak and a small child. Six swords stand upright in the boat. Many readers point out that the water on one side of the boat looks rough and the water on the other side looks smooth, as if the passengers are moving from trouble toward calmer ground. The swords travel with them. The card is honest about that: you can leave a hard place and still carry some of it with you for a while.

When A. E. Waite published The Pictorial Key to the Tarot in 1910, he listed these divinatory meanings for the Six of Swords: “Journey by water, route, way, envoy, commissionary, expedient.” Reversed, he gave: “Declaration, confession, publicity; one account says that it is a proposal of love.” Waite said he was offering “a harmony of their meanings” gathered “from all sources”, which means older fortune-telling lists, not his own reading of the picture. On this site I read the picture first and treat lists like this as history.

A spread for the Six of Swords

Use this spread when you are moving on from something hard.

1. What am I leaving? The troubled water behind me.
2. What do I carry? The lessons and weight in my boat.
3. What waits on the other shore? The calmer place ahead.

Lay the three cards in a row, read each one on its own first, then read them together as a short story. Write one sentence for each position and one small action you will take.

Common questions

Is the Six of Swords a yes or no card?

It leans yes. It shows moving toward something better.

Does the Six of Swords mean travel?

It can, especially travel over water or a move. It often means an emotional transition, too.

What does the Six of Swords mean in love?

Moving on from a hard time, together or apart.

Related cards

• Eight of Cups: another card of leaving
• Death: the Major Arcana card of transition
• The Star: the Major Arcana card of healing after crisis

Keep learning

The Six of Swords is part of the lesson Swords in my free Tarot for Beginners course. To see the whole suit on one page, go to the suit of Swords. To keep walking the suit, read the card before it, Five of Swords or the card after it, Seven of Swords, or go back to all the card meanings. For the suits and numbers in one place, see The Minor Arcana: suits and numbers made simple. For every card with keywords, affirmations and examples, see my book The Novice’s Guide to Tarot. If you would like a printable cheat sheet for all 78 cards, my 45-page Tarot Workbook is on Etsy.

Sources

• A. E. Waite, The Pictorial Key to the Tarot (London: Rider, 1910), Part III, sections 1 and 2.
• Pamela Colman Smith and A. E. Waite, the Rider-Waite-Smith tarot (London: Rider, 1909).
• Nicolas Conver, Tarot de Marseille (Marseille, 1760).
• Lauri Mukkala, The Novice’s Guide to Tarot, entry for the Six of Swords.