Six of Swords
The six of swords in the tarot's Minor Arcana: a ferryman taking passengers across the water in his punt. A. E. Waite read it as a journey by water, a route, an envoy.
Meaning
Waite describes the card: "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."
What does the Six of Swords mean?
Waite's meanings are "journey by water, route, way, envoy, commissionary, expedient"; reversed, "declaration, confession, publicity; one account says that it is a proposal of love". His list of additional meanings adds "the voyage will be pleasant", and reversed, "unfavourable issue of lawsuit".
In older decks
In Italian packs the suit is spade, swords: the earliest suit marks, the British Museum's catalogue of 1876 records, were coppe, danari, bastoni and spade, "cups, money, clubs, and swords". Papus reads it as "the enemy is rendered powerless at last".
See also
The Fool, The Magician, The High Priestess, The Empress, The Emperor, The Hierophant.
Sources
- The Pictorial Key to the Tarot, by A. E. Waite, William Rider & Son, London, 1910 (the sacred-texts.com transcription, on the Internet Archive), The Lesser Arcana; Some Additional Meanings of the Lesser Arcana
- The Tarot of the Bohemians, by Papus, Chapman & Hall, London, 1896, translated by A. P. Morton (scan on the Internet Archive), The Divining Tarot, second lesson: the minor arcana
- A Descriptive Catalogue of Playing and Other Cards in the British Museum, by W. H. Willshire, Trustees of the British Museum, London, 1876 (scan on the Internet Archive), General history: the marks of the suits
Last reviewed September 28, 2026 by Rory Hansen. How we research