Six of Swords
A boatman ferries two figures across rough water to calmer.
- Element · air
- Number · VI
- Suit · Swords
- transition
- moving on
- leaving troubles behind
- calmer waters
- stuck in the past
- unwanted change
- delayed move
Upright
The card facing you the right way up.
A ferryman poles a boat with two passengers and six swords across water from rough to calm. The Six of Swords is transition · the difficult thing being left behind, the calmer shore arriving.
Moving on from a difficult relationship.
A job transition. Leaving a hard role.
Moving past a financial difficulty.
Reversed
The card facing you upside down.
Reversed, the move is unwanted or stalled. Or you keep getting back on the boat back.
Returning to the difficulty.
Unable to leave.
Stuck in the same financial pattern.
The advice in one line
"Cross."
The symbolism
The boat with two passengers and six swords moves from troubled to calm water · transition with the baggage still in tow.
Asked Often
- What does the Six of Swords card mean?
- A boatman ferries two figures across rough water to calmer. A ferryman poles a boat with two passengers and six swords across water from rough to calm. The Six of Swords is transition · the difficult thing being left behind, the calmer shore arriving.
- What does Six of Swords reversed mean?
- Reversed, the move is unwanted or stalled. Or you keep getting back on the boat back.
- Is the Six of Swords a yes or no card?
- Upright, the Six of Swords leans maybe. Reversed, it leans no. That said, a single card rarely answers a yes/no cleanly · the wiser move is to read it for direction, not verdict.
- What does Six of Swords mean for love?
- Moving on from a difficult relationship.
- What does Six of Swords mean for career?
- A job transition. Leaving a hard role.
Card meanings on BookTarot are for entertainment, personal reflection, and self-exploration. They sit alongside professional medical, legal, financial, or psychological care, never in place of it.