Minor Arcana
Six of Swords
A boat across difficult water: the journey from argument to distance, from wound to recovery, from known harm to unknown shore.
- passage
- recovery
- exile
- transition
- carried knowledge
Upright meaning
The mind moves towards quieter water with its history still aboard. The Six of Swords is passage, recovery, and the dignified migration away from harm.
Reversed meaning
The crossing may be delayed, resisted, or incomplete. Old thoughts travel with the player unless they are named as cargo rather than fate.
Symbolism
- boat — A protected passage across difficult mental water.
- six swords aboard — Lessons and wounds carried into transition.
- far shore — Recovery as movement towards a new context.
- still figure — Sober endurance after conflict.
Lore
The Six of Swords crosses the grey channel with six blades standing in the boat like difficult memories. The shore ahead is not paradise, only distance enough to breathe.
In play, it can mark escorting an NPC to safety, leaving a toxic hub, crossing a river with evidence, or carrying a hard-won lesson into a quieter chapter.