Minor Arcana
Six of Swords
A boat across difficult water: the journey away from a conflict or a hurt, towards somewhere you don't know yet but where you can breathe.
- passage
- recovery
- exile
- transition
- carried knowledge
Upright meaning
You move towards calmer water with your history still aboard. The Six of Swords means transition, recovery, and leaving harm behind at a steady pace.
Reversed meaning
The crossing may be delayed, resisted, or incomplete. Old ways of thinking will come with you unless you notice them and decide what to do with them.
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
A small boat crosses grey water with six swords standing upright inside it and a pale shore ahead. The card means moving away from a hard time, still carrying what happened but heading somewhere calmer.
In daily life, it can mark leaving a harmful place, a move away from trouble, or helping someone to safety.