Six of Swords: tarot card meaning

In A. E. Waite's Pictorial Key to the Tarot (1910), the Six of Swords upright means: journey by water, route, way, envoy, commissionary, expedient. Reversed: Declaration, confession, publicity; one account says that it is a proposal of love.

The picture

“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.” A. E. Waite, The Pictorial Key to the Tarot, 1910

Upright

journey by water, route, way, envoy, commissionary, expedient.

Waite's additional meanings: The voyage will be pleasant.

Reversed

Declaration, confession, publicity; one account says that it is a proposal of love.

Waite's additional meanings, reversed: Unfavourable issue of lawsuit.

In one line

A journey by water to a quieter shore. (Esbat's own summary of Waite's meaning and picture.)

Where it sits in the deck

The Six of Swords is the sixth card of the suit of Swords, one of the 56 Minor Arcana. The other Sixs: Six of Wands, Six of Cups, Six of Pentacles.

In Esbat

Esbat deals a card of the day, face down until you turn it, and holds all 78 cards in the 1910 pictures with Waite's meanings, upright and reversed. The Six of Swords can be shared as a picture. All 78 tarot card meanings.

Sources

Meanings and picture descriptions: A. E. Waite, The Pictorial Key to the Tarot (London: Rider, 1910), public domain, checked against the Wikisource transcription. Picture: Pamela Colman Smith, 1910, public domain. Like the app, this page records what the book says; it does not promise outcomes.

Last updated October 25, 2026.

Esbat: Tarot & Book of Shadows, on Google Play

A card of the day, face down until you turn it, and all 78 cards in the 1910 pictures with Waite's meanings, upright and reversed. For Android.

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