Six of Swords
The Six of Swords depicts a protective, liminal crossing from troubled waters toward calmer horizons, symbolized by a ferryman, children, and a small boat. It signifies transition — sometimes a literal journey or relocation, other times an inner shift from panic to planning — offering perspective and gradual relief. The card warns that travel can be incomplete if baggage remains or if reluctance and delay cause returns to old troubles. Guidance and help are available, and moving forward, even tentatively, requires noticing what you carry and trusting the possibility of leaving difficult waters behind.
Keywords
Visual Description
A small red boat drifts across dark, rippling water under a cloudy moonlit sky. A robed, pumpkin-headed figure stands in the stern while two children sit forward in the boat, one holding a carved jack-o'-lantern mask. Carved skull-like lanterns float in the water around them and an owl wings across the top beneath an ornate gilded gate that bears the numeral 6. The decorative border frames the scene and the word "SWORDS" appears across the bottom.
Meaning
The boat slips away from a troubled shore into quieter water, the paddle churning soft wake beneath moonlight as if leaving a heavy night behind. You can feel the cool spray and the low murmur of oars; the pumpkin-headed ferryman and the children suggest a passage that is protective and a little uncanny, carrying memories and scars but promising movement. This image tells of transition and necessary travel: a crossing that brings perspective, relief, and the slow smoothing of jagged thoughts. Sometimes that transit is literal — a journey or relocation — and sometimes it is inner, the migration of mind from panic to planning. In other moments the scene warns that passage can be incomplete, that baggage floats alongside you and the shore you left still calls; reluctance, delay, or returning to old troubles can keep the voyage from healing. Help and guidance are present if you accept them, and the act of moving forward, even tentatively, changes the horizon. Whether steady or stalled, the crossing asks you to notice what you carry and to trust that leaving difficult waters behind is possible when you set your course.
Visual Description
A small red boat drifts across dark, rippling water under a cloudy moonlit sky. A robed, pumpkin-headed figure stands in the stern while two children sit forward in the boat, one holding a carved jack-o'-lantern mask. Carved skull-like lanterns float in the water around them and an owl wings across the top beneath an ornate gilded gate that bears the numeral 6. The decorative border frames the scene and the word "SWORDS" appears across the bottom.
Trick or Treat tarot
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