Minor Arcana, Swords
Six of Swords
transition, passage, departure, help
Upright
A ferryman poles a boat across the water, carrying two hunched passengers and six upright swords. Waite's words are travel by water, route, envoy and expedient. The card shows a move away from trouble, made with what is at hand and with some help.
Changing jobs or leaving a shared home often looks like this. You carry the worries with you, and the water ahead may still be choppy in places. Pick a practical route, accept help from whoever knows the way, and keep moving.
Reversed
The boat stalls here, and something wants to be said out loud. Waite gives declaration, confession and publicity, and one account names a proposal of love.
A move you keep postponing may depend on a conversation you keep postponing too. Tell your manager, partner or landlord where you stand, and choose how public that news becomes. Expect a reply you cannot script in advance.
A card is a prompt for reflection. It cannot promise a result, and it is no substitute for medical, legal or financial advice.
In Waite's words
Upright: Journey by water, route, way, envoy, commissionary, expedient.
Reversed: Declaration, confession, publicity; one account says that it is a proposal of love.
From A. E. Waite, The Pictorial Key to the Tarot (1910), Part 3, on Wikisource. The meanings above are by Cast & Chart.
Card art by Pamela Colman Smith, 1909, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.