Pamela Colman Smith · RWS deck
The Minor Arcana
Six of Swords
Tiphereth in Yetzirah
- Suit
- swords
- Rank
- Six
- World
- Yetzirah
- Station
- Tiphereth
- Verb
- I connect
Tiphereth, identity
Tiphereth is the centre: what identity looks like in this world. The Six is what recognition at the centre intends, and the Ten shows what actually arrives.
Upright
Flowing. Identity in passage: carried out of rough water toward a clearer place, with what must be carried. In the world of mental formation, the self is not leaving its thoughts behind. It is taking them with it, and it needs someone else to steer.
Misdirected. Carrying the swords unexamined, or leaving without naming what was left.
Reversed
Blocked. The passage cannot begin and the self stays in rough water.
Flooded. Constant passage, never arriving.
The image
A ferryman poles a low boat across a stretch of water. A hooded woman sits in it with a child, and six swords stand upright in the bow. The water is rough behind them and calmer ahead. The picture fits the station only partly. It shows the passage well, and the identity that is making it less so.
Learn how to read Six of Swords in a spread
This page shows you what Six of Swords means. Knowing how to read it — how it shifts next to the other cards, what the reversal is really telling you, and how to turn a spread into a clear answer — is what the RWS Decoded course and book teach, card by card.
