Six of Swords

Swords: Defending. Self-defense and setting boundaries. Think of drawing a line in the sand with a sword point.

Six: Keeping it going. You’ve established a pattern or rhythm which allows things to run smoothly. Things are going well and you’re in a position to be generous with others or even to give up some of your goals for others’ benefit.

A ferryman carrying passengers in his punt to the further shore. Divinatory Meanings: Journey by water, route, way, envoy, commissionary, expedient. Reversed: Declaration, confession, publicity; one account says that it is a proposal of love.

You are able to navigate through your problems. And even though your difficulties still face you, you are learning how to deal with them, how to live your life in their presence. You are trying to look at things with a more open mind by putting distance between yourself and the past. Reversed: You don’t feel like you are making any progress. You are trying to paddle against the current. You aren’t able to look at your problems afresh or put them behind you.

A ferryman carries passengers in his boat to the opposite shore. The waters are smooth; the swords do not seem to weigh the boat down. Divinatory Meaning: Passage away from difficulties; journey by water; success after anxiety; sending someone to represent you in an undertaking. Reversed: Unfavorable issue of an affair. No immediate way out of present difficulties. A stalemate.

Difficulties surmounted, a trip may bring good news.

The first step into pure joy is an intellectual experience. Poetry finds its source in the Six of Swords.

 

The Hermit

Solitude. A search for spirituality. Turning away from institutionalized wisdom. A search for virtue. The passage of time. Patience.

Prudence; also and especially treason, dissimulation, roguery, corruption. Reversed: Concealment, disguise, policy, fear, unreasoned caution.

The Hermit is alone on a snowy mountain peak far above the weary climbers below, for whom he lights the way. His lantern is a six-pointed star, suggesting “Where I am, there you also may be.” He is Absolute Wisdom, the goal of existence, while the Fool typifies the same Absolute before manifestation. Consequently Tarot #0 is a youth looking upward in the morning light, while Tarot #9 is a bearded ancient looking down at night. Every practice in occult training aims at the union of personal consciousness with the Cosmic Will which is the cause of all manifestations. Divinatory Meaning: Silent council, wisdom from above, prudence. A meeting with one who will guide the seeker on the path to material or spiritual goals. Attainment. Possible journey. Reversed: Immaturity, foolish vices, refusal to grow old, the perpetual Peter Pan.

The figure in the card is shown to be moving away from spiritual concerns. A reevaluation, inner growth and personal development are called for here. There may be a person you should turn to for consultation about your future. Reversed Meaning: Guard against foolishness and stubbornness. Do not rush forward blindly. Stop to think about your actions and be open to wise advice.

I have arrived at the end of my path, there where the unthinkable presents itself like an abyss. Faced by this nothingness, I can no longer move forward. All I can do is retreat, while contemplating the road I have already traveled. With every step I take backward, I form a reality before me.

 

Ace of Cups

Ace: There’s a first time for everything. Beginnings. A seed that will grow.

Cups: Interacting. Emotions and relationships of all kinds. Dealing with people. Think of two people toasting each other with wine glasses.

The waters are beneath and thereon are water-lilies; the hand issues from the cloud, holding in its palm the cup, from which four streams are pouring; a dove, bearing in its bill a cross-marked host, descends to place the wafer in the cup; the dew of water is falling on all sides. It is an intimation of that which may lie behind the Lesser Arcana. Divinatory Meanings: House of the true heart, joy, content, abode, nourishment, abundance, fertility, holy table, felicity hereof. Reversed: House of the false heart, mutation, instability, revolution.

A new outpouring of emotions: first love, new appreciation for life, a spiritual awakening. A journey that begins with special blessings. Good fortune shines on you. An acceptance of life and all the joys it brings. A sign of fertility. Reversed: Emphasis on material over spiritual. Closed off from nurturing love or from your true feelings. Denying the wonders of life. Not ready for emotional involvement. Neither giving nor receiving love.

A hand reaches out from a cloud holding a cup from which five streams of living water fall into the lake below — a symbol of the subconscious mind. A dove of peace holds a wafer marked with a cross as the dew of Spirit descends onto the water lilies, which are symbols, like the lotus, of eternal life. A reminder here, that when you keep your mind filled with the Spirit it will fill your material cup to overflowing. Divinatory Meaning: Abundance in all things. Love, joy, fertility. Nourishment from spiritual sources. Reversed: Hesitancy to nurture love, instability. The good beginning is cut short. Materiality.

Filled with love to overflowing, great abundance.

Symbol of Love in Potential

Symbol of love in potential, a cathedral that is still closed yet full, it can symbolize all the feelings, all the possibilities of the heart from amorous enthusiasm to mysticism; a great disposition to loving and being loved; a capacity for love that is as yet unemployed but immense. With the Ace of Cups, love appears like a chalice, a question on the horizon that will color the quest of the reading’s subject. It is also the base of communication, religion, in the sense of connecting to the Other and of transcending yourself to reach the Divine. Its negative aspects would be suffering, jealousy, bitterness, lack of affection, a never-sated neediness, and smothering affectivity.