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In preparation for the July 2026 Omega Institute tarot workshop, “Wisdom of the Tarot,” I have been posting on Facebook multiple versions of Minor Arcana cards from 21st century tarot decks for comparison. I ask if any keywords or phrases work equally well for all the different decks – one of the themes for the upcoming workshop (stay tuned). My latest example was the 6 of Swords. [It should be noted that the vast majority of new decks are at least loosely based on the Rider-Waite-Smith (RWS) pictures.]
According to the Hermetic Order of Golden Dawn source works and their theory of numbers (c. 1888), derived, in part, from the Kabbalistic Tree of Life, the 6 of Swords, is found on the central sephira of Tiphareth (associated with the Sun). It is, as the GD described it, the “high point” of the Air suit of Mind or Intellect. Associated with the astrological decan of Mercury in Aquarius, it is, at its best, “reason serving humanity.” Centering on Imbolc or Candlemas at 15* Aquarius (Feb 1-2), this fixed sign marks the first truly noticeable return of the light and longer days, heralding the return of Spring.
Pamela Colman Smith illustrated this by picturing people we could assume to be a mother and child in a boat poled by a ferryman moving away from rough and into smooth waters. Potential landfall can be seen in the distance. The figures face right, heads bowed so we don’t see their faces. Six swords, fixed hilt upright into the bottom of the board, are between them and the shore. Whether the swords are a barrier for protection or a threat is unsure.
Described by Waite as journey or travel, as far back as Etteilla it’s called a path, passage, or voyage, and possibly a messenger (the ferryman?). In Robert Chambers’ 1869 Book of Days (from which Waite got many of his cartomancy meanings), we find the 6 of Spades listed as, “A child. To the unmarried a card of caution.” Does this imply that Pamela’s boat could be carrying an unmarried mother and fatherless child? The Queen of Spades in this source is called a widowed woman. (Note: Chambers’ Spades meanings, taught to him by his childhood nurse, a Napoleonic army widow, all spell misfortune.)
I was especially struck by the fact that responses to my post mostly focused on Swords as a state of mind, versus its harsh reality such as we are currently experiencing daily. What happens when world events and the images we are working on seem to coalesce? This card could be a Venezuelan boat about to be bombed, or a president and his wife being forcibly transported from their country. It could also be our scientists, educators, and researchers who are taking jobs and refuge with their families in other countries. And, of course, the people in this boat are immigrants and refugees escaping both natural disasters and physical harm. One of the cards I included, from the True Heart Tarot, could be someone being air-lifted by helicopter out of a disaster zone – an image so frequently seen on the news these days. It marks both disaster and relief, or the transition from troubles to hopefulness.
So let’s explore this card a little further. To complicate the issue, we have Aleister Crowley’s keyword: “Science.” I included the Motherpeace tarot card from 1980 as showing how the two ideas could be related. Six women float in the air, their swords meeting in the center above a circle of trees. Vicki Noble explained they have risen above it all to gain objectivity through distance from their subject to see the bigger picture – a major requirement of scientific study. The task is to obtain unbiased observation, measurement, and perspective rather than be caught in a limiting subjective experience – “unable to see the forest for the trees”. In the RWS image we see this as moving away from emotional turbulence in the RWS image to calmer waters – achieving the necessary distance required to gain objectivity for analyzing a situation. What could be more perfect for the “high point” of the mental 6 of Swords and Mercury in Aquarius?
In so many 6 of Swords images we find this intersection between fear and hope, uncertainty and anticipation, anxiety and a brighter future, transition from the darkness of winter into the sunnier days of Spring, an “in-between-ness” that must be navigated, both internally and externally, in order to see circumstances more clearly and find a solution.
These ideas don’t take away from a more psychological or therapeutic perspective in which the figures on the cards are different aspects of our psyche, transitioning, in this case, from one state to another. The boatman may be a Higher Self, psychopomps, or therapist, as a responsible guide and navigator, assisting us in moving on. Our masculine, feminine and child selves are all in it together. The boat is our bridge over troubled waters or any mental crossing. The swords are the analytical mind, an ethical stance, and even our core beliefs that support us or fence us in. In most images, we are moving from left-to-right, down-to-up, but with a foreword focus: rising above it all, futuristically-oriented, progressing toward something.
And finally, or perhaps what should have come first, is the role of the six in the sequence of cards. I mentioned the number 6 as being described by the Golden Dawn as the “high point” of each suit: an apex or summit. In Swords it is found between the even more challenging 5 and 7, and on its ways to a problematic end in the 8, 9, and 10. But, let’s just look at these central three Aquarian cards. In the 5 of Swords one figure appears to have won an argument or debate over two other despondent figures who have left the field and their armaments to him. Readers like to warn, “he won the battle but maybe not the war.” Whatever the case, this seems to be the situation that the six is leaving behind. The 7 of Swords could be what occurs after landing on the distant shore.
In my imagination, I call the 7 of Swords the “James Bond 007 card”. Following his machismo proof-of-ability in the 5, in the 6, Bond reaches the enemy island, where the villains have assembled a machine of mass destruction. In the 7, he strategically disarms it, winning the day. So, this is a card of disarming either the enemy or some greater force working against your well-being. Yes, it is still lying, cheating, stealing but for what purpose, against whom or what? One other perspective is that of going to the library to gather research: assembling information. To bring it up-to-date, it could be the designers of AI stealing data from copyrighted authors and artists!
Maybe it’s time for pure swordness to move on to another suit? Enough for now. Be sure to share your perspectives in the comments.
Pamela Colman Smith never became well-known as an artist and, without the Tarot deck she illustrated, she may have fallen into total obscurity. Stuart Kaplan, president of U.S. Games, Inc. says he could have made her a millionaire.
The only comment from Pixie Smith about the creation of the tarot deck was in a letter to her mentor Alfred Stieglitz (click on the letter to see a larger version).
You can see much of the artwork of Pamela Colman Smith at these sites (thanks especially to Roppo and Holly Voley for their efforts to make Pixie’s work available to the rest of us):
• Roppo’s The Works of Pamela Colman Smith – page 1
• Roppo’s The Works of Pamela Colman Smith – page 2
• A Portrait of William Butler Yeats by PCS
• The Shakespeare’s Heroines Poster
• A Variety of Works by Pamela Colman Smith from Holly Voley’s site
Including my own copy of her book Chim-Chim: Folk Stories from Jamaica
• Susan and the Mermaid, an illustrated children’s story by PCS, republished by Corinne Kenner
• Tales for Philip and Peter, illustrated by PCS
• The Pamela Colman Smith Collection at Bryn Mawr
• Paintings at the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library – search on Pamela+Smith, and while you are there, see their collection of 15th century Tarot cards by searching on Tarot.
• K. Frank Jensen’s Waite-Smith Tarot Research
• Here’s an outstanding website by Phil Norfleet devoted to PCS with a lot of biographical information not found anywhere else.
• “‘We Disgruntled Devils Don’t Please Anybody’: Pamela Colman Smith, The Green Sheaf, and Female Literary Networks” article by Elizabeth Foley O’Connor in the South Carolina Review.
• See Pixie’s artwork archived at Ellen Terry’s home, Smallhythe – here.
Articles by and about PCS can be found by searching The Craftsman – here (search on her name).
• Pamela Colman Smith & “De Six Poach Eggs” (story)
• Secrets of the Waite-Smith Tarot by Marcus Katz and Tali Goodwin.
Video by the Japanese collector of the works of Pamela Colman Smith, Roppo (see links above):
Correction to video: I don’t know of any evidence that suggests that PCS was adopted by her parents. However, she did become the foster daughter of the great actress, Ellen Terry.
See my post on Pixie’s instructions for reading the cards here. Let me know if I’ve missed anything and I’ll add it to the above list.
Pamela Colman Smith (also known as Pixie), artist of the Rider-Waite (Smith) Tarot deck, wrote nothing about the deck she created except in a letter to her mentor, Alfred Stieglitz, “I just finished a big job for very little cash!” She did tell us, however, in an article called “Should the Art Student Think?,” what must have been her own approach to reading the cards. This is the core of my own reading style.
“Note the dress, the type of face; see if you can trace the character in the face; note the pose. . . . First watch the simple forms of joy, of fear, of sorrow; look at the position taken by the whole body. . . . After you have found how to tell a simple story, put in more details. . . . Learn from everything, see everything, and above all feel everything! . . . Find eyes within, look for the door into the unknown country.”*
Essentially, she’s suggesting the following steps:
- Describe the card literally.
- Describe what seem to be the emotions, style and attitudes of the people on the card.
- Physically embody the card—act it out.
- Make up a story about what’s happening and turn it into a first person account (so you are feeling everything yourself).
- In your mind’s eye, step over the border of the card (through the door).
- Enter into that world, seeing beyond the borders to things you never knew were there.
In my opinion, this is the best way to discover what these cards mean for you in any situation.
Mary K. Greer has made tarot her life work. Check here for reports of goings-on in the world of tarot and cartomancy, articles on the history and practice of tarot, and materials on other cartomancy decks. Sorry, I no longer write reviews. Contact me
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