IN SHORT:
UPRIGHT: Transition, and change. What is left behind & What moves forward. Strength and courage. Protected passage or travel. triumphant arrivals.
REVERSED: A change in circumstances, reluctance to change. Unfinished or interrupted life-path.
KEEP SCROLLING FOR IN DEPTH EXPLANATION
IN DEPTH:
In the Six of Swords we see a woman, child and six swords in boat approaching the shore. She holds her daughter tight to her body, hoping to provide a cocoon of sorts, to shield her daughter from the turbulence and trauma of the recent past. Her gaze stares past her daughter and toward the nearby shores she will very soon need to navigate. Ahead a young man with a life vest ties the boat to the dock, she has been told to trust him and listen to his direction. She wants to trust him, he has kind eyes, but this long journey has taught her that trust is for those that earn it, not those that we are told deserve it.
Behind her the waters are choppy, and the hazy silhouettes of islands on the horizon are a reminder that this is not the first shore–but she hopes it will be the first to grant them passage. She is eager to put these rough waters behind her. However the seven swords remind us that she was likely not the only mother and child on this boat when she left, the bodies may disappear into a watery grave, but the memory of their sullen faces will likely follow her for some time now. While the waters in the distance is turbulent, the shore waters appear tranquil. This imagery suggests that they are leaving behind a tumultuous or frightening situation, but they are (against one’s likely predictions) bound for a more peaceful and supportive environment.
When she left home, she escaped with her daughter, her husband, and two small bags. Now she only has her daughter to carry. She never wanted to leave, and her homelands have never once left her heart: she carries with her the memory of her friends, her family the jasmine trees and their ever-present aroma. As she sees the man ahead speak with the authorities, it becomes clear: she has arrived, they are being granted successful passage. From here she will carry forth her daughter and a heart heavy with memory both beautiful and painful. Where the Six of Swords is seen in reverse, we know these new shores, these new situations are not welcome. But where the Six of Swords are upright we know that these long journeys as terrifying as they may be, are the types of journey that define not only an individuals character and courage, but also the generation that follow, and define the character of an epoch.
…………………………
“Left to the dismal politics of the present, of course, cities of poverty will almost certainly become the coffins of hope; but all the more reason that we must start thinking like Noah. Since most of history’s giant trees have already been cut down, a new Ark will have to be constructed out of the materials that a desperate humanity finds at hand in insurgent communities, pirate technologies, bootlegged media, rebel science and forgotten utopias.”
-Mike Davis, Who Will Build the Ark?
“exile is strangely compelling to think about but terrible to experience. It is the un-healable rift forced between a human being and a native place, between the self and its true home: its essential sadness can never be surmounted. And while it is true that literature and history contain heroic, romantic, glorious, even triumphant episodes in an exile’s life, these are no more than efforts meant to overcome the crippling sorrow of estrangement.”
― Edward W. Said, Reflections on Exile and Other Essays
“Fight with hope, fight without hope, but fight absolutely”
-Mike Davis
monthlysmokeandmirrors.com 