The 6s ~ from my book The Ultimate Tarot Guide

 

The 6s ~ To gain, to escape, to win, to remember

Pentacles ~ It’s all about embracing the gift of generosity. It’s learning to put someone else’s needs before your own. It’s also about learning to accept generosity gracefully.

Tithing, loans, gifts, gratitude, generosity, sharing, abundance

• 6/Pentacles ~ With this card comes the willingness and ability to help those around you. The main gist of this card points to money and finances, of course, but it can go way beyond this. There is the idea of being honest, of dividing assets equally. “There’s more where this comes from”, the six of pentacles seems to be saying. But also… “Keep it fair”, and “”Don’t cheat”. With this card comes the wonderful feeling of no regrets.

Reversed: There may be people around you who are unscrupulous and more than willing to steal or cheat you out of money and possessions. There is also the idea of cutting down on spending, pinching pennies, and being wise and frugal with your checking account. With the six of pentacles comes the feeling of having all of your eggs in one basket, the idea of gambling, risk taking, the dare devil.

Personal Connection:
Throughout a life-time spanning several decades, six of them at this writing, I’ve experienced the six of pentacles up close and personal. As one friend put it, talking about her own family’s material and financial life, “It’s either feast or famine.” And that’s so true. You hear about people coming from dirt poor backgrounds, and then gaining millions of dollars through their determination, hard-work, and talent, only to lose all of it in one-fell foolish swoop, winding right back up where they started. Maybe there’s a lesson here, or maybe we’re reading way more into it than we should. Could this just be the universal natural law of things?

Swords ~ It’s all about movement and travel, moving on, moving away, beginning again.

Divorce, movement, travel,(especially across water)

Adventure, beginnings, independence, melancholy, being adrift

• 6/Swords ~ This comes up so often when a divorce, separation, or familial estrangement surfaces. It’s also a card that may imply that it’s actually time to move on and that this may be a logical next step. And there is, indeed, the feeling of movement with the six of swords. Even when it means a severance of old ties, there is the tantalizing idea of new adventures.

Reversed: Relationships are up in the air, there comes with that the energy of indecision, tumultuous emotions, miss-communication, and a general “Mercury Retrograde” atmosphere. The six of swords reversed is telling you that, just like the boat on the card, you are straying adrift, possibly into dangerous waters, and definitely with no compass. There may be hidden sandbars below the water’s surface, or jagged rocks, all of which could be problematic for you.

Personal Connection:
This card has impacted my life in tremendous tumultuous ever transitioning ways, long before I even knew of its existence. Don’t be surprised when it surfaces amidst feelings of being adrift, feelings of confusion and upheaval, at times of nerve-wracking and upsetting changes. The water on so many variations of this card looks so calm and is so deceptive. No matter how many times I’ve found myself in this boat, peering over the bow, trying in vain to set a decisive course, I never realized that I would eventually come to shore and plant my feet on firm solid ground, with little or no navigation.

I think the connection with this card is faith.

Wands ~ It’s all about winning, savoring victory, enjoying the accolades, and reaping the rewards of your effort.

Victory, victor, headiness, ego, minions, dignity, endurance, good sport, gracious defeat

• 6/Wands ~ You ride victorious through the street (and life) feeling proud, accomplished, self-confident, and sometimes maybe even a wee bit egotistical or narcissistic. There comes the idea of elevation, and with that a lot of pressure placed around perfectionism and gaining someone’s approval. We all want to remember that a lot of people who find themselves on a pedestal discover that it is a solitary and very lonely place to be.

Reversed: Someone has gotten to the top, succeeded with an accomplishment, came out victorious, but they did so with the aid of shady tactics, or shady people, and it’s all rather tainted, if not a bit tarnished. There is the idea that someone at the top may soon suffer a big fall. There is also the weight of too much expectation, the weight of negative opinions, too much stress, and a lack of personal freedom or motivation.

My Personal Connection:
We all love those blazing glorious victorious moments in life, even if its in someone elses life. Maybe that’s why those musical talent shows are so popular right now. We experience this sensation vicariously when we watch some mousy nervous mundane individual take the stage, and then are stunned when the music begins and there is some magical humongous transformation of this individual, rousing the audience to a standing ovation, bringing the judges to tears. It’s a moment of victory, a personal moment of victory, yet one we get to witness and share.

I think the main thing here is that we have to realize how fleeting this high-lighted moment is, and that life will slip back into place and march forward quietly, with hardly a hiccup. Maybe the connection here is learning to accept that most of life will go unrecognized, unpraised, without making nary a mark on the world. And it’s this part of our existence that is the most important part, it’s this part we should cherish more than any other.

Cups ~ It’s all about holding on to memories, looking back with a new perspective. it’s about being able to move forward using lessons learned from the past.

Nostalgia, wistfulness, childhood, connections, ancestors, memories, associations

• 6/Cups ~ Our past will affect our future, this is a given. Sometimes this past encompasses our childhood and the relationships that tied us to family, and sometimes this past reaches back in history to previous life times, identities, and lessons learned. There is always a wistfulness with this card that idolizes our memories and idealizes our connections.

Reversed: For some unfortunate people, memories of the past may be haunting, slightly disturbing, or unsettling in some unique and very personal way. This card reversed also implies that someone may be hiding something from their past. There is the idea of subterfuge, mysteries, secrets, hidden agendas, and unfinished business.

My Personal Connection:
This card is one that connects closely for me, and one I have mixed feelings about. On one hand, I have incredible childhood memories of my grandmother, my aunt, the Victorian house in the country, my beautiful room in the town house when we moved, my beloved pets, and soft quiet moments. I have feelings of being cocooned, protected, and safe. On the other hand, I’ve dealt with feelings of abandonment (my parents), the stressful feeling of being a child caught between custody disputes, realizing that I had no control over my life and major decisions in it, and that nothing was stable, solid, or secure. It had all been an illusion.

I have had to deal early on with feelings of being caught emotionally and physically between my grandmother and some strange twisted feud with my father. Somewhere along the way, the subject of this feud – me – was forgotten, and it was only the power struggle that was important to him. He was a man awash with the energy of revenge.

If this card is difficult for you, know that you’re not alone. This is the case for an overwhelming number of people, whom I suspect all have their own daunting stories.

[SOURCE: my book, The Ultimate Tarot Guide for Your Personal Tarot Journey...
click HERE ]