6 of Swords: The Burden

What a difference a suit makes! We came from 6 of Wands/Success to 6 of Swords/The Burden. As I've mentioned before, the Sword suit is a challenging one because it's all about the mind. Controlling our anxiety, connecting to psychic abilities and opening up to other points of view. And that's just the tip of the sword, so to speak.

To understand 6 of Swords, it's always helpful to know what came before: heartbreak. By the time we reach the 6 of Swords, we decided to pick ourselves up and go to a better place. You can see the man trying to climb to the mountaintop but the rooster on his back sure isn't helping! Our guy can barely keep himself upright, yet has to carry an extra party.

Yet he doesn't. The Burden are all of the "shoulds" and tyrannical ways of thinking that strip our lives of joy. Part of deciding to travel to new horizons is letting go of what broke our hearts. Letting go of the old ways of thinking, harboring, scheming. The ways of revenge or self-pity. The Warrior learns how to wield her sword wisely from pain, as well as victory. The Sword itself represents a sharp, clear mind--but our burdened hiker can't even "carry" his! He's too pre-occupied with the chattering freeloader while each step feels like quicksand.

The 4 of Swords (the card after heartbreak) gives us a time of rest and recuperation. Part of that time is dealing with the aftermath of heartbreak. If that time is ignored or wasted, the 6 of Swords becomes The Burden, though you may have the best intentions of starting over. Tarot always encourages us to deal with what is in front of us, right now, so that it doesn't come back to haunt us later.

This poem sums it up nicely: "I must learn to love the fool in me - the one who feels too much, talks too much, takes too many chances, wins sometimes and loses often, lacks self-control, loves and hates, hurts and gets hurt, promises and breaks promises, laughs and cries. It alone protects me against that utterly self-controlled, masterful tyrant whom I also harbour and who would rob me of human aliveness, humility and dignity but for my fool." - Theodore Rubin