Six of Diamonds: matters settled and kept even

Meaning

Richmond's Sixes are the straight line, and in Diamonds the line runs level: matters “settle down smoothly”, things are settled between people. The words he uses for what is settled belong to gain and loss and are left out. The modern reading of the Sixes as fate is later than his.

We read the card as fair dealing and things kept even. The tradition sees its people as caring about fairness, giving what they owe and expecting the same, uneasy when things are out of balance; it suggests that settling matters promptly, and not letting caution become standing still, serves them well.

In the spreads

The Six of Diamonds is the first card of the Jupiter row, at its right-hand end. Before it, at the left-hand end of the Mars row, is the Eight of Clubs, one of the three fixed cards, which is its Moon card. Its path runs along the Jupiter row through the Four of Spades, the Ten of Hearts and the Ten of Diamonds.

It gives to the Nine of Clubs and receives from the Three of Spades, which is also its Cosmic Lesson. Its eleven birthdays fall under every sign but Sagittarius; two are cusps, 21 January (Capricorn or Aquarius) and 19 February (Aquarius or Pisces), and a 7 August birth, under Leo, has the Six itself as ruling card.

Life path and karma cards

Read from the Life Spread: the card before the Six of Diamonds, then the ten after it, the order running on from the crown line back to the top right. The names of the places are Camp's, used descriptively.

Birthdays and ruling cards

The ruling card is the card of the life path in the place of the Sun sign's ruling planet; Leo takes the birth card itself and Scorpio two cards. On a date marked cusp the Sun changes sign during the day in some years, so without a birth time both cards apply.

For every sign, as the tradition's modern rulers give them: Aries (Mars): Ten of Diamonds; Taurus (Venus): Ten of Hearts; Gemini (Mercury): Four of Spades; Cancer (the Moon): Eight of Clubs; Leo (the Sun): Six of Diamonds; Virgo (Mercury): Four of Spades; Libra (Venus): Ten of Hearts; Scorpio (Mars and Pluto): Ten of Diamonds and Five of Hearts; Sagittarius (Jupiter): Eight of Spades; Capricorn (Saturn): Ace of Hearts; Aquarius (Uranus): Ace of Diamonds; Pisces (Neptune): Queen of Diamonds.

Correspondences

Each item with how it stands: “sourced” is in the work cited, “our construction” is EsoTerrier’s own, and “disputed” means the sources disagree.

Suit in Richmond (1893, p. 28)

The emblem of autumn, the third season, and of the third period of life; his reading of the suit is about gain, which we do not quote sourced

The suit's season and planets in Richmond (pp. 27 to 28, 41)

Autumn; Jupiter and Neptune, each with a reading of gain we do not quote. Facts about his book, not about anyone born under the card sourced

Number in Richmond (pp. 42 to 45)

Sixes: monotony, a life moving in straight lines sourced

Richmond's table for the card (p. 138)

“Matters will soon settle down smoothly […]” and a settlement, quoted with its items on gain left out sourced

Our keyword line (2026)

Fair dealing and accounts kept even. our construction

Our theme for the suit

Values, Possessions, Worth our construction

A suit element or a single planet

None in Richmond or any founding text; the sets other sites give disagree, and ours was dropped in October 2026 disputed

How the schools read it

Olney H. Richmond (1893)

An emblem of solar value 32 and spirit value 53, read through its suit, the harvest gathered in, and its number, monotony and settlement: one meaning under each of the seven planets, most of them events (p. 138).

Randall and Campbell, Lein, Camp (1947 onward)

Read the birth card as character rather than events. Camp's line adds the life path, the karma cards and the yearly spreads used on this page, and gives the card a nickname, which we do not use.

Card Blueprints and Seven Reflections

On 21 January and 19 February Card Blueprints gives two ruling cards from a fixed table of cusp dates, and Seven Reflections asks for the sign. We compute the Sun and give both cards only when no birth time is known.

EsoTerrier

Read here as fair dealing and things kept even, without letting caution turn into standing still.

Claims about it

• The Sevens are spiritual tests, the Sixes fate and return, the Nines universal giving.

  disputed

  What the record shows: Richmond reads the Sevens as obstacles, the Sixes as monotony and settlement and the Nines as disappointment (1893, pp. 42 to 45). The modern readings are the tradition's later development.

• The ruling card follows a fixed table of cusp dates, the same every year.

  disputed

  What the record shows: The Sun enters a sign on different days across the leap-year cycle and in different time zones, so a fixed table is wrong on some days of some years. We compute the Sun's sign and show both cards only when it changed sign during the birth day and no birth time is known.

• Each suit has an element and a ruling planet.

  disputed

  What the record shows: No founding text gives the suits elements, and the sources that do disagree with each other. Richmond gives each suit a season and two planets (pp. 27 to 28, 41), which we report as his. We dropped the attributes in October 2026.

• Each card has a traditional nickname.

  disputed

  What the record shows: The nicknames are Camp's coinages, or Randall and Campbell's, not Richmond's; taken as a set they mark a text as derived from his. We use none of them.

Elsewhere on EsoTerrier

• Nine of Clubs its first karma card, the card it gives to
• Three of Spades its second karma card, the card that gives to it
• Eight of Clubs its Moon card, the card before it in the Life Spread
• Four of Spades its Mercury card, the card after it in the Life Spread
• Natal Chart where the Sun sign that picks the ruling card is worked out