The Major Arcana and The Hero’s Journey: The Lovers, Part I

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Welcome to The Lovers! Like romance itself, this card is portrayed in a bewildering parade of images. The traditional Rider-Waite-Smith card is pictured above. But it can also look like this: Or this: I think that all of the above are valid, insightful ways of portraying this card, but IMHO, some others aren’t as successful. They get part of it right, but they don’t convey the whole message. Like its associated sign, Gemini, the card contains multitudes and is very hard to pin down to one simple meaning. It has layers, like an onion or an ogre. To get a grip on this tricksy card, let’s begin with its astrological and Hebrew letter attributions. The astrological sign, Gemini, the twins, is attributed to The Lovers. Its element is air, so it’s a mental, logical, verbal sign whose key words are “I think.” Since Gemini is the sign of the twins, it means duality; and since it’s ruled by Mercury, the trickster, it can mean duplicity.… Read More »