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

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. Mercury—and therefore Gemini—are all about communication.

So, “Where is the love”? The words that help us find it are “duality” and “communication”. It takes two to tango (or tangle); and love goes scurrying off into the shrubbery when communication breaks down.

Zain, or Zayin is the letter attributed to The Lovers. It means “weapon” or “sword”. Aside from the adage, “All’s fair in love and war,” what do swords and love have in common? Well, what do swords do? They cut things in two. They make a “this” and a “that”, which gives you a choice. Another term for lover is “chosen one.” Because of their logical, binary, “this or that” quality, swords are associated with the element air. And notice the similarity between sword and words. Which brings us back to Gemini.

So, surprise, surprise, The Lovers has at least two meanings in a reading. Depending on where it falls in the spread and the cards around it, it can indicate a decision/choice or a love affair. Because it is a trump card, you, as a reader, can be fairly certain that the decision won’t simply be about what to have for dinner. And the love affair won’t be a one-night-stand, or if it is, it will be a spectacular, life-changing one-night-stand. The card may also indicate a situation which will require the querent to communicate and/or negotiate, or to recognize the yin-yang dualities within herself and others, or to improve communication between her self-conscious and subconscious.

But wait. There’s more. Like I said, this card’s not simple. And it deals with duality, so The Lovers blog entry will be in two parts.