The Lovers or Marriage. This symbol has undergone many variations, as might be expected from its subject. In the eighteenth century form, by which it first became known to the world of archaeological research, it is really a card of married life, shewing father and mother, with their child placed between them; and the pagan Cupid above, in the act of flying his shaft, is, of course, a misapplied emblem. The Cupid is of love beginning rather than of love in its fulness, guarding the fruit thereof. The card is said to have been entitled Simulacyum fidei, the symbol of conjugal faith, for which the rainbow as a sign of the covenant would have been a more appropriate concomitant. The figures are also held to have signified Truth, Honour and Love, but I suspect that this was, so to speak, the gloss of a commentator moralizing. It has these, but it has other and higher aspects.
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Major Arcana
The Lover/Sexual Awakening
The Lovers
You stand in the fire of connection, pulled between passion and choice. The heart knows what it wants—do you have the courage to follow?
Standard: Being in love. Showing your love to others. Expressing passion or romantic feelings. Aligning yourself with groups or like-minded others. Bringing people together. Making well-informed decisions.
Reversed: Debilitating passion. Allowing an unhealthy desire for love to motivate destructive behavior. Disrupting unity. Working against the best interests of those who care about you. Ill-informed decisions.
Questions to Ask
- What guides my choices?
- What is my heart leading me to do?
- How might this decision transform me as a person?