Ludy Lescot - The Lovers VI

kaushalyaandfrank

This takes me wayyyyy back to my younger years where I'd have a very nice, sweet young man with good intentions who was absolutely adoring of me, but what would I do? Some creep with a silver tongue would come along and I'd throw away the sweetheart and take the creep. There's definitely a choice being made in this card, in my opinion, and it's the dumb one I always used to make.

Sounds like a common scenario in the world :)
 

kaushalyaandfrank

I think that this card might represent a warning that we can often be dazzled by the initial appearance of an individual, we can fall under their spell and not realise until too late that the choice of partner we have made is not only wrong but is injurious to us. Rescue, whether real or merely imagined, can only arrive too late since a commitment to our chosen course has been made and from here on in there is no easy way of turning back.

In addition to the above, the LWB text may be a dramatic way of indicating to us that love ensnares us, that we are captured by it, whether or not it is for our own good.
 

seedcake

When I look at them I see some kind of facing the reality with taking all the responsibility. Here damage is done already but still, this guy on the horse, he can come anyway (even if he's only in the picture). What choice she will have? If she's a vampire (like first lover), will she go with this man or let him kill her? There's so many points to touch and I want to be clear (what's pretty impossible at the moment). Anyway, this Lovers card have amazingly deep meaning which can be more negative than positive. It forces the mind to really think about choices and responsibility, what is the background of it.
 

Pam O

It's all very ambiguous, I can see it several ways.

Yes, this is why I like this deck more and more! It´s like being in a Hall of Mirrors. Every which way you turn the picture always looks different. I have not done any readings with this one yet but this deck already feels like one of the most powerful I´ve had. A bit like the Sweet Twilight, only better :p
Ambiguous... What a great word.
Decks like this that can be seen as so many angles can be some of the best readers.

I have not yet read with these cards. I am focused on going thru all the cards, and study group posts to expand my mind to see more options, and choices, for the card interpretations. These posts are so enlightening!

An example: I initially saw the horseman as an image in a cement wall. Now my mind is expanded to see so many other options!
 

Celtictarot

Did anyone else notice on the girl's bust, she is losing colour? Keeping on the topic of colour, she is wearing indigo and purple which is the 3rd eye and crown chakras. Could she be visualising romance with the dude in the white horse? or is our fangy fiend that horse dude from a past life?

There is something with the colour of the girl's clothes and having the life sucked out of her. LOL Also watch your back as he is aherm coming fom behind and unsighted even though you have this ability?
 

lalalibra

Interesting!! I initially saw it as her gaining color; the redness spreading outward from where she's being bitten, the 'rosiness' taking over her body. Sensations, including pain, can remind us that we are alive if we truly surrender to the experience... But I certainly see the other side of it too; how she is being drained.

Another theme is temptation. He bites her on her right shoulder - the right side representing the active principle, as if it were a blow to her resistance. His passion disarms her. She can't control who 'bites' her (who 'needs' her? who 'loves' her?), and he sinks deep into his own urges without hesitating or considering the implications for the other... But she has blood around her mouth too, as if she had feasted on someone earlier too. (Maybe he's coming to bite her back?) Perhaps that can be seen as a critique about getting swept up in the sort of passions that seem to invigorate us in the moment, but that ultimately drain us in the long run. It's a never-ending cycle - someone bites her and she's drained, she goes and bites someone to no longer feel empty, someone comes back and bites her again - and of course, he and/or others also play into that cycle. Perhaps passion is not enough to sustain us for very long if we're always chasing something outside of ourselves. Another cannot truly fill us we are empty. Love is real, but only when it is "kind" and "born of the soul" does it not drain us. And for it to be kind, there must be balance, unity, and harmony rather than only give/take. One person cannot carry all the weight. One heart cannot beat and pump blood for two; two hearts must beat and dance together in unison.

Here's the whole quote from the LWB, since I just referred to it:

Passion is born of blood. Kindness is born of the soul. Love is cruel and, if it is authentic, you will not be able to escape it.

Speaking of passion, horses are very representative of that kind of power; that is, the power of our emotions and how much sway those emotions can have over our beliefs about what's right or wrong or in line with our own integrity or personal code of ethics... I saw the horseman as an image on a wall too, as I noticed the frame around it in particular. This painting is black & white - a stark contrast from the color in the complex reality outside of that frame, where the action is really happening. The painting initially reminded me of that whole cliche concept of a 'knight in shining armor' coming to the rescue. Perhaps this is a moment where reality comes flooding in (again, fitting in with the blood rushing to her wound); a sort of wake-up call for the woman who was too distracted to keep an eye over her shoulder. Reality has come crashing down; her train of thought in the storybook fantasy she had been writing has been cut off (the book, the ink, the quill have all fallen to the floor). The image is frozen; there is no one to come and 'rescue' her. The reality of this love is as it is for them. The thrill has shocked her and she is awakened to something new...

But going back to the LWB, I really like this line about "Love is cruel and, if it is authentic, you will not be able to escape it," because it reminds me of this idea about love being so immensely powerful that one could call it cruel; cruel in that we cannot control it... And love is natural. Nature can be both beautiful and cruel. Love is the most powerful force in the Universe, and it pulls us in all kinds of directions in life (sometimes driving us 'crazy'), and we learn so much through both the 'good' and the 'bad.' Love can be messy (note all the spilling of blood and ink in this image), it is not always 'pretty.' Love can seem tainted or flawed when it gets mixed up with our humanity, with our mistakes; with our perception of those things - but it's perfectly imperfect, and the parts we choose to play become the parts of who we choose to be (or become) in our lives - and that is as it should be. It's all a part of learning and growing. That is why love is so powerful; our relationship (or lack of it) to the love within ourselves is what makes up the foundation of our lives and everything that happens, for better or for worse. It is the lesson we have to learn.

It's interesting how permanent ink is too. Those ink splatters in the book will remain. The wrinkling and crinkling of the pages under her foot will also likely show over the passing of time. Those marks cannot be erased. Reminds me of the importance of paying close attention to what we are creating by who we're being, how we're choosing to act in the moment. There is only the one moment; the time to live and to be true is now - true to others and true to ourselves, and we can only be true to others when we are true to ourselves. That involves being present and open with others, rather than sneaking up on them with any ulterior motives lol...

So many ways of looking at it!!
 

Celtictarot

If you have had pain in your body for a long time, you do look grey in your skin apparently.
 

Sar

Lalalibra: Horses is a very masculine symbol of passion and power, though.
 

lalalibra

Lalalibra: Horses is a very masculine symbol of passion and power, though.

Yes, certainly a way to look at it here; the whole contrast between active/passive. I do consider passion to be heavily tied into our emotional world though, and so horses tend to remind me of that concept - and perhaps it's also Cancer-ruled Chariot which has contributed to that particular association.