Jenny-Li
Hi folks, this is my last analysis for today - won't be buggin ya more after this... 
Just finished reading Paulo Coelho's "By the River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept". I liked it, I really love the way Coelho tells his stories.
And what could be more suitable right now than to type down the analysis of the Cosmic Tribe Lovers-card, after finishing a book that makes pretty much the same point as the card?
First a little confession: I don't really like the male-male version of this card, the guys look like they'd both much rather be somewhere else than in that picture, to me they seem rather cold towards each other. I know what the artist was trying to do (showing physical closeness but both of them turning inwards at the same time), but I just think he did a better job with the other two versions. There, said it. I hate being critical about other people's work (especially when I really admire it as a whole, and definitely couldn't have done it better myself), but since this might affect my work WITH the deck, I have to be honest about it.
The Image:
A loving couple, holding each other closely. They look happy and in love, and they look very much "at home" with each other. They are close and they are equal, none of them is giving up on themselves, there's no self-obliteration in this relation, none of them is giving up on their individuality for the other one, or for the relation as such. They balance each other.
They are standing in Water (love, emotion, inwards-going, receptive, passive, softness, understanding, tenderness) surrounded by a ring of Fire (passion, driver force, spiritual growth, individuation, want, will, fury). The air behind them is crisply blue and clear as crystal. Behind the clouds two Cosmic Eyes are watching over the couple. Their union is sacred, because they mirror each other in their growth, just like their love mirrors the spiritual love that the Universe is founded on.
Above the couple a cherub is flying, a happy-go-lucky blue figure who seems to be on an eternal high...! The cherub is the mediator between the two, the glue, the attraction. Rings frame the couple where they stand, those rings can either be associated to rings on water (which reflects on love spreading from them - and also love attracting love, which is a difficult yet important human equasion) or as energies radiating from the couple (in which case it may reflect a more spiritual inspiration that The Lovers send out into the world, by their "joint forces" on their individual journeys).
Interpretation/reflections:
Since I accidentally (?) included most of the symbols in telling the image, I will just conclude with a few thoughts:
This card is the first where the there isn't a particular guide to give our Fool on his journey through the cards clear instructions on what to do, how to grow, here he is for the first time grown up and on his own. That is why the equalness in the relation is important, because this is where we first start figuring out who we are, without having anyone else to tell us. This is a tricky one, and it IS hard to keep from letting our relations become a substitute for an identity of one's own, but we mustn't let that happen. There is noone "older and wiser" to tell you who you are, and what to do with your life. It's time to let go of the ready-made conceptions and start taking responsibility for yourself. The Lovers are a balanced couple ONLY if they both get to continue working on deepening their individual identities, supported by each other.
So The Lovers isn't at all about "finding the One", like we usually spend most of our energy doing, but in fact about finding ourselves. Not just about cutting ties with parents, what we learned in school, but cutting with everything we've learned to take for granted and start asking ourselves. This is not a project of adolecence - although many of us remember some of the more painful events of that process - but an ongoing project that we will probably be working on for the rest of our lives. There are so many voices out there who want to tell us what to believe in, it is so hard not to listen, and blindly follow...
It is also about how we treat those and that which we love. Does love mean possession? No. Love is love, possession is something completely different. Don't mix them up. How do we support those who we love, allow them to grow, bloom, evolve - without leaving ourselves to rot in the process? This is the fine-line-balance of this card - perhaps the hardest thing of all.
Light and love,
Jenny
Just finished reading Paulo Coelho's "By the River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept". I liked it, I really love the way Coelho tells his stories.
And what could be more suitable right now than to type down the analysis of the Cosmic Tribe Lovers-card, after finishing a book that makes pretty much the same point as the card?
First a little confession: I don't really like the male-male version of this card, the guys look like they'd both much rather be somewhere else than in that picture, to me they seem rather cold towards each other. I know what the artist was trying to do (showing physical closeness but both of them turning inwards at the same time), but I just think he did a better job with the other two versions. There, said it. I hate being critical about other people's work (especially when I really admire it as a whole, and definitely couldn't have done it better myself), but since this might affect my work WITH the deck, I have to be honest about it.
The Image:
A loving couple, holding each other closely. They look happy and in love, and they look very much "at home" with each other. They are close and they are equal, none of them is giving up on themselves, there's no self-obliteration in this relation, none of them is giving up on their individuality for the other one, or for the relation as such. They balance each other.
They are standing in Water (love, emotion, inwards-going, receptive, passive, softness, understanding, tenderness) surrounded by a ring of Fire (passion, driver force, spiritual growth, individuation, want, will, fury). The air behind them is crisply blue and clear as crystal. Behind the clouds two Cosmic Eyes are watching over the couple. Their union is sacred, because they mirror each other in their growth, just like their love mirrors the spiritual love that the Universe is founded on.
Above the couple a cherub is flying, a happy-go-lucky blue figure who seems to be on an eternal high...! The cherub is the mediator between the two, the glue, the attraction. Rings frame the couple where they stand, those rings can either be associated to rings on water (which reflects on love spreading from them - and also love attracting love, which is a difficult yet important human equasion) or as energies radiating from the couple (in which case it may reflect a more spiritual inspiration that The Lovers send out into the world, by their "joint forces" on their individual journeys).
Interpretation/reflections:
Since I accidentally (?) included most of the symbols in telling the image, I will just conclude with a few thoughts:
This card is the first where the there isn't a particular guide to give our Fool on his journey through the cards clear instructions on what to do, how to grow, here he is for the first time grown up and on his own. That is why the equalness in the relation is important, because this is where we first start figuring out who we are, without having anyone else to tell us. This is a tricky one, and it IS hard to keep from letting our relations become a substitute for an identity of one's own, but we mustn't let that happen. There is noone "older and wiser" to tell you who you are, and what to do with your life. It's time to let go of the ready-made conceptions and start taking responsibility for yourself. The Lovers are a balanced couple ONLY if they both get to continue working on deepening their individual identities, supported by each other.
So The Lovers isn't at all about "finding the One", like we usually spend most of our energy doing, but in fact about finding ourselves. Not just about cutting ties with parents, what we learned in school, but cutting with everything we've learned to take for granted and start asking ourselves. This is not a project of adolecence - although many of us remember some of the more painful events of that process - but an ongoing project that we will probably be working on for the rest of our lives. There are so many voices out there who want to tell us what to believe in, it is so hard not to listen, and blindly follow...
It is also about how we treat those and that which we love. Does love mean possession? No. Love is love, possession is something completely different. Don't mix them up. How do we support those who we love, allow them to grow, bloom, evolve - without leaving ourselves to rot in the process? This is the fine-line-balance of this card - perhaps the hardest thing of all.
Light and love,
Jenny
