World Spirit Study group - The Lovers (6)

Sulis

I LOVE this card.

A marriage of opposites: One dark, one fair, one male, one female - or are they? One of the things I like so much about this card is the androgenousness (is that a word? :) ) of the couple. At first glance it's a man and a woman but when you look closer it could just as easily be 2 men or 2 women - you just can't tell.

Their union is blessed by 2 cherubs - again one dark, one light. A God and a Goddess also bless this union - Pan: Lord of the Wildwood - passionate, playful, masculine and Kuan Yin: Peaceful, compassionate, feminine. I think that this God and Goddess represent how loving relationships change as they grow deeper with time.

Roses and lilies bloom nearby. The roses and lilies could represent choices. Red roses could also represent passion and desire. They are traditionally the flowers of love, are sacred to love Goddesses such as Aphrodite and Venus and can be associated with the pentegram because of their 5 petalled shape. The rose is the symbol of perfection in alchemy.
White lilies are often used to represent purity or things relating to the spiritual realm.

I'm looking forward to your thoughts on this one - it's one of my all time favorite Lovers cards.

Love

Sulis xx
 

Satori

I love this card! I do, it is so fun and playful and yet they are really close aren't they???
He is a butt man.
She just loves him.
the addition of the goddess and the god to the card is so nice. I just adore that. This is union that is blessed isn't it? And polarized by so many opposites. light/dark up/down sunrise/sunset heavan/earth red/white praying/pointing(cherubs)

passive and active priniciples seem to be at work here.
And are they just embracing or is more going on.
Does the sun symbolize climax or just rising/setting
I like the pan pipes, so we know that there is the potential for music, and love is in the air...

They are both wearing laurels, so it seems to me that indicates that they know what they are doing, they are consciously choosing to be lovers, this is not a one night stand, and it has a feeling of being a wedding to me, on some level.

Also, with the cherubs present I have a sense that this could read, CONCEPTION sometimes. They look relaxed so it almost seems this is the afterglow, when one of them would light a cigarette...
 

Seed Crystal

I like this card very much. The lovers are dominating image (have you ever noticed that in R-W-S deck, the man and woman are by size minor characters? and that separation and guilt is strongly implied?) These lovers are in close familiar warm and guiltless contact with each other. Blessed and joyful intimacy.

Kuan Yin and Pan, roses and lilies, the 2 cupids; there are a lot of complementary, or contrasting but compatible pairs here. I see Pan is piping; is Kuan Yin drumming? I don't read these lovers or pairs as opposites per se, just soul mates. They have much more in common with each other than they find with anyone else. Unity not oppositions; completeness not in manifesting all possibilities, just in manifesting the one uniquely found and celebrated in this relationship. Did you notice the wedge behind the lovers? It's there but now irrelevant. Past history or politics cannot come between them, the sun is rising and it's a new day.

I have had people read these lovers as man and woman, and woman and woman; and no one has been offended by the androgeny.
 

Flavio

I would like to include information about Kuan Yin, I didn't know about her before studying this card :| so for other readers like me, here is some information about this fascinating Buddhist femenine principle:

For a quick introduction, she can be roughly compared to Virgin Mary in the Catholic-Christian world, she represents the Mother and Goddess principles, a compassive and merciful goddess who always hear your calling ready to help you, she can also intermediate between Heaven and Earth.

She decided to stay in the material world instead to going to heaven in order to help the human in their path to spritual grow, as Virgins in the western world many images of Kuan Yin can be found for protection of woman, sailors, workers in danger etc, and for special situations like woman about to give birth.

Now, I can understand how blessed the Lovers are having her watching their union... what's next? Oh yes... here comes Pan to throw a great party :CL to share the Lovers joy with everyone...