The Lovers

Hi!

I think Kiama may have gotten the essence of this card with her post about all the opposites in the card.

According to Crowley:

The Hebrew letter corresponding to this card is Zain, which means a Sword. The Sword is primarily an engine of division. However, in the intellectual world-which is the world of the Sword suit-it represents analysis. The sword cuts, divides, and separates the whole into individual distinct forms-and distributes polarity through the universe. (symbolized by all those opposites on the card) It separates female from male, black from white, negative from positive, etc. But besides being the instrument that separates and divides, it symbolizes the mental ability to recognize those differences.

One meaning of the Lovers card is the need for individuals not only to unite with each other but to unify and reconcile the opposites within themselves.

Crowley pairs the Lovers card with the Temperance Card. The subject of the Lovers + Temperance is Analysis, followed by Synthesis. He states: The first question asked by science is: "Of what are things composed?" This having been answered, the next question is: "How shall we recombine them to our greater advantage?"

According to Crowley the framework of this card is an Arch of Swords (behind the Hermit), beneath which the Royal Marriage takes place. The Arch of Swords represents division and analysis. The royal or exalted marriage (?synthesis?) is the marriage of ying and yang, Earth mother and Earth father. Their love conveys the balance of equally-weighted opposites. I guess he is saying that we need intellectual understanding and knowledge to achieve union.

The Hermit is presiding over this marriage. (Kiama, Crowley says that the cloth around his arms is a scroll, ?a message?) Does he represent a guide-who leads us to wholeness? Does he stand as a reminder that each one of us is an individual-that even if we join with someone else we are still separate and need personal space? Does he stand as a symbol that we must sacrifice some of our separateness in order to be with others? Why is he hooded? Any thoughts on this?

Some others things of interest, quoted directly from Arrien's The Tarot Handbook:
"In the background of the card are iron gates, symbolizing the Lovers' need not to be limited."

"All relationships are a transformative experience, represented by the Orphic Egg, the egg wrapped with the snake, so that physically in relationships, we change like the egg, and spiritually, we transform and let go of old identities, like the snake shedding an old skin. Each relationship has an internal or spiritual connection, which is represented by the wings that are attached to the egg."

Rose

Good post, Rose...it occurs to me that even the Hermit isn't exempt from the dualities in this card. I just thought of this right now, so it may be completely wrong, but could he be paired with Cupid? Since the two of them are the only images in the card that don't have some kind of analogy (I'm looking at the snake and the egg as being two images, rather than one).
Hmm. Now that I've thought of that, I'm at a loss on how to elaborate...the Hermit is solitude, Cupid is the god of love...both have a blindfold or sorts...
I dunno. Am I way off base here...?

Richard, I didn't quite get the Cain and Abel thing either. I wonder if historically some deck used the story. Maybe Crowley would have preferred calling the card "The Brothers"-as a reference to relationships in general. I don't think he was particularly fond of women. The Cain and Abel story in the context of this card is interesting though--look what happens when we forget our connection to each other--jealousy, hate, murder.

The book I have by Arrien equates the spear/sword, chalice/cup, club/wand, and flower/earth with the four elements. The flower/earth thing seems weak to me.

And yes I'm also wondering where the heck that arrow is going to land.

Rose

Rose, I'm kind of wondering (throwing in some completely gratuitous Crowley-bashing here) if he thought a Lovers card would be superfluous, since there's a Lust card...just a speculation.
At any rate, I'm glad that it is the Lovers rather than the Brothers. Although I love this deck to pieces, a lot of the Thelemic attributes do bug me, and eliminating the Lovers would just be going too far...

I've been discussing the Lovers card and its relationship to the Temperence card with a Thelemite (Crowley was the forefather of Thelema). According to him and Thelema...

The Art card is the start of the process of initiation, which in Thelema occurs when you achieve knowledge and conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel. (This Holy Guardian Angel thing is looked at in The Sacred Magic of Abra Melin the Mage and is a key element of Thelema) The Lovers card is the end of this process, the Heiros Gamos, and the cards after that, (Heirophant, Emperor, Empress, Priestess, Magician, Fool) are the susequent further stages of intitiation which occur to bring the initiate to the level of Adept. (nb- Thelemites do the Fool's journey 'backwards', from the World to the Fool.)

All the cards in between in Art and Lovers cards are the transitory stages of initiation.

I thought this was very interesting, so had to share it with you all.

Kiama

OK I'm just gonna throw this one in and see how it lands for you all......

Why the comparison of pairs in this card? Perhaps we can apply it as one singular person who has the quality of both halfs.

Take the Cain and Abel analogy for instance. Does that necessarily apply to 2 people or can we say that it is 1? How does the Fool/Magus/Hierophant progression to this point within our deck effect this card.

Try not to just analyse each card of it's own merit, but more over as the next progession from the previous cards in the deck.

Kiama - Thank you for blowing my mind. I'm trying to get my head around a backwards progression now...so the Major Arcana is not the jounrey TO the new Aeon, but what happens IN the new Aeon? Wow...let me get my thoughts together, and maybe I'll have enough to post a new thread...(I know a Thelemic witch; I might ask her and see what she says).

MystiqueMoonlight - I'm not sure what you're getting at here...but if we look at the Lovers as being a single person, perhaps the Hierophant feels the stirring of the child inside his chest; that child throws off and contradicts all the doctrines the Hierophant thought to be true, and has revealed his entire life to be nothing but an empty husk. In the Lovers, the two opposite and contradictory views are merged, at least superficially, which brings us to the Chariot. Actually believing the new doctrines and overthrowing the old takes a bit more time and soul-searching (as well as examination of ideas of justice, spiritual enlightenment, fate and chance, strength, sacrifice, and life and death), but is finally acheived in Art.
Does that make sense?

It does to me...does it to you?

More or less...I always took Rachel Pollack's view that the Fool simply encountered cards I - V, and didn't really participate until VI. Seeing the Fool as the Hierophant (and thus, potentially as everyone in the deck) is a new concept to me...and almost a revelationary as trying to figure out what the Majors' "story" is if told backwards...

Some general-not deck specific thoughts on the lovers.

As part of the Spiritual Journey of the Fool:
As the Fool goes through the first five cards of the Major Arcana he internalizes the experiences he has and in that sense becomes the card or the people in them. By the time the Fool gets to the "Lovers card" stage of life, he has formed a value system. However, for the first time the Fool fully realizes that he is a separate individual. He starts breaking away from his parents, he makes his own decisions-for better or for worse. He begins to question things; things are no longer black and white in his world. He realizes that some of his beliefs and feelings conflict with each other. Feeling independent and separate can be scary and lonely, so at the same time that he is trying to separate, he goes looking for ways to re-connect (both externally and internally) and become whole.

The pairs on this card are not only symbols of human relationships, but also of the opposing traits within ourselves that need to be reconciled-our own dual nature.

The Lovers as an allegory of choice and decision is a good one, because who you choose as a mate or a friend reflects a lot of things about you, such as self esteem, values, who you hope to become, etc.

Rose