The Lovers card is a card of integrating seemingly opposite perspectives within ourselves. In my opinion, it has nothing to do with romantic love between two people. It has everything to do with the crazy love affair taking place within your own being, between the two hemispheres of your brain and between all parts of yourself. You can think of these polar states as masculine and feminine, body and mind, animal and human, above and below, light and dark, or whatever words you come up with. Essentially, the Lovers card helps us to see the place where polar states unite. It teaches us that even very contradicting positions share a root causation in the divine source. It follows naturally from the Heirophant card. The Heirophant shows us the wisdom of our heart that is accessed through our direct experience of life. The Lovers takes this life information and weaves it together into a divine union.
In Vedic astrology, the Lovers card corresponds with the zodiac sign of Gemini. Gemini is a mutable air sign ruled by Mercury. Remember that Mercury is the Magician card and shows the power of our word to set our intent and manifest reality. The sign of Gemini is specifically the razor-like power of our intellect to cut through illusion and to mend the gap between polar opposites. A razor can be a weapon or a surgeon's tool, it can both hurt and heal. Similarly, our intellect has the power to reveal or disguise the truth. Gemini is the translator or communicator. When this sign operates at its best, it helps to reveal the commonality between contrasting paradigms.
In Toltec shamanism, this is the final card in the mastery of awareness. The Lovers is specifically the awareness of how we weave together our perceptions. This is really the culmination of the mastery of awareness and what it is all about. With the Lovers card, we learn to weave together all parts of ourselves into a cohesive whole. Remember we started this journey with the Magician card, which is the power of our word to speak our intent. Then we went to the High Priestess card, which represents the ability to trust and deepen our perceptions. There is this constant play within ourselves between our perceptions and our intellect. Our intellect chooses what story to tell about our perceptions. Our perceptions are in turn affected and altered by the story we are telling, and a crazy cycle is formed. The Lovers card represents the ability to cut through this cycle and see it with clarity.
Most depictions of the Lovers card show a man and woman, but also a third entity that is an androgynous angel. This higher self being represents the part of you that is beyond duality. It is the consciousness within you that can see how two opposites have the same origin in the divine. Practice becoming the weaver of your own life and the weaver of your own perceptions. Find the Lovers card and place it somewhere you will see it. Bring the energy of the Lovers to all areas of your life.
Next: The Chariot
(c) 2004 by David Ray
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