The 78 Cards
The Lovers
Major Arcana, card 6. Astrology: Gemini.
Love, and the choice that comes with it.
The picture
A naked man and woman stand on open ground under a bright sun. Above them in the clouds an angel with wide wings spreads its arms over them both. Behind the woman grows a tree heavy with fruit, with a serpent coiled around its trunk. Behind the man stands a tree whose leaves are flames. Between them a tall mountain rises in the distance. The woman looks up to the angel, and the man looks at the woman.
Upright
The Lovers is the card of love, and it is also the card of choice.
The two figures stand apart with the mountain between them, and the angel above joins them. That is what a real union is: two whole people choosing each other. The tree of fruit and the tree of flames are the two ways that pull at every one of us, the heart and the head, desire and wisdom. Gemini rules this card, the sign of the twins, and Gemini knows all about seeing two sides.
When it turns up, a relationship may be deepening, or a decision is in front of you that matters. The card asks you to choose from your values, with your eyes open. Whatever you choose, choose it all the way.
Reversed
Reversed, I read the Lovers most often as blocked. The connection is there and something is in the way: poor communication, old hurts, or a choice you keep putting off. It can also be turned inward, where the relationship out of balance is the one you have with yourself, your head and heart pulling different ways.
To tell them apart, look at where the tension sits. If it lives between you and another person, it is blocked, and the card asks you to talk. If it lives inside you, it is turned inward, and the first person to make peace with is you.
When it turns up
What choice would you make if you trusted your own values completely?
The Lovers has also been a Tarot Card of the Week. Read that post to see the card at work on a real week.
If you would like the cards read against your own chart, my readings are here.
Related pages
The Number 6 · The Lovers as a Birth Card · The Twenty Two Paths
The 78 Cards
Every card in the deck, upright and reversed.
See every page and post in the Contents.
The Members area has songs, Moon pages to print, the Sunday article a day early and a first look at new Library pages.