Meaning: divine union, romantic love, attraction, sexual chemistry, soul mate, lover, choices, heart-centered decisions, alignment, misalignment, imbalance, disharmony, incompatibility (see Light vs. Shadow)

The Lovers (VI) is a card of romantic love. As we know, there are many different kinds of love: unconditional, parental, compassionate, platonic, religious, divine… friendly love. The Lovers encompasses romantic love which we may (or may not) have with a person we are sexually, emotionally, and spiritually attracted to. When we desire a person in all ways, when we want to be with them, when we want complete union with them… when we see them as potential lovers and marriage partners… we are in the space of The Lovers.

“You know you’re in love when you can’t fall asleep because reality is finally better than your dreams.” -Dr. Seuss 

“Love is simply the name for the desire and pursuit of the whole.” -Plato

“Every heart sings a song, incomplete, until another heart whispers back. Those who wish to sing always find a song.” -Plato

For Beginners:

Light vs. Shadow Every reading can take on what I call “light” or “shadow aspect.” If you read reversals–not all readers do–a reading can take on a new aspect with just one card showing up in the reversed. It can also take on a new aspect if a more negative card comes up after a positive card. In other words, it would lessen the positive energy of the first card. For example:

The Lovers + The Tower = argument or disagreement with partner in the recent past still heavy in the querent’s energy, problems in a relationship, relationship on the rocks, major conflict about something that jeopardizes a relationship, change in the relationship (good or bad, depending on the surrounding cards)

In this example, The Lovers was a positive message and it still is–there is romantic love there–but, with The Tower coming up next to it, one begs the question: is there trouble in paradise or has there been trouble in paradise that has been brewing? Either secretly within or something that has already been discussed?

A lot of people might get scared of Tarot because of this reason; they don’t want to see any negative cards coming up popping their rose-colored bubble. This is a completely normal reaction because humans are *generally* self-preserving creatures of comfort. But, I would argue, knowing what energetic nuances surround us, helps more than hinders since it allows us to be better prepared and more reflective of things we have the capacity to improve now.

A card will not come up in a reading if there was absolutely no reason for it to. Reasons that may as well be real issues we don’t know yet about, haven’t been addressing, or simply, fears that cause us to shut down in a way that affects our close relationships. In essence, we can’t fix what we are willing to brush aside, and ignoring them may eventually lead to more problems in the future. It’s like driving with a busted tire… sure we might be okay for a little bit but then we’ll likely have to replace more parts than we would have had to had we just changed it as soon as we got the warning light. Plus, it’s very unsafe to do this, as it can cause us to lose control of the wheel and potentially get into a serious accident. The takeaway: look into an issue the moment it pops up on your radar.

More about the deck:

As you can see in the preview, this card doesn’t have a traditional reversal position. And although you could opt to read it that way, if The Lovers card in The Lovers Mythology Deck comes out in reverse, the masculine will be in the upright position which just might provide key information that you could miss if you read it reversed traditionally. A few cards in the deck will have this distinction for reasons that will become clearer once you get your hands on the full deck. To simplify, designing the deck in this way provides a unique and additional dimension to the possibilities in a reading all in just one deck. It’s basically three or more decks in one!

Check out the post Light vs. Shadow for more information on how to read this card if it does come out in a reversed position.