Continuing the series of diving deeper into each individual tarot card, we are now at the Lovers. If you want to understand the tarot more in-depth, I recommend going back and starting with the Fool. This way you will understand what each card speaks to in a reading, but also how the cards lily-pad off each other from one to the next.
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After we have opened more expansively into the Divine with the Hierophant, we enter into the Lovers. Once we have been changed and pushed past previously held beliefs and understandings with the Hierophant, the Lovers invites us to consider how we build on those sacred connections.
There are themes of unity, harmony, joy, sensuality, and beauty associated with the numerology of 6, and we find all these things within this card (when in the light). Keep reading to more fully understand the Lovers in the light, and in the shadows. Click here to read an article on the numerology of 6.
Merging into Sacred Connections with the Lovers
It wouldn’t be a post written by me if I didn’t, at the very top, highlight the needed reminder that the Lovers does not speak to romantic / love / monogamous / heterosexual relationships!
At least not all the time…
If you are pulling your cards, or a client’s, and the Lovers comes forward in a spread that focuses on relationships, then yes that card is speaking to that theme. My point is that the Lovers card is not ROOTED in romantic relationships. I feel that we need to reframe the narratives attached to this card. Not everyone wants a romantic partner or relationship, and that is completely fine.
Some people may have lots of sexual partners but don’t want one romantic partner. Again, fine. Some people are polyamorous. Some people are asexual. Some people may have had only one partner (romantic or sexual) for their whole lives.
All of these dynamics are fine. There is nothing wrong with any of these relationships. The only times when these aspects become wrong is when someone goes against what they want to please another. They may neglect their needs, or feel like they have to settle to maintain an image from the external world that looks a certain way. It is only wrong when it goes against someone’s internal sovereignty, safety, boundaries, or needs.
Finally, with all those dynamics listed above, the Lovers can speak to all of them, yet each dynamic isn’t in the DNA of the Lovers, so what does this beautiful card invite?
The first invitation that the Lovers brings forward is the need to find, join, and take part in sacred connections. The Lovers asks us to place those sacred connections at the forefront. These are the connections that move, sway, soften, and open our hearts. These are the connections that bring us home to our wild within. These are the connections that elevate the wholeness within ourselves. That wholeness reciprocates back and forth between you and the source of your connection. This cyclical energy of something opening within you which allows you to open, love, and revere that which opened you is the true power of the Lovers.
That openness within you, and that cyclical energy back and forth on the bonds of sacred connection allows you to find the strength and support needed to open into Divine interconnection. To put it another way, the connections that you create, join in, and merge with that are from this worldly source help you connect to the energetic, the liminal, the macrocosm. The cosmic universal Divinity comes in and embodies all the things found here in the physical plane, and the cycle continues again.
Main invitations with the Lovers:
1. Sacred connection- cyclical energy, reciprocity, joining.
2. Support, strength, and trust opens divine interconnection
3. Honoring choice and values, where they come from, and how intimate they are
Finally, the last main way that I read the Lovers tarot card is the need to honor your choices and values. The Lovers invites you to find the meaning behind the sacred connections, and this is why I push so strongly that The Lovers is not about two people.
The Lovers can be found in the sacred connection to a story, nature, a pet, a memory, ancestors, or culture. It can be found in food, art, social media, history, and the news. These sacred connections we form are built on the values and choices that form the bedrock of our being. The Lovers excites this connection into a palpable space where we keep choosing and honoring it based on the values we hold.
I invite you to consider what sacred connections you hold, and how you continuously choose to honor these connections. How does this connection open you to Divinity? How does it take root in your day-to-day life? My sacred connection to the tarot and oracle means that each day I am open to receive their invitations. I continuously try to learn and grow in my practice. I hold events and workshops for others to find their connection to these tools. This sacred connection helps me make and find meaning in my life, which allows me to show up in a better space for all the people I have in my life. It helps me find my freedom, and I use that to build boundaries, tell the truth, and be sovereign to myself, yet still interconnected to the whole of it all.
This is what the Lovers invites for you. The Lovers invites you to look into your sacred connections and see how the connection both roots you into strength and support and also allows you to rise to all that you desire within the space of Divinity.
Imagery and Symbolism within the Lovers
Looking at the images of the Lovers from across my decks, we will see some repeat symbols. Starting at the top of the blog post with the Lovers from the Crow Tarot, we see an anatomical heart in between the two. The guidebook says that the two sharing and drinking from the same life force bonds them karmically together, ascending their differences and joining in spirit for eternity.
A similar image is shared in the Grimalkin’s Curious Cat Tarot (perhaps because the same artist designed the Crow Tarot, the Grimalkin’s Cat Tarot, and the Guardian of the Night Tarot). One piece of symbolism I want to highlight is the joining of the Sun and the Moon in the background. The Lovers speak to all forms of sacred joining, which can include day and night, light and shadow, life and death, etc. The spectrum brings all the beauty together.
In the Guardian of the Night Tarot, we have two scorpions, which I think is an amazing choice. The Scorpions represent a deep sense of emotion and intuition. They move with Nature’s rhythms, are centered in the ground, and still hold the autonomy of self in the tail, which they carry wherever they go. The Moth also speaks to the soul, renewal, and rebirth- a reminder that the Lovers awakens us to more than what we held in our hearts before if we allow the transformation to occur.
Also, the caduceus or the snake is seen in many depictions. The caduceus highlights the joining of opposites together to create healing, alchemy, and transformation. This symbol highlights the harmony, integration, and joining of two separate things or entities that become better together.
Similar themes with the Herbcrafter’s Tarot, two Hawthorn wreaths in different stages of bloom. Together, they form a vesica piscis- a mathematical shape of two overlapping discs, and the center of the disc lies on the perimeter of the other. This shape is said to speak to the womb and the power of Universal creation.
From the Hush Tarot, we have a beautiful depiction of Shiva and Parvati. They represent the power of Cosmic Love and Divine Union, bringing the forces of Earth and the Heavens together- another reminder that the Lovers includes and cycles between the two.
Below, the Lovers from the Shadowscapes Tarot shows the beauty of the cycles again- look at the disc to the bottom right. The acorn grows to become the mighty Oak tree, but it must be planted and nurtured. That is the same with the Lovers energy within us. Our choices with our sacred connections help us grow stronger when we choose to honor the cycle and nurture the process.
The Lovers from the Wild Unknown shows two geese embarking on their long migration. Together, they ensure that the journey can be completed. With reliance, fortitude, and the ability to continuously say yes, they will make it to the other side of this journey, and stronger, both as individuals and as a joining, because of the journey.
The Lovers from the Spirit Animal Tarot (Honeybee / Heart Opener) speaks to the sweetness that an open heart yields. Here is where the alchemy of life is found. The pollen of the flower, along with the support and strength of the hive create the sweet and gold nectar of honey.
The Lovers from the Ostara Tarot and the Dark Wood Tarot highlight the red energy of passion, sex, and desire. The sensual nature of these cards is just sexy AF. There is a reminiscent theme with the Lovers from the Mystical Dream Tarot (below) but that images doesn’t cut the mustard when it comes to sex appeal. Maybe that is just me….
Finally, the Tarot of Dragons shows union in all things. The birds, the fish, the dragons… all thins find their sacred connection and hold firm to that bond. This leads me to share this thought about why I don’t think the Lovers should speak to romantic love. To the person who desperately wants a relationship, and has tried all the options, but still hasn’t found their “person,” an image or invitation of romantic love could be deeply triggering. You are not incomplete if you haven’t found that person. You are still whole, beautiful, and wild to yourself.
That image from the Tarot of Dragons brings me to now bring up the shadow side of the Lovers. It may be obvious, but the shadow of the Lovers is rooted in dishonesty. If you feel like you MUST form this connection because someone else, maybe society, said so, that isn’t going to be a sacred connection. If you feel pressured to engage in this connection because of external appearances, that is the Lovers in shadow. The Lovers in the shadow is going to highlight the shadow work of the self. Here, you will see projection, a need for conformity, or a sense of disloyalty if someone’s truth doesn’t fully align with yours. You may see toxic traits or built-up fear lead to poor choices or a lack of honoring the connection.
The Lovers is more about the connections to all the things you hold as sacred, and only part of that may be a romantic relationship. My relationship with Grizzly is my deepest bond yes, but the other bonds I hold like my cats, poetry, nature, music, tarot, and more are what deepen my bond with Grizzly. Because those bonds, shared or unshared with him, are what make me who I am. Those choices and values I hold are what I bring to all my connections- human or not.
That is what the Lovers speaks to you: how does each sacred connection build you up and deepen into another? How does one elevate the other until it is all Divinity, an open heart, and a channel for the power of love?
A Representation of the Lovers
I knew immediately that one representation I wanted to share was Pablo Neruda’s gorgeous poetry. His Odes to Common Things is one of my favorites- a book I used to have and then lent it away and never got it returned. Now, I refuse to lend out my books lol. But to highlight the beautiful love for something simple or small, here is Neruda’s poem to an onion.
ODE TO THE ONION
by Pablo Neruda
Onion,
luminous flask,
your beauty formed
petal by petal,
crystal scales expanded you
and in the secrecy of the dark earth
your belly grew round with dew.
Under the earth
the miracle
happened
and when your clumsy
green stem appeared,
and your leaves were born
like swords
in the garden,
the earth heaped up her power
showing your naked transparency,
and as the remote sea
in lifting the breasts of Aphrodite
duplicating the magnolia,
so did the earth
make you,
onion
clear as a planet
and destined
to shine,
constant constellation,
round rose of water,
upon
the table
of the poor.
You make us cry without hurting us.
I have praised everything that exists,
but to me, onion, you are
more beautiful than a bird
of dazzling feathers,
heavenly globe, platinum goblet,
unmoving dance
of the snowy anemone
and the fragrance of the earth lives
in your crystalline nature.
Ashlie McDiarmid
Hello there! I hope you liked this blog post. As a tarot and oracle reader, my goal with my blogs is to offer you content, resources, and access to the tools that have transformed my life.
I believe that your own intuition is the deepest form of knowing, but here in my little corner of the internet, I share insights based in intuition and instinct. I share my love for nature, witchcraft, and the wild spirit.
- If your spirit is at home in wild places
- If you feel the need to claim your autonomy as ritual
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