The Lovers

Number VI · Element Air · Correspondence Gemini

Upright: choice, harmony, shared values, attraction, awakening

Reversed: indecision, being ruled by desire, unspoken differences, imbalance in the relationship

The Lovers

A real choice always involves more than the first flutter of attraction.

The image

Adam and Eve stand on either side of the picture. Behind one is the Tree of Knowledge with a serpent wound around it; behind the other is the burning Tree of Life. The angel Raphael spreads his arms in the clouds above the two of them, a composition that clearly shows "a higher view looking down on the choice". The two stand naked, at ease rather than shy, and the mountain peak in the background suggests that the choice leads toward a higher goal.

The angel Raphael's hair burns like flame and his wings are red too, echoing the passion and initiative of Fire. His purple robe is the complementary color of yellow, suggesting the wisdom, divinity and reason linked with Air, and also symbolizing nobility and mystery. The four archangels each have an element: Raphael for Air, Michael for Fire, Gabriel for Water and Uriel for Earth. Gemini is a mutable Air sign, so it corresponds to Raphael. Some tarot scholars, however, think Gabriel of Water fits the feeling of "love" better, and that Gabriel, one of the few angels named in the Bible, specifically guards newborns and the fruits of love, which would make him a better fit for this card than Raphael uncertain. Behind the man is the Tree of Life made of twelve flames, corresponding to the energies of the twelve zodiac signs and standing for male productivity, drive, passion and fertility. Behind the woman is the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil with the serpent wound around it, symbolizing female wisdom, independent awareness and thought; its fruit also echoes her capacity to bear life.

Core meaning

  • The first real choice toward independence: in the context of the Fool's Journey, cards three, four and five show a self shaped by nature, society and parents. With this card the individual emerges for the first time and makes a judgment that is truly their own, instead of following parents' plans or outside pressure.
  • Sex and union are a road that leads on toward love and a larger meaning; they are not the end point. Desire draws a person out of loneliness and toward deep relationship with another. On the card the angel appears only above the two of them together, a symbol of insight that can only be glimpsed through union and that no one can reach alone.
  • Passion comes before reason: the order of the gazes, with the man looking at the woman and the woman looking at the angel, suggests that passion is the medium that carries reason toward something beyond itself. One does not rise by suppressing the senses or by having reason tame passion.
  • Joining two sides, with the emphasis on the joining itself: there is no need to fix on which set role each person should play. What matters is that the two opposite sides really are connected and brought together.
  • An important choice: two paths lie ahead, and the choice needs to follow your own values instead of being pushed along by expectations someone else has set.
  • Aligned values: agreement between two people or two things on core beliefs is the foundation of a stable relationship.
  • A choice has value because it is made freely: unlike beings that are purely good or purely evil, humans have free will that can lean toward good or toward evil. Good deeds done under force carry no weight; choosing goodness only means something when you could have chosen otherwise. This is the deeper reason the Lovers always centers on the theme of choice, even when only a man and a woman remain in the picture.
  • The Great Work: an alchemical term for turning the imperfect into the perfect and two into one. In the picture, the mountains behind the man and the woman merge into a single peak beneath the angel, symbolizing that the path of this union is itself a Great Work. Humans were driven out of paradise because of a sense of separation, and they need to practice through the union of yin and yang, feminine and masculine, before they can draw near that state of oneness again.
  • True love versus infatuation: the love the upright card points to stands the test of time and puts the other person's good first. It differs from the brief, hormone-driven frenzy of early romance that fades after a few months. In practice, when this card falls on career and money, it usually points to a smooth situation with real enthusiasm, good relationships with others and help from people who back you.
  • The order of the gazes, the man looking at the woman and the woman looking at the angel, also has a more specific reading about gendered temperament: in relationships women care more about spiritual connection and their own feelings, while men are more easily led by desire and physical attraction. One neuroscience claim holds that the "old brain" (the primitive brain), which handles the instincts of reproduction, competition and survival, is about twice as large in men as in women, so men's sex drive is relatively stronger uncertain.
  • The function assigned to Zayin is "smell", the oldest and most instinctive way of sensing when looking for a mate. This connects with the Lovers' meaning of passion coming before rational judgment.
  • Money, health and spirit: when the Lovers appears in a financial spread it usually means a financial choice. Upright, it often means you are ready to face a new decision, and it can also suggest that career or financial growth is tied to a partner, for example planning to start a new business together. With health, the card is linked to Gemini, so pay attention to the arms, hands, shoulders and lungs; sometimes it also points to depleted mental energy.
  • On the spiritual level, the Lovers stands for deciding to seek fulfillment. Life has already shown a path toward happiness, but until you actually take the first step it is only a possibility. The relationship or partnership can also be a chance for a creative bond in which both people are open with each other and share their own paths through life.

Reversed

  • Picture association: upright, the angel looks down from on high and watches over the two people below. In the reversed composition the positions trade places, and human subjective judgment rises above guidance from a higher view. It becomes easy to choose on impulse, without the clarity of seeing the whole picture.
  • Picture association: upright, the fruit hangs securely on the branches of the Tree of Knowledge. Reversed, if the fruit falls, it suggests that what is missing right now is exactly the wisdom needed to judge well. One wrong choice is enough to withdraw the protection and blessing that were there, and it is hard to fully repair afterward.
  • Blockedknowing that a serious choice or declaration is due but putting it off again and again out of impulse or avoidance, so it stays unresolved.
  • Overdoneattraction or passing desire drives the judgment, without the steadiness to resist temptation. It is easy to fall into a relationship or trap that looks good on the surface but is actually unequal.
  • Overdonethe relationship is mixed with self-interest or calculation and is not fully sincere. It can also point to a third party in the relationship, or a union based only on physical desire.
  • Turned inwardonce the heat fades, the friction and differences between the two are not openly spoken. Suspicion takes the place of communication, so the relationship becomes unstable and may even drift apart.
  • In practicereversed, in career it often shows the hypocrite who wants credit for virtue while chasing gain. They say they do this work for ideals and to help others, but in fact they calculate at every turn and will never do anything that does not benefit them. This persona may win some opportunities and goodwill in the short term, but a career without real concern for others does not go far, and it has trouble attracting people who will sincerely help.
  • Money and health when reversed: with money, the reversed Lovers suggests that keeping things as they are is the safer course, because you are not yet ready for a new opportunity. Your approach to money tends to be indecisive and may even turn into problems in your romantic relationship. With health, it warns that indecision may itself be the root of the health problem, and that if troubles in a romantic relationship keep dragging the body down, they should be faced and dealt with soon.

Correspondences

Gemini (an Air sign); Hebrew letter Zayin ז. For the full set of correspondences, see Astrological Correspondences and The Kabbalah and the Tree of Life.

Zayin literally means "sword", both a weapon and a tool for dividing things. It symbolizes the act in creation where God splits "oneness" into "two": things must first be told apart before they can be independent and different from each other. On the Tree of Life, Zayin connects Binah (Understanding) and Tiphareth (Beauty). Starting from a clear awareness of difference ("you are you, I am I"), the two still choose to draw close and help each other become whole. This echoes the Lovers' core meaning: a real choice is built on acknowledging difference.

Views from different traditions

disputed The Marseille Lovers shows a man standing between two women while Cupid draws his bow overhead. Traditionally it is closer to "choosing between two people or two temptations", and it even has the flavor of an allegory of virtue against vice. Waite replaced the whole scene with the Garden of Eden, swapping the specific love-triangle plot for Adam, Eve, the Tree of Knowledge and the angel, and shifted the emphasis to a more existential choice made after knowledge and awakening inferred. As a result, the same card carries different weight in the two systems: Marseille readings more readily bring out a specific choice or temptation, and Waite readings more readily bring out harmony in a relationship and a choice at the level of values. This site's main text follows the Waite system; for the differences, see The Three Main Traditions.

  • Waite's image keeps many elements from Genesis (the serpent, the Tree of Knowledge, the Tree of Life) but quietly reverses their meaning. In Genesis, "becoming like God" is the sin that gets humans expelled from paradise; in Waite's tarot it becomes the goal of the whole system: to fully draw out the spark of the divine in a person and unite it with the self.
  • Advanced Golden Dawn reading: the Hebrew words for archangel, Adam ("man") and Eve ("woman") all have the same gematria value. This is read as "man = woman = angel", a symbol that true love rests on equality rather than hierarchy. The same value is also that of the Hebrew words for "love", "equal" and "summit", echoing the composition in which the two lovers meet and unite before the mountain peak.
  • The gematria value of the word Adam itself happens to equal the sum of the values of "Jehovah" and "Eve". This corresponds to the account in Genesis that Adam was made from God's breath and from his own rib (Eve), meaning that man already carries both a divine part and a female part within him. The number of rays from the sun above the angel's head is thought to hint at this numerical relationship.
  • The number 666 appears again and again. The layered triple flames on the Tree of Life behind Adam, the scripture associated with the Tree of Knowledge behind Eve, the sun above the angel's head, and even this card's letter Zayin (through the value of the Kabbalistic "flaming sword" passage) are all said to point to the same number. This is read as an example of Waite deliberately gathering several layers of symbolism into one card.
  • The folds of Raphael's purple robe are said to hide the profiles of a lion (Leo, the 5th sign) and a serpent (Scorpio, the 8th sign). The two signs' numbers add up to 13, the number of the Death card, and 13 is also the Hebrew value of "love" and "beloved". This is read as a hidden link between the Lovers and Death: the energy of love and the power of transformation come from the same source.
  • Waite simplified the traditional group of three (one man and two women) to just Adam and Eve. This is read as a deliberate echo of the twins of Gemini, the Lovers' sign, and he also changed the original twins on the Sun card into a single figure so that the two cards would not be confused.

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