The Lovers: Read the Card

(Tarot Prompts for Writers)

Here’s a compilation of my notes on reading The Lovers as a card of the day or in a spread.

the Lovers card from Tarot Balbi

If you’re just learning tarot, use the deck that most appeals to you, and spend some time looking at your card. What does it say to you? (See my description of The Lovers as I see it.)

Tarot is personal and open-ended. There are traditional meanings — and yes, you should know them if you want to read tarot cards — but it really only “works” if you follow what the cards mean to you personally. Your lovers and my lovers may not mean quite the same thing.

Number

The Lovers has the number 6, which has been called a “perfect” number, as it is the sum of all its divisors. It signifies harmony and balance. I’s about responsibility; it’s associated with selflessness and love.

Name

Some new decks are all about lust and passion and sex, but traditionally the Lovers are uniting their lives and hearts within a larger community. This is a card of mature love, even family love, not infatuation or lust. It’is about entering the next, mature stage of life, uniting your heart and your future, with someone else.

Placement

The Lovers comes after a string of cards representing high-placed figures who can advise the journeyer (priests and empresses and such) and before the Chariot, when the journeyer takes the reins alone. This is still near the beginning of the major arcana, indicating that your path is young, but you’re now entering a new, more mature stage. 

Traditional interpretations

The Lovers card from Gilded Tarot

This is a positive card, about trust, alliances, and new chapters in your life. The Lovers signify the big step into adult life, a step that’s not all about you but you-with-others, you in society, you as part of something bigger. To succeed in this new stage, you cannot be selfish. Think of everyone’s happiness. 

The card can mean more than earthly love. It symbolizes the divine spark in humans, love of all life and goodness. It is your higher self who sends a dart of love to help you follow the right path to where you need to be. That path may be frightening but if you follow your heart, you’ll walk it well.

The card tells of completion, joy, and fidelity. Traditionally, it indicates a harmony of polarities. It sometimes tells of a merging of families or even nations; marriage and alliances. It’s a positive omen unless it’s badly framed. It can indicate restoration of wholeness. The card tells you that you are about to take an important step in life’s journey. You’re stepping away from your origins and their protection, embracing a new independence and alliance as your journey continues. 

Reverse interpretations

Your heart and mind may not align. You’ve made a bad choice; a relationship will sour. Prepare for arguments, heartache, disappointment, betrayal and deceit. A moral lapse or severe temptation will be in your path. Reflect on what love really is and what is good for you. Be mature about your choices.

The card reversed can indicate failure due to immaturity and foolish designs; weakness, dependence, oscillation, and evasion. You are unable to make a choice because you want it all — that childish wish will cost you. Be cautious; plan wisely; don’t assume anything — read the fine print and ask questions — but then grow up and take your life somewhere. Make a mature choice.

Thematic readings

  • In love, this is a very positive card and a good omen indicating joy, beauty, and passion. Strong first impressions are reliable and will lead to solid partnerships. Just remember that love has more impact on our lives than anything else, and don’t take it lightly. Don’t let ecstasy lead you astray. Bliss is always temporary. 
  • In work, the card warns of temptation. Be mature, honest, and ethical. Don’t blow something important for a fleeting pleasure.   
  • In general life, the card tells you to take the next step in your journey. It indicates progress, trials overcome, advancement even amid tension or ambivalence. Only by stepping beyond where you’ve come from can your journey continue. 

Specific positions

  • Current situation: This is a time of choice, possibly between what you want in the short-term and what you know is right for the long-term. You’ve reached a point where two paths are incompatible and one must be sacrificed; you must make that decision on your own and without delay. Rely on your intuition but your choice should not be a careless whim; this is a moral choice requiring maturity and integrity. Its outcome is of great importance in your life. The place you are heading — this alliance, advancement, new chapter — is where you need to be. Listen to your heart and follow it through doubt or fear. It’ll guide you well.
  • Past influence: The card tells of choices made or postponed. It can indicate a rekindling of affection, a happy union or reunion; a love from your past may return. 
  • Outcome: The card can indicate a flash of inspiration that resolves a seemingly insoluble problem. Listen to your inner counsel. Have faith; keep going. There may be troubles ahead, but you can handle them. The time is right for commitment to others and a mature path; you will need honesty and trust to make the right choice. Choose ethically. Be responsible for the consequences. There will be consequences. 
  • Blocked: You need to be more passionate and follow your heart. Your lack of motivation stems from a lack of passion. Look within to find what excites you and follow your heart. Be true to yourself. (But not selfish.)

Questions for the Querent

  • Do you have any reaction at first sight of this card? What do you focus on?
  • Is your life allied with others? 
  • Is your heart in alignment with your social roles?
  • Have you stepped beyond your origins? 
  • Are you afraid of independence? Afraid of commitment? Can you balance independence and relationships?
  • Do you feel life’s path continuing? Stalled? Not found yet?
  • Do you have a choice to make? Make it carefully. But make it. It’s time to move on.

Keywords to aid Memory

  • Love/Partnership
  • Maturity
  • Choices; New Chapter

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Images on this page are by the following artists: Banner (and top box), left to right: Marseilles deck engraved by Nicolas Conver; Druid Craft deck illustrated by Will Worthington; Dragon Tarot illustrated by Roger and Linda Garland: Tarot Balbi by Domenico Balbi; Radiant Rider-Waite deck illustrated by Pamela Colman Smith; Gilded Tarot by Ciro Marchetti (also shown in the box below).