The Lovers

The card in the Tarot called “The Lovers” is part of the Tarot deck that depicts our path through life. It has a strong relationship with twins, as well as with lovers — and with the astrological sun sign Gemini.

As such, the meaning of this card goes well beyond describing Lovers, however, as far as the Tarot is concerned, first and foremost the meaning of this card depicts how we relate to ourselves…

From a practical perspective, the meaning of this card when I read the Tarot reads like this…

When the card is upright:

Love. Affectionate partnerships. Attraction, harmony and beauty. Choice to be made intuitively rather than intellectually. Inspiration. Second sight. Abstract thought. Inner harmony. The union of inner ideals and outer objectives. True partnerships where the individuals involved resonate on every level of being.

When the card is reversed:

Contradiction. Duality. Conflict with the self. Partnerships disrupted by external factors or inner dissonance. Vacillation. Inconsistency of purpose. Choices made against all inner feeling. Decisions made without reference to all the factors involved or without reference to those factors which are intangible.

This, when we start looking at both sides of the description (upright and reversed) it depicts an arena — or concept — that is given by “The Lovers”, and therefore brings attention to how we may relate to ourselves.

This arena then, is all about loving self, heartfelt feelings and an heartfelt outlook on life, and resonating with every level of our being — while recognizing any inner duality, or conflict, such that they can be resolved — and making decisions where the seen and the unseen, the inner ideals and outer objectives, all are taken into account…

Another way of looking at this Tarot card is as an invitation to know yourself.

If we are willing to explore this concept, we may be confronted with questions like:

• Do we accept the loving, the harmonious and beautiful person that we are? 
• Are we willing to trust our intuition enough to act on it?
• Will we commit to that partnership with our inner self in such a way that we resonate with all that we are, radiating that energy into our environment?

And perhaps hardest of all: 

• Can we accept those parts of ourselves that may not be nice, reasonable, kind, compassionate, and that sometimes are downright weird?
• Are we capable of embracing — and accepting — all of ourselves? The good, the bad, and the ugly?

As soon as we have the intention to do so, not only our awareness, but also our ability to bring inner ideals and outer objectives together in an harmonious manner will be considerably enhanced! And as we then radiate that energy into our environment, inner peace will translate into outer peace…

It seems that this is just what we — and the world — need at this point in time… 

Patterns

We can see patterns all around us. There are traffic patterns, often associated with for instance rush hour. There are weather patterns, the seasons provide us with patterns, but also the sun shining through the leaves of a tree creates patterns on the ground beneath it. 

And come to think of it, even the way in which plants grow follows patterns ~ a very unique, rhythmic pattern of growth, making it possible to identify a tree by observing its shape, its pattern…

Patterns are rhythmic recurring ‘designs’. This means that there seems to be a ‘cause and effect’ associated with a pattern ~ “If this is occurring, then that will happen”. This ‘cause and effect’ then makes patterns predictable.

In our personal lives, patterns provide structure.

Getting up in the morning, taking a shower, getting dressed and drinking a cup of coffee is my pattern to start the day. As long as I follow this pattern, everything in the world around me, or at least in my direct environment, fits in place. My start of the day sets me up with a sense that ‘all is good’, and that my day has every chance to unfold itself according to plan...

Yet when the pattern is not complete, for instance because I choose not to drink my cup of coffee immediately after getting dressed, the structure I have given the start of each day feels ‘off’. And continuing my day, it is almost like some part of me is waiting for ‘the other shoe to drop’.

Fact is that most of us feel comfortable functioning within a structure, and patterns give us a structure that is flexible enough to change on a moments notice when a situation requires us to do so.

And there is the rub...

Sometimes we experience patterns in our lives that seem fixed ~ when the ‘cause event’ takes place, we feel unable to change the ‘effect pattern’.

Frequently this is true for patterns that have to do with interaction with others. These patterns often have started during our childhood, and prove very hard to recognize. And as long as we don’t recognize both the ‘cause event’ and the ‘effect pattern’, it is almost impossible to break patterns like this.

Whenever the pattern is triggered, we find ourselves reacting in a way that we don’t necessarily want to, but can’t stop ourselves from doing so nonetheless...

In most cases we may not even want to break patterns like these — we accept them as part of who we are. In other cases, when we feel a pattern has grown into a habit, we may feel we do want to release the old pattern, or replace the old pattern with a new pattern that, while still providing us with the desired structure, better suits us at this point in life.

First published on November 4, 2011