Thoth Tarot · Major Arcana
The Lovers
choice · union · duality · love · analysis
A reflective starting point
What is The Lovers asking you to look at?
Meaning changes with the position, the surrounding cards and your question. Take what follows as a language, not a verdict.
Upright
A choice must be made with heart and mind aligned; a meaningful union or alliance is possible.
At first sight
Love, attraction, important choices between alternatives. It points to relationships, alliances and decisions that call for deep involvement.
Within you
It represents the meeting of inner opposites and the moment of conscious choice; also the tension between reason and desire.
On the path
Path 17 from Binah to Tiphareth, the letter Zain (the sword, 7) and Gemini, the Air sign of Mercury: the sword that divides in order to make union possible. It is the beginning of the Chymical Marriage, the meeting of opposite principles that must in time fuse.
The shadow
Ill-dignified, the Lovers signal indecision, infidelity, idealisation, or choices that divide a person against themselves.
Reversed
In the Thoth tradition a reversed card is read through its dignity with the neighbouring cards; this is its shadow side.
Inner division, a conflict of values, unbalanced relationships, or a fear of choosing that leaves everything in suspense.
In love, work and spirit
Love. Strong attraction and a meaningful bond; or a crossroads in love that calls for honesty.
Work. Partnerships and collaborations; decisions between two paths, to be weighed with analysis and integrity.
Spirit. The union of opposites as a path: first the analysis that distinguishes, then the synthesis that unites.
Correspondences
Zain ז · path 17 (Binah – Tiphareth) · Air · Gemini
Crowley's note
Crowley makes it the first stage of the alchemical wedding: a black king and a white queen are joined by a hooded figure beneath a Cupid loosing his arrow, and the work begun here will be completed in Art (XIV).
From the journal
Thoth Tarot
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