← Encyclopedia of Tarot · lesson 7/121
The Lovers
The Lovers is the card of connection and of choice. It is often read as love, attraction and partnership, but just as much as a decision made from the heart — choosing a person, a path or a value and committing to it. At its core is the idea of union: two people, or two sides of oneself, meeting openly.
The image
A great winged angel, often named Raphael, spreads its arms above a man and a woman standing naked in a garden, under a blazing sun. Behind the man is a tree of twelve flames; behind the woman, a tree bearing fruit with a serpent coiled round it, and a mountain rises between them. The scene recalls Adam and Eve in Eden. Waite calls it "in all simplicity the card of human love". The nakedness is usually taken as honesty and trust; the two trees as desire and knowledge.
Upright
Love, attraction, harmony, partnership, a meaningful choice. Waite gives "attraction, love, beauty, trials overcome". The card can point to a relationship deepening, to a friendship or alliance, or to a decision where the heart and one's values must agree. Older decks showed a young man between two women, so the theme of choosing has always belonged to it.
Reversed
Waite gives failure and foolish designs, and by another account "marriage frustrated and contrarieties of all kinds". Modern readers often see disharmony, a choice avoided, values out of step with actions, or an imbalance within a relationship. Some readers do not use reversals at all.
Correspondences
Major Arcana, card VI. In the Golden Dawn system, which most English-language decks follow, it carries the Hebrew letter Zain ("sword"), the 17th path on the Tree of Life, joining Binah and Tiphareth, and the sign Gemini, so the element of air — the twins, dialogue and the meeting of two halves. French tradition (Papus, the Marseille deck, where it is L'Amoureux) gives some Majors different letters and signs.
In a reading
In the past, the Lovers can describe a relationship or a decision that shaped what followed. As an obstacle, it may point to divided loyalties. As advice, it tends to ask for a choice made honestly, in line with what matters most. Beside the Two of Cups it is often read as a mutual bond; beside The Hierophant, as a commitment made formal.
In astrology
The Golden Dawn's correspondences, which most English-language decks follow (French, Marseille-based tradition differs for some Major Arcana).
Sign: Gemini
Element: Air — the element of Gemini, Libra and Aquarius
Mode: Mutable — Gemini is a mutable sign