Letter: Vav (W) = Taurus
Path: Between Keter and Binah
Quality: House of Property
Trump 6 the Lovers points to the charged eros-magical field that springs up between the Lover and the Beloved. In this field new lives are created, gestated, and brought to birth. Unanticipated worlds come into existence evoked by the charisma between the charmed opposites. Trump 6 presents Sophia as Lover and personal tutor of the scribe, who opens the path to success and riches but only if she is valued over all other offers.
The final antithesis card in this responsive fiery group of Trumps is usually called The Lovers. But in Tarot’s early days the title refers directly to Love, meaning the discipline of eros-magic, which is a branch of sympathetic magic. Trump 6 actually signifies the energy running between the Lovers (be they infernal, human, or supernal), highlighting the magnetic, irresistible field of mutual attraction.
This was traditionally symbolized by a cherub with a bow and arrow aimed at one or the other in the charmed couple. The language of eros-magic is replete with images of Love’s dart piercing the Lover’s heart and stealing attention away to the Beloved. There is something fateful, some kismet or karmic gravity operating beyond the will of the individuals involved, which brings the opposites together to complete their mutual fate.
The Lovers is one of the most variable Trumps of the pageant, showing a number of different aspects over the centuries. An early version shows one or more couples meeting, strolling, and dancing in a public place, playing out local courtship rituals under the watching gaze of the community (or at least the community’s proxies, the Lovers’ personal Pages).
In the decks bearing this image, the Lovers seek a union that benefits the blending bloodlines, one that will solidify village prosperity, being sanctified in the local religious context. Another early Lovers image shows a “meeting at the crossroads” theme. In this case the Lovers’ paths only cross in a place that’s at some distance from the either one’s natural domain.
Arriving from entirely different realms, the Lovers meet as in the traditional Scottish song “Comin’ Through the Rye.” Venturing forth from the safety of their known worlds, opposites attract and the loving couple celebrate their attraction “in the rye.” The issue in this case in not about choosing one path over the other.
Rather, what we have here is the symbol of fate leading two unique destinies away from their self-created spheres into a neutral space that is safe for their private union. (Think of the Lovers in the Cary-Yale Visconti pack where we see the loving couple standing in front of a lavishly-appointed marriage bed, whence they will repair, draw the curtains, and take their leisure.)
After the mid-1600s this card begins to show the image of a youth stopped at a split in the road forced to choose between two very different paths. The difference between the two directions is usually cast as a choice to follow carnal appetites and the animal sensibilities on one side (seduction), contrasted against accepting a spiritual assignment and cultivating the inner senses along the other path (self-discipline).
The Magus has to be very self-knowing and wise at this juncture in order to make a choice that he can live with for the future as well as the present. The fundamental question posed at this crossroads is “Shall I go with my instincts or shall I follow reason’s guidance?” There’s actually no wrong answer to make at this crossroads, which appears so often in a person’s life.
However, by answering this question in either possible way, fateful developments determine future relationships to everyone and everything. Trump 6 of Tarot of the Holy Light shows balanced opposites in a willing union. The chivalric Alchemy of Boehme teaches that the best results arise when the fiery forces of ego are put in service to the illumined forces of Spirit.
This orientation allows for magical results. As in our Great Arcanum, celestial Light (active) and terrestrial Fire (responsive) are inherently entwined with each other. But remember, Boehme’s followers were not subscribers to the old male-dominated, patriarchal philosophies. In the thinking of Paracelsus and Boehme, the excessively harsh Wrathful father-force requires a soothing, quenching immersion in Sophia, the Holy Spirit.
Spirit’s sensitive understanding of the gap between the heavenly ideal and the compromised real introduces healing to the roiling chaos of Jehovah’s demanding intensity, allowing him to reveal his Heart, the Son/Sun. It’s a match made in Heaven, symbolically and literally (referring to the 13-times-a-year renewal that happens every new Moon).
The above text is an excerpt from our book Tarot of the Holy Light: A Continental Esoteric Tarot - Volume One.
