Week at a Glance: The Lovers

The purpose of drawing a "Week at a Glance" card is to get a sense of the sort of energy, circumstances, or personal qualities I might need to be aware of during the upcoming week. I also use this opportunity to become more familiar with decks I don't work with a lot, so you will often see me quoting the creator of the deck or someone who has a closer relationship with the deck than I do at this time.

For the week of May 19, 2013 I am using Tarot of a Moon Garden by Karen Marie Sweikhardt, with instructions by Laura E. Clarson (U.S. Games Systems, Inc.)

My card is THE LOVERS.

Tarot of a Moon Garden

I confess that I sort of cringe when this card appears in a reading I'm doing for myself. The fact is, I am so not romantically inclined -- and the "natural" reaction to The Lovers card is that it could be about romance, tender trysts, and all things lovey-dovey.

Not to wander too far off track, but you can really see the "unromantic" streak in my birth chart. The only thing that suggests an emotional/romantic tendency is my 7th house in Pisces -- but that also suggests an unrealistic or "illusory" view of intimate relationships -- in my case, a view that was pretty much destroyed when I was about 16 years old. I had a "relapse" in my 30s but got over it.

No, I don't swoon and sigh when The Lovers card appears. Fortunately, I don't have to. In the Golden Dawn system, the card is ruled by the sign Gemini, an intellectual Air sign that typically is not known for romanticism.

In addition, The Lovers is a major arcana card and as such, suggests a meaning and importance at a "higher" level than we might expect with most relationships between earthly lovers.

And when we look a bit deeper into The Lovers card, we realize that it very well might be about the relationship between the Seeker and the Seeker's innermost or higher self -- or perhaps between the ego and the id? The conscious and the unconscious selves?

While many Lovers cards do show a loving couple embracing each other, other decks pick up the historic imagery of a man standing between two women, looking as if he is trying to choose between them. Thus we have come to consider The Lovers as representing the need for a choice, a crossroads of sorts requiring a decision to go in one direction or another. And the women on the card may not literally represent two people. They might represent two different paths -- for example, a freely creative yet risky approach vs a tried-and-true, somewhat dull approach.

As with all cards bearing the number SIX, The Lovers is often about peace, harmony, and a desire for the union of opposite but complementary components after a time of conflict and disturbance (the FIVE).

There are plenty of possible interpretations here to keep me occupied this week!