Tarot Card Meaning: The Lovers
A man and a woman, naked but not ashamed, stand in a meadow while an angel in purple looks down. Purple is the color of royalty and high spirituality. The angel’s hair is like fire, indicating passion, and below it is the sun, warming the lovers.
On the left, female stands near a fruit tree with a snake wrapped around it. This shows temptation, the Adam and Eve story. She, however, looks up to the angel with her arms open, as if to embrace it.
The man stands to the right, next to a tree of fire, indicating passion or the burning bush that God used to speak to Moses. The man is looking at the woman, with his arms open to her.
Between them is a mountain reaching up toward the angel, and a very twisted river snaking toward them. The Lovers card represents the unity of the feminine and the masculine, creating not just the union of sex, but representing romantic love and the joy of exploring sensuality with another person. Together, with blessing of the angel who brings them together, they forge a new path.
In a way, the Lovers protect each other from the full energy of each other’s tree: the man keeps the woman from being burned by his passion, and she keeps him from being bite by the snake guarding her forbidden fruit. Though they are naked, they hide the fiercest parts of themselves from the other.
Where The Lovers card is found in a tarot spread indicates where a person finds peaceful union, acceptance, and love. It can literally indicate a romantic relationship. It also shows how a person forms bonds with equals and those outside the family. Thus, it represents equality.
The Lovers Card represents the fusion of two things in order to become something bigger and better, despite inherent differences.
The Lovers card can show the completion of a task or effort that results in a happily ever after ending for the querent. It could literally show a loving romantic relationship, too.
When Reversed:
When reversed, The Lovers card indicates disharmony, where one person is in something for their own gain without regard for the other person. It can show where the querent’s affections are taken for granted or ignored. It can also show that the querent is being led on, or is leading someone else on.
The Lovers card reversed can show where there’s an imbalance in relationships in general, where one always gives and another always takes. It may also show conditional love, where one person is expected to completely conform to another’s wishes, to lose individuality, in order to be loved. In this case, it can show dysfunctional relationships that hurt the querent.
It may also show that the querent, or someone in the querent’s life, is hiding something from someone else that would be devastating if found out. This could be marital infidelity, or something important, like their financial worth, physical health, or problems in their past.