The Lovers
a.k.a. The Children of the Voice
a.k.a. The Oracle of the Mighty Gods
Card Number: six
Rulership: Gemini
Hebrew Letter: Zain
Translation: Sword or Weapon
The Lovers is the path between Binah (understanding) and Tipareth (beauty). This is the path where the personal ego is abandoned for the sake of the realization of the greater consciousness. It reflects the dualities that are found in the real world, and the intimate relationship between them. The male and female are the necessary split of the hermaphroditic One, but they are necessarily entwined for the sake of a material reality. It reflects the appropriate relationship between self and other.
The number six: The Sun and solar-phallic energy; spatial direction (as presented in their three binary pairings); Tipareth. In the I-Ching, six is the number of the yin, i.e., of completion. Time, space, astronomy. Number of beauty and the power of Love (no, not the Hewy Lewis song!).
Gemini: A bipolar sign of opposites. It is both creative and destructive. It is the sign of all things pertaining to Hermes, Mercury, or Thoth: of intercourse between (illusory) differing segments of reality or society, and the intellect or intelligence--i.e., writing, communications media, bohemia, detection, medicine, fashion, crossroads, markets, theaters, dens of thieves, traveling, etc. Its element is Air, and its animal is sometimes ascribed to the monkey.
Zain: Signifies whistling and applies to all piercing noises which penetrate the air and reflect themselves in it. Represented by a stroke, dash, or arrow. Everything that tends to a given point. As a grammatical sign it is the abstract image of a tie which connects things together.
Numerically, Zain is Z + I + N (Zain + Ayin + Nun), and this is 7 + 70 + 700 = 777 or 21 or 3.
777: Magic, creation. The number of lives we experience as different incarnations (700 as animal, 70 as human, 7 as Initiate); thus, tied to reincarnation.
21: Mystic number of Tipareth; age of majority. 3 x 7. The world as it is built back up in a better way.
3 we saw in the Empress.
In readings:
Dignified: Choice to be made intuitively rather than intellectually. Inspiration. Hunches. Second sight. Abstract thought. True partnerships. Internal harmony.
Reversed: Contradiction. Duality. Conflict with self. A partnership disrupted by external factors.
Mythological links: Castor and Pollux. Rekht and Merti. Apollo as the diviner. Janus of the two faces. Hoor-Paar-Kraat who contains within the twin Gods Horus (strength) and Harpocrates (silence).
Metaphysical Musings: Ahh...the happy lovers. Free from bondage and taboo they have the ability to participate in the pleasures of the All/One. Sunshine, happiness, and the beauty inherent in all things. The surmounting of the Abyss.
The weapon of choice is love as "love conquers all." Here we see a direct link to Crowley's formulation of the Law-as well as a link to Jesus' love for his enemies-(both of which are often neglected by many a would-be magician)--not only is "Do what thou wilt" the whole of the Law, but the important next line is often forgotten: "the Law is Love, Love under Will." We can not stress enough the importance of Love in the relation between the self and the world (for, in the end, it is revealed that the world and the self are one).
The Lovers represent harmony in all aspects of life, and especially within the psyche (for, in a Jungian sense, Reality is nothing more than the psyche made manifest). From harmony stems an abundance of all things working together in congruence. We can see in this arcana the paradoxical notion that dualities, while manifesting as differences, are a singular thing. In a meta sense duality is required for there to be a whole; that is, there is the meta-duality of the binary pairing of (binary pairs, singularity) which is the underlying foundation for any and all realities. As well, the Lovers capture the appropriate condition of flux required for the interaction between Everything and Nothing, which is why there is Something as opposed to nothing at all--the identity of the Empty Set with the class V (uncountably infinite and undefinable) set. |
Heh. Sorry. Couldn't resist it.