In fair Verona...
...from forth the fatal loins of these two foes
a pair of star-crossed lovers take their life...
from Prologue to Romeo and Juliet
A disclaimer (of sorts)
I'm going to telegraph the ending of this blog. While I think the Shakespearian archetypes are highly relevant to The Lovers card, IMO, the card's meaning (at a deep level) has little to do with sex, romance or choice.
Shock! Horror! There go half the card's keywords in a single blow.
For the sake of clarity: keywords such as sex, romance or choice may be relevant descriptively and within the context of a specific reading. My argument is only that they are not central to the card itself or for understanding the archetype that the card represents.
Hopefully you're still with me? Yes; then let's begin with:
A (very) short history of Love
In the 1400's the VI card was known as Love (Amore). Meaning assigned to the card seemed limited to marriage/marital fidelity and 'love' as an abstract concept. Waite notes:
The card is said to have been entitled Simulacyum fidei, the symbol of conjugal faith, for which the rainbow as a sign of the covenant would have been a more appropriate concomitant. The figures are also held to have signified Truth, Honour and Love, but I suspect that this was, so to speak, the gloss of a commentator moralizing.
After considerable cultural appropriation (primarily via war) the French imported the Tarot and created a version of the card called 'The Lover' (Lamoureux). This version of the card often depicted a male (the lover) choosing between two women (presumably the 'choice' was between his betrothed via an arranged marriage and the woman he truly loved).
When the Tarot de Marseille deck made its way (back) to Italy the French title was translated as being plural and the card became known as 'The Lovers'.
This is most likely the origin of the English title used by The Golden Dawn Society. However, the GD card seems more influenced by earlier and abstracted versions as the deck depicts Perseus rescuing Andromeda from a sea serpent (in an act of courtly love*).
When The Golden Dawn wound up two of its supporters (and personal rivals) produced decks:
Crowley's Thoth Deck where the primary characters are not the Lovers themselves but the child of their union:
"In the Thoth Tarot, the child is symbolized as the Orphic egg "the latent seed of life that we first saw in the Magus card, whose elements were married in the Lovers" that, as Crowley reminds us, 'represents the essence of all life that comes under the formula of male and female'" (Duquette).
The Rider-Waite-Smith deck which is steeped in religious mythology (perhaps more than any other card in the deck). This card depicts Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden in front of the Tree of Life, Tree of Knowledge and Mountain of God. We'll return to this deck shortly.
...And from there the vast array of modern decks. Most of these seem to focus on the two lovers (often at the expense of important symbology).
VI The Lovers
Chosen card: is from the White Witch Tarot by Maja D'Aoust. The reason for my choice should, by the end, become obvious.
Archetype: The Lovers are seldom seen as an archetype. Most discussion of the card focuses on the duality (two lovers) and choice (again usually in terms of duality, such as the choice between the spiritual and the earthly). So I'll leave discussion of the archetype for now.
Worth the Waite?
It is worth spending some time with Waite's Lovers card and the choice of symbology.
Yes; there is a massive religious influence over the card especially in relation to Trinity. Waite's focus is not on the duality of lovers, positive/negative, male/female etc., but rather, as I will argue, almost entirely about 3's.
In reference to earlier Lovers cards:
For Waite, 'The Lovers' replaces the earlier 'Love' card. The card is not about marriage.
'The Lovers' also replaces 'The Lover' (French style (TdM) cards). Waite describes these versions of that card as "follies which depicted man between vice and virtue".
Waite's card is "in all simplicity the card of human love, here exhibited as part of the way, the truth and the life." This trilogy is repeated many times in the card.
Symbology of Three:
Adam and Eve stand before the Tree of Knowledge (of Good and Evil), the Tree of Life (bearing its 12 fruits representing the 12 tribes of Israel) and the Holy Mountain of God. (Eden, itself, was said to be elevated on the Mountain as the only river flowed out of Eden.)
We see a man (the conscious or earthly part), a woman (the subconscious or spiritual) and an angel (the superconscious or supernatural part). Once again, three parts of the whole.
Adam and Eve are portrayed as innocent; true love free of any corruption. Eve is no temptress. As Waite notes, Eve "is rather the working of a Secret Law of Providence than a willing and conscious temptress. It is through her imputed lapse that man shall arise ultimately, and only by her can he complete himself. "
Not choice, not duality; 'completion'.
The number 6 is the double trine, of which we can only assume Waite was well aware. Among other associations, 6 represents 'God, Universe, Humanity' & 'Creation, Revelation, Redemption'.
At VI the card follows The Empress (emotive motivation), The Emperor (reasoned motivation), and The Hierophant (motivation through faith). It is only a small leap to equate these with the woman, man and angel and see completion; a unity of action that combines the motivators of emotion, reason and faith.
We see similar arguments from Crowley in the Thoth deck (as noted above). A purpose of unity, with the couple becoming one.
A higher meaning?
Waite dismisses all common associations that The Lovers card has with trivial love and romantic liaison.
"The old meanings fall to pieces of necessity with the old pictures, but even as interpretations of the latter, some of them were of the order of commonplace and others were false in symbolism".
In their place,Waite leaves us with a cryptic clue to the card's meaning.
In a very high sense, the card is a mystery of the Covenant and Sabbath.
Without delving too deeply into theology this appears to refer to the New Covenant where the Laws of Stone (Moses/Old Covenant) are replaced by 'the forgiveness of sin' and a covenant that is written on the hearts of man (sic). The mystery is the forgiveness of all sin (past, present, future) which is replaced with a love of the Divine; all that is required for good intent.
A covenant where actions are not driven by adherence to some rule. Rather, it is a promise to act in a certain way simply because it would not, given the covenant, make sense to act otherwise. So, yes, there is a type of choice here. But it is odd to suggest that while I would never do otherwise... that yes, I could; I had a free choice.
The Lovers' covenant is an absolute bond. Two acting as one without losing each other, and that's why I'm so attracted to the White Witch Lovers card. It shows a single face looking forward (without losing the two individuals) and in doing so embodies the very idea of trinity and completion. Two acting as one, motivated through a covenant of love.
Romeo + Juliet
So, by now, you might be wondering why I led with the Shakespearian couple? Well, the clue's in the next pair of lines:
from forth the fatal loins of these two foes
a pair of star-crossed lovers take their life;
Whose misadventured piteous overthrows
doth with their death bury their parents' strife
from Prologue to Romeo and Juliet
Romeo and Juliet acted from love, and for love. They became a single force that would live together or die together. But their deaths were not an end. The tragedy was the necessary catalyst that brought the two great houses together in unity.
An Archetype
And there, I think, we have our archetype:
To act out of love for unity (completion)
A covenant so strong that emotion, reason and faith combine to a singular purpose.
A covenant so strong it would unite Empress, Emperor, and Hierophant.
A covenant so strong that, while the action (at some level) is a choice, to suggest that an alternate action was possible is meaningless.
VI Héloïse (1101-1164)
While I chose Héloïse for her philosophical legacy, her private life was not unlike a Shakespearian tragedy. An affair with her tutor Abelard, a forced marriage, a domineering father, a daring rescue by Abelard, Héloïse's father castrating Abelard in revenge and ultimately Abelard becoming a Monk and Héloïse a nun; separated but clearly still in love and intent on common goals.
Héloïse accepted no guilt for her affair arguing that there was no sin in such deeds, only in the intent. If the intent is good there cannot be sin. "For it is not the deed itself but the intention of the doer that makes the sin. Equity weighs not what is done, but the spirit in which it is done."
One ought to act from pure love or devotional friendship rather than duty. Héloïse compared the duty of marriage to that of contractual prostitution.
Héloïse was, without doubt, the Philosopher of Love. She argued love was something irreducible, not merely physical, and not restricted to the body alone.
Her love for Abelard persists because her mind "is on fire with its old desires"; she cannot conceive of a love that begins and ends with the body as love encompasses the whole person. (Grain, 2015)
Héloïse insists that love remained, unchanged, after Abelard was castrated and they were forcibly separated.
While I am denied your presence, give me at least through your words - of which you have enough and to spare - some sweet semblance of yourself. (Raddice)
In Héloïse's beautiful and profound philosophy,
"Love does not easily forsake those whom it has once stung." In a complex web of interactions, responsibilities, desires and mutual pleasures, "the services of true love are properly fulfilled only when they are continually owed." (Héloïse cited in Grain, 2015).
While in later life their relationship was only via the church their series of letters is seen as "the evolution of their personal love to the spiritual".
Even though separated they achieved much together, including the urgently needed reformation of monastic life to accommodate the new and expanding community of women.
The Problemata (Heloise's Problems) are a collection of 42 theological questions directed from Heloise to Abelard at the time when she was Abbess at the Paraclete, together with his answers to them. From this discourse came a Rule that allowed Heloise to guide her women's abbey and establish a standard for all other abbeys. ...The Problemata not only produced a Rule for the women's monastery, but also resulted in Heloise applying Abelard's innovative dialectical method of approaching theological and other questions. This became a model for education that she maintained in her spiritual community. Thus, his spirit lived on in the intense study in which every woman at the Paraclete was required to participate. - https://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/heloise
Héloïse is considered one of the forerunners to modern feminism.
The Philosophers' Journey (Cards I to VI - a recap)
To have the courage to doubt and rebuild a world without bias or preconceptions (I The Magician).
To share and empower others through knowledge without creating false dichotomies or artificial hierarchies (II The High Priestess).
To nurture and care for all (III The Empress), to bring balance through wisdom and reason (IV The Emperor), to have belief, faith and value (V The Hierophant) then to be able to combine these in a single covenant and act out of love and for unity (completion).
That is, to discover VI The Lovers.
...and still not a Fool in sight.
Thanks for reading
Dr.T
Notes:
Courtly love was a medieval European literary conception of love that emphasized nobility and chivalry. Medieval literature is filled with examples of knights setting out on adventures and performing various deeds or services for ladies because of their "courtly love". - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Courtly_love
References:
Kerrie Grain,K., 2015, Héloïse: Love's Philosopher
The Letters of Abelard and Héloïse, trans. Betty Radice
Levenson, Jill L., ed. (2000). Romeo and Juliet. The Oxford Shakespeare. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Wikipedia, Courtly Love, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Courtly_love
Duquette, L.M., Understanding Aleister Crowley's Thoth Tarot: An Authoritative Examination of the World's Most Fascinating and Magical Tarot Cards
Waite, A.E.. "The Pictorial Guide to the Tarot"
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