Choices and Values

This is like the third time this card has come up as my daily draw in the last week. I didn’t forget that it’s Valentine’s Day Sunday, so that can’t be it.

In my previous post, which can be seen here, I focused on the relationship aspects of this card, and how it depicts a loving interdependent (as opposed to co-dependent) relationship.  Today I’m going to discuss how this card can indicate that there is a choice that you must make.

Pamela Coleman Smith’s drawing in the RWS deck doesn’t do much to illustrate the aspect of choice as much as other cards do, although one can argue that the Garden of Eden setting with the snake coiled around the apple tree depicts the first consequential choice made by humans, so the choice aspect is implied. Other decks are not so subtle about it.

(I used the Marseille Tarot today to get the point across. I was trawling for a different card which has a similar theme except that it is closer in style to the RWS and one of the woman looks like she stepped out if The Devil. You probably know the one I’m talking about. I’m sure it’s from a famous enough deck but it escapes me right now. I’ll probably stumble upon it tomorrow. )

This is where the interpretation of the card leans more towards values and personal beliefs—that’s the area in which the choice must be made. The Lovers is a Major Arcana card, so the implications and impact of whatever choice you make will be significant. We’re talking potential life-path changes, for example, not what you’re going to order from the menu—unless your meal comes with an unusually prescient fortune cookie.

As the card implies the choice you are offered may have moral implications. You may need to choose between the path of ideals and values and the path of least resistance, between a high road and a low road, between what servers your higher purpose and what seems quick, easy and seems to feel good in the moment if you don’t think about it too much.  I see a correlation between the “higher calling” aspect of the Judgement card, and the encouragement to follow higher emotional and spiritual aspirations in The Lovers, a raising of vibrations.

Interestingly, the RWS deck shows this path to higher love consciousness as passing through the woman standing in front of the serpent-infested apple tree. She seems to have the direct connection to Archangel Raphael. She also seems be the same woman who, according to some, is responsible for original sin and the downfall of man.  Can both concepts be true? You’ll have to choose for yourself what to believe.