Haindl Tarot

VI - THE LOVERS

HEBREW LETTER: ZAIN, "SWORD"

RUNE: KEN, "TORCH"

ASTROLOGY: GEMINI

ELEMENT: AIR

The Lovers is card 6. On the Kabbalistic Tree of Life the sixth Sephira (emanation of divine power) bears the name Tipheret, which means beauty. Tipheret is the circle of love, and occupies the central position on the Tree, in effect holding all the other attributes together. It also unites the male and female sides of the Tree. In the Christian version of Kabbalah (often called Qabalah), Tipheret is the place of Christ, whose main attribute is love.

The Hebrew letter is Zain, which means "Sword." This may seem an unlikely image for love, but it becomes clearer when we remember that most traditional versions of this card show a young man choosing between two women. Because a sword cuts through things and separates them into parts, it symbolizes the mental act of discrimination; that is, carefully distinguishing between one thing and another. Such discrimination is necessary for a proper choice between any two possibilities. At the same time, love and sexuality are the areas in our lives where we cannot choose solely on an intellectual basis. We need instead to follow our desires.

A sword, like the nail of the previous card, is a phallic image. We should realize that in earlier times most of the esoteric paths were created by men. Sexuality, therefore, was seen as a mascu line question, with women as an issue for men to deal with. Even in those esoteric practices involving sexual rites, the women sometimes served as a means to awaken and transform the man. Sexuality leads to independence - this is one of the mysteries expressed in the card. Therefore, just as the Emperor has denied women creative and spiritual power, so he also denies that women are sexual creatures apart from men. In some societies, such as Victorian England, people believed that women endured sex for the sake of their husband's needs. In many places in the world today, people remove a young girl's clitoris, usually making this a ritual. Some people think only Muslems follow such practices; however, Aristotle, the founder of European rationalism, described sexual pleasure for women as "abominable" and prescribed clitorodectomy as a remedy.

This attitude is changing in modern times. Once again women are recognizing themselves as sexual and, just as important, as independent beings. In the famous Rider Tarot of A. E. Waite and Pamela Smith, the card of the Lovers changed from a young man making a choice to a mature man and woman standing together. The Haindl Tarot follows this modern tradition, in which the two join together as equal partners.

In connection with Zain, Haindl originally painted a sword pointing at the cup. He then changed it to a spear. In the Haindl Tarot a spear represents the element of Fire, while the cup stands for Water. Fire and Water are the primary symbols for male and female. We will see in a moment that the six-pointed star consists of a "fire triangle" and a "water triangle" joined together. The idea of joining the two opposing elements relates both to alchemy and to Tantra, the ancient practices in India for awakening the kundalini through sexual yoga. Most people know this star as a symbol of Judaism. It actually appears as an esoteric image in many traditions, notably alchemy and Tantra. The star, the spear and cup, and, in fact, the man and woman, all connect this card to trump 14, Alchemy. Both cards deal with Fire and Water joining together.

The Rune for the card is Ken, or K. The name means "Torch," another masculine symbol, and one directly related to the image here of a spear with a fiery tip. Descriptions of Ken often give "lust" as a key word, for the end of an aroused penis appears red. They stress, however, that lust does not mean something sinful or destructive, but rather a positive drive leading to reproduction and creativity. Now, the creation of babies is a very obvious result of sexual desire, but other kinds of creative acts also derive from lust. Freud described art as sublimation, a channeling of sexuality. Jung saw it as a transformation; the same energy changed into a genuinely new form. In some ways, both Freud and Jung gave a modern expression to a very ancient knowledge. The meanings for Ken refer to Fire as a creative force of its own. The hearth cooks the food and heats the home, while the forge allows people to create tools and objects of beauty from the materials of nature.

The shape of the Rune shows a single branch separating into two. We saw in the Empress that the first organisms on our planet were single-celled organisms, which reproduced by splitting into two parts exactly like the original. Thus the Rune echoes the origins of life, but it also shows the change from such simple forms into species of two sexes. If we look from the bottom up, the Rune shows that splitting into male and female. If we look from the top down, however, it depicts the re-union through sex.

The occult tradition sees the mystery of the sexes as a model for the universe. The cosmos existed originally as a spiritual whole. Then came the "descent" into material form, and with it the splitting of existence into opposite poles, found in male and female sexuality but also in phenomena such as light and dark and the positive and negative of electro-magnetism. Such traditions as alchemy, Tantra, Kabbalah, and magic seek to bring the two poles back together.

The form of the Rune joins us to Earth mysteries. A forked tree is used in the Native American sweat lodge ceremony that purifies the body for the coming ritual. We can also recognize Ken as the shape of a diviner's dowsing rod. People think of such rods as gimmicks for finding water or telling fortunes; in actuality, they focus a person's natural sensitivity to the energy patterns of the Earth.

The astrological sign for trump 6 is Gemini, the twins. Gemini is often described as mental, seemingly the opposite of the sensual card. However, it also means duality and therefore reflects the same idea as the Rune, that two comes from and returns to one. Some astrologers see Gemini as two-sided - phys-ical desire contrasted with spirituality. The glyph at first appears phallic; however, it depicts two pillars, a classic symbol of the vagina. In traditional Tarots, the High Priestess sits between two pillars, an image of the female gateway, but also of the gateway to truth. Therefore, Gemini relates to the High Priestess, the primary female card, and to the element of Water. But Mercury rules Gemini and Mercury is the planet of , the primary male card (usually shown holding a phallic wand) and the element of Fire. Gemini subtly combines the male and female.

The element for the Lovers is neither Fire nor Water, but Air, the element of mind. Of course, Earth is present as well, for even today we describe sex as "earthy" or even "dirty." Our sexuality connects us to the rest of nature. We will see in a moment how the imagery in the card suggests the ancient idea of the Earth itself as a sexual being.

The Lovers is one of the most complex cards, for it deals in several fundamental issues, including the nature of spiritual reality. The two trees stand outside the border, rooted in the reality of the Earth. Behind the trees and the woman and man, the land swells, while behind (and above) that is a darkness, a barrier between the Earth and the sky.

Vertically we see three columns. The left consists of the tree, the woman, and the goat. The right column is formed from the tree, the man, and the rose. The swell of ground, the spear, and the cup form the middle. These columns mirror the Kabbalistic Tree of Life. O O O O O O O O O O The right and left columns on the Tree represent the two poles of existence, while the middle column, with Tipheret in the center, expresses the harmony that holds the two together.

The Runic theme of two coming together into one permeates the card. We see two trees and two people, with two symbols above them. There are also two symbols in the center, but these two join together. As we saw in the Magician these two symbols, the spear and cup, belong to the rituals of the Holy Grail. The cup, in fact, is the Grail itself. Haindl has painted it very simply, to show that the spiritual qualities of love are not apart from ordinary experience. The Grail symbolizes love itself - divine, emotional, and sexual.

The trees refer us to the Garden of Eden, with its Tree of Life and Tree of Knowledge. Eden is Paradise (a word in Hebrew meaning "orchard"). Many people believe that Adam and Eve did not discover sex until they had eaten the forbidden fruit. However, the Creator made them to be sexual and to procreate; the Fall made them ashamed of sex, and so isolated them from each other and from God. The card, therefore, returns us to a vision of sexual love without shame, or hostility between the partners, a vision of sex as a way back to God.

We should recognize at this point that the card does not refer only to heterosexuals, or even only to couples. In many cultures people practiced sexual rites in groups, sometimes all men or all women, sometimes mixed. The imagery of the card, derived from the Biblical tradition, shows a man and woman, and deals in issues concerning male and female and the way they relate to each other. Nevertheless, the basic theme of the Lovers - love - applies to all people.

The trees also suggest a particular story from Greek mythology. Zeus and several of the Gods disguise themselves as human to visit an elderly married couple. Though the people have very little, they open their home to the strangers. As a reward for their hospitality Zeus transforms them into trees, so that they will remain together forever. As well as teaching a moral lesson on the value of generosity, the myth gives us an image of humanity and nature joined together.

The swell of ground between the man and woman represents the Earth as female. We will see this image more explicitly in the Hanged Man. Around the world people have expressed the idea of the Earth as Mother and the Sky as Father. This is not just an abstract idea. In our tradition we tend to think of religious matters as "theological"; that is, intellectual and apart from ordinary life. Others have not made such a separation. To see the Earth and Sky as sexual joins our individual acts of love to the patterns of life and nature. For people in less technological times, spring brought a yearly demonstration of this unity. As their own desires reawoke after the winter, so did everything around them - the animals in heat, the Earth pregnant with buds and leaves. In the picture the trees appear the same height as the people, a sign of harmony between humanity and nature. We see this theme also in the way the colors of the land merge with the colors of the people's bodies. Partly transparent, they join with the Earth. The transparency also gives a lightness, the "walking on air" sensation of people in love.

The man and woman are the same height, suggesting equality. The woman appears slightly larger, an indication of the importance of the female in love and in nature. In contrast to the Emperor's aggressive posture, the man stands with quiet grace. The woman's hair is elaborate, decorated. In many species, such as the peacock (see Justice and Death), colorful males compete for the females and in some human cultures the men will paint and groom themselves. But in most societies such practices go to the women. Here, the woman's hair resembles the pitted rock found on many cards, a sign of the ancientness of human sexual traditions.

In the ground we see the earthiness of love; in the people we see the emotional and personal levels. Above them, in the unicorn and rose, we find the mystical qualities. The images become more and more transparent. The ground and the trees are solid. The people are both physical and ethereal. Sexuality is the most bodily and the most emotional of human experiences. The unicorn and rose not only merge with the sky, but the unicorn is a head without a body, while the rose gleams within the star, a purely mental form.

With its phallic horn the unicorn symbolizes maleness. Modern paintings usually depict unicorns as horses with a horn. Some older images showed a goat, as we see here. The goat, too, symbolizes male sexuality, or, rather, a kind of sexuality we usually think of as male: a driving force, controlling the person. We will see this theme developed more fully in the Devil, trump 15 (1+5=6).

The rose symbolizes the softer, more subtle sexuality we tend to associate with women. Roses were sacred to Aphrodite, who lay on a bed of fragrant rose petals, the source of the English expression "bed of roses:" People give each other roses to celebrate romance. The color of blood, roses represent suffering as well as love. People suffer from sex; we become obsessed, or we feel rejected, or the body aches with desire. More deeply, we suffer because lovers die or love itself dies.

The rose is natural, voluptuous, sensual. The star is austere, an idea. The leaves at the six points bring the two together. In the same way, the human mind is both emotional and philosophical.

The two triangles signify male and female, Fire and Water, as cosmic forces. If we look closely at the card we see that the upward triangle is gold, the downward one, blue. Though they have become abstract, they may have derived from the body. A downward triangle depicts female pubic hair, while an upward one suggests an erect phallus. The star, in other words, depicts intercourse.

Tantric and Gnostic rites use intercourse as a means to awaken cosmic understanding. Through arousal linked to meditation, the sexual energy of the body - the kundalini - awakens, rises up the spine, and becomes transformed. There is a difference here from the Pagan practice of sexual pleasure linking humans to the cycles of nature. In Tantra the person seeks to go beyond nature. The male avoids orgasm, for that would release the raisedup energy and let it sink down again.

The Gnostics joined some of these ideas to Christian myth. They described Yahweh, the God of Genesis, as a false God, who created the material universe to imprison the spirit in gross mat ter. They saw the serpent as the hero, for by leading the woman to the Tree of Knowledge - Gnosis - it led her to potential liberation. The Hebrew word for knowledge - Da'ath - suggests sexuality, as in the Biblical expression "he knew his wife:"

Modern scholarship in archaeology and comparative religion gives us another radical reinterpretation of the Eden story. Merlin Stone and Joseph Campbell have each pointed out a possible older version. Here there is no angry Lord who expels people from a long-ago garden for eating an apple. Instead we find a Lady - the Great Mother - who brings initiates into her ever-present, ever-continuing garden of paradise by giving them her magic apples.

How did the story get turned around? Both Stone and Campbell hypothesize that the patriarchal Hebrews (the young Emperor) sought to discredit the old religion of the Goddess (the Empress). They banished her initiation ceremony and then turned it on its head, transforming the Goddess into a disobedient wife. The serpent became the chief villain because in Canaan, as in so many other places, the old religion honored the serpent as the Goddess's most sacred animal.

In discussing these issues of sexual politics and spiritual reality, the Holy Grail and pagan rituals, Gnostic myth and ordinary love, we may get the impression that all we need do is follow the old practices to achieve enlightenment, not to mention immortality. But of course the path of divine awareness is not simple. If it were, we would hardly need such images as the Tarot to point the way. Something in us prevents us from opening up our minds and lives to the great truths described in myth and religion. The Gnostics described spirit as imprisoned in matter. In the Haindl Tarot we see a dark barrier separating the Earth and the heavens. The barrier symbolizes our difficulty in transcending our weaknesses: ignorance, fear, isolation, the inability to love or completely give ourselves to someone else or even to our own joy. And yet, as the feet of the man and woman blend into the ground, so their heads, like the Grail, reach above the barrier. The Grail symbolizes both a path of initiation and the divine love that makes such paths possible. Its presence on the card of the Lovers indicates that human love, expressed in sexuality, can indeed raise us above our weaknesses.

We have seen that there are various themes in this complex card. We can summarize them as three levels, united in the bodies of the two people: 1. Human love. This is the theme that most reflects our ordinary experience. The card gives us a vision of people in love. Their arms are crossed and they hold the symbol of their joy. They walk on air; they stand strong and voluptuous at the same time. In contrast with the older ideas of adolescence or lust, this modern image shows the value of love and desire in people's lives. 2. Spiritual rites. With its references to Tantra, Gnosticism, and alchemy, the Tarot brings in the fundamental esoteric idea of sexuality overcoming the barriers between matter and spirit. Sex is the activity that most roots us in our bodies, takes us out of our distractions, and our feelings of isolation from other people and from the world itself. Because of this power, sexual love can lead us to spiritual awakening. 3. Sexuality of nature. Through sexual love we can bring back something of the archaic sense of the whole world as alive, renewing and fulfilling itself through desire. If we recognize that the Gods are sexual, and if, like modern witches, we worship a Goddess or God who will say, "All acts of love and pleasure are my rituals," (from Doreen Valiente's poem "The Charge of the Goddess"), then we will recognize as well that our desires join us to the rest of existence.

Through all these things runs one powerful idea. Sex and spirituality are not opposed to each other, but in fact form two expressions of the same reality. Most people will acknowledge the vital role sexuality plays in our lives. Even if choice or circumstance makes us inactive sexually, that energy feeds our activities. Sex is basic to us. So is spiritual yearning. The Tarot does not see the divine as something vague and unknown, outside the world. It views God and Goddess as filling all existence, including our selves. Therefore, when we understand our own being and the laws of nature, our own actions, especially love, will bring us to God.

DIVINATORY MEANINGS

The card of the Lovers may simply indicate the importance of love in a person's life. More often it refers to a specific relationship. This relationship is likely to be an important one for the person.

Usually the card indicates support from a lover. (I am using the term "lover" to apply to any romantic relationship, including marriage.) The two people have created something valuable between them. Through the relationship they have found or will find understanding, joy, perhaps courage that neither would have had alone. Together the two hold the Grail. The cup symbolizes their love for each other and the meaning it has given to their lives.

The position of the Lovers card in a reading is especially important. If it appears as the first or the central card, then it says that the reading concerns a relationship. If it appears in a position such as Hopes and Fears in the Celtic Cross, it says that the person desires such a relationship - or fears it, for we should realize that people often fear the commitment depicted in the card. The card does not mean giving up your sense of yourself. It does call for a genuine openness to someone else. In Hopes and Fears, the Lovers may refer to a specific person. The subject of the reading has met someone and desires a relationship, or a relationship has begun and the subject hopes it will become an important one.

If the card appears in a position showing Past Experience, it does not necessarily mean a relationship has ended. Very often it signifies that such a relationship has figured prominently in the person's life. Whether the relationship continues or is ending should show in the other cards.

If the card appears in a position showing other people, it usually signifies support from a lover. Sometimes the Lovers may come up in a central position, showing the relationship's importance, while at the same time the position of Others shows someone either hostile or simply withdrawn (such as the Hermit). This suggests that the person's partner may need to be alone for awhile.

There is a way the Lovers can indicate the person alone, rather than in a relationship. The Tarot, like other esoteric traditions, uses male and female to signify different states of aware ness. The man symbolizes reason, logic, determination, and action. The woman represents emotion, intuition, sensitivity, and, in the Haindl Tarot, creativity. Neither figure in the picture holds up the cup alone. They hold it together, just as they both look at it. The card teaches the lesson that we need to harmonize our "male" and "female" aspects - the same message that we found in the Rune. In a reading, therefore, the card can signify the person blending these various qualities. We should recognize, however, that the card more often means a romantic relationship.

REVERSED

The reversed Lovers may signify a relationship coming to an end. More often, it indicates trouble in a relationship. The people are quarreling or closed to each other. Whether this occurred in the past, or is happening now, or will likely happen at some future time, the position and the other cards should give an indication.

In a position such as Basis in the Celtic Cross, the reversed card may indicate a lack of love in a person's life. Other cards would show the effect of this lack. They may bring out insecuri ties or loneliness. As an example, let us say the central card is the Magician reversed, and the Basis (past experience that affects a person's life in the present) is the Lovers reversed. the Magician would say that the person feels weak and finds it hard to take action in life. We would then expect two possible meanings for the reversed Lovers. The first would be that the Magician problem is immediate, caused by trouble with a lover. The other would describe it as more long term, coming from loneliness, and the lack of love. Both meanings might apply at once. Difficulties with a lover, or rejection, might bring up deeper problems.

If we think of the card as a diagram of a personality in harmony, then reversed indicates a loss of balance. The person has become overly logical or overly emotional. The person acts with out an inner sense of what is right, or else feels so strongly about everything he or she finds it impossible to act at all. The other cards would make it clear in which direction the person has gone. The reader can then help the person see the need to restore harmony by bringing in the missing qualities.