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The Lovers ~ symbolic meanings painted in the card.

The card of the Lovers portrays a handsome, fresh-faced blonde youth, dressed in simple shepherd’s garb and holding a crook in his right hand. In his left hand he holds a golden apple. Three women parade themselves before him, for this is a beauty contest, and the golden apple will be awarded to the winner. The woman on the left is regal and mature, with vivid auburn hair and blue eyes, robed in imperial purple and wearing a golden diadem. She offers the young man the globe of the world. The woman in the centre is young, seductive and black-haired. Her diaphanous rose-coloured robe reveals more than it conceals. She offers a golden cup. The woman on the right is cool and chaste, dressed in full battle armour; her pale hair is half-hidden by a warrior’s helmet. She offers a sword. Behind the four figures stretches an undulating landscape of lush green hills.

The goddess Hera, spouse and mouthpiece of Zeus, offers the globe of the world which represents the worldly authority and ethical perspective of Zeus, the Emperor.

Athene offers a sword, which we will meet later in the Suit of Swords, and which symbolizes the cutting power of the mind and the keen vision and decisiveness which belong to the mental realm. The goddess Aphrodite offers the cup of love, which we will meet later in the Suit of Cups, and which is a symbol of relationship.

Major Arcana ~ The Lovers

Here we meet the Trojan prince Paris, who was commanded by Zeus to judge a beauty contest between three goddesses - Hera, Aphrodite and Athene. When Paris was born, an oracle declared that one day he would be the downfall of his father s kingdom. His father, King Priam of Troy, sentenced him to death by exposure on a hillside, but he was rescued by a kind shepherd. Paris grew to manhood tending sheep, filling his spare hours with romantic conquests, for he was a very handsome and charming young man.

When a quarrel broke out on Mount Olympus between Hera (queen of the gods), Aphrodite (goddess of sensual love) and Athene (goddess of justice), as to who was the loveliest, Zeus decided that Paris, with his rich and varied experience of women, would be the best judge of the contest. Hermes was sent to inform the young man of this dubious honour accorded him by the king of the gods.

Paris understandably first refused the request, knowing full well that whichever goddess he chose, the other two would never forgive him. But Hermes threatened him with Zeus’ ire. Paris then kindly offered to divide the apple in three, for how could he choose between three such radiant goddesses? But Hermes would not accept that excuse either. The goddesses then paraded before the young man. Hera offered him rulership of the world if he chose her. Athene offered to make him the mightiest and most just of warriors. Aphrodite simply opened her robes, and offered him the cup of love, and promised him the most beautiful mortal woman in the world as his bride.

The result was a foregone conclusion. Paris, being young and therefore not yet clear about his inner values, chose Aphrodite without hesitation. His reward was the famous Helen, queen of Sparta and, inconveniently, someone else’s wife. Hera and Athene smiled and promised that they would not hold his choice against him, and then walked off arm in arm plotting the downfall of Troy. Thus started the conflagration of the Trojan War, which began with the anger of Helen’s cuckolded husband and ended with the city being burned to the ground and all its royal house destroyed. And so the oracle proved true.

On an inner level, the Judgement of Paris, as it is known in myth, is an image of the first of life’s great challenges to the developing individual: the problem of choice in love. This dilemma is not only about trying to decide between two women, or two men. It also reflects our values, because our choices mirror back to us the kind of person we wish to become. Paris, because of his youth and the driving force of his sexual needs, cannot truly choose from a mature perspective. His choice is made by his desires, rather than by himself. Here is the problem of free will versus the compulsions of the instincts.

The consequences of choices in love are enormous, for they affect all levels of life. The compulsive choice of Paris ultimately results in the great conflict of the Trojan War. It is not that he has made the ‘wrong’ choice, for he is not yet centred enough to balance the erotic attractions of Aphrodite against the result of stealing someone else’s wife. Nor does he know himself well enough yet to ascertain whether worldly power or a warrior’s leadership might be equally important to him.

The contest is forced upon him, just as life forces such challenges upon all of us before we feel ready, and in a sense his ‘mistake’ is necessary and inevitable. Desire for another person forces the development of individual values and self-knowledge through the messes and conflicts which arise from one’s choice. Such a situation cannot be avoided, because it is archetypal. Paris is an image of that side of us which, governed by the uncontained need for satisfaction of desire, cannot yet see that all choices have consequences for which we are ultimately responsible. Without passing through this initiation by fire, we cannot understand how we create our own futures, but instead blame the results on fate, chance, or someone else’s fault, rather than our own lack of reflection.

On a divinatory level, the card of the Lovers when it appears in a spread augurs the necessity of a choice of some kind, usually in love. The Fool, having learned about his own duality, must now put his values to the test. Sometimes this means a love triangle, but it can also mean the problem of too hasty a marriage, or a choice between love and a career or some creative activity. This card implies the necessity of looking carefully at the implications of one’s choices, rather than being driven blindly, thereby inaugurating, like Paris, a great conflagration.

I will explain in my readings what each card means, this is a general interpritation taken from the Mythic Tarot Deck

Information Source: Mythic Tarot Deck
[published in 1986 by Juliet Sharman-Burke and Liz Greene and Illustrated by Tricia Newell (not the New Mythic Tarot)]