The Lovers

Correspondences

Number

VI

Hebrew letter

ז Zayin, “Sword” (value 7)

Attribution

♊︎ Gemini

Golden Dawn title

The Children of the Voice; the Oracle of the Mighty Gods

Thoth

The Lovers (The Brothers)

Marseille

L’Amoureux

Case’s key word

Discrimination

Path on the Tree

The 17th path, joining Binah and Tiphareth

The letter

Zayin, the sword or weapon, divides: it is the cutting edge of discernment. Its value is 7, and it is also the word for the male member, a link the Kabbalists did not miss. Case gives it the faculty of smell, the sense by which we tell good from spoiled. The Lovers is the card of choice, and Zayin is the sword that decides.

On the Tree

The 17th path descends from Binah to Tiphareth, bringing the Supernal Mother’s understanding into the heart. Gemini, the twins, is the sign of duality and its reconciliation; the Disposing Intelligence “clothes the righteous with the Holy Spirit”.

The Lovers in the Waite deck

Smith painted Adam and Eve naked in the Garden, the Tree of Life with twelve flames behind Adam and the Tree of Knowledge with its serpent behind Eve, and the archangel Raphael above them blessing with outstretched arms. Waite calls it, “in a very high sense, the card of human love”; Case’s key word is discrimination: Adam (self-consciousness) looks at Eve (subconsciousness), and Eve looks up to the angel (superconsciousness).

The Lovers in the Thoth deck

Crowley titles it “The Brothers” as well as the Lovers. It shows the Royal Marriage of alchemy: a black king and a white queen are joined by a hooded Hermit-priest, with a blindfolded Cupid aiming his arrow above. Their children, black and white, play at their feet; Eve and Lilith stand behind; the lion and eagle and the winged Orphic egg (prefiguring Art, its sequel on the 25th path) complete the picture. Crowley calls it “the first of the series of alchemical cards”: the Lovers begins the Great Work that Art completes.

Marseille

The older L’Amoureux shows a young man between two women, often read as a choice between virtue and vice or between mother and bride, with a Cupid aiming at him from the sun. The Golden Dawn and Waite replaced the choice with the marriage.