Steampunk tarot (Moore) - VI The Lovers

shadowdancer

Here we have a recognisable scene for those who are familiar with the RWS depictions.
The scene is one that has two distinct aspects to it:

The figure at the top of the card appears to be an angel. We see the white extended wings, but instead of the traditional showing of an angel, we have a rather buxom female with black hair. (She reminds me of any Egyptian Goddess for some reason). Behind her we see the sun - or is it a halo, or is a combination of both :)

She has her hands up towards her head, palms facing sort of a position I would describe as being 10 to 2 if it were a clock dial.

Below her we have a male and female holding hands. He is standing to the left of the card looking at the female to his left. His left hand is holding her right hand. She is holding the edge of her dark dress with her left hand, and is possibly either about to curtsey, or is about to take a hold for dancing. She may be about to do neither, but that the feel I get from her. (I now realise why - the dress reminds me of a dress from Walt Disney's Sleeping Beauty :) ) We see one foot under her dress, so it indicates movement on her part, whereas he is static in his stance.
Behind the gentleman we see numerous lanterns of light fixed to a pole. Behind the female we see a tree in bloom, 6 yellow flowers being prominant within the branches of the tree.

Barbara states the male / lanterns represents the active elements of fire and air, whilst she /the tree represents the more passive aspects of earth and water. Bring all elements together and you almost have a sense of completion and synthesis. And this is what happens when true love blossoms. Each person in the relationship becomes enhanced. I now understand why Barbara states that whole is more than the sum of the two parts.

I feel a little so-so about this card to be honest. I can understand that both parties are showing their feelings for each other in keeping with the etiquette of the era, but I don't feel at the moment I have many different directions I can go with it. The angel may be seen as giving her blessing for such a union and could prove to be an interesting focal point of a reading. Otherwise, as I type, I am not picking up anything of interest or note over and above how I usually see this card. If we needed extra confirmation that the bringing together of two different energies could prove to be a good thing, we can fall back on the inclusion of the lanterns and tree in bloom as described above.