LS Secret Tarot - The Lovers

I have read this card mainly as choosing betwen the known and unknown. The woman in the street is the known quantity the woman entering the building is the mysterious adventure with no sure outcome for the querent.

The trick with this interpretation however is to not always side with the mystery woman in a reading as ther are many times when you need to go with a sure thing in life.

As to the fingers, aren't there six up the number of the Lover card being VI?

Regarding the man holding up his fingers: My first thought is he is trying to figure out if he has enough money to go off with the girl holding up her skirt.

janomalee said:

Regarding the man holding up his fingers: My first thought is he is trying to figure out if he has enough money to go off with the girl holding up her skirt.

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Oooh I like that =)

However I do think he's going to have mroe of a challenge with th elady in blue.

janomalee said:

Regarding the man holding up his fingers: My first thought is he is trying to figure out if he has enough money to go off with the girl holding up her skirt.

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Interesting. I guess he might even be considering whether he should spend his cash on a night of wanton pleasure with the exhibitionist gal, or whether he should spend it on a classy meal with the blue lady.

I wonder if the fact he is holding up six fingers, means that the exhibitionist lady is charging only $6. Sorry... couldn't resist.

This card is called The Lover in my deck.
I also like the emphasis this depiction places on choice. I always see this card as a marriage card- not necessarily the marriage ritual but what you choose to direct you passion towards consistently. Anyone can make a poor spiritual choice here or there without dire ramafications, but what you choose to "marry" yourself to, be it a person, occupation, etc. will have an affect on your soul. Shakespeare said (in Hamlet) "Assume a virtue if you have it not.... for use almost can change the stamp of nature." So I see this choice as being not "of the moment" but sort of a Robert' Frost's road not taken making all the difference. The staircases go in two different directions and he looks to me to be choosing which life path to follow. I see the thing in the corner as a shuttered window. I'd never thought about it before, but perhaps it is showing that nothing is shedding light on this choice. There are no other human figures to give direction, he is morally on his own and will need to accept the full consequences of his action. A coming of age card for our Fool, who has had the lessons of the previous 5 cards and is now faced with accessing their wisdom and integrating it into his own psyche via his choices, or ignoring it and perhaps becoming stuck in habits of immediate sensual experience without discovering the profound pleasure of gratifying his higher self.

Centaur said:

In my version of this deck, this card is called The Lover, and not the Lovers. Is this a misprint?

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No, it's not a misprint. In terms of imagery and concept, this card in the Secret Tarot is modelled after the Marseilles deck's L'Amoureux card (which translates as The Lover) rather than the RWS deck's The Lovers card.

Likewise, for example, the Secret Tarot's Sun card is modelled after the Marseilles deck's Sun card rather than the RWS deck's.

Yes, I agree this card is about choice, but just because one of the ladies appears a little more overt than the other does not mean this represents a good choice and a bad choice. Normally, there is no such distinction between the two either side of the person in the middle and it would be wrong to make it here. I would ask whether the more sophisticated lady in blue really has any hidden depths to be found.

Sanctum_Priest said:

Yes, I agree this card is about choice, but just because one of the ladies appears a little more overt than the other does not mean this represents a good choice and a bad choice. Normally, there is no such distinction between the two either side of the person in the middle and it would be wrong to make it here. I would ask whether the more sophisticated lady in blue really has any hidden depths to be found.

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Maybe this card can be read either way. It is certainly about duality and choice. Maybe it has a moralistic component. The card seems ambiguous enough that it can be read with or without the moralistic component. The 'overt' lady does stand in the shadow of the building. On the other hand, there isn't really anything about her that makes her...unseemly, I guess. I mean, if the 'overt' lady didn't have her skirt hiked up in the air, she would seem just as dignified as the other lady. Anyone else notice that her undergarments are the same color as the other lady's gown? Red hair/blonde hair might be a good clue. I like the earlier post about the shuttered window. That's a good catch.