Legend: The Arthurian Tarot - The Lovers

RedMaple

Sophie-David said:
Hi RedMaple


...I wasn't clear with the metaphor - I didn't mean a sword of permanent separation, but was thinking of the image from John Haule's book which is occurs in the legends of Tristram and Isolt, and Siegfried and Brünnhilde (please see "Legend: Ace of Swords, Sword of Strange Hangings" for links).

In this meaning, the lovers place the naked sword between them in bed to preserve their chastity. It is a symbol of their own self-restraint. I think that contemporary couples can make the transformative process of erotic love more difficult in the long run by proceeding to sexual intercourse too quickly, so that the transcendent power of this most sacred and sensual living ritual may be diminished. When sex occurs further along in the process of an intimate relationship, rather than near the beginning, I believe it can achieve a higher and perhaps more lasting significance.
David

I understand your meaning better now, and agree. There is often a rush to sexuality before real intimacy has been achieved spiritually/emotionally. And then there is disappointment because the merging hasn't really happened. I agree that it is better if there is a growing into intimacy, so that sexually intimacy is an expression of a deeper spiritual and sacred intimacy.
 

WalesWoman

sophie-david said:
I think also of "love's wound", that part of us which is missing and yearns for completion in the other, the one who supplies the missing piece...
I think this is perhaps why people jump into physical relationships too soon, that the initial attraction and our deeper longing to reconnect, often times "fools" us into believing "this is the one" long before we discover who the other really is. Wanting this thing called love so much that we blind ourselves to anything other than what we see on the surface. I think the "proof of the pudding" so to speak, is thinking that if we connect on the physical level the deeper spiritual level will reveal itself, rather than the other way round.

sophie-david said:
In contemporary western culture there is perhaps too little emphasis on the power of the naked sword, love seems so easy and free. But the sword of separation has a way of deepening love, of bringing it to the depth of the Self, so that love's value is never trivialized nor taken for granted.
This is the descretion needed to assure we do get into the "right" relationships for the "right" reasons, rather than trying to fill that void created by "love's wound." This is probably one of the most difficult meanings of this card to discover within one's self and emotions. Is it love or our desire to find love, that creates our feelings for another or rather our perception of the other in order to fulfill our need. Basically, are we in love, sharing a real love...or in love with the ideal of it?
sophie-david said:
In this meaning, the lovers place the naked sword between them in bed to preserve their chastity. It is a symbol of their own self-restraint. I think that contemporary couples can make the transformative process of erotic love more difficult in the long run by proceeding to sexual intercourse too quickly, so that the transcendent power of this most sacred and sensual living ritual may be diminished. When sex occurs further along in the process of an intimate relationship, rather than near the beginning, I believe it can achieve a higher and perhaps more lasting significance.
This is the truth! The maturity of emotion as well as the maturity of the individuals is what gives added depth and significance. I began to say that women more than men, would be more inclined to think of giving themselves physically to another as that "ultimate sacrificial gift" to prove the depth and breadth of their feelings. Then thought "men and women" is more mature, more adult, more able to discern between their feelings and reason, more so than those that feel it's first stirrings, "puppy love." Hence, the sword to protect them and deny them from following their hormones before emotional maturity can catch up.
 

llongborth

Unsure about this card. The Malory story has Lyones spurning Gareth till she accepts he is a powerful knight - a materialist golddigger. Putting a modern take on the story and having the two as lovers is pushing the original story too far for me. A problem with theme decks in general, they have to 'fit' the theme into the tarot schema.
If this sounds negative, consider the Hierophant. For me the idea of a poet and bard, Taliesin, is as far away from the dogma soaked Hierophant as you can be. BUT then I thought NOWADAYS poets are free birds, THEN the poet and bard was the source of the law and history in a non literate celtic world. Taliesin WOULD have been the source of tradition and law, as is the hierophant. Seeing the hierophant as a go between - one who can quote dogma without necessarily knowing (or approving) gave me a wonderful new take on the Hierophant. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.
Great deck, btw.