Judgement and The Lovers

Hi there

While doing a reading recently I was looking at Judgement and it reminded me strongly of the Lovers card. Am I just 'seeing things'? I looked at the angel above and the figures below. In the Judgement card there are lots more people, but the foreground pair are still the man and the woman. Now with a child between them. But the feeling of the two cards was similar for me. Can anyone shed some light on this for me?

Thanks

I see what you're saying, they do kinda look alike, both having an angel and man & woman. I think on one level there's a common thread, in the sense there's a common thread running through the whole deck, but on another level they represent two entirely different principles. In his Pictorial Key to the Tarot, Waite says Judgement has a stronger affinity with Temperance. Also in the PKT concerning The Lovers:

"The suggestion in respect of the woman is that she signifies that attraction towards the sensitive life which carries within it the idea of the Fall of Man, but she is rather the working of a Secret Law of Providence than a willing and conscious temptress."

I can see in Judgement this same "Secret Law of Providence" at work, only now in its final stages of completeion.

That is an interesting thought. How would you define the "Secret Law of Providence"?

In a way, Judgment is the culmination of the process began with the Lovers. Waite is not known for being a blabbermouth, but here he almost shoves the answer in your face, if you have the eyes to see it:

A.E. Waite said:

Herein is the intimation of a significance which cannot well be carried further in the present place. What is that within us which does sound a trumpet and all that is lower in our nature rises in response--almost in a moment, almost in the twinkling of an eye? Let the card continue to depict, for those who can see no further, the Last judgment and the resurrection in the natural body; but let those who have inward eyes look and discover therewith. They will understand that it has been called truly in the past a card of eternal life, and for this reason it may be compared with that which passes under the name of Temperance.

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The alchemical cards of the Lovers and Temperance come to fruition here, and "all that is lower in our nature" is, to me, screaming out a precept of Sex Magick, with the assumption that at the moment of orgasm one is at complete unity with the universe, and the buildup to that moment demands extreme energy, which can be directed towards the ritual's object. That moment is also when humans are most "as gods," as mentioned in Genesis, as then we transform into Creators. This makes even more sense when you remember Judgement is the elemental card of Fire, spark of Creation, and descends down to Malkuth of final manifestation.

I never knew Waite was so horny.

Gosh, I am never going to see the Judgement card in the same way again!

Sadsmile, that's the great thing about Waite, he's always throwing out little tidbits but never really spelling it out. He leaves it to the seeker to figure it out for him or herself. As I interpret it, it's not Secret Law of Providence, but Secret Law of Providence. That is, Providence is a Mystery that operates mostly in the dark, only occasionally giving us glimpses into its working. That's my view at least.