Vertigo Study: The Lovers

This card has an image unlike any other Lovers I have seen.

I really do like it...it makes me think of carnival sideshows...
"see the Freaks! Siamese twins! Born with thier heads together! Locked in an embrace for all time!"

Thier heads make me think of eggs...these lovers are just hatched, newly born, seeing the wonders and beauty and love of the world for the first time, with brand new eyes.
And the little wings that resemble a hawk...or perhaps an owl, add to this image.
The wings also make me think of the classic story of Eros and Psyche...lovers from different worlds who came together after many trials and impossible odds.

Thier legs almost transform into fish tails....and I think of the those who rule dual elements...air and water.
Thinking and feeling....for True Love can not just be emotion...that would make it more like lust, I think. They must be intellectual compatible as well.

I also really enjoy the story chosen for this card...a tale from Constantine's Hellblazer about the love that can exist between an angel and a demon. (although you don't really get the sense of that profound allegory from this image...)
But more on that later...
First, I would love to see what others see in this card!

The Love of Mind and Heart

My most immediate response to The Lovers is a warm one, of caring and concern; it grows, I think, from a sense of their fragility and awkwardness. And this, in turn, is linked in part to a feature that Chronata has pointed out: their egg-shaped heads. These are strikingly oversized, too large for the necks that must support them, difficult to move without flopping over. I’m reminded of the same feature in babies, whom nature has apparently designed in such a way as to evoke our immediate caring responses.

I’m reminded too of the movie character E.T., who likewise sported an oversized head, and who evoked parenting urges even among the children inside the film and out among its audience.

The lack of proportion in the heads is echoed in the figures’ long, thin arms and fingers, which to me convey a feeling of subtle misalignment and awkwardness, as they did in the figure of Strength—and again Dave McKean shows how he plays with “preset” symbolic language to invoke a caring response towards the tentative, the fumbling, the not-yet-adult.

Partly as a result of that awkwardness—”He doesn’t know his own strength”—and partly from intention, the figure on the right (whom I’ll call “the Male”) has plunged one of these disproportionately long arms completely through the chest of the figure on the left (“the Female”—shorter, narrow-waisted, full-breasted) so that his hand sticks out her back, a disarmingly abrupt image, innocent yet graphic, of wounding intimacy.

It is in this gesture that “the Male” expresses the aspect of Love that desires to penetrate and to become One with the beloved, to possess a knowing of her body at the level of the Heart—here on this card, that urge pushes itself even beyond the bounds imposed by the body’s limits.

In a parallel gesture, “the Female” expresses her desire receptively, with a gentle caress that just touches an open hand over the ear of her beloved.

On the level of their heads, we see another explosion, as we have before, most spectacularly with The Fool. As the two foreheads lean forward and just about touch, the skulls open up, allowing a fiery back-and-forth flow of heat and light: desires, hopes, and fears are exchanged; the wall between two mentalities disappears and each shares a knowledge of the other. Here is the perfect exchange, but it is fiery, and can be explosive, dangerous.

And as if this is not enough to satisfy him, “the Male” seeks to intensify this intimate knowing of the “alien” Mind with probing antennae. His desires can seem ravenous.

To all this, I’d add the PS that with their large heads and strange proportions, the Two Lovers remind me (as other cards have) of figures from Akhenaton’s court—and like those figures, their gender and associated behaviors retain a certain ambiguity that opens the Lovers’ card to a far wider and deeper range of interpretation than the current cultural norm would allow. I’ve associated certain behaviors with this or that gender for reasons of clarity, but now Dave McKean would probably want us to muddy the waters again and let the unconscious have much freer rein!

Portent: Love comes awkward and fumbling, sometimes hurtful, never unexciting. You may be stabbed through the heart or you may feel that your brain is exploding, that your mind is no longer your own. Flesh and bone are fragile: treat yourself and the other with tenderness.

As The Lovers has a personal significance, that this card appears at this time for discussion also immediately appropos.

The first that strikes upon view is that of two bodies seeking union. As mentioned by Chronata, the mythological story of Eros & Psyche seems an appropriate association for its reference to the attraction between two beings of unlike worlds; the union of opposites. Much made of the concept of soul mates or twin souls & even misconstrued.

The nigh carbon copies of the bodies reflective of that concept. Of Gemini & its association with Air. The wing-like protruberance at the back of the neck of one figure also suggestive of Air (not sure the figures depict gender & which is which seems to change depending on the moment). Additionally, of the throat chakra & its association with communication. It seems to express the receptivity or the passivity of the one figure. Communication one of the traits attributed to The Lovers.

The lower bodies appear fish-like like that of mermaid & mermen; of Water. Thus, Air & Water seem as elements of The Lovers; however, the passion of Fire indicated by the colours surrounding the lower body portions. The lovers seem helplessly drawn to seek out & to connect with each other, as if in an undeniable birthright. As mere intent & will do not lead to merging as one, the physical contact a necessity borne also of a need "to know each other" through the sense of touch. Alludes to a basic means of human communication in the area of love & therein the reference to the element of Earth; to the earthly experiences. Touch can be either gentle or forceful. The other figure has plunged an arm through the heart center of the winged one, as if the intensity of the emotions propels one & succeeds in touching the other's core. Thus all elements come together in the quest for union.

The larger than usual heads reminiscent of the egg shape & its associations with life eternal or longevity. The head shapes with the reed-thin, almost awkwardly elongated bodies & limbs reminiscent of the ancient Egyptian depictions of the human figure as do some other images of Vertigo faces & figures (also referred to by etal). The delicate shapes of the figures seem to express the tentative gropings of new love; the tender ministrations of one to another & ultimately culminates in their emergence on another level. That is, whilst their lower bodies are surrounded by red & orange as of the lower chakras, the focal point is at their heads where the most intense contact seems concentrated.

The light atop the heads alludes both to the blessings from above & the higher level of being & includes understanding & commitment. At the point of their contact, there is a flash of intense light of a yellow/golden hue. A reference to the mental realm. The literal rise of energy associated with the heightened senses also equates with the raising of pure energy along the path of the chakras. The energy known by various names: Qi or Chi from the Chinese; kundalini from the Sanskrit. It describes the life force which may be used positively or negatively & is expressive of enlightenment or conversely, of lesser intent. It appears the true merging takes place at the higher chakra levels, where the ego self is blown away; not at the lower level of the gonads. Also an apparent emphasis on the "high" experienced through their coupling.

What I had not noticed previously are the dark tendrils protruding from each head that join their heads. Perhaps their true connection with each other is of a more intrinsic level that is not separated nor dictated by their individual bodies. Whilst it suggests a symbiotic relationship, an exchange or sharing of energies, those also seem to reiterate the mental or higher realm of connection.

Together, the heads seem to form a heart-shape as if in a physical manifestation of the explosive character of intimacy. The physical heart associated with the love chakra & the heart-shape formed by the heads as a collective thought balloon seems entirely appropos for The Lovers. In the human world, love oft takes a physical expression of heart images.

Another's heart is a delicate & fragile gift. Hold gently, with both hands.

The Lovers Reversed

On another thread—The Tower—bluediva posted a question about interpreting Reversals in the Vertigo deck, and I think it might be worthwhile to consider that question for each card from now on, just turning it upside down, taking a look, and reacting to the new image—just as we do with the upright card.

And so with The Lovers card Reversed, the most striking thing is that the lower halves of their bodies (surrounded, as MeeWah notes, by the "passion of fire") surmounts the upper halves—the egg-shaped, light-filled Minds.

So all of the bright intellectual and spiritual qualities that we associated with The Lovers become subordinated to their Passion, aka Lust.

Not that there's anything wrong with that!

But if this card showed up Rx in a reading, I'd be inclined to suggest that the querent, while enjoying the relationship fully, be aware that it might not be long-lasting, and—with all that fire centered on the groin—take every precaution against unplanned pregnancy!

Agree? Disagree?

etal

Tend to see (6) The Lovers, Reversed as expressive of its shadow qualities; as shades of (15) The Devil.

Unrequited love, aborted love, betrayal, a short-term love affair or engagement, love for all the "wrong" reasons. An arranged relationship or "love for hire". Can also see it as an unplanned or unwanted pregnancy, as etal mentioned. Even as that expression: burning the candle at both ends (based on the colours at both ends of the card).