keep getting the lovers...

[BrightEye]

...with regard to a particular situation. it's been persistent over the months. but how do i know whether this is about love or choice? does anybody have a way determining which meaning applies?

 

[star-lover]

i think this depends on which deck you use as some (like the cosmic tarot which i use) are completely unabivalent and say this is about true love and commitment with that special other person who is perfect for you - about the beauty and richness of mutual love - and other decks point more towards a searing test of the self in being landed with a difficult choice/dilemma - which is about learning about and loving yourself ultimately - quite a complex card anyhow

 

[BrightEye]

i have a lot of different decks and use the all, so the lovers card is always different. i get either though - the ones that emphasize choice as well as the ones of true love. not that i read all the time. we are talking months here.

 

[Cocobird55]

I think you need to look at the card within the entire spread, as well as how the question is phrased. That should help you decide.

 

[caridwen]

Are you in love? If the answer to that question is Yes then it means Love. If it is No, it probably means a choice.

It really depends on the deck, I dont' see the RWS Lovers as a choice, I see it as the epitome of Love in all its forms. Some of the earlier Tarot decks showed a man having to make a choice between two women. The stereotypical harlot and virgin. Lazy writers have referred to is as a choice without really considering the card's iconography. There is no 'choice' in the RWS, there is a naked Adam and Eve being blessed by an Angel. They accepted their love for each other as they were, it was only when Eve bit into the apple that they realised their nakedness and covered themselves up. However, even though they were cast out of the garden, they remained together.

Eve isn't biting into the apple in the RWS, she is contemplating the Angel as Adam looks upon her. It's a beautiful card showing a beautiful human experience.

 

[tink27]

I've gotten the lovers when there was a possiblity of a serious commitment. But I couldn't commit until I truly understood my motives and also the motives of my significant other. I wanted to learn everything I could, because I was scared and because love and romance are very important to me. I had to be sure it would work....and I'd watch how they would react to something I did or something I said. Then I'd think and think and think, tossing it back and forth until it felt I had interpreted it. It was kind of like a teeter, totter effect and frankly it drove me nuts! Thank goodness I let down the shield and risked everything to love.

tink

 

[Grizabella]

I've read that the Lovers is associated with the astrological sign of Gemini. And that it's a constant search for the other "inner" twin, or soulmate. Not that such a thing exists, but just the continuing urge to forever be searching for one's completeness within oneself and that it feels like a search for a soulmate.

 

[BrightEye]

This may very well be true:

I've gotten the lovers when there was a possiblity of a serious commitment. But I couldn't commit until I truly understood my motives and also the motives of my significant other. I wanted to learn everything I could, because I was scared and because love and romance are very important to me. I had to be sure it would work....and I'd watch how they would react to something I did or something I said. Then I'd think and think and think, tossing it back and forth until it felt I had interpreted it. It was kind of like a teeter, totter effect and frankly it drove me nuts! Thank goodness I let down the shield and risked everything to love.

as could this:

I've read that the Lovers is associated with the astrological sign of Gemini. And that it's a constant search for the other "inner" twin, or soulmate. Not that such a thing exists, but just the continuing urge to forever be searching for one's completeness within oneself and that it feels like a search for a soulmate.

 

[WaterSong]

Are you in love? If the answer to that question is Yes then it means Love. If it is No, it probably means a choice.

There is no 'choice' in the RWS, there is a naked Adam and Eve being blessed by an Angel. They accepted their love for each other as they were, it was only when Eve bit into the apple that they realised their nakedness and covered themselves up. However, even though they were cast out of the garden, they remained together.

Eve isn't biting into the apple in the RWS, she is contemplating the Angel as Adam looks upon her. It's a beautiful card showing a beautiful human experience.

I really like your interpretation, that's the way I see the Lovers too...in my readings it has always come up to signal an important, life changing relationship.....I don't connect with the concept of "choice" because we are always making choices anyways, about everything and all relationships are important at some level...that distiction of "sensual" versus "spiritual" love is a bit too judgemental, self righteous...relationships have both components, some may be more sensual than others, but at the end you need that in a romantic relationship.
The truth is that when the sexual pull ends in a relatiosnhip it is a lot of work to keep it going.

xoxoxox
magenta

 

[Vadella]

This is just a thought and I could be way off....

Is it possible that over the course of you receiving this card that you are over looking possibilities? Ones that you wouldn't even think to consider because you're set in finding something specific? Meanwhile... that one person or thing you're overlooking could actually be right in front of your eyes and you just don't know it. This happened to me. lol I was so goal minded that I just didn't care to look around and make a choice.