The Pictorial Key to the Tarot
The Pictorial Key to the Tarot
The Pictorial Key to the Tarot
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VI. <strong>The</strong> Lovers<br />
sacred-texts Waite Index Previous Next<br />
VI<br />
<strong>The</strong> Lovers<br />
<strong>The</strong> sun shines in <strong>the</strong> zenith, and beneath is a great winged figure with arms extended, pouring down<br />
influences. In <strong>the</strong> foreground are two human figures, male and female, unveiled before each o<strong>the</strong>r, as if<br />
Adam and Eve when <strong>the</strong>y first occupied <strong>the</strong> paradise of <strong>the</strong> earthly body. Behind <strong>the</strong> man is <strong>the</strong> Tree of<br />
Life, bearing twelve fruits, and <strong>the</strong> Tree of <strong>the</strong> Knowledge of Good and Evil is behind <strong>the</strong> woman; <strong>the</strong><br />
serpent is twining round it. <strong>The</strong> figures suggest youth, virginity, innocence and love before it is<br />
contaminated by gross material desire. This is in all simplicity <strong>the</strong> card of human love, here exhibited as<br />
part of <strong>the</strong> way, <strong>the</strong> truth and <strong>the</strong> life. It replaces, by recourse <strong>to</strong> first principles, <strong>the</strong> old card of marriage,<br />
which I have described previously, and <strong>the</strong> later follies which depicted man between vice and virtue. In a<br />
very high sense, <strong>the</strong> card is a mystery of <strong>the</strong> Covenant and Sabbath.<br />
<strong>The</strong> suggestion in respect of <strong>the</strong> woman is that she signifies that attraction <strong>to</strong>wards <strong>the</strong> sensitive life<br />
which carries within it <strong>the</strong> idea of <strong>the</strong> Fall of Man, but she is ra<strong>the</strong>r <strong>the</strong> working of a Secret Law of<br />
Providence than a willing and conscious temptress. It is through her imputed lapse that man shall arise<br />
ultimately, and only by her can he complete himself. <strong>The</strong> card is <strong>the</strong>refore in its way ano<strong>the</strong>r intimation<br />
concerning <strong>the</strong> great mystery of womanhood. <strong>The</strong> old meanings fall <strong>to</strong> pieces of necessity with <strong>the</strong> old<br />
pictures, but even as interpretations of <strong>the</strong> latter, some of <strong>the</strong>m were of <strong>the</strong> order of commonplace and<br />
o<strong>the</strong>rs were false in symbolism.<br />
file:///C|/My%20Documents/Spiri<strong>to</strong>ality/Books/<strong>The</strong>%20...y%20<strong>to</strong>%20<strong>the</strong>%20<strong>Tarot</strong>%20-%20A.E.%20Waite/pktar06.htm [15/07/2001 23:10:18]