Tarot Of The Day June 26 2018 - Day 8: The Raven’s Prophecy Deck - The Lovers
I have begun the creation of an 89 day tarot course in a group I am a member of on Facebook ('A Kaleidoscope of Magical Perceptions' is the name of the group, please feel free to request membership - it is full of fun people and really great posts about all manner of topics) and I thought I would cross post the information here to this blog as well. Once the initial 89 days of the course have passed, it will start over using a different tarot deck. The text of the eighth session follows.
Ah, the lovers. It is probably the most desired card in a reading - not by the reader, mind you , but the readee! We have all seen or heard the trope of the mystic lady telling someone over a crystal ball or tarot cards, “I see dark, handsome man in your future…” And that Lovers card symbolizes the desires of the average person asking for their cards to be read. Does he love me? Will she say yes? Will I ever not be lonely? Questions of romance and issues of the heart top the list when you give readings to others.
However,like a couple of the other cards in the deck, The Lovers doesn’t always indicate romance or a relationship...unless it does.
In the Rider-Waite deck, the Lovers card is clearly a depiction of Adam and Eve, with a burning bush and the Tree of Knowledge behind them, respectively - the tree of Knowledge complete with the snake of temptation, just in case you don’t get the symbolism of the fruited tree on its own. They, Adam and Eve, stand nude, arms spread, as a red winged angel with flaming hair appears above them, with the sun shining stridently over the entire scene. It is yet another nod to the non-mystical origins of the tarot. They are the original lovers, and so stand as archetype for the card.
In the Rider-Waite booklet, the keywords for the Lovers are as follows: attraction, love, beauty, trials overcome (upright,) failure, and foolish designs (reversed.)
In Maggie Stiefvater’s Raven’s Prophecy deck, she depicts the Lovers as two stags, one white, one black, with their horns locked and their heads together, not unlike a yin yang symbol. She writes,
“Nine times out of ten when this card appears in a reading, the person I’m reading for blushes and blusters. “I have no love life!” insists the embarrassed recipient. And often, they’re right. This card can represent actual lovers, and when uit does, the love pictured is epic - the pairing of two souls so complementary that it seems obvious that some greater power has designed them for each other. But it can also represent a duality inside you, and the complementary pairing it refers to is your inner self and your outer self. Just like in a great love affair, everything is perfect when both sides of you are working in harmony. And just like in a great love affair, the world crumbles when you war with yourself. ...The card speaks to the power of wholeness and knowing yourself. It also represents a pair of lovers who are greater together than they are individually.”
They keywords she gave for the Lovers card are love, pairing, duality, and values.
Tomorrow - The Chariot
***TOTD will cover the entire 78 card Raven’s Prophecy Deck alongside the Rider-Waite deck for comparison. In order to not completely burn out, this course of lessons will be 89 days long, so that every Saturday I can break the lessons up by doing a practicum lesson. Practicum lessons will take the form of a layout or spread that I will walk you through the steps of interpretation for. After the first 89 day session ends, we will start over with a one day break for a poll to be done to see what deck everyone wants to see next round. ***
I have begun the creation of an 89 day tarot course in a group I am a member of on Facebook ('A Kaleidoscope of Magical Perceptions' is the name of the group, please feel free to request membership - it is full of fun people and really great posts about all manner of topics) and I thought I would cross post the information here to this blog as well. Once the initial 89 days of the course have passed, it will start over using a different tarot deck. The text of the eighth session follows.
Ah, the lovers. It is probably the most desired card in a reading - not by the reader, mind you , but the readee! We have all seen or heard the trope of the mystic lady telling someone over a crystal ball or tarot cards, “I see dark, handsome man in your future…” And that Lovers card symbolizes the desires of the average person asking for their cards to be read. Does he love me? Will she say yes? Will I ever not be lonely? Questions of romance and issues of the heart top the list when you give readings to others.
However,like a couple of the other cards in the deck, The Lovers doesn’t always indicate romance or a relationship...unless it does.
In the Rider-Waite deck, the Lovers card is clearly a depiction of Adam and Eve, with a burning bush and the Tree of Knowledge behind them, respectively - the tree of Knowledge complete with the snake of temptation, just in case you don’t get the symbolism of the fruited tree on its own. They, Adam and Eve, stand nude, arms spread, as a red winged angel with flaming hair appears above them, with the sun shining stridently over the entire scene. It is yet another nod to the non-mystical origins of the tarot. They are the original lovers, and so stand as archetype for the card.
In the Rider-Waite booklet, the keywords for the Lovers are as follows: attraction, love, beauty, trials overcome (upright,) failure, and foolish designs (reversed.)
In Maggie Stiefvater’s Raven’s Prophecy deck, she depicts the Lovers as two stags, one white, one black, with their horns locked and their heads together, not unlike a yin yang symbol. She writes,
“Nine times out of ten when this card appears in a reading, the person I’m reading for blushes and blusters. “I have no love life!” insists the embarrassed recipient. And often, they’re right. This card can represent actual lovers, and when uit does, the love pictured is epic - the pairing of two souls so complementary that it seems obvious that some greater power has designed them for each other. But it can also represent a duality inside you, and the complementary pairing it refers to is your inner self and your outer self. Just like in a great love affair, everything is perfect when both sides of you are working in harmony. And just like in a great love affair, the world crumbles when you war with yourself. ...The card speaks to the power of wholeness and knowing yourself. It also represents a pair of lovers who are greater together than they are individually.”
They keywords she gave for the Lovers card are love, pairing, duality, and values.
Tomorrow - The Chariot
***TOTD will cover the entire 78 card Raven’s Prophecy Deck alongside the Rider-Waite deck for comparison. In order to not completely burn out, this course of lessons will be 89 days long, so that every Saturday I can break the lessons up by doing a practicum lesson. Practicum lessons will take the form of a layout or spread that I will walk you through the steps of interpretation for. After the first 89 day session ends, we will start over with a one day break for a poll to be done to see what deck everyone wants to see next round. ***
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