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Thoth- ATU 6-The Lovers

The Oracle of the Mighty Gods.

Rest in Simplicity, and listen to the Silence.

-Crowley

ATU/Key 6- THE LOVERS astrological sign is Gemini and is about the joining together of the female yin and the male yang. The magnetic and electric forces joining together to create a greater Self. This card represents the universal principle of the art and craft of relationship; the union of opposites that creates everything. The Lovers is about the Duality of the Divine Creative---Goddess/God , 0=2, and everything about this card is dual. This is the journey of the twins, a universal motif found in all cultures. Hansel and Gretel, Raggedy Andy, and Raggedy Ann , even Cain and Able; all the famous couples throughout history reflect this archetype of the Lovers.

The Lovers card is about love and relationships and reminds us that we are to be joyful and innocent in love (the two children) while exhibiting curiosity and playfulness; the adult couple facing each other remind us of loyalty and commitment. The Thoth Hermit, whose hands are held in blessing over the Royal Couple , reminds us of the need to be alone and granting the gift of spaciousness for the purpose of individual contemplation, introspection and inner self meditation. All parts of balanced and flowing Love. The Iron gates in the background of the Thoth card symbolize the Lovers' need not to be limited, bared or restrained in their relationship. When this card is drawn it often symbolizes a loving relationship, soon to be or even a marriage and/or the inner balance of the female-Anima and male-Animus forces in an individual.

In his school text, THIRTY-TWO PATHS OF WISDOM, B.O.T.A. founder Dr.Paul Foster Case called THE LOVERS, the Disposing Intelligence. The complexity of this card can barely be presented by the image on the card, and is even difficult to understand as a disposing intelligence.

THE LOVERS, the Path of Zain (meaning Sword), runs between Binah (understanding) and Tiphareth (Beauty) and connects the Pure Conscious, from which all form emerged (Binah) with the central point of Manifestation (Tiphareth). The Term Lovers, seems simple enough, yet it is a complex and profound card, as it is not just about the love of two humans, but rather the Twins or duality of the individual united in pursuit of Divine Love. The True meaning of Key 6, is embedded in the Astrological sign Gemini, The Twins. The Dual Intelligent Forces of Male and Female, (electric and magnetic, intuition and rational), are what THE LOVERS proposes to unite. These are equal and opposite Intelligence that must be united as a major step towards the Godhead on the Tree of Life. The surging of the Divine One Energy, across the Abyss into manifestation, (Tiphareth-Soul) formed stable dualities;0=2. The Lovers card is also representative of the loving relationship a Magi must make of the Cain and Abel inside each of us, i.e. the animal and spirit or subconscious and Soul-Psyche.

The Great Work, is a return to the primeval state (As above so below) by the communion or "marriage" of these dualities of manifestation.

As Robert Wang wrote about the Path of Zain (meaning; sword or armor) in his book: THE QABALISTIC TAROT," Thus this path may be considered the aspect of the Garden of Eden, from which mankind was expelled, but to which it may earn re-entry by conscious dealing with what has been called the inner Sun and Moon. The whole key to the Great Work is uniting of the Sun and the Moon under Mercury (the planet ruling Gemini)."

On the Thoth Tarot Card, THE LOVERS, the Sun is the man, the Moon is the Woman, and the Divine Fire that is above the Abyss (The Vital Force or Serpent Force), is represented as Cupid. Dr.Paul Foster Case has stated that, the Sun is self-consciousness and that the Moon is sub consciousness. He considered these as both aspects of the One Life Breath, each working half of the body. Today we know them as the Male half and the Female half of the human brain. As Case has stated, “When the Solar and Lunar currents of the Life-Power are rightly perceived, rightly discriminated, and when their operation is kept in proper order, the personality of the man engaged in this practice becomes a free, unobstructed channel for the outpouring of the cosmic life force." Case considered THE LOVERS card to represent one of the dualities united by the Spiritual Self. Just as most Tantric, and Gnostic practitioner's do. To the Qabalist, The Lovers, represents the union of manifested opposites under the Divine Love of the Supernal (Upper triangle of the Tree of Life) through Binah---The Great Mother. Thus, the Crowley Thoth Card is also considered to depict the theme of anima and animus union as and Alchemical "Hermetic Marriage" of the component parts of the seeker. Represented here is the alchemical maximum of Solve et Coagula-"solution and coagulation" which is a story of marriage and pregnancy. Hence, the main character in this card is the Child, who is represented as the Orphic Egg, at the bottom of the card, that as Crowley reminds us, "represents the essence of all life that comes under the formula of male and female." Now this alchemical process begins and ends in stages: The process of  Solve begins in the Lovers ATU 6-The wedding,; ATU 14-Art-is the honeymoon and the process of Coagula begins; in ATU 9-The Hermit fertilizes the egg; in ATU 13-The Death Card, the egg settles down to hatch.

The Path of Zain is an active path, for the self-control and will attributed to Mercury which directs the movement and integration of opposites, is not passive, hence the red lion (emperor) and the white eagle (Empress) shown on card. In fact, it is the fiery force or the Serpent Force known as the Kundalini which is masculine fiery force, united with the Feminine Watery force (flowing in waves as "serpentine:), both in equal measure and full of fiery dynamic and inspirational qualities.

The inner hermetic marriage is a red-hot marriage, officiated by the Priest/Hermit and Eros (Love of Flesh) is shown aiming his arrow at noone. This marriage becomes the Art Card, where the red lion and the white eagle exchange colors, completing the Honey Moon and resulting "little death". For sure there is a type of death here, as the process of union begins annihilating the past personality, as well as, crossing the Abyss means the death of one's own concepts of self creating an new individuality of O-ne from 2. This devastating passage is a willful and total self-destruction and immersion into the Divine. Hence the Death card as the "settling down and nesting " to hatch the young.

THE LOVERS card also relates to the Hermetic Marriage, or "Chemical Wedding", as written in the 17th century text called: The Chemical Wedding of Christian Rosenceutz which is one of the key documents of Western Hermetic-Qabalism. I've found this alchemical text very readable, much like a fairy tale, and yet one of the most profound pieces of esoteric or Gnostic symbolism ever written. The fact that the word Sword or Armor (Zain) is the word meaning of this path and that blood is spilled on this path (self-sacrifice), are all reconciled and/ or reinforced in this text and is artistically shown in the the story. This understanding requires some meditation on the depth of Love as the law.

I'll leave you with a quote from the Gnostic Text, The Gospel of Didymos Judas Thomas where it is written that Jesus answered his disciples with::

(22) " When you make the Two One, and when you make the inside like the outside and the outside like the inside, and the above like the below, and when you make the male and the female one and the same, so that the male not be male nor the female, female; and when you fashion eyes in place of an eye, and a hand in place of a hand, and a foot in place of a foot, and a likeness in place of a likeness; then you will enter the kingdom." Jesus obviously knew of the Principles attributed to THE LOVERS card, but then he was a Nazarene Gnostic Master which is a Qabalist...the Word Christos is Greek and refers to the Sun!

Gothic Tarot-Key 6-The Lovers.

Borne on the wings of love, passion and sensuality.

There is absolutely no metaphysical or occult meaning to the Gothic Tarot-Key 6-The Lovers. However, there is a type dagonish yin yang representation. Showing 2 dragons uniting in a "Dragonish greeting". As stated before, these cards are all about the gothic art of Anne Stokes and not any real deep magical mysteries.

When the Lovers card is thrown in a reading, it implies:

• Open to inspiration, intuition,  and intelligence.
• Second sight.
• Avowal and free decision from the depths of the heart.
• When THE LOVERS is thrown during a reading, it is stating a principle of:
• Art and Craft of Relationship.
• What is also suggested is the magical image of the power of surrender in which one form is given up in order to attain another.
• Being involved in a process of cooperation. ---combining energies for a common goal.
• Yin Yang attraction of polarities, or universal forces for one another.
• The power of sexual surrender to the Goddess within.
• This card can also mean a love affair with some sort of trial or choice involved... be it marriage or profane love.
• There is the Tantric Philosophy here also, only through physical union with a female can either a man or god, achieve true reality and the power to deal with it; A Spiritual/ sexual union, is required for shamans, priests, and holy men with the female is required before they gain full possession of their powers.
• In other words, the union of rational male right brain with imaginative female left brain must be a thing of beauty.
•  

When ill defined by the surrounding cards in a reading:

• Unattainable ideal of Love.
• Repressive neurosis.
• Self-sacrifice.
• Indecisiveness.
• Inconsistency within one-self.

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