Greetings!
It is now time for us to enter the realm of the sixth arcana of the Major Trumps, titled The Lovers. Now this card is specifically related to the "lovers" its not about love per se. This is very important for us to understand right in the beginning. The term "lovers' from the tarot is a technical one and should be commented upon a little.
Lovers in the tarot means "union" in this card. Its very important to ask "what union". It is very well known that the ideas symbolized in this card are best portrayed as Married. This does not mean that we are advocating that marriage is the only term that is being promoted, however it is apparent that marriage as a union is the definite picture that is being presented in this icon.
But what kind of union are they depicting. Most of the time its cupid up in the heavens that is shooting an arrow at the couple, this could mean in our gnostic sense that there are "angels" or messengers from above that guide us to and away from marriage. It doesn't however mean that we are 'destined' for one or the other but that its always a choice. This power of choice in the MAN , which means Manas, "the thought" is that the mind is the force that guides the union or discord. It is in the mind that these things should take place. The "feminine" force is that of manifestation. It is the grand Sophia in our universe presenting the fruits of our labor. It is in effect the real couple that as archetypes is a model for thinking and manifestation. In addition to the pseudo historical story concerning the most ancient of couples, cupid is giving us a great look into the reality of our "obsession with the Adam and Eve perspectives" we as the viewer are being given a look at how cupid has shot "us" with the arrow, meaning we are victims of a "love" spell and we are lovers of this story.
In the west, there are many versions of the romantic tales, some are victorious and others are sad, we have the Romeo and Juliet of history showing what happens when a house is divided against it self, it kills the two that are seeking union. Meaning there is a canceling out of the two polarities when one polarity is chosen over others. We are very much led into the psychological field of CG Jung when we look at it this way. Now seeing that we are perhaps obsessed with the story of adam and eve from Judeo-Christian book called the Pentatuch, we can see that we might be forced to this "one" version of the story for a reason.
This is the "gnosis hidden in plain sight' that is talked about. There were several tales of the myth of adam and eve, some were Valentinian, others were Sethian, still others used these stories as myths and pure principles of the spiritual realms, whatever the case may be, we as a society have been stuck with this couple for a long, long time.
If we start to see like elaine pagels says in her book 20 years ago about adam, eve and the serpent, we can really reach into the mindset about those early formers of these tales. Without going into too much detail of the card as this is merely an introduction, Gnostic systems of thinking say that we are not the mere ol adam and eve of the bible, but that the Demiurge or False God makes us think that this story is the only one, through the power of the archons we are driven to "believe" this story, and therefore are victims of the "spell" of the Demiurge.
Though we are a long way from being restored to our original powers and attributes, we are certainly able to relate to the "lovers" here for we all following the gnostic path are "lovers of wisdom" and it is important , if we are honest, to look at the arrow in the rear and attribute it to cupid and not our own, unbiased thought.
In Gnosis
Tim.
