This is a card of…

Choice

Maturity

A fork in the road

Vulnerabilty

Flexibility

“Love is the will to extend one’s self for the purpose of nurturing one’s own or another’s spiritual growth… Love is as love does. Love is an act of will — namely, both an intention and an action. Will also implies choice. We do not have to love. We choose to love.”

-M. Scott Peck

While many newer decks cast Key VI as a representation of romantic love, the original meaning was of a choice between two paths. One offers familiarity and ease, but also stagnation. The other path challenges us and will demand conscious effort to grow and evolve. The classic illustration is of a young man between two women, each holding one of his hands. One woman looks close to his age, the other is much older. Will he choose the mother figure; to remain parented, dependent and protected? Or will he choose a fellow traveler on a journey into a new stage of life?

The person making the choice could also be either of the two women. Will the young woman give up the ‘damsel’ role of innocence and shelter to grow toward the older wiser woman on the man’s other hand? Will the mother figure relinquish claim and control of her son (or daughter)  so that they may grow together and she herself can step into a new phase of life, freed from a role that has defined her for so long?

Key IV and V impose growth on the individual through discipline and socialization. In Key VI the individual is called upon to choose growth, especially through fostering adult relationships with others.

Newer interpretations of the Lovers include romantic love in all its forms, a reconciliation and blending of the masculine and feminine aspects of the self, as well as the splintered parts of the psyche seeking to integrate.

Study the Lovers card and decide which interpretation speaks to you in your daily practice. It’s your choice.

Advice:

Time for adulting.

Respect your emotional needs.

Believe in a future that is different than now.

Warning:

Don’t take the path of least resistance. Ease comes with a cost.

Honor your decision. Don’t try to keep a foot in the old camp.

Understand yourself before presuming to understand another.