THE LOVERS
It is a simple thing to calculate the Major Arcana Tarot card that governs the year for all of us. We just add the digits of the year together – i.e. 2022 = 2 + 0 + 2 + 2 = 6. This gives us The Lovers.
Those of you familiar with my way of working with the Tarot will know that I do not give ‘standard’ or prescribed meaning to cards, preferring to see them as an expression of energy. The energy of The Lovers card can arguably be summed up as that of Love, and its presence and role in our selves and our lives.
This is not necessarily in terms of whether you are in a relationship with someone, married, single or whatever, but more the level of love in your life in different ways. A useful way of assessing this can be the love that you express and the love that you receive. All energy must by its very nature flow, and love is no different. Love that is unexpressed becomes stagnant and of no use. Through events in my own life over the past year I have come to realise in a very direct way that the relationships we have in our lives, in all their different levels and ways, are what matters most.
It has been said that there are two different basic or root emotions for us as humans – love and fear, and that the opposite of Love is not hate, but fear. My experience has shown me to be in agreement with this. Beneath our anger, disagreements, arguments and so on, there is fear, whether of being rejected, misunderstood, ostracized, ignored or whatever. And yet, from an esoteric standpoint, Love is seen as the strongest energy in the human Universe, and I am also in full agreement with this.
One of the quotes I love that puts this in perspective for me comes from Mahatma Ghandi, when he said –
“When I despair, I remember that all through history the way of truth and love has always won. There have been tyrants and murderers and for a time they seem invincible, but in the end, they always fall — think of it, always”.
The Lovers is often seen as the card of choice, and perhaps it is that we have a choice whether to choose the way of Love or not, in many things in our lives. We can ask ourselves whether our time is spent doing at least some of the things we love in life, and if not, why and how can we change things to increase this? It can help to make a list of those things we really want to do and love, whether small or large, but are not. Then choose one thing on that list and do something about it, however small. This can cause the energy of that love to start flowing in you and your life and if you keep acting on it and focus on it, it will increase.
For humanity as a whole, having the Lovers as our prime energy this year can offer us choices. In one sense the Covid pandemic has created more of a global consciousness, since we are all subject to its effects, if in different degrees. Perhaps resulting from that awareness can rise better, more loving choices we can make for each other.
One of the greatest and most powerful responses to this journey we call life for me, comes in the need to love ourselves. If we truly love ourselves, just as we are, right now, in this moment, then we express something of the most powerful thing there is. Give yourself a score out of 10 for how much you love yourself right now. Then think about what you could do to increase that score by 1, and begin the process in some small way.
Following that individual approach, as well as there being a card that applies to us all, we can also calculate our own card for the year, based on our birth date. Again, we simply add the date and month, plus 2022 together, so for me, being born on 30th September, the sum is
3 + 0 + 0 + 9 + 2 + 0 +2 + 2 = 18 = The Moon.
It can also be that The Hermit is an underlying energy for me, as 1 + 8 = 9.
Some people consider the energy of this card as beginning on their birthday, or you can see it as starting at the beginning of the year. There is no rule, work with whatever you feel is best.
You might like to have an image of the card from your favourite deck(s) on display where you will see it often, to remind you and keep you focused.
With regard to The Lovers, I offer you this –
May your choices through the year be born from and lead you to Love.
Card from 'The Gamble-Hounsome Tarot' Card from The Rider-Waite Tarot'