Lovers and a Devil: A Tale of Two Tarot Cards

(Based on the representations found on the Rider-Waite-Smith deck.)

Choices and consequences — at first blush, these appear to be the meanings of The Lovers and The Devil cards, both of which orbit the topic of relationships: romantic relationships, platonic relationships, and even our relationship to the material world and its vices. But what if the cards that share numerological correspondences (5+1 = 6), also share a foundational theme that differs from the traditional meanings? What if that theme has nothing to do with relationships, but rather with boundaries — how we set them, how they can trap us, and how we can transcend them?

Gemini and Capricorn rule The Lovers and The Devil respectively. Their two planetary rulers, Mercury and Saturn, are posited to be the boundary-setters of the universe. Mercury helps us set external boundaries through the rational mind, constantly acquiring and interpreting information. Gemini is the information-gatherer — the inquisitive, curious puer aeternus. Saturn, on the other hand, is the senex, which we’ve touched on in previous posts, assimilating information gathered over time in order to draw on its vast learned experiences and wisdom. In short, while Mercury helps us make decisions about ourselves and what we want over the short-term, Saturn can help us understand our larger life decisions within the grander unfolding of our lives.

Ken Wilbur, a transpersonal psychologist and author of No Boundary, invites us to contemplate the question…