A Blast From The Past No. 5
Early in a relationship
I’m traveling again today so am republishing this post from December of 2022.
I’ve reread it a number of times today, and find my interpretation of the small spread interesting. Would I read these cards in this same way in every instance? Most likely not, illustrating how important context is to a reading.
I did not pull the cards pictured below. Someone else did, in a question about a relationship, and posted a photo online. I’ve recreated that photo below to illustrate the cards she pulled, and will post some of my own thoughts about her cards below it.
The Lovers is not so much a card about mature love, mutual respect, or growing closer together through the vicissitudes of life. It is a card all about passion. That intense and overwhelming passion one can sometimes experience when a relationship is new and exciting. It is ripping the clothes off of each other to fill a sudden need that cannot be denied.
The Lovers is not always a positive card, just as we may well have intensely passionate romances that in the end we can plainly see were not good for us. Our passion can, and sometimes does, blind us to what we should plainly see.
The Devil is often a card about bondage and slavery. A slavery to our own passions, living our lives bound by our own bad habits. It often points to a need to break away from our vices and addictions so that they no longer rule our lives.
The Devil, in this context however, is not a negative card. The two people that we saw as free in The Lovers are now chained in bondage when we see them in The Devil. But they are chained together. Two individuals, yet linked.
The spread above shows us that the intense passion that is currently dominating the relationship can well forge bonds between the individuals that compose it. The relationship has the potential to grow closer and stronger, with a very solid bond holding the couple together. A further card, or cards, could reveal more about that potential, but from these two cards alone we can see the existence of that potential.
