The Lovers: Poetry Prompts for Choice, Desire, & Relationship
In Tarot, the Lovers asks us what happens when life presents us with two truths at once — and invites us to love both enough to choose.
In Tarot, the Lovers card is often mistaken to represent finding the "right" romantic relationship, but it's truly about all relationships. Especially our relationship with self.
It's about self and self. Self and other. Desire and duty. Freedom and commitment.
The path we choose and the paths we leave behind.
The Lovers asks us what happens when life presents us with two truths at once — and invites us to love both enough to choose.
Astrology - Gemini
In the evolution of the zodiac, and a human life, Gemini represents the moment we begin to discover that the world is populated by countless Others, not just our Selves. It's the realization that the people, trees, bugs, rocks, and spirits that we encounter are their own Selves full of mystery and experiences, and that each of these Others is always in conversation with us. Sometimes this is language as we know it best, literally learning to speak and verbalize our inner experience; sometimes it is the more subtle communications we have with the mountains and rivers.
As the sign of the Twins, Gemini teaches us that every other being we encounter is a mirror of our own selves. The things we judge in others are what we judge in our selves; the things we admire in others we admire in our selves too. Each relationship is an invitation to deeper self-knowledge.
Numerology - #6
The number of the heart, 6 carries the energy of love, nurturing, partnerships, emotions, and healing. It is a number that strives for harmony - in relationships, but also in the self - and will sometimes sacrifice much in the pursuit of peace and healing.
Themes & Mythology of The Lovers
- Soulmates - the longing for wholeness and the search for something beyond ourselves
"[H]uman nature was originally one and we were a whole, and the desire and pursuit of the whole is called love." - Plato, The Symposium
- Garden of Eden - relationship as an invitation into knowledge, choice, and growth
- Angel - the third presence born whenever two beings enter relationship.
- Serpent
- Eros & Psyche - love as mystery, trust, and transformation
- Orpheus & Eurydice - love as devotion, creativity, and the risk of looking back
“I hold this to be the highest task of a bond between two people: that each should stand guard over the solitude of the other.” - Rainer Maria Rilke
The Paradox of the Lovers
Every relationship changes us; none can define us.
Writing Prompts for The Lovers
- Write about the life you didn’t choose
- Name two truths you carry that seem incompatible – play with bringing them into harmony
- What knowledge changed your life forever?
- Write about a person who helped you see something about your self you wouldn’t have seen otherwise
- What is your deepest longing trying to teach you?
- Write about the invisible presence watching over a difficult decision
Recommended Poems for The Lovers
"The Maples" by Marie Howe
"Wild Geese" by Mary Oliver
"The Conditional" by Ada Limón
"Remember" by Joy Harjo
These prompts and thoughts come from my workshop series The Labyrinth: Poetry for the Contradictions We Carry, live at Ixora Collective in Colorado Springs, CO. Join us biweekly as we journey through Tarot, astrology, mythology, and poetry, writing toward the tensions, longings, paradoxes, and transformations that shape a human life.
