The Lovers Tarot Card Meaning
The Lovers is attraction, harmony and an honest choice made from the heart. Upright it favours love, partnership and aligning with your values. Reversed it points to a mismatch, a hasty decision, or a plan that was not thought through.
Card VI of the
Upright keywords:
Reversed keywords:
The Lovers upright
Waite redrew this card: a man and a woman stand beneath a great winged figure and a blazing sun, a tree of twelve fruits behind him and a tree with a serpent behind her. He presents it as human love in its first, innocent form. It is the card of attraction and harmony — and of choosing what you truly value.
The Lovers reversed
Waite reversed gives failure and ill-considered plans. Practically: a decision made for the wrong reasons, or two people (or two goals) pulling in different directions. Slow down and check that your choice matches your values.
A is one drawn upside-down.
The Lovers in love
Strong mutual attraction and a meaningful bond. If you are choosing between options, choose the one you can be honest about.
The Lovers in career
Partnerships and collaborations; also a values decision — is this work aligned with who you are?
The Lovers in money
Joint finances and shared decisions. Agree on priorities together.
Is The Lovers a yes or no?
Upright: Leans yes. A warm yes, especially in love — provided both hearts and values agree.
Reversed: Reversed, The Lovers reads as a gentle no: imbalance, ill-judged plans, mixed values.
The yes/no lean is BornClock’s reading convention drawn from the card’s meaning — Waite himself did not assign one.
Ask your own question — draw one card →Symbolism in the The Lovers card
What appears in the 1909 Rider–Waite–Smith picture, as Waite describes it:
- Winged figure above, arms outspread — a higher blessing over the union
- Sun at its height — clarity and warmth
- Man and woman, unclothed — Waite: youth and innocence, love in its first form
- Tree with twelve fruits (behind him) — the tree of life
- Tree with a serpent (behind her) — the tree of knowledge — the pull of the senses; a real choice
In Waite’s own words (paraphrased)
Upright: attraction, love, beauty, trials overcome.
Reversed: failure, ill-considered plans; frustrated marriage and conflicts of all kinds.
Source: A. E. Waite, The Pictorial Key to the Tarot (1910, public domain). Some of Waite’s 1910 fortune-telling meanings are old-fashioned; the plain-English reading above is ours.
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