The Lovers is the sixth card of the major arcana, and sixes are a number of harmony. The five disrupts — it's an odd number, a break in the sequence — and the six answers that disruption, drawing the sequence back into harmony. So when I see the Lovers, I'm thinking harmony: of communication, of coordination, of commitment. And not just a harmony between two things, but an ordained one — that's Raphael above, the great golden disc of the sun shining its rays down on the connection formed below.
Most of the time, then, I read this card as harmonized connections, and I'll move toward questions about the connections someone is experiencing — the opportunities and partnerships taking shape.
The alchemical reading
On a more spiritual, alchemical level, the Lovers maps the subconscious, the self-conscious, and the superconscious — the three points of a divine triangle. It shows those three properly synergized: your spiritual or higher self, your intellectual self, and your emotional self, all in sync. (Synchronized isn't quite the word — synergized is.) It's a card of connection at every level of the self.
Gemini, and how it differs from the Twos
Astrologically, the Lovers is — surprise — Gemini, which makes a great deal of sense and is almost a dead giveaway. But this is a very different card from the Twos. I did a whole video on the Twos as polarity and connection: think of the High Priestess, the number two, seated between Boaz and Jachin, the twin pillars, with her perfectly balanced, symmetrical cross. She is the balance, standing in the middle. The Lovers isn't balance — it's direct connection, a connection actually happening. Like the Two of Cups, where the bond is so strong you can see it fusing into something entirely new, though we usually read that as an emotional connection, since cups are the heart.
The Lovers is more than the connection between two people. It's that the connection is ordained — a blessed, synergized connection, one that can draw out your higher self, or connect you to it. That is my reading of the Lovers.