THE LOVERS
THE LIVING TAROT
Artistic Director
Cheryl Flaharty
Dancers
Andrea Torres & Raymond Silos
with Nate Lampley
Production Assistant
Brian Gustaveson
Creative Assistant
Dack Quigley
Costume and Set Design
Cheryl Flaharty
Lighting
Janine Myers
Video Editing
Neal Izumi
Creative Team
Rey Lopez, Karen Kiefer, Mo, Dee Laris, Carlyn Wolfe, Mike Pryor, Amanda Sims, April Mae Bartelme, Rose Wolfe, Ginger Royal, Trish Brubaker, Chris Barreto, Aaron Lowe, The Dancers.
Supported by the Hawai`i State Foundation on Culture and the Arts, through appropriations from the Legislature of the State of Hawai`i or grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Cades Foundation, and Jean Rolles.
Photos: Darren Miller, Bryan Gustaveson, Mike Pryor, and Sergio Goes.
ABOUT THE SHOW
Originally created and performed in 2007, ‘The Living Tarot’ was the fourth interactive production of IONA’s diverse Salon Series which offered audiences a once in a lifetime provocative interpretation of eleven of the Major Arcana Tarot cards. The show took place in a century-old house located on Oahu's Pali Highway (dubbed, 'The House of the Living Tarot'), in which the living installations became personal encounters as audience-members roamed from room to room to experience the cards they were dealt as they walked in the door. The audience experienced each of the 5-minute tarot card performances in their own unique order. The dancers performed their pieces ten times each evening - a total of 60 times through the run of the show.
ABOUT THE TAROT
One of the most ancient studies of enlightenment and discovery of the authentic "Self”, Tarot images– linked to ancient beliefs, mythologies, and religious systems– form the seeds of fundamental psychological and spiritual experiences. Often associated with magic and the occult, the deck is the precursor to our well known playing cards.
ABOUT THE LOVERS
The Lovers is the sixth Major Arcana card in the tarot deck and is associated with the astrological sign of Gemini. The card shows two figures in a garden overseen by an angel in the clouds above them.
In many traditions, the couple represents Adam and Eve in the moment they are told about the Tree of Knowledge, of Good and Evil. Here, the Lovers represent the impulse that drives us out of the Garden, towards adulthood. Sometimes, that impulse manifests as curiosity; sometimes as sexual desire; sometimes as duty. Whatever it is, once we have stepped past the threshold, there is no returning to the garden.
It is not be accident that the story of Eden equates carnal experience with the knowledge of good and evil, and in the Old Testament the act of sex is often translated by the verb “to know”. With such knowledge something new can be born.
The Lovers is also associated with The Devil tarot card. He is often the source of the impulse, and a conflict arises in the decision to be made. The Devil's energy is absolutely necessary, absolutely deadly. In Carl Jung’s words, “Conflict is the essence of life and the necessary prerequisite for all spiritual growth.”
IONA’s Lovers unite in the dining room on the first floor of the “House of the Living Tarot”, adjacent to The Devil. The vines of the garden can be seen on the walls and on the dancers’ costumes; fresh roses fill the room with the scent of their love.
BRING THE LOVERS INTO YOUR LIFE
The Lovers card represents relationships and choices. Its appearance indicates some decision about an existing relationship, a temptation of the heart, or a choice of potential partners. A dilemma will be presented demanding an action or decision, and you will want to decipher the best way to proceed or make the right choice.
Often something will have to be sacrificed; a bachelor(ette)'s lifestyle may be sacrificed and a relationship gained, or one potential partner may be chosen while another is turned down. Whatever the choice, it should not be made lightly, as the ramifications will be lasting.
