Valentine's Day: The Lover's Path

If you are looking for the perfect book to read on Valentine's Day, go and get yourself a copy of The Lover's Path. I read it yesterday evening and was captivated.

I've got a slight confession and apology to make here - to the friend who gave it to me a couple of years ago as a gift: I'm very sorry I didn't read it sooner, I really should have done. That regret isn't just because a lovely gift stood around unopened for so long, it is because The Lover's Pathis such a beautiful book in every sense - from its gold-edged, gorgeously illustrated pages to the words printed upon them. I really wish I had read it years ago.

On one level the book is a tale of love set in Venice during the Renaissance, the story of a girl on the brink of womanhood who falls in love with someone she shouldn't. But it is a lot more than just a Romeo and Juliet story - it is about personal development, about following your own heart and your own path, wherever that may lead you.

Intertwined with the main narrative are tales of lovers from myth and legend: Tristan and Isolde, Cupid and Psyche and many others. These are fables in a book gifted to the girl in the story. That book within a book, also entitled The Lover's Path, contains maps to mysterious places and within its pages the girl stores letters and pictures that are close to her heart. The real Lover's Path book also contains maps, letters, pictures and other delightful curiosities that can be unfolded, opened and enjoyed as treasures revealing secrets.

As I've mentioned before, I'm not a person who often reads fiction. When I do read a novel, I often give it away after I've finished it. But I won't be giving away this book - it is one I will keep and reread many times.

And, looking on Amazon, I discovered there is also a Tarot set based on it, called Lover's Path Tarot. It uses some of the illustrations from the book on cards that feature as part of the plot. That Tarot deck is going to get added to my wishlist, and maybe someone who loves me will one day give it to me :)

The Lover's Pathis and illustrated novel by Kris Waldherr, who has also written The Book of Goddesses: A Celebration of the Divine Feminineand created The Goddess Tarot Deck.

Links and previous related posts
The Lover's Path
Lover's Path Tarot: Premier Edition
The Book of Goddesses: A Celebration of the Divine Feminine
http://www.badwitch.co.uk/2011/02/tarot-lovers-card.html
http://www.badwitch.co.uk/2009/02/divining-love-with-eros-oracle.html