11. Justice
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Number: 11
Card Title: Justice
Esoteric Title: Daughter of the Lord of Truth
The Holder of Balances
Astrological Atttribution: Libra
Elemental Attribution: Air (hot, wet)
Dates & Timing: September 23 to October 22
Hebrew Letter: Lamed Prod 30
Color: Green
Intelligence: Faithful Intelligence
Esoteric Function: Work
Qabalistic Path: Path 22: 5 Geburah to 6 Tipareth
Translation of Path: The Severity of Beauty
Keywords: Fairness, Responsibility, Decision, Cause & Effect, Pendulum, Anubis, Adjustment, Centering, Karma, Equilibrium, Justice.
Ill-Dignified: Know it all, conceited, perfectionist, vengeful, critical, Injustice & Loss, Indecision, Difficult Adjustments, Inequality, Legal Complications, Setbacks, Prejudice, Excess, Bad Luck, Legal delay, legal complications, Mercy Needed.
Interpretation:
Balanced fair judgment, Everyday life and responsibility. Able to see what is fair and have the power to see that fairness is carried out. Balance of opposites. Wanting to reach goals. Legal matters, investments. Law of cause & effect. Fair and honest decision. Receive what is earned. Acceptance of responsibility. Vindication of truth and moral character. Scales and balances. Universal harmony and order. Law of Karma. What throws you off balance? I am resting in my own center. Desire for simple, direct clear. Honor past beliefs but move ahead.
Reversed Interpretation: Someone feels inadequate and unable to change. Being taken advantage of. Worry doesn’t help. Need to understand Karmic lesson in order to move on. Over-harsh judgment. Past legal matters still effect current situation. Reversed, the card means dishonesty to yourself and others. Injustice, inequality. Legal complications. A biased mind. Use mercy and understanding when judging others. Loss of temper, Looking down on things.
Rider-Waite Imagery
Justice sits between two gray pillars. She holds a sword of discernment & justice and scales of balance. Her gown is red for passion and is trimmed with the flashing/complement green for love. These are the colors of the Emperor & Empress. The veil is violet, a royal and spiritual color. It is also a mediating color between red (passion) and blue (peace). Justice tries to find balance and equilibrium. She also looks for the perfected form of all things.
The Pictorial Key to the Tarot by Arthur Edward Waite (1911)
Part I: The Veil and its Symbols
11. Justice. That the Tarot, though it is of all reasonable antiquity, is not of time immemorial, is shewn by this card, which could have been presented in a much more archaic manner. Those, however, who have gifts of discernment in matters of this kind will not need to be told that age is in no sense of the essence of the consideration; the Rite of Closing the Lodge in the Third Craft Grade of Masonry may belong to the late eighteenth century, but the fact signifies nothing; it is still the summary of all the instituted and official Mysteries. The female figure of the eleventh card is said to be Astræa, who personified the same virtue and is represented by the same symbols. This goddess notwithstanding, and notwithstanding the vulgarian Cupid, the Tarot is not of Roman mythology, or of Greek either. Its presentation of justice is supposed to be one of the four cardinal virtues included in the sequence of Greater Arcana; but, as it so happens, the fourth emblem is wanting, and it became necessary for the commentators to discover it at all costs. They did what it was possible to do, and yet the laws of research have never succeeded in extricating the missing Persephone under the form of Prudence. Court de Gebelin attempted to solve the difficulty by a tour de force, and believed that he had extracted what he wanted from the symbol of the Hanged Man–wherein he deceived himself. The Tarot has, therefore, its justice, its Temperance also and its Fortitude, but–owing to a curious omission–it does not offer us any type of Prudence, though it may be admitted that, in some respects, the isolation of the Hermit, pursuing a solitary path by the light of his own lamp, gives, to those who can receive it, a certain high counsel in respect of the via prudentiæ.
Part II: The Doctrine Behind the Veil
As this card follows the traditional symbolism and carries above all its obvious meanings, there is little to say regarding it outside the few considerations collected in the first part, to which the reader is referred.
It will be seen, however, that the figure is seated between pillars, like the High Priestess, and on this account it seems desirable to indicate that the moral principle which deals unto every man according to his works–while, of course, it is in strict analogy with higher things;–differs in its essence from the spiritual justice which is involved in the idea of election. The latter belongs to a mysterious order of Providence, in virtue of which it is possible for certain men to conceive the idea of dedication to the highest things. The operation of this is like the breathing of the Spirit where it wills, and we have no canon of criticism or ground of explanation concerning it. It is analogous to the possession of the fairy gifts and the high gifts and the gracious gifts of the poet: we have them or have not, and their presence is as much a mystery as their absence. The law of Justice is not however involved by either alternative. In conclusion, the pillars of Justice open into one world and the pillars of the High Priestess into another.
The Tarot of the Bohemians by Papus; tr. A. P Morton, [1896]
Chapter X. The Symbolical Tarot
8. 8th Hebrew letter (Heth).
ORIGIN OF THE SYMBOLISM OF THE EIGHTH CARD OF THE TAROT.
Hieroglyphically the Heth expresses a field. From it springs the idea of anything that requires labour, trouble, an effort.
Continued effort results in the establishment of an equilibrium, between the destruction of the works of man accomplished by nature, when left to herself, and the preservation of this work. Hence the idea of balancing power, and consequently of Justice attributed to this letter. Astronomically the Heth corresponds to the sign of Cancer in the zodiac.
THE EIGHTH CARD OF THE TAROT. Justice.
The ideas expressed by this symbol are of Equilibrium in all its forms.
A woman seen full face, and wearing an iron coronet, is seated upon a throne. She is placed between the two columns of the temple. The solar cross is traced upon her breast.
Here we find the continuation of the symbolism of the 2nd and 5th arcana. The Seated woman occupies the Centre between the columns, the first idea of the equilibrium between Good and Evil.
She holds a sword, point upwards, in her right hand, and a balance in her left.
Occult science (2), at first theoretical, has become practical (5), and has been taught verbally. Now it appears in all the pitilessness of consequences, terrible for the false Magi (the Sword), but just toward the true Initiates (Balance). The signification of this arcanum is central between the 5th (? He) and the 11th (? Kaph) arcana.
This card is the complement of the eleventh, as the fifth was of the second. In the 1st septenary all the cards which, by addition, formed the number 7, completed each other; in the 2nd septenary all the cards which, added together, form 19, act in the same way.
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7. Chariot |
is completed by 7 + 12 = 19 19 = 10 = 1 |
12. Hanged Man |
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8. Justice |
is completed by 8+11=19 |
11. Strength |
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9. The Hermit |
is completed by 9+10=19 |
10. The Wheel of Fortune |
The eighth card of the Tarot represents the conception in preservative of the second card. It synthetizes in itself the meaning of the second and of the fifth card of the Tarot, and represents the reflex of the seventh. It signifies–
In the Divine. God the Son of the 2nd septenary. The woman fulfilling, the functions of God the Son. THE MOTHER. Reflex of the Father. Preserver of God the Son in Humanity.
Passive law of the 2nd septenary. JUSTICE. Reflex of Realization and Authority.
The woman of the 2nd septenary. Nature fulfilling the function of Eve. ELEMENTARY EXISTENCE. Reflex of the Astral Light. Preservation of Natura naturata in the World.
8. Justice.
The elementary existence is the means by which the astral vivifying fluid or astral light (7) manifests itself through the ether or astral matter (9). This is demonstrated by the following arcanum.
Affinities
- Primitive Hieroglyphic: A Field
- Kabbalah: NIZAH
- Astronomy: Cancer
- Month: June
- Hebrew Letter: Heth (simple)
Significations
- The woman fulfilling the functions of God the Son. THE MOTHER
- Law JUSTICE
- Nature performing the function of Eve ELEMENTARY EXISTENCE
- Major Arcana Signification from the Divining Point of View
8. Justice signifies JUSTICE.
The Tarot by S.L. MacGregor Mathers [1888]
Symbolism of Each Key
8. Justice. A woman crowned and seated on a throne (between two columns), holding in her right hand an upright sword, and in her left the scales. She symbolises Equilibrium and Justice.
Meanings of the Cards
8. Themis, or Justice. Equilibrium, Balance, Justice; R. Bigotry, Want of Balance, Abuse of Justice, Over-severity, Inequality, Bias.
The Symbolism of the Tarot by P. D. Ouspensky [1913]
What is the Tarot? Card XI. -”Justice”.
Truth. Real Knowledge. Inner Truth. Occultism. Esoterism. Theosophy.
CARD XI. JUSTICE.
When I possessed the keys, read the book and understood the symbols, I was permitted to lift the curtain of the Temple and enter. its inner sanctum. And there I beheld a Woman with a crown of gold and a purple mantle. She held a sword in one hand and scales in the other. I trembled with awe at her appearance, which was deep and mysterious, and drew me like an abyss.
“You see Truth,” said the voice. “On these scales everything is weighed. This sword is always raised to guard justice, and nothing can escape it.
“But why do you avert your eyes from the scales and the sword? They will remove the last illusions. How could you live on earth without these illusions?
“You wished to see Truth and now you behold it! But remember what happens to the mortal who beholds a Goddess!”
The Tarot Trumps by G. H. Soror, Q.L.
XI. JUSTICE
Nephthys, the third aspect of Luna, the twin sister of Isis. Justice as distinguished from love. Her emblems are the Sword and the Scales. Like her sister, she is clothed in green, but in a sharper colder green than the pure emerald of Isis. Her subsidiary colors are blue, blue-green, pale green. It is only by utilizing the flashing colors that we can find the hidden warmth and steadfastness.
Book “T” The Tarot
Brief Meanings of Twenty-Two Keys
8. Eternal justice. Strength and force, but arrested as in act of judgment. May mean law, trial, etc.
