20. Judgment
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Card Title: Judgment
Esoteric Title: The Spirit of the Primal Fire
Astrological Atttribution: Pluto (modern)
Elemental Attribution: Fire (hot, dry) and Spirit
Dates & Timing: Season of Summer
Hebrew Letter: Shin Tooth 300
Color: Red
Intelligence: Perpetual Intelligence
Esoteric Function: Fire of Life
Qabalistic Path: Path 31: 8 Hod to 10 Malkuth
Translation of Path: The Splendor of Kingdom
Keywords: Unlimited Possibilities, Realization, Self Consciousness (Man) Unconsciousness (Woman) Personification (Child), Beginning again, Resolve & Integrate, Spiritual Awakening, Renewal, Reward, Rebirth, Inner calling, Absolution, Blessings, Guidance, Health
Ill-Dignified: Loosing Lawsuit, Karma, Loss, Ill Health, Uneasy, Bitterness, Loneliness, and Sickness.
Interpretation:Combining Ambitions and Reality, Thoughts and Introspection with the Material world. Spiritual Karmic Judgment. Change in habit, consciousness or purpose. Spiritual evolvement. Self-development. Accept what is offered. Wonderful things are starting to happen. Break away from conventional thinking and face life realistically. Life well spent. Rewards for past efforts. Resolution, Release and Renewal. Understanding of past brings healing. End of old beginning of new. Reaping what was sown.Reversed Interpretation: Something lacks clarity. Self-made rut. Longing to be free of certain situations. Review life. Plan for future. Breaking away from conventional thinking. Transient Success. Fear of death. Confront self-evasion and mistakes. Release unwanted ties. Failure to find happiness. No interest in spiritual.
Rider-Waite Imagery
Archangel Gabriel Blows his horn. This card is a wake-up call. The people have gray bodies which is a sign of resurrection. Gray in general is a mediating color between black & white. It was also used to represent resurrected bodies. The Red cross is equal armed which represents equanimity. The red is alchemical fire & masculinity. The white feminine.
The Pictorial Key to the Tarot by Arthur Edward Waite (1911)
Part I: The Veil and its Symbols
20. The Last judgment. I have spoken of this symbol already, the form of which is essentially invariable, even in the Etteilla set. An angel sounds his trumpet per sepulchra regionum, and the dead arise. It matters little that Etteilla omits the angel, or that Dr. Papus substitutes a ridiculous figure, which is, however, in consonance with the general motive of that Tarot set which accompanies his latest work. Before rejecting the transparent interpretation of the symbolism which is conveyed by the name of the card and by the picture which it presents to the eye, we should feel very sure of our ground. On the surface, at least, it is and can be only the resurrection of that triad–father, mother, child-whom we have met with already in the eighth card. M. Bourgeat hazards the suggestion that esoterically it is the symbol of evolution–of which it carries none of the signs. Others say that it signifies renewal, which is obvious enough; that it is the triad of human life; that it is the “generative force of the earth… and eternal life.” Court de Gebelin makes himself impossible as usual, and points out that if the grave-stones were removed it could be accepted as a symbol of creation.
Part II: The Doctrine Behind the Veil
I have said that this symbol is essentially invariable in all Tarot sets, or at least the variations do not alter its character. The great angel is here encompassed by clouds, but he blows his bannered trumpet, and the cross as usual is displayed on the banner. The dead are rising from their tombs–a woman on the right, a man on the left hand, and between them their child, whose back is turned. But in this card there are more than three who are restored, and it has been thought worth while to make this variation as illustrating the insufficiency of current explanations. It should be noted that all the figures are as one in the wonder, adoration and ecstasy expressed by their attitudes. It is the card which registers the accomplishment of the great work of transformation in answer to the summons of the Supernal–which summons is heard and answered from within.
Herein is the intimation of a significance which cannot well be carried further in the present place. What is that within us which does sound a trumpet and all that is lower in our nature rises in response–almost in a moment, almost in the twinkling of an eye? Let the card continue to depict, for those who can see no further, the Last judgment and the resurrection in the natural body; but let those who have inward eyes look and discover therewith. They will understand that it has been called truly in the past a card of eternal life, and for this reason it may be compared with that which passes under the name of Temperance.
The Tarot of the Bohemians by Papus; tr. A. P Morton, [1896]
Chapter X. The Symbolical Tarot
20. 20th Hebrew letter (Resh).
ORIGIN OF THE SYMBOLISM OF THE TWENTIETH CARD OF THE TAROT.
The hieroglyphic meaning of the Resh is the head of man, and it is therefore associated with the idea of all that possesses in itself an original, determined movement. It is the sign of motion itself, good or bad, and expresses the renewal of things with regard to their innate power of Motion.
The Resh is a double letter, and responds astronomically to Saturn.
TWENTIETH CARD OF THE TAROT. The Judgment.
An angel with fiery wings, surrounded by a radiant halo, sounds the trumpet of the last judgment. The instrument is decorated with a cross.
A tomb opens in the earth, and a man, woman, and child issue from it; their hands are joined in sign of adoration.
How can the reawakening of nature under the influence of the Word be better expressed? We must admire the way in which the symbol answers to the corresponding Hebrew hieroglyphic.
1. Return to the divine World. The Spirit finally regains possession of itself
ORIGINAL DETERMINED MOTION.
2. Life renews itself by its own motion
VEGETABLE LIFE.
RESPIRATION.
3. The material world progresses one degree in its ascension towards God
THE VEGETABLE WORLD.
20. The Judgment.
Affinities
- Hieroglyphic Primitive: The Head of Man
- Astronomy: Saturn
- Day: Saturday
- Hebrew letter: Resh (double)
Significations
- ORIGINAL AND DETERMINED MOTION
- RESPIRATION
- Vegetable Life, THE VEGETABLE KINGDOM
Major Arcana Signification from the Divining Point of View
20. The Judgment signifies CHANGE OF POSITION.
The Tarot by S.L. MacGregor Mathers [1888]
Symbolism of Each Key
20. The Last Judgment. An Angel in the heavens blowing a trumpet, to which a standard with a cross thereon is attached. The Dead rise from their tombs. It signifies Renewal, Result.
Meanings of the Cards
20. The Last Judgment.Renewal, Result, Determination of a Matter; R. Postponement of Result, Delay, Matter re-opened later.
The Symbolism of the Tarot by P. D. Ouspensky [1913]
What is the Tarot? Card XX.”Judgment”.
The resurrection. Constant victory of life over death. Creative activity of nature in the death.
CARD XX. JUDGMENT.
I saw an ice plain, and on the horizon, a chain of snowy mountains. A cloud appeared and began to grow until it covered a quarter of the sky. Two fiery wings suddenly expanded in the cloud, and I knew that I beheld the messenger of the Empress.
He raised a trumpet and blew through it vibrant, powerful tones. The plain quivered in response to him and the mountains loudly rolled their echoes. One after another, graves opened in the plain and out of them came men and women, old and young, and children. They stretched out their arms toward the Messenger of the Empress and to catch the sounds of his trumpet.
And in its tones I felt the smile of the Empress and in the opening graves I saw the opening flowers whose fragrance seemed to be wafted by the outstretched arms.
Then I understood the mystery of birth in death.
The Tarot Trumps by G. H. Soror, Q.L.
XX. THE LAST JUDGEMENT
The three trumps attributed to the Elemental Paths are perhaps the most difficult to understand. They represent the action of forces exterior to the experience of humanity, not the influence of environment but the impact of the Supernals upon the sublunary.
In the Air we have pure spirit holding in leash the lust of the flesh. In water, the sublimating power of sacrifice. Here in Fire, we are shown the cosmic forces concentrating on the pilgrim from all sides. Judgment is pronounced upon him. He is not the judge nor does decision rest in his hands. Lazarus cannot emerge from the Sepulcher until the voice cries out, Come forth! Nor can he cast aside the conflicting grave-clothes until the command, Loose him! is given. Man of himself is helpless. The impulse to ascend must come from above, but by its power he may transcend the sepulcher of environment and cast aside the trammels of desire. Here once more, the fiery energy of red burns through the planes. Fiery scarlet, glowing crimson, burning red are emphasized by the passive greens.
Book “T” The Tarot
Brief Meanings of Twenty-Two Keys
21. Final decision, judgment, sentence, determination of a matter without appeal, “on its plane.”
