Tarot: Justice

[qos]

I think I mentioned a week or so ago that after the reading queenofhalves did with me, I felt the need to explore the Justice card more deeply. It has been showing up consistently for years, but I don't feel like I fully understand what it means for me.

My usual deck, the Robin Wood tarot, has a fairly traditional image of Justice: a woman sitting between two pillars looks directly out of the card. She holds an upraised sword in her right hand, and the scales of justice in her left.

queenofhalves uses the Ancestral Path deck, which has a very different image:





There has to be a story behind this woman. Did she grow out of the tree/seat? Or was she once mortal, and ascended to the seat and was absorbed into it? (Note the roots growing around her legs.) What does she 'see' behind her veil? The traditional scales are there, but they lie abandoned on the ground, near an equally abandoned tablets of law. What does she hold in her hands? How does she relate to the yin-yang symbol above her head? It's above what I believe is the astrological symbol for Libra. Is there something about blended polarities that goes beyond, or is "higher" than, weighing one side against the other? What is "justice" to her?

To my mind, she suggests Justice far more as natural/divine law than the usual images, which always suggested "getting what's coming to you" -- for good or ill. There is Mystery here. Her sword of discernment lies flat across her lap. Perhaps things aren't so "clear cut" as we would like to believe?

What do the rest of you see?

Comments

[jnanacandra.livejournal.com]

I had trouble with Justice for a long time. My problem wasn't so much the 'getting what's coming to you' as that the path of equilibrium seemed to be the safe, boring, middle road, with none of the passion and music that I craved in every aspect of my life. Then a few years ago I did a fair bit of work with her (or her Thoth deck permutation, 'Adjustment'), and wrote this in her voice:

"This is Truth - opposites do not repel each other, but move together in beautiful harmony. I am both passion and logic; severity balanced with mildness. I am Venus and Saturn dancing. Strive not to one extreme or the other, but to the dance itself.

Every choice has a consequence. Every joy holds sadness, every life results in death. One extreme knows nothing of the other side, and so goes blindly to its end. If you would not go blindly, then choose with your eyes open."

[qos.livejournal.com]

Thank you so much for sharing this.

This -- This is Truth - opposites do not repel each other, but move together in beautiful harmony -- speaks so much to what I'm working with right now it's uncanny.

[professor-mom.livejournal.com]

Wow, lots of stuff is going on in this image. At first I thought there was a snake around her feet. Seems like the head is on the lower right, but the tail is really more like a root, so I believe that you're correct. And the root image goes along with the vines on the chair and the column.

The image of the column is powerful to me. Columns connect heaven with earth, they serve as entrances, and they symbolize strength. When I see a column, I think of ancient Rome--something ancient, entrenched, something being held up by tradition.

And when I think of justice, I think of an "eye for an eye." I find that in my life, there's a tendency sometimes to want to find that place of equalibrium. If someone harms me, I want to meet that with equal harm. If someone were to give me that card, I would think of it in terms of letting go of that idea of there needing to be justice.

Let the universe take care of justice. I can't always be bothered with trying to punish evil doers on my own. It's not for me to be judge and jury. When I let go of the need to punish others, then perhaps I can let go of the need to punish myself.

What a beautiful card. Thanks for sharing.

[qos.livejournal.com]

Thank you for your thoughts as well.

I'm less of an eye-for-an-eye person. . . but I think your impression of "Let the universe take care of justice" is a good insight into this card.