Justice

Posted on 16 January 2024, 3:04 am By Hadron Templeton

When it comes to the Tarot I have mostly got rid of my books. The most useful book for me has been The Definitive Tarot by Bill Butler. The entries in this book are short, but all the main tarot decks are included. The Marseille, Waite, Crowley, etc and it includes brief descriptions of the cards with interpretations from a variety of sources such as Waite, Mathers, The Golden Dawn, Paul Huson, and more. I have also included the Book of Thoth by Crowley which was one of the last books he ever published. This is not for beginners, in fact, it’s a hard read for me and I have been continually practising for about 20 years and studying magick seriously since 2005. This book is for people already well-versed in Crowley. He feels little need to explain himself and it is an in-depth commentary on the symbolism in the Thoth Tarot and the meaning of the cards. I will also recommend a couple of decks. The first is the cheapest Smith-Waite-Rider deck I could find for people on a budget. The second deck is a beautiful repaint of the Smith-Waite-Rider called the Radiant Rider-Waite available in a tin to protect the cards. I recommend people who are new to reading the tarot learn with some variant of this deck for their first deck in order to be able to read with the thousands of decks which are based on it. When you know the Smith-Waite-Rider deck, if you wish you can decide to move on to the Thoth Tarot or Tarot de Marseilles or remain using just variants of this deck. Many themed decks are impossible to read because they are designed to be true to the theme or artistic rather than useful for intuitive reading.

This is one of the 4 cardinal virtues which govern society. Plato placed Justice above all the others. Temperance was needed by the farming class who had to temper their animal instincts while governing the food for the nation, prudence was needed to guide the ruling class and strength was needed by the warrior class who maintained the structures of society. However, Justice was above them all.

The scales developed by exposure to Ancient Egyptian Art. The Greek goddesses Themis and Dike (both rendered as Justizia or Lady Justice) were influenced by the Egyptian art of the goddess Maat. Maat famously weighed the heart of a deceased person against an ostrich feather called the Feather of Truth (or Feather of Maat). In Graeco-Egyptian Art, Themis and Dike were represented with Maat’s scales. Themis was often depicted with a large bronze sword. Some art historians postulate that it means justice is authoritative, swift and final. The Sword may symbolise Themis’ relationship to her sister Nemesis (who symbolizes divine punishment for hubris), but Nemesis is more frequently depicted with a cup than sword.

At some point in the 16th century, Justice was represented as blindfolded to symbolize her inability to see the injustice done before it. Later it was retained to symbolize impartiality because Justice does not know who the accused and victim are, due to the blindfold and must deliver the just decision impartially. Justice was introduced to the Tarot before this change and so normally, she does not appear blindfolded in the tarot, but the cards do include the scales of Maat and the Sword of Themis.

While Eliphas Levi provides whole paragraphs for most cards, the description for this card is simply “Hierogyph, Justice with Sword and Balance.”

Pillars

As seen before these are the pillars of Freedom and Law which are so relevant in a card which features someone about to deliver justice.

Red or Purple veil

This veil conceals the temple once again as we deal with a mundane matter of justice. The colour purple was adopted by King Cyrus of the Persians as a symbol of his rulership. If however we see the colour as red it still is an expensive die only afforded the ruling class of Rome, either way the colour symbolizes authority.

Crown

I have alluded to this above that Justice is the ruler of the other cardinal virtues. Where strength applies to the warrior class, temperance to the farming class, and prudence to the ruling class, justice is best when presiding above them all. The Crown also feature a small square similar to what was seen on the charioteer’s chest and the angel that features in the temperance card. I have associated this 4-sided square with the Tetragrammaton since that name appears with it in the Temperance card.

It is hard to determine whether the card features a man or a woman and reading Waite’s notes is not clear, but until this point, Justice has always been represented by a female character in fact all of the cardinal virtues have been. The figure sits in a similar way to how justice has been depicted in many previous cards.

Robe

The robe is red which is generally associated with activity in this deck. Perhaps Justice is best when active. Again the colour is associated with the ruling class which is congruent with symbols such as the crown and what appears to be a raised throne.

The Sword and Scales

The sword is often suggested to symbolize that justice is swift and final. The scales symbolize that it is measured such as in the Egyptian underworld. Note that in that measuring process, it is not a matter of the measurer’s opinion whether the heart is heavy with guilt, but it depends on what the tools for measuring justice say. Therefore, justice is delivered impartially.

Interpretation

Someone thought they had got away with something. In fact, they might have even forgotten what they did. But truth will out. That person will get their comeuppance.

This article is part of our Magic 101 course. It’s in the Lore section.

Magic 101

Lore