Justice (Tarot card)

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Justice (XI) is a Major Arcana Tarot card.

Interpretation

The card Justice is the card which reminds us that we are not perfect.

When this card appears it ask us to identify what we did wrong and to claim our own mistakes - and perhaps to apologize for something we have done.

Mythopoetic Approach

Athena brought not merely the idea of justice, but a model for justice, to Greece. The story lurking in this card is the story of the cursed House of Atreus. Atreus broke a promise to Artemis, who in turn cursed his family. If that wasn’t enough, the house was descended from Pelops and Tantalus, who fed his own son to the gods at a dinner party.

The story comes to a head with Agamemnon, who was one of the heroes of the Trojan War. Agamemnon wasn’t always so heroic, at least in modern eyes. He sacrificed his own daughter, Iphigeneia to get a favorable wind to Troy, leading directly to his death at his hands of his wife, Clytemnestra avenging her daughter. Their son, Orestes in turn, sought vengeance for the death of his father by killing his mother, and was pursued around the world by The Furies, who avenged mothers killed by sons.

Athena called an end to the cycle of vengeance and empanelled the first jury.

Justice is about mediating the various claims of right, of morality, of duty. In a world of scarcity, not everything claim can be met. Justice, in theory, sets forth a system to judge between the claims.

Justice is closely connected to The High Priestess through its cross sum (the sum of the digits). Though instead of the hidden knowledge of the High Priestess, Justice is supposed to be decided in the open, though we hope our intellect and our intuition takes us the same place.

It is also connected to Judgement, Key 20. The ultimate weighing of souls.

Maàt was a goddess of justice in Egypt. She ties Judgement with Justice, as she helped judge the souls of the dead.

Justice is older than Athena, of course. Themis, a Titan, lurks in the archetype too. She was a goddess of natural order, and may judge souls after death. The intersection of Sacred and Secular order. Themis was the mother of The Fates, who order life and must be accommodated.

Plato said that Athena came from Africa, and if that is so, it is likely that Athena’s origins lies in the Egyptian goddess Neith. Like Athena, she was a goddess of war and weaving, associating the card with the tangle of ordered threads that make up the fabric of communal life. Neith was also, in some stories, the mother of Ra, making her an avatar of the Mother Goddess who is the womb and tomb of the Sun.

Justice is also associated with the 11th cards of the Minor Arcana, The Pages. Pages are just beginning the journey. Justice is a necessary, but not sufficient, step in becoming fully human.

While Athena usually upholds the existing order, demanding that everyone receive their due as defined by the current order, she is also the older sister of her brother. Which is significant because the second child of Metis is fated to overthrow Zeus (The Emperor). Zeus ate Metis to prevent her from bearing this second child, but there are those who say he awaits the call, and that Athena may take up his mantel if he’s never born. That Justice may overthrow Power.

When Justice appears in a throw, it is usually a signal that there is some injustice that needs righting, some thing in the world that is dangerously out of balance. This could be interior to the Querent (not giving the self its props; arrogance) or this could be the calling of the Querent (to right some external wrong). It is important, however, that the Querent be aware that most things in the exterior world that they perceive (at least as mediated by a tarot throw) is in fact an externalization of some interior process or conflict.

Justice Reversed is the classic signal of life out of balance.

To the right is the scales (Libra)-balance and to the left the sword-power to give the right to stand up and say you did it.

References

• A. E. Waite's 1910 Pictorial Key to the Tarot
• Hajo Banzhaf, Tarot and the Journey of the Hero (2000)
• Most works by Joseph Campbell
• G. Ronald Murphy, S.J., The Owl, The Raven, and The Dove: Religious Meaning of the Grimm's Magic Fairy Tales (2000)
• Riane Eisler, The Chalice and the Blade (1987)
• Mary Greer, The Women of the Golden Dawn
• Merlin Stone, When God Was A Woman
• Robert Graves, Greek Mythology

External links

• ["Justice" cards from many decks and articles to "Justice" iconography]
• [The History of the Justice Card] from The Hermitage.

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