Justice
In the world of Tarot, each card holds profound symbolism and messages that resonate within our lives. When I look at the cards in the Major Arcana, there are only a few cards that I view with a "no bullshit" energy. These are cards that you wouldn't want to cross in a dark alley in a drunken stupor: The Emperor, The Hierophant, The Tower, Death, and today's card, Justice.
Each of the cards mentioned has a very matter-of-fact feel to them with little-to-no emotional involvement. They are blunt and keep the show running when everyone is off crying in the wings.
Justice stands as a reminder of the universal principles that govern our actions and the profound impact they have on our lives. It has five primary symbols that really represent the purpose and energy of Justice:
- The Scales of Balance: a reminder to seek balance between heart and mind, emotion and logic. The scales remind us that our actions have consequences and that justice is often about finding the right equilibrium.
- The Blindfold: Lady Justice wears a blindfold in an effort to be unbiased and unmoved by things that might sway her judgement. It is the representation of impartiality and objectivity in the pursuit of truth.
- The Upright Sword: Used to slice through deceit and illusion. The Sword of Truth, a direct representation of the Suit of Swords, brings with it the representation of logic, knowledge, and wisdom. It is the Truthbringer in a very real sense.
- The Veil of Hidden Truths: This veil is seen in both The High Priestess and Justice. The veil acts as a barrier that separates the conscious world from the deeper realms of truth and understanding. It represents the idea that justice must be blind and impartial, free from external influences or subjective interpretations. It signifies the need to look beyond surface-level appearances and delve into the heart of the matter to uncover the truth.
Message of the Day: The world is a fucked up place - this we all know. Regardless of which side of the coin you fall on, it's pretty obvious that political ambition and corruption have invaded our courts, the very thing that is meant to uphold justice and truth in our world. It can be stressful as fuck when what you view as "right" is undone or watered down to the point of ineffectiveness. (And again, that sense of stress comes from our need and desire to have control.) But I'm not going to dive into politics or courts or law.
While the world around us is a nasty place full or atrocities of every kind, Justice, in this representation, is something we should all work to maintain for ourselves. Achieving impartiality and removing our biases (while sounding straight out of the HR handbook) can help us to look at situations for what they really are, removing the emotional threads that make things complicated, or blind us to the truths we refuse to accurately see.
It reminds me of the song "You've Got To Be Carefully Taught" from South Pacific (a musical I hate). It was really ahead of its time:
These learned "truths" - whether secular, spiritual, social, or political - are things we, many times, have to first become aware of in order to correct. That may cause conflict with family as you challenge your upbringing, and may very well be an emotional moment. But that's where Justice comes in: to help sever the emotion to make the right choice.
My husband tells me that I (probably too often) remove myself from the emotion of the situation because I loathe conflict (which oddly enough actually causes conflict sometimes). I try to approach things from an objective perspective and that can seem cold and uncaring. This has been crucial for me as a parent to not lose my shit every time my kid does something I've told him a gazillion times (in the last hour) not to do, especially with a child who has very little impulse control due to his ADHD.
And perhaps I lean too hard on the logical, fact-driven side of things. The whole point of Justice, after all, is to maintain equilibrium between heart and mind. But, for me, removing the emotion allows me to get a bird's eye view of the situation and determine where in the big picture of life this bullshit falls. Like - my kid got written up in class because he got up in the middle of a discussion to throw something away (impulse control). It's fucking annoying that his teacher wrote him up for that and we could have yelled at him and lost our shit. But big picture? What does that impact? Nothing really. And while Justice also demands accountability, it should be calculated based on the weight in the grand scheme of things and not in the heat of an emotional moment. We told him to be mindful and stop doing shit like that and carried on. In other words, it didn't HAVE to be a big deal, and being logical about it kept it from spiraling into Hellfire and resentment.
I also feel that Justice is about living your own truth. Many of us have grown up in religious households with varying degrees of strictness. There are many instances in our lives where situations force us to live outside of the confines of what we were taught in church and what is spiritually "acceptable." I'm talking about things like being gay (obviously), but even things like divorce, a woman's role in the family, and reproductive rights - all things where your personal truth supersedes religious teachings because they affect you on a deeply personal level that may be at odds with what you were taught as a child.
How does Justice affect you personally? These are the kinds of questions I imagine she'd ask:
- How often is your sense of truth self-serving?
- What adjustments have you made in your life to embrace your inner truths? How was that "Justice" met?
- How easy is it for you to use that sword to sever the strings of emotional attachment to make an unbiased decision?
- How do you seek out your personal truth? Are you willing to wear the blindfold of impartiality to be a better person?
Decks shown above: