Justice - no need for alarm

[Diana]

Since forever, I've noticed people often getting very nervous, even anxious, when Justice comes up in a reading.

It's sort of all ooh and aah and I wonder what's going to happen and what terrible thing is going to ascend on my head. Sometimes one would think they're confusing it with a Tower situation à la RWS.

But Justice is a wonderful thing. All day long we complain that there's too much injustice in the world. No Justice No Peace. Police partout, justice nulle part. Without Justice there will always be inequality. Who wants inequality? And Justice is neutral - it doesn't take sides and is no respecter of persons. It just respects the Law. And when we're speaking in Tarot terms, we're obviously speaking of Divine Law - you know the laws that are unshakable. A bit like the laws of mathematics and music. You try and disobey a law of mathematics when you're building a house or space rocket and you will surely regret it. Justice will most certainly be rendered - but how could it be otherwise ? You can't go and say "ooh... I hope Mathematics will let me off this time - that it'll turn a blind eye." You may even think you can bribe Mathematics and it'll work in your favour. It never does. Justice doesn't hold it against you for having made a mistake. But it has to correct the error - it's the function of Justice to correct things and put things in order.

Justice is one of the things I yearn for and long for the most in humankind and for the planet. Justice is the most beautiful word in the world in my ears.

I think a lot of times when we pull Justice, our unease comes from our guilt. We all feel guilty about things. I doubt there's a single person on this planet who does not have a sense of guilt. It's our guilt that is the baddy here. Not Justice.

That being said, human justice is not always so cool. Because mostly its injustice. It's a bit like George Orwell's doublespeak. They should most of the time refer to the court of justice when actually they mean the court of injustice. That one can be scary. And they usually win. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AL8chWFuM-s

[Libra]

Justice was a hard one for me for a very long time. It's my Personality Card, plus I'm a Libra so ruled by it there. Also by the Queen of Swords, and then 2nd decan so 3 of Swords. It kind of felt to me like everything was pushing me to be an embodiment of the sword of Justice. Like it was MY personal responsibility to right the wrongs of the world because it often seemed like no one else would. I remember being 17 and all of 110 lbs in a bus station and a guy targeted 2 girls younger than me to try to get money from, looming over them and getting more and more aggressive. I intervened and yelled at him until he left and then stood there, shaking like a leaf, looking at each bystander in the eyes, one by one, asking them why they didn't step in. Why the big guy just stared at a wall, why the mother averted her eyes, why someone else put in headphones. Why it was another child who had to stop this from happening, and no one could give me an answer. Carrying the sword of Justice was such a heavy weight, and yet putting it down meant that maybe those girls would be mugged in a crowded room.

I pull Justice now and there's a bit of fear, of needing to carry that sword, by myself, in a world where it seems like no one else will. There's also a background note of sweetness. Of being seen, acknowledged. Like a whisper "I know this is hard, but I know you have the strength."

Of course, with Justice as my personality card, Judgement becomes my shadow. In some senses, that shadow is just judgement as a concept, not a tarot card meaning. My Judgement upon the bystanders, and what I felt they SHOULD do. Because who am I to decide what anyone should do? Even the guy who was targeting those girls was doing it from a place of desperation, and chose them out of that place. Perhaps I believe that he should not have and that others should have stepped up, but that's not what happened and perhaps it isn't because I needed to. To learn that I can make a difference and I can determine what is right and wrong in my view and tip the scales towards right.

And really, that's my main message from Justice nowadays. To seek out the ways that I can tip the scales towards right.

[Papageno]

A bit like the laws of mathematics and music. You try and disobey a law of mathematics when you're building a house or space rocket and you will surely regret it. Justice will most certainly be rendered - but how could it be otherwise ? You can't go and say "ooh... I hope Mathematics will let me off this time - that it'll turn a blind eye." You may even think you can bribe Mathematics and it'll work in your favour. It never does. Justice doesn't hold it against you for having made a mistake. But it has to correct the error - it's the function of Justice to correct things and put things in order.

yes, the harmony of a balanced equation. It sounds like a terrible pun, but it's true.
Actually it reminds me of the record label, Harmonia Mundi.

It's sort of all ooh and aah and I wonder what's going to happen and what terrible thing is going to ascend on my head. Sometimes one would think they're confusing it with a Tower situation à la RWS.

Actually you can also look at The Tower in the way you describe the Justice card.

I reference a poem by Marie-Claire Dewarrat from the Tarot de Gruyères

"De l'os blanchi des ruines resurgissent toujurs les batisseurs d’empires."

From the bleached bones of the ruins, the empire-builders always reappear.

This is a very rough translation but it conveys the meaning well enough.
Empires and new beginnings are built upon the ruins of what came before, ie. establishing a new foundation.

Ah, the quandary of the laws of Divine Justice vs. the Laws of Humankind, it can indeed be an Orwellian conundrum.
Perhaps we can lighten that point a bit by interjecting something from Star Wars, bringing balance back to the Force.
Oh Lord, how embarrassing is that.

But The Tower or my favorite description, La Foudre is another matter unto itself with potential for much discussion.

[Diana]

Actually you can also look at The Tower in the way you describe the Justice card.

I reference a poem by Marie-Claire Dewarrat from the Tarot de Gruyères

"De l'os blanchi des ruines resurgissent toujurs les batisseurs d’empires."

From the bleached bones of the ruins, the empire-builders always reappear.

This is a very rough translation but it conveys the meaning well enough.
Empires and new beginnings are built upon the ruins of what came before, ie. establishing a new foundation.

Ah, the quandary of the laws of Divine Justice vs. the Laws of Humankind, it can indeed be an Orwellian conundrum.
Perhaps we can lighten that point a bit by interjecting something from Star Wars, bringing balance back to the Force.
Oh Lord, how embarrassing is that.

But The Tower or my favorite description, La Foudre is another matter unto itself with potential for much discussion.

True, but it's a bit different with the Tower. And I suppose here we have to/imperatively distinguish between the RWS Tower and the TdM Maison Dieu which are hugely different and would be better discussed maybe in a separate thread. Even though the subject is often discussed, I think it can never be stressed enough. Even the translation of "Maison Dieu" into "Tower" is hugely incorrect as there is no Tower in the TdM. There is no destruction is the TdM Arcanum XVI. No ruins to build from. It's the card of "FREE AT LAST - FREE AT LAST" of Martin Luther King and Nelson Mandela. It's a card of celebration.

Star Wars is always good to quote. Lovely religion that one. But yoda would not recommend reading the tarot.

[Diana]

Justice was a hard one for me for a very long time. It's my Personality Card, plus I'm a Libra so ruled by it there. Also by the Queen of Swords, and then 2nd decan so 3 of Swords. It kind of felt to me like everything was pushing me to be an embodiment of the sword of Justice. Like it was MY personal responsibility to right the wrongs of the world because it often seemed like no one else would. I remember being 17 and all of 110 lbs in a bus station and a guy targeted 2 girls younger than me to try to get money from, looming over them and getting more and more aggressive. I intervened and yelled at him until he left and then stood there, shaking like a leaf, looking at each bystander in the eyes, one by one, asking them why they didn't step in. Why the big guy just stared at a wall, why the mother averted her eyes, why someone else put in headphones. Why it was another child who had to stop this from happening, and no one could give me an answer. Carrying the sword of Justice was such a heavy weight, and yet putting it down meant that maybe those girls would be mugged in a crowded room.

I pull Justice now and there's a bit of fear, of needing to carry that sword, by myself, in a world where it seems like no one else will. There's also a background note of sweetness. Of being seen, acknowledged. Like a whisper "I know this is hard, but I know you have the strength."

Of course, with Justice as my personality card, Judgement becomes my shadow. In some senses, that shadow is just judgement as a concept, not a tarot card meaning. My Judgement upon the bystanders, and what I felt they SHOULD do. Because who am I to decide what anyone should do? Even the guy who was targeting those girls was doing it from a place of desperation, and chose them out of that place. Perhaps I believe that he should not have and that others should have stepped up, but that's not what happened and perhaps it isn't because I needed to. To learn that I can make a difference and I can determine what is right and wrong in my view and tip the scales towards right.

And really, that's my main message from Justice nowadays. To seek out the ways that I can tip the scales towards right.

That's one helluva powerful post.

I hear you well. I seem to have spent my life fighting against racism and inequality; supporting refugee causes; fighting capitalism; organising demos and actions against circuses with animals; checking on how to make and use correctly a molotov cocktail just in case (I've never used one though, and now am getting a bit old for black bloc things anyway - I can't run so fast anymore - lol -); supporting the Animal Liberation Front... you name it, I've never been far.

But still at night, every night, when I go to my warm bed in my safe home, I feel uneasy. And often a tear falls down my cheek. I hear the voice of the 8 month old pregnant young Afghan woman - she was interviewed and a beautiful soul she was - and see her living in her "tent" in Lesbos with the water dripping onto the uncovered soil. She was so tired. And so frightened. And so desperate. And each time that the tear falls it reminds me that it is not time to lay down the Sword. If the Sword gets laid down then life itself has no more meaning. We have to honour that Sword. Otherwise it goes to rust. A Sword is a sacred thing.

We all need to take on sometimes the mantle of the Knight. We need to take on the mantles of every arcanum of the Tarot in fact at times. They are our teachers and our guides. We can't just look at these cards. We have to embody them at some time. Otherwise we might as well just go and watch Disney cartoons - the result would be more or less the same. Like Goofy and a Knight for a Day :https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LWPXknEoQjk

[Diana]

I remember being 17 and all of 110 lbs in a bus station and a guy targeted 2 girls younger than me to try to get money from, looming over them and getting more and more aggressive. I intervened and yelled at him until he left and then stood there, shaking like a leaf, looking at each bystander in the eyes, one by one, asking them why they didn't step in. Why the big guy just stared at a wall, why the mother averted her eyes, why someone else put in headphones. Why it was another child who had to stop this from happening, and no one could give me an answer. Carrying the sword of Justice was such a heavy weight, and yet putting it down meant that maybe those girls would be mugged in a crowded room.

I really could picture you in this scene. You did well of course.

I must have been about 12 or 13. It was in Johannesburg in the apartheid years - one of those white middle class suburbs, that whites lived in in South African towns. Some boys from school and the neighbourhood had managed to organise a small football match with the black domestic workers who were allowed to live in white areas if they had a permit. I'm talking of apartheid South Africa where blacks and whites were not allowed to mingle socially or culturally. I, as a white person had to get a permit if I wanted to visit Soweto for instance. My mother took me a few times to Sunday School there, but each time she had to get a permit. Very few white people had ever visited a black township.

It was a very unusual event. Football matches between blacks and whites were not part of the plan of the government. I mean even the park benches had instructions on them. There were benches for "whites" and benches for "non-whites". You have to understand that everything was designed to separate what they called the "races".

There were about 8 people on each side. The game had started for about five minutes. And the police arrived. In one of their vans. Someone must have phoned them beforehand to inform them. The black players scattered like rabbits. I've never seen people run so fast. Their survival instinct just seemed to give them the speed of reaction and strength. But two were caught. I don't know if they had permits or not. If they didn't, they were going to prison. And anyway, wherever they were being taken, they were heading for some piece of hell. They were whipped before with sjamboks, sort of little leather whips that the South African police carried with them. Just before one of them was shoved into the police van, his eyes crossed mine. I never had the opportunity to tell him how sorry I was and that it was not my fault and not to hate me for having been born white. His eyes looked accusatory to me. But I never held that against him of course.