Justice (Tarot card)

Justice (XI)

Justice is a Major Arcana Tarot card, numbered either VIII or XI, depending on the deck. This card is used in game playing as well as in divination.

Description

The Justice card, as a member of the Tarot deck, appears in early Tarot, such as the Tarot de Marseilles. It is part of the Tarot's major arcana, and usually follows the Chariot, as card VIII, although some decks vary from this pattern. The virtue Justice, accompanies two of the other cardinal virtues in the Major Arcana: temperance and strength.

The scales in her left hand are made of gold, symbolizing a balanced decision.[1]

Numbering

Allegory of Justice, by Raphael. In the Italian Renaissance, Justice did not usually appear blindfolded.

Justice is traditionally the eighth card and Strength the eleventh, but the influential Rider-Waite-Smith deck switched the position of these two cards in order to make them better fit the astrological correspondences worked out by the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. Today many decks use this numbering, particularly in the English-speaking world. Both placements are considered valid.

References

  1. ↑ Gray, Eden. "Complete Guide to the Tarot." 1970. Crown Publishers, New York, NY.
  • 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
  • Angel "Demi" Anderson, The Justice Card
  • Juliette Wood, Folklore 109 (1998):15-24, The Celtic Tarot and the Secret Tradition: A Study in Modern Legend Making (1998)

This article incorporates text from the public domain 1910 book Pictorial Key to the Tarot by Arthur Edward Waite. Please feel free to update the text.

This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.