I’ve always found that a good way to study tarot is to work
out how
similar cards/stones are
different.
After all, if they all mean the same thing,
then they don’t mean anything!
So I’m going to do a few posts on ideas related to
Justice, giving my take on the
similarities and differences of Justice with other majors that also can be
related to those ideas.
The most obvious ideas related to Justice are
crime and punishment,
morality and karma.
The Catholic Encyclopedia (a good place to go
for the straight dope on Renaissance-era concepts such as the cardinal virtues)
says Justice means giving others what belongs to them, and points out that it
focuses on how we treat others, while other virtues focus on how we deal with
ourselves.
I’m pretty sure what is “owed
to” or “due to” others refers to both the “front end,” expected moral behavior,
and the “back end,” appropriate punishment for those who do not follow moral
behavior.
As I discuss briefly in the Arcana Stones booklet, karma is
simply a law of nature that guarantees that individuals will always get exactly
what they are due (in the moral arena).
This exactly appropriate occurrence might not be obvious to other people
or even take place in a current lifetime, but it does (or will) happen.
(Early translators of Buddhist texts
translated karma as “retribution,” but that’s not a great fit, especially if
the karma incurred is good karma as payment for good/moral actions.
So now it is usually left untranslated.)
So what other majors besides Justice relate to the concepts
of crime and punishment, morality and karma?
Morality
Emperor, Hierophant,
Devil, Sun, Judgment
How are these
different than Justice and each other?
Emperor and Hierophant are about laws and
rules. Emperor imposes actual laws and rules, those of
governments and other outwardly constituted authorities, such as employers,
homeowner associations, and parents.
Hierophant imposes religious laws and rules, and, perhaps more
importantly, societal, traditional, and unwritten rules, as well as
self-imposed rules. In opposition to
Justice, Emperor and Hierophant can also represent authority acting outside the law, or outside morality
(think embezzlement and sex scandals).
For both Emperor and Hierophant, the emphasis is on who imposes the rules and what
the rules are. Justice is more about whether rules are being followed or
broken.
And so is Devil! He is, of course, about breaking the rules
(including rules that should be broken).
Devil also represents the temptation
to break the rules. So you could say
that Devil is the before, and Justice is the after. Which points out another difference between
Emperor, Hierophant, and Devil and Justice.
Justice not only relates to following the rules, or not, but also what
happens after (punishment or karma).
One of the concepts of Sun
is openness, honesty, and integrity, the idea being someone with a clear
conscience acts in the light of day, while someone who knows she is doing wrong
hides her deeds in the shadows. I
consider this a secondary meaning for Sun, which would apply only in certain
readings, maybe when it shows up accompanied by many of the other majors mentioned
here! In contrast, this is a primary meaning of Justice. Also Justice refers to a wider range of
morality meanings, not just conscience or honesty.
I’m usually careful to separate Justice from Judgment by emphasizing that Judgment
refers to a specific mythological event, the Last Judgment of Revelation. But it’s called Judgment for a reason, which
is that the souls not only rise, but are also judged to be deserving of either
eternal companionship with the divine or everlasting torment. This is obviously closely akin to karma. (See below.)
But it also suggests choosing and deciding, judging what is best to do,
perhaps addressing a moral dilemma. This
could also be considered a before, with Justice, the action that results from
the deliberation, as the after.
But my preferred meaning of Judgment is still “a higher
level,” including transcending conventional Hierophant (and perhaps even legal
Emperor) morality to do what is really right.
Time for a brief Buddhist tale: One day, two wandering monks came upon a
swollen river, with a young woman standing on the bank. “How can I get to the other side?,” she asked
the monks plaintively. Without a word,
the elder monk scooped up the girl into his arms and carried her across to
safety, leaving her and her thanks on the opposite bank. After a few more miles walked in silence, the
younger monk blurted out, “You know it’s forbidden for a monk to touch a woman! How could you have held her in your arms like
that??‼” The elder monk answered calmly,
“I left the girl on the riverbank. Why
are you still carrying her?”
This is a perfect illustration of Judgment morality: The elder monk has transcended the need for
the letter of the law because he doesn’t perceive the girl as a sexual or
romantic object, or as a stumbling block to his monkhood. She is simply a fellow traveler in need of
his help.
Karma
Wheel, Hanged One,
Tower, Judgment
How are these
different than Justice and each other?
Some say
Wheel is
a karma card/stone, quoting the karma-like saying, “what goes around comes
around.”
But I don’t think Wheel is a
good fit for karma because its focus is on
chance
and
unexpected change.
Karma, as the effect of a moral cause, is not
a manifestation of chance, and shouldn’t be all that unexpected (even though it
can be by the
morally unaware!).
(As the card/stone of
expected change,
Death
might actually work better that Wheel for karma.
But it has other jobs to do, so we won’t go
into that much here!)
If you believe in
karma, Justice is not random.
Hanged One is a
representation of a Renaissance punishment, but it’s not usually thought of as
punishment in current tarot thought. Even
if not a punishment, the suspension or delay represented by the Hanged One could
be a result of karma, a kind of
cosmic time out.
Tower’s relation
to karma is similar that of both Wheel and Hanged One. They all represent experiences, that, since
unexpected, are not representative of karma, but that could be a form of punishment,
the result of karma.
Judgment, as an
event that includes the separation of saints and sinners, seems to have a
closer correlation with karma than these, but again, this is a depiction of the
result of karma, not really karma itself.
As to the connection between karma and the higher level of Judgment,
well, beings transcend karma only if they are fully enlightened Buddhas, so we
probably don’t have consider that when we read for ourselves or our friends . .
.
So while all these majors have interesting connections with
the concept of karma, only Justice is a representation of karma itself, not
just result of it or a punishment/retribution.
I hope I haven’t thoroughly confused anyone with my musings
on morality, karma, and Justice! Coming
up will be another post on the concepts of Justice: Health
and Balance.
