Judgement. Major Arcana. Can´t Relate!!!

This card is a big problem for me.
It doesn´t matter how many times I read this card or try and study it, I just can´t get my head round what the card actually means.
When I think of judgement, I think of other people judgeing us, similar to the Justice card.
Can anyone give me any suggestions on how I can relate to this card concerning its proper meaning.

Hi Free Spirit!
This card mostly depicts what is called the Last Judgement or Final Judgement- but in some decks its was called the Angel. An angel presumably Michael (sometimes considered Gabriel) blasting away on his trumpet. This is when the dead are called before God to account for their lives and God apparently examines their lives and sends them to Heaven or Hell. So it is the boarding call- to late now- you are called to account. It is the day of reckoning- there will be a final answer. The truth will come out. Things will change. In one deck that has an angel telling a Greek legend it is Eos the Angel of Dawn, which I find very useful- a New Day is about to dawn and all will be renewed.
Hope you can see something in this that helps.
~Rosanne

I agree largely with Rosanne (again ). But I tend to read this card (upright, at least) to offer a great opportunity.

The DruidCraft equivalent is a really interesting and enlightening take on the card. The boy has been initiated into the Druid tradition by means of a gruelling and life-changing ceremony where he is buried alive in an underground chamber, at least overnight, naked and in the complete dark to induce a vision. He emerges from the barrow vulnerable and yet unhindered by the encumbrances of his past, with the promise of today being a fresh beginning.

As I understand, anyone could be a Druid, if only they applied themselves and took the lifelong study seriously. It was a great honour to be counted among them, and they were treated with immense respect and wanted for nothing. Hence, it was a path to an assured future, for a very poor child.

This particular version helped me to associate Judgement with renewal, rebirth, initiation and promise. But also, it implies a certain responsibility on the part of the initiate, to live up to the opportunity granted him.

I hope this adds some fuel to the fire of your thoughts

\m/ Kat

thorhammer said:

He emerges from the barrow vulnerable and yet unhindered by the encumbrances of his past, with the promise of today being a fresh beginning.<snip>......
This particular version helped me to associate Judgement with renewal, rebirth, initiation and promise. But also, it implies a certain responsibility on the part of the initiate, to live up to the opportunity granted him.

Click to expand...

I do not have the Druidcraft Kat- what a great Judgement card and that responsibility is a very important concept of the card. Many thanks!!!
~Rosanne

No worries, mate. DC is really a great deck, very beautiful

I guess in a way the Judgement card is kind of like The Fool, in its theme of new beginnings, but it's a much more "grown-up" incarnation. Yet I still see it as being joyful and beautiful, even the "ugly" RWS image.

\m/ Kat

This is the way I think I´m seeing it.
This card is showing me that the Fool is near to the end of his journey. He´s now being called to appraise himself for good or bad concerning everything he´s done in his past and leading upto the now. To look at himself in a honest and open way. Stepping upto the mark!!!

When I read the Justice card again, I realized that they are different.
You make decisions, weighing up the pros and cons. You have to make Rational decisions on what you have learnt.
That means that when he reaches Judgement day he must be accountable for his actions in the past concerning the decisions he made with Justice.
Am I on the right path in describing these two cards?

It is sometimes easier to 'get' the allegorical meaning of specific images (cards), by looking at the big picture. The cards that come after Death (sans virtues, which vary greatly from region to region) seem to form a lovely triptych.







.......15/16.................17/18/19................20/21..........

HELL/PURGATORY.......CREATION......JUDGEMENT/HEAVEN

It's like the little Devil and little Angel on each shoulder (of the universe), whispering in each ear.




There are several ways to interpret this:

(15/16) CAUSE (Evil) ----> EFFECT (17/18/19) <---- CAUSE (Good)(20/21)


Opposing flanks -

HEAVEN vs. HELL
PURGATORY vs. RELEASE


It seems to me, that the logic of the series implies that this Last Judgement, preceding the World, and its relationship to its opposite (XVI), is meant to be seen as the release from suffering (purgatory) and is a call to the 'promise land', more than dead being judged. I see this card as very positive.

I really like your thoughts on this, Mel. Particularly how your CREATION seems to have arisen at the zone of interplay between the two CAUSES. It reminds me of the 8 of Cups in the Wheel of Change Tarot (just to confuse the issue) whose message is that turmoil erupts at the interaction between opposites, but then so does potential.

This has been very enlightening to me. Thanks and thanks, Free Spirit, for asking the question!

\m/ Kat

I often see the Judgement card as one of transition, in the RWS deck the angel blows her horn and the dead arise, they come out of the dark and into the light. It can often be a card that calls for you to make a change to move to a level that allows you to recognize your true self. Like in the Druid Craft the card is called Rebirth, and it's no. 20 reduces to 2 and so this card can be linked to the High Priestess and part of the angels call is to maybe explore more of what your inner world requires to balance up your outer world, perhaps a realization of your own duality and how to make that work in union.

I suppose what I am trying to say here is that often this card can represent the call to make the transition from one level of understanding to another greater one and in doing so one needs to acknowledge what they have already done to assist them on that journey.

~HoneyBea~

I really like what you´ve said Honeybea!!!
Because Michael is angelic and not of the earth plane I now see it as being awakened to a more spiritual way of living.
Thanks.