Symbology Study Group: Justice March 29-April 12

I know I am slightly slow to day but it has been a kinda of a strange day. If anyone would like to start out with a card I would appreciate it.

Random thought here: Was the creators of the RWS reason for picking 11 for Justice have to do with one and one equaling two (the High Priestess)??

Having been doing a lot of work with Arthurian history and looking at pagan imagery in the Arthurian Romances I thought it would be interesting to look at Justice in my Arthurian Tarot.

The Arthurian follows traditional tarot loosely, but the majors are different.

http://public.fotki.com/circlewalker/tarot/justice.html is card 11 (XI) but is titled as Sovereignty.

OK, so how does this relate to Justice. Well, the cup she holds is the 4 sided cup of truth and justice. If 3 falsehoods are said over it, it will shatter. In addition she is a potent goddess representation. In Irish legends the goddess Eriu represents the land of Ireland itself and bestows kingship on her consort. In Arthurian legend the King is the land and so if you fail to uphold the law of the land, the law of the king, you dishonour the goddess.

OK, not the traditional view of justice for the standard person with scales etc. but to me the Sovereignty card goes much deeper because it transcends the mere laws of man and goes to the heart of the matter - our relationship with the goddess and the natural world.

in light

cw

Sharman-Caselli ~ Justice
“Theme: A balanced mind found through logic”

Symbolism mentioned in the LWB~
"The curtain is purple, the color of wisdom.
Her headdress is yellow to reflect mental communication.
Her dress is green, the color of love and healing;
while her cloak is red, the color of passion and purpose.
The sword of truth is held upright in the hand of action.
Her scales represent the ideal of perfect balance."

The Sharman-Caselli deck does not assign numbers to the majors. As one of the Four Cardinal Virtues; Justice encourages us "to pay attention to our thoughts and to understand the need for logical thinking.”

In The Complete Book if Tarot, Juliet Sharman-Burke speaks of the pairing up of opposites to symbolically portray harmony in a balanced masculine/feminine relationship. “The figure on the Justice card may be connected with Athene, the wise goddess of the Greeks. She used the power of the intellect to its fullest capacity and although essentially a warrior goddess, she preferred to fight battles using the application of intellect and strategy, rather than brute force.”

Sometimes, mercy is needed to temper Justice~

XI -- Secret Societies (NOVT)

Why do I keep missing these?

The Justice card in the New Orleans Voodoo Tarot is called XI -- Secret Societies:

http://alpha.mxat.ru/WWPCM/decks05/d02446/d0244611.jpg

This card shows a woman standing in a field with her hands loosely bound behind her back. She faces a forest and there are animal eyes staring out at her. There is a sense of stillness in this card, that moment right before something happens, when everything is just suspended (I guess this is where the balance aspect of justice comes in).

Also, if the woman or the animal made the first move, then the other would react. This puts a different twist on the justice/balance aspect in terms of action/reaction, cause/effect, action/consequence.

As far as the 1+1 -- II (High Priestess), I get a sense from this card that the woman (or the animals) are using their intuition to decide whether or not to act. Also, the card seems to be at night and not only do we only see the eyes of the animals, but we can't see the woman's face. This is an allusion to the hidden aspect of the HP.


T.

CW, I find the rive interesting due to the fact it has the three primary colors of the card in it. Black, white, and red.

Suz, very true statement

T, this deck gets more and more interesting but given the title of the card I have to ask this: What if she is being initiated into something? This is her trail or her test before being allowed into it?

As you notice I haven't really commented much on Justice, I'm not sure why but she seems indifferent to me. I have no true connection with her, her natural distances seems to put it past my understanding. *shrugging* She is an interesting lady though.

afrosaxon said:

Why do I keep missing these?
The Justice card in the New Orleans Voodoo Tarot is called XI -- Secret Societies:
http://alpha.mxat.ru/WWPCM/decks05/d02446/d0244611.jpg
This card shows a woman standing in a field with her hands loosely bound behind her back. She faces a forest and there are animal eyes staring out at her. T.

Click to expand...

I hadn't really connected with this until tabi's last post - but you both refer to the person in this card as 'she'. Just to be awkward - to me this looks like someone kneeling with their back to us, hands bound behind the back - the item tied at the back of the head is a blindfold, but to me this could just as easily be a man. It matters not, just one of those funny differences. Certainly what is clear is the tension. The title of Secret Societies on the one hand implies initiation and belonging, but on the other darker side there is the (sensationally) lack of accountability, infiltration, flouting of the law - da Vinci code etc. Is this person a sacrifice or candidate - and how does this relate to Justice - perhaps we are looking at the law of the jungle?? - just pondering.........

in light

cw

Justice has always been known as "She", even in our legal system it is a she. Why? It could be because she is always changing her mind, or the fact that sometimes justice is a very frickle thing. Most of the time you will see a statue of Justice and it is female. In carrying on that theme it goes back to our ancients CW, you may find this every interesting: Figures of Justice.

Me personally I have always found justice to be female whether it is or not, when I say "She" I was talking generally. Why I see it has this: A) I always have and B) after some thought it goes to what Suz said about temptering justice with mercy. A woman can listen indifferent to the fights of men and stand apart from it then decided who is right. Women have been doing it for eons, we get a lot of patience trying to separate our children.