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Justice

MAJOR ARCANA · XI

Justice is card XI of the major arcana. Between two pillars, a figure holding a sword and scales sits facing straight ahead. Upright, it stands for fairness, balance and sound judgment; reversed, for unfairness, bias and avoiding responsibility.

Name and number

Upright meaning

Keywords: fairness, balance, sound judgment, responsibility, cause and effect

If the Wheel of Fortune is a cycle beyond human power, Justice is a card in which people weigh what is right with their own hands.

Upright, Justice stands for setting feelings and assumptions aside and judging fairly on the facts. The scales weigh both sides; the sword decides clearly on that basis. It appears where reasoned judgment is needed: contracts and law, negotiations, evaluations at work. It also stands for cause and effect, the way what you do comes back to you. If you have acted honestly, it is read that the outcome will be what you deserve.

Reversed meaning

Keywords: unfairness, bias, avoiding responsibility, indecision

Reversed, Justice is read as scales that have tipped.

Judgment leaning toward what suits you, treating people unfairly or being treated unfairly, refusing to own what you did and blaming others or circumstances. It can also mean being unable to decide which side is right and putting off the judgment. It is read as a time to look at the facts again, calmly.

What the picture shows

• The scales: weighing things fairly, and balance.
• The upright sword: the double-edged sword stands for the sharpness of decision, and for a fairness that cuts the same way toward either side.
• The two pillars and the veil behind: as with the High Priestess, she sits in a temple of law and order.
• The face looking straight ahead: a Justice without a blindfold, said to mean not looking away from what must be seen.
• The white shoe of one foot: in the Rider–Waite–Smith deck, one foot showing beneath the robe is read as judgment turning into action.

History

Justice, like Strength and Temperance, stands for one of the four cardinal virtues handed down from antiquity.

The figure of the goddess of justice with sword and scales comes from the Roman goddess Justitia, and was painted on the walls of medieval and Renaissance courts and town halls. In the fifteenth-century Italian Visconti–Sforza deck, too, a woman on a throne holds a sword and scales, with a knight on horseback above her.

In the seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Tarot of Marseille, Justice was number 8. At the end of the nineteenth century, the Golden Dawn moved Justice, linked with Libra, to 11 and Strength, linked with Leo, to 8, and the Rider–Waite–Smith deck followed. That is why there are still two numberings today: 8 in decks of the Marseille line and 11 in decks of the Rider–Waite–Smith line.

Statues of Justice at law courts are often blindfolded, but the Justice of tarot usually looks straight at us with open eyes.

Correspondences

Previous and next cards

• Previous: 10 Wheel of Fortune
• Next: 12 The Hanged Man
• The major arcana

Lucky colors for Justice