tarot card meanings · major arcana · XI

justice tarot card, original ink-line art

justice — tarot card meaning

  • fairness
  • truth
  • consequence
  • balance

The equilibrium of the scales; a moral principle that deals to each as their deeds have dealt (Waite, 1911).

reversed

Reversed: bias, avoidance of accountability — the same force turned inward, blocked, or overdone.

two philosophical anchors, cited

Justice as complete virtue · Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics V.1 (1129b) (tr. Ross)

“Justice is often thought to be the greatest of virtues, and 'neither evening nor morning star' is so wonderful.”

Not one virtue among many but virtue turned toward others.

Mind precedes consequence · Dhammapada, v.1 (tr. Mueller)

“All that we are is the result of what we have thought... if a man speaks or acts with an evil thought, pain follows him, as the wheel follows the foot of the ox.”

The scales are not held by a court; they are built into the sequence of thought, act and result.

the question we would ask

Which verdict about your own conduct have you been postponing?

how a reading is composed — and why it ends with a question, not a prediction.