← “Röhrig Cards” deck

Justice

“Röhrig Cards” deck · card #11

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"Justice is the name of the cunning construction of a majestic edifice beneath the vault of heaven."
Friedrich Schiller

Justice, as its number shows, is the central card of the Tarot's Major Arcana. It occupies its rightful position at the moment when seekers have reached the central point of their evolution and have grown mature enough to judge for themselves. When they are ready to undergo this judgment, they are also ready to experience divine justice.

The spiritual lesson formed the central point of the previous card (the Wheel of Fortune). Now, on the eleventh card, the time has come to put these skills into practice.

Justice is the card of discernment. Before you can pass a verdict, you must first be able to decide. The man and woman at this stage of development have so purified their intellectual and spiritual faculties that they are capable of "standing trial" together with themselves and their surroundings. They have separated themselves from habits and friends who no longer suit them. This separation happens naturally, as the circle of their interests no longer corresponds to their former friends and company. People in the phase of Justice tend to be stricter with themselves and with others. They know that, through their deeds, they themselves are the creators of their own lives. They understand that their parents, upbringing and environment are likewise generated by their thoughts, and, consequently, they can hold no one but themselves responsible for their own life. The moment they understand these interdependencies, they take up the sword of justice in order to separate themselves from everything that binds them or hinders their further development.

Card number eleven in the Tarot of the Aquarian Age depicts Justice as a young woman with a blindfold over her eyes. Her blouse is severe, with a high collar closing tightly around her throat. She prefers not to make use of the influence of her feminine charms, though at the same time she is confident of herself and responsible for herself in her feminine aspect. She shows clearly that nothing is given to us as a gift, but she also shows that nothing is hidden from us. We ourselves are responsible for everything we receive, feel or experience.

Blind, impartial Justice holds the scales in her hand. This means that in order to decide anything, one must first try it, weigh it and consider it before a decision is made. The sword in the foreground marks this card's sign of Mars. Once the decision has been made, the sword separates what is useful from what is useless.

This aspect of weighing, of comparing physical weight or the relative qualities of immaterial things, is also contained in the polarity between the energies of Mars and Venus. It is Venus who rules Libra. The harmony of these two energies — masculine and feminine — makes it possible for us to find our own center, to be highly demanding of ourselves, and to discover a deep justice at the core of our being. Without understanding this, you cannot dare to become an instrument of divine justice.

The Hebrew letter of the eleventh card is LAMED (an ox-goad, or staff). The hand takes up the staff and defines the boundaries of human justice. Divine justice governs this hand from above. One day, human justice will once again meet divine justice, and the two will become one again.

The rune NAUTHIZ means need. Necessity, of course, is the mother of invention. As a teacher, need has always contributed to the process of evolution. Only great need can provide sufficient energy to move on to the next phase.

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