The Justice divinatory meanings
Justice or Adjustment demonstrates balance and harmony. Legal matters and serious relationships (marriage or business partnership) are also signified. People often look to fairness in their life. They try to be considerate to others, but fairness in a strange word. If I win a court case, my immediate reaction is that it is a fair judgement, while the other side will of course see the outcome as unfair! In the Book of Thoth, Crowley sees this card in a more dynamic scenario. Balance is a continuous process as we continually course correct, and maintain direction. In this more ecological world, Justice can be seen as a judgement on our ability to balance the inner with the outer, or our needs with the needs of Earth.
Rider-Waite: Justice
As this card follows the traditional symbolism and carries above all its obvious meanings, there is little to say regarding it outside the few considerations collected in the first part, to which the reader is referred.
It will be seen, however, that the figure is seated between pillars, like the High Priestess, and on this account it seems desirable to indicate that the moral principle which deals unto every man according to his works - while, of course, it is in strict analogy with higher things; - differs in its essence from the spiritual justice which is involved in the idea of election. The latter belongs to a mysterious order of Providence, in virtue of which it is possible for certain men to conceive the idea of dedication to the highest things. The operation of this is like the breathing of the Spirit where it wills, and we have no canon of criticism or ground of explanation concerning it. It is analogous to the possession of the fairy gifts and the high gifts and the gracious gifts of the poet: we have them or have not, and their presence is as much a mystery as their absence. The law of Justice is not however involved by either alternative. In conclusion, the pillars of Justice open into one world and the pillars of the High Priestess into another.
Justice divinatory meanings
Equity, rightness, probity, executive; triumph of the observing side in law.
Justice reversed meanings
Law in all departments, legal complications, bigotry, bias, excessive severity.
Book of Thoth - Adjustment
Balance against each thought its exact opposite.
For the Marriage of these is the Annihilation of Illusion.
Justice, or rather justesse, the act of adjustment, suspension of all action pending decision; in material matters, may refer to law suits or prosecutions. Socially, marriage or marriage agreements; politically, treaties.
The Justice card was transposed with the Strength/Lust card in the Thoth Tarot. It is a card of balance and harmony; if there is imbalance, the correction may require recourse to the law. There may also be treaties or marriage.
Golden Dawn - Justice
Daughter of the Lord of Truth, The Holder of the Balances
Eternal Justice and Balance. Strength and Force, but arrested as in the act of judgement. Legal proceedings, a court of law, a trial at law.
Mathers: Themes or Justice
Equilibrium, Balance, Justice.
Themes or Justice reversed meanings
Bigotry, Want of Balance, Abuse of Justice, Over-severity, Inequality
Ouspensky: Card XI - JUSTICE.
Truth. Real Knowledge. Inner Truth. Occultism. Esoterism. Theosophy.
When I possessed the keys, read the book and understood the symbols, I was permitted to lift the curtain of the Temple and enter. its inner sanctum. And there I beheld a Woman with a crown of gold and a purple mantle. She held a sword in one hand and scales in the other. I trembled with awe at her appearance, which was deep and mysterious, and drew me like an abyss.
"You see Truth," said the voice. "On these scales everything is weighed. This sword is always raised to guard justice, and nothing can escape it.
"But why do you avert your eyes from the scales and the sword? They will remove the last illusions. How could you live on earth without these illusions?
"You wished to see Truth and now you behold it! But remember what happens to the mortal who beholds a Goddess!"
Thierens: XI. Strength. Aquarius.
The astrologer says, that the Eleventh house is the house of the 'friends.' This means, that it contains those who are with us, and that which we have within the limit of our power, because 'friendly,' is that which is understood. The forces of nature, which we have mastered, are friendly to us and this is very well expressed by the woman who "is closing the jaws of a lion." The latter stands for passion more particularly. She derives this force from the eternal or superhuman and this is indicated by the lemnescate above her head. In older editions of the card 4 we find half the symbol for Aquarius, as a line of vibration added to it: ... Viewed from a purely astrological standpoint it is evident, that the force to conquer Leo should be found in the opposite sign, Aquarius. Early Renaissance must have seen this in the same way, as we find exactly the same image — only with one difference: it is there a young man, not a woman — a man closing the jaws of a lion in the capital of a pillar in the church of St. Andrew-the-Less in Vienna. Which proves at the same time, that the chosen image is not of a very recent date. (Musee du Trocadero: Paris.)
P. identifies it with the Hebrew letter Kaph, which he says "is a reinforcement of the Gimel — (Gemini) — so that we might say that it designates the hand of man in the act of grasping strongly. Ideas of strength are therefore applied to this letter." We should say it is the grip of friendship. A well-known symbol in many societies of brotherhood consisted of two hands united in a close grip of friendship.
"It is connected with the mystery of union... in all planes..." (W.), and this also is evident, because we are united with that which we have mastered and with people who are able to respond to our (electric) emanations of thought, or to whose emanations we ourselves respond.
