Rider-Waite
I have said that this symbol is essentially invariable in all Tarot sets, or at least the variations do not alter its character. The great angel is here encompassed by clouds, but he blows his bannered trumpet, and the cross as usual is displayed on the banner. The dead are rising from their tombs – a woman on the right, a man on the left hand, and between them their child, whose back is turned. But in this card there are more than three who are restored, and it has been thought worth while to make this variation as illustrating the insufficiency of current explanations. It should be noted that all the figures are as one in the wonder, adoration and ecstasy expressed by their attitudes. It is the card which registers the accomplishment of the great work of transformation in answer to the summons of the Supernal – which summons is heard and answered from within.
Herein is the intimation of a significance which cannot well be carried further in the present place. What is that within us which does sound a trumpet and all that is lower in our nature rises in response – almost in a moment, almost in the twinkling of an eye? Let the card continue to depict, for those who can see no further, the Last judgment and the resurrection in the natural body; but let those who have inward eyes look and discover therewith. They will understand that it has been called truly in the past a card of eternal life, and for this reason it may be compared with that which passes under the name of Temperance.
Symbols on the Rider-Waite Judgment card
- Shin
- LVX
Judgement divinatory meanings
Change of position, renewal, outcome. Another account specifies total loss through lawsuit.
Reversed meanings
Weakness, pusillanimity, simplicity; also deliberation, decision, sentence.
Etteilla: Judgment
Dedication, Intelligence, Conception, Reason, Correct Opinion, Power of Reasoning, Comparison. View, Suspicion, Thought. Strong Belief, Sentiment, Disband.
Reversed meanings
Arrest, Decree, Deliberation, Decision, Weak-Mindedness, Pusillanimity. Naïveté.
Thierens
XX. The Last Judgment. Jupiter.
If Saturn denotes ‘death’ and the grave, what more natural than that his counterpart Jupiter should stand for the resurrection from the grave? While Saturn, Lord of the mineral kingdom, is held to ‘kill’ by his crystallising effect, Jupiter, Lord of the vegetable kingdom and of all that grows and expands and evolves, leading up to sublimation and elevation, abstraction, etc., afterwards, is first the emblem and function of organic life, later on also those of psychic and spiritual life above the material existence, barren and naked, from which it consequently brings deliverance. The latter meaning is chiefly viewed when symbolising this principle in the card of the Last Judgment. “An angel sounds his trumpet per sepulchra regionum and the dead arise.” (W.) Some people say “that it signifies renewal, which is obvious enough…” and “that it is the generative force of the earth and eternal life.” (W.) The latter fairly covers our definition of Jupiter’s function. Again W. further mentions, that it “is the card which registers the accomplishment of the great work of transformation.” Which is also in the line of Jupiter, Io Pater, ‘Our Father that is in the Heavens.’ And every great work needs his co-operation; there is no important or great work done in this world without Jupiter, the planet of ideals playing a prominent rule in it. Ideals, that “are the angel part of us,” as Zanoni tells his disciple. Ideals, religious, social or any other and for the elevating effect they have on man; for ideas and leading motives, aspirations, etc., consequently for generalisation, illumination, dispersion, elevation, for all that is honourable on one hand but also for illusions or vain aspirations on the other hand. It is the sign of deliverance from narrow thought and hampering conditions in the soul as well as in the body and in life.
20. Le Jugement – Paul Foster Case
Corresponds, through the letter Shin, with the element of Fire. Is probably also related to the planet Pluto, and here it may be noted that in certain relations of Tarot symbolism and combination, this Key is definitely associated with the sign Scorpio, which, some astrologers believe, may be the sign ruled by Pluto.
Le Jugement meanings
The operation of undercurrents of force not easily determinable, or the appearance of unexpected elements bearing upon the Querent’s problem.
Le Jugement well-dignified
A favorable outcome to the matter concerning which the operation is made. Often the renewal of hopes and wishes, or the betterment of conditions after a period of depression.
Le Jugement ill-dignified
Especially in legal matters, the decision goes against the Querent, and the outcome is beyond his power to change. Inheritance.
Ouspensky
XX – JUDGMENT
The resurrection. Constant victory of life over death. Creative activity of nature in the death.
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