Renaissance Tarot (Jones / Lyle) - Justice VIII

Sulis

This is a beautiful Justice card.

A woman in a flowing blue gown that shows off her bare breasts stands and balances a huge set of scales on one finger of her left hand.
In her right hand she holds an sword with the point facing upwards.
Blue ribbons are entwined around the scales.

This is a card about balance, Universal balance.
It's number is eight, the number of Universal balance.
The Sword is the sword of truth and also of action.
The Justice card reminds us that everything in this Universe of ours is balanced. Our past actions are responsible for the present and the future.
It's a card about taking responsibility for everything that we think, say and do.
It's a card of fairness and of putting in the right amount of effort to get the results that we want.

This card tells us that we will get what we deserve, according to our actions past and present.... This will be perfectly fair, even if it's not always what we want.
 

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Enchanted

It is a lovely looking card isn't it? I love the colour of the dress!

This one poses a little problem for me as I have learnt with Justice being 11, not 8. But I don't really see that as a major problem, just a slight adjustment to my thinking.

The first thing that caught my attention was the fact that the scales are held up by one finger. Which made me think of a delicate balance, and that it wouldn't take much to tip the scales.

It looked as if she is willing to use the sword, to slash the ribbon, which then may fall into the scale, the ribbon would not weigh much, but would it be enough to tip the scale? The seemingly small things we say or do or think for good or ill that may have a bearing on our future course. The small things matter.

Unlike other Justice cards, she doesn't look straight on. Past deeds being weighed to determine the future path perhaps.

The bare breasts indicated to me, a naked truth, or something becoming exposed or even feeling exposed.

I then turned to the accompanying book, where it said that the "female figure is a link with the Egyptian Goddess Ma'at".

Now I don't think I would have gotten that association from the image itself, there is nothing that really screams "egyptian". But I suppose in many ways all Justice cards can be linked to Ma'at, the Goddess of truth and order.

So I did a bit of research on Ma'at as I know virtually nothing about Egyptian Mythology.

One thing that really interested me in connection with the Justice card was the "Weighing of the Heart". Where the dead were judged by Anubis, using scales and a feather (that represented Ma'at). To be accepted into Aaru (the heavenly underworld) the heart must weigh the same as the feather.

I found that interesting in connection with only one finger holding up the scales, and the ribbon surrounding them, both implying the lightness of a feather would be enough to effect the balance.

I always remember what Thirteen said in her tarot meanings on this forum, in connection with this card. "It's not a nice card, but a wise one". I find that to be true.
 

Sulis

Hi Enchanted,

It's good to see you back :)

Oh I love your thoughts about the balance being very delicate and the fact that if she cut the ribbon with the sword it may be just heavy enough to tip the scale.
The ribbon being synonymous with the feather makes sense too.
I couldn't for the life of me see any significance for the ribbon being there but that makes sense.
I think that ribbons seem to represent thoughts or words in this deck (there are a lot of ribbons in the suit of Swords) so to carry on from what you were saying we could say that a thought or word is enough to tip the scales...
We must be responsible for our thoughts and words, not just our deeds....

As for the numbering of Justice, I'm a Marseilles user so I just cannot see Justice being at any other position than 8.
It's one of the main things that puts me off or attracts me to a deck. If I get a deck and Justice and Strength have been switched around, it really puts me off the deck..
 

Enchanted

Thanks Sulis :)

The ribbon was bugging me too. I thought I had read somewhere in the book when I first got this deck what they represented but I couldn't find it. So I looked again, and it said that the ribbons represent energy.

That makes sense with what you were saying about them being thoughts and words, as that is all energy. So in connection with this card, energy being expressed negatively or positively, be it in words, thoughts or actions have weight and are something that we are ultimately responsible for and will be held accountable for.

It reminded me of that saying "energy goes where thoughts flow", or something like that.

Perhaps you could explain to me a bit more about Justice being 8? For me that whole High Priestess (2) - Justice (11) - and Judgement (20), makes a whole load of sense and is just the system that I am used to. So how does it work in the Marseille tradition? Anything that will help me connect this to 8?
 

Mariana

Enchanted said:
Perhaps you could explain to me a bit more about Justice being 8? For me that whole High Priestess (2) - Justice (11) - and Judgement (20), makes a whole load of sense and is just the system that I am used to. So how does it work in the Marseille tradition? Anything that will help me connect this to 8?

I'm not an expert, but to me, coming after the individual path of 7, 8 makes more sense as Justice, the consequences of your choices, while 11, linked to the High Priestess, makes more sense as Strength, integrating your darker sides (the animal) or subconscious... But then I read 20 as liberation/resurrection as well...
 

Enchanted

Mariana said:
I'm not an expert, but to me, coming after the individual path of 7, 8 makes more sense as Justice, the consequences of your choices, while 11, linked to the High Priestess, makes more sense as Strength, integrating your darker sides (the animal) or subconscious... But then I read 20 as liberation/resurrection as well...

Thanks Mariana! :) That is starting to make sense for me. I like what you said about the consequence of your choices, that really made a lighbulb go off. I would like to get a handle on looking at it either way round.
 

WooMonkey

My eyes were also drawn to the scales balancing so tenuously on the tip of one finger. It looks to me like the ribbon has already been cut, and she is looking to see which way the scales will tip.
 

Bernice

I'm with WooMonkey here - I think she has cut the ribbon in order to 'weigh' the positive/negative energies. It's a meticulous assessment..... not an iota will be disregarded.

I like her.

Bee