Justice....who is she really, and why does she wear a blindfold ?

Sharla

Thirteen said:
To the contrary. The blindfold means they'd rather be objective rather than subjective. Now, you might not like this. If this person is a friend, then why aren't they doing you favors or being friendly? Why are they siding with that person rather than you? You may resent this, but, to their mind, they're being impartial. They're ignoring that you're a friend and looking only at the situation.

Oka this makes sense, so they're detaching how they may feel or putting to one side any differences or even in regards to how close they are, and are then basing their decision on what they believe in their head is the right thing to do......thats what im understand the blindfold is about now, from what you've explained.

As the article says, it comes down from the Egyptian Maat who was female. I believe the reason for a female being Justice relates back to the first "judge" most of use know: Mom. In ancient days, men went out hunting, women gathering, and the ones left to care for the kids were moms and grandmas. So, they were the decision makers. The judges. And often the society revered a goddess and relied on priestesses who had visions. So, the female was seen as having this connection to some higher power. And if you have two people in a dispute, and don't know who is telling the truth, often some woman who had these visionary powers was trusted to know "This one did it."

I was asking about the "Female" because you know how it is, someone who is going to be judging someone in something to do with Law, you would think it would be a Male who had this role, so i was just curious to know why it happened to be a Lady. When you say about the Men going out hunting....so the women were left to be the decision makers, this does make sense. I have read somewhere also, that Lady Justice was supposed to have been an authority of prophecy too.

It's pretty ironic that you're asking about Justice's blindfold, and yet all you're seeing is that she's a woman. She's blindfolding for the purpose of NOT judging a person on anything but the evidence. Would you like her to say, "I see you're a woman and that makes me feel you're guilty" rather than ignoring your sex and focusing on the evidence? Maybe the message here is that you should ignore the gender of the Justice card, because it's creating a bias in your reading.

Like i've just mentioned before, it was more curiosity than anything else.[/quote]
As a rule, a good reader never assume that just because the card features a man/woman, that it's talking bout man/woman. There are men who can be Empresses, women who can be Emperors. Look for personality over gender. Who is the most fair-minded person in this situation? That's Justice. And Justice isn't about making rules. The Emperor makes rules. Justice is there to decide if the rules are fair, and, if they are fair, to make sure that whoever breaks them makes restitution and restores the balance.[/QUOTE]

Maybe also in Ancient times, men were equal to women.....so having a Lady Justice wasn't nothing to even think twice about.

Its interesting about the Ancient justice system too, because from what i've read they didn't have prisons and such in them times, so everything was based on Honour.

Sharla

yannie said:
Coming from a legal background... No, that's not what justice is, nor what the blindfold represents. It means in making a decision (sword) she's being objective, without fear or favour, regardless of wealth, identity etc (blindfold). It's not a karmic card. Her decision is based strictly on the facts of the case, the weight/validity of the arguments put forth (scales).

That it's Lady justice is merely symbolic, although deeply so, not that it's the female who should lay down the rules & etc.

Thankyou, i understand the blindfold now from yourself and Thirteens reply's.

Debra

Art historians say that Justice didn't get the blindfold until the late 1600's. Here's an excellent article on the imagery, from the NY Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/16/books/16justice.html

It's based on a book devoted to images of Justice. Apparently they have a whole chapter on the blindfold.

Because the blindfold is counterintuitive. I want to be judged by someone who is clear-seeing, who can perceive all the facts. A blindfold doesn't guarantee impartiality. A fair attitude is what makes justice fair. When we say "love is blind" we mean that love ignores important information (she's in love with a creep, but you know, love is blind...) The idea of "blind justice" actually does seem like a bad idea to me, as an image, until I rationalize how it kind of makes sense, sort of. Kind of. Not really.

I think it's also important to consider that contemporary tarot artists sometimes put elements in their cards simply because they like the way it looks, for aesthetic reasons, or because they think it looks cool. The choice of a hood instead of a blindfold was probably not intended to be meaningful.

Anyway, it's one of those oddities of how images change over time.

As an aside, I see interpreting gender differently than Thirteen (she writes, "As a rule, a good reader never assume that just because the card features a man/woman, that it's talking bout man/woman. ") I do use gender attributes in interpreting the Court cards and find it really useful.

PS Sharla. The Justice card might be a warning of illegality, of the law stepping in to a situation...keep your eyes open

Sharla

Debra said:
Art historians say that Justice didn't get the blindfold until the late 1600's. Here's an excellent article on the imagery, from the NY Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/16/books/16justice.html

It's based on a book devoted to images of Justice. Apparently they have a whole chapter on the blindfold.

Because the blindfold is counterintuitive. I want to be judged by someone who is clear-seeing, who can perceive all the facts. A blindfold doesn't guarantee impartiality. A fair attitude is what makes justice fair. When we say "love is blind" we mean that love ignores important information (she's in love with a creep, but you know, love is blind...) The idea of "blind justice" actually does seem like a bad idea to me, as an image, until I rationalize how it kind of makes sense, sort of. Kind of. Not really.

I think it's also important to consider that contemporary tarot artists sometimes put elements in their cards simply because they like the way it looks, for aesthetic reasons, or because they think it looks cool. The choice of a hood instead of a blindfold was probably not intended to be meaningful.

Anyway, it's one of those oddities of how images change over time.

As an aside, I see interpreting gender differently than Thirteen (she writes, "As a rule, a good reader never assume that just because the card features a man/woman, that it's talking bout man/woman. ") I do use gender attributes in interpreting the Court cards and find it really useful.

PS Sharla. The Justice card might be a warning of illegality, of the law stepping in to a situation...keep your eyes open

Thanks for the link Debra, i'm going to take a look at that. I have also another link here about her http://sculptorsdominion.org/UserFiles/File/08LadyJusticePressCOPY.pdf

"Love is blind", could this also be that she is not bothered about looks, it is more about your personality ? hence the covering of the eyes.

If so, then i suppose it could be that you're infatuated, so there are things about the other person you refuse to see even when they stare you in the face. Like when you are so obsessed about someone who doesn't love you and you can't see it.

You have gone past certain obstacles, and people can't understand your acceptance of the person or situation. They can't understand your forgiveness with this person.

So going on love/relationship questions would these examples, in regards to love being blind fit ?

I think this is where my first thought came from about the blindfold, because i have got this card a few times in regards to a guy i've been asking about recently.....and the original meanings of the card didn't seem to make sense. So when i put the card to one side and took a deeper look, i started noticing other things.

Debra

OH. Ah. Well, tarot can be remarkably specific. Maybe he's into sex with blindfolds.
Just a thought.

JuniperPress

the concept of 'blind justice' is very, very old

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lady_Justice#Blindfold

hope this helps

Sharla

Debra said:
OH. Ah. Well, tarot can be remarkably specific. Maybe he's into sex with blindfolds.
Just a thought.

Ha ha your funny :laugh:

....no we haven't got that far yet, and probably never will, so i'll never even know.

But yes your right, tarot can be very literal at times so this could well be the case.

Debra

JuniperPress said:
the concept of 'blind justice' is very, very old

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lady_Justice#Blindfold

hope this helps

Hey Juniper, did you see some of the other posts in this thread?
Wikipedia is sometimes not so great. For example, this article says,

Justitia was only commonly represented as "blind" since about the end of the 15th century. The first known representation of blind Justice is Hans Gieng's 1543 statue on the Gerechtigkeitsbrunnen (Fountain of Justice) in Berne.[5]

1543 is the middle of the 16th century.

Sharla

JuniperPress said:
the concept of 'blind justice' is very, very old

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lady_Justice#Blindfold

hope this helps

Thanks for the link JuniperPress, but from doing my research i have already came across this link, i think it was the first one i read infact.

There is another link i've added to the thread, which is a few posts before this, this has quite a bit of information regarding her blindfold, sword, scroll etc, if your interested.

Sharla

Sticking with the "love is blind" theme for another post, i've just stumbled across this Video on youtube, it totally sums up this meaning.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L1vJMuXmYkA

It has a very deep meaning attached to it, and is quite sad too.