Justice and Judgement - How are they the same/different?

I always get these two cards mixed up because to me their meanings are very close.

Justice is an arbitrary form of deciding right from wrong (arbitrary because it is usually handed down to us by a judge or authority figure). It also has some of the connotation of: when things go awfully wrong for you, your justice will be in the form of seeing harm coming to the one who has done you wrong.

Judgement is more of a karma or religious decision. Human wishes or prejudices don't hold any weight when it comes to Judgement - it comes from God or the Creator and the only way we can receive a good judgement (as in the Old Testament's meaning) is by living a good life and not breaking the commandments.

I know this is sounding very judeo-christian, but I do believe the Tarot cards are greatly influenced by this tradition.

That said, I am using a mythology deck and Justice is represented by Athena (holding the scales) and Judgement is represented by Hermes or Mercury, the messenger god who acted as a go-between for human to god communications. He also guided the soul to the after-life.

What do others think?

Hi Splenda,

I see Justice and Judgement being similar in indicating a decision that needs to be made, usually to bring balance or adjustment to a situation.

With Justice, I see the decision-making as a bit "cold". It is logical, rational, based on reasoning rather than emotion. Sometimes involves legal issues.

With Judgement, I feel that emotions are more intensely involved in whatever decision or adjustment needs to be made. Especially emotions that have been harbored a long time and stem from the past. Judgement also makes me think of "regrets" and "forgiveness".

JMHO!

I see Judgment as a rebirth; some decks present it that way specifically. By the time of Judgment, the need for specific Justice is way past.

Great question, Splenda.

I interpret the Judgement card as coming from a more internal, personal fulcrum whereas Justice has more external structure. A lot of the Judgement cards depict an angelic figure blowing a horn of some kind with people responding to the call. Judgement feels more about an inner awakening, almost like the uncoiling of the eardrum into sound, which is how we all begin. There is a sense of Attunement in this card, Alignment with a higher vibrational octave. The angelic figure is in the sky, the human figures are all raising their arms upwards. The focus is very much on a vertical, upwards direction, towards the sky. In the dzogchen tradition one of the meditations done is sky gazing and this kind of open, expansive vista leads to similarly expansive inner vistas if done with heart, a reflection of our true nature.

Justice feels more temporal to me and subject to the more manifest laws of time and space, to the actual, the limited realm of the egoic. There is an immediacy to it, a reap what you sow message. Justice carries a sword, Judgement a trumpet--one cuts, one sounds. In this way, for me, the difference between the two is that of being subject to/at the mercy of the sword but yielding/listening/responding to the sound.

Good question, and one that had me refining my own interpretations of the two cards.
So in looking up my notes:
Justice appears to be an “action” made by another (Fair outcome, for better or worse).
Judgment seems to be a “choice” to bring about resolution to be made by oneself.
What say you?

I see Judgement as kind of a final weighing and measuring before the journey is complete. An assessment to make sure the end product is up to par. It's also the last step before you are complete with your task.

In the deck I have it is rebirth, and I see it as the emergence of a butterfly from the cocoon. That emergence can involve a bit of a struggle, but that struggle is necessary and important in and the way that it helps the wings fill with blood (or the way a chick comes from an egg, and it's difficult but the process strengthens the chick and it can not emerge until it is strong enough).

Justice though, that's more like saying you may be seeing the consequences of your actions (or others) sum into a result (whether good or bad). Then your life absorbs that lesson and carries on, possibly changed by the result. That's more along the lines of something that happens in the course of a life, a part of the process rather than the end of a task.

Splenda said:

I always get these two cards mixed up because to me their meanings are very close.

Justice is an arbitrary form of deciding right from wrong (arbitrary because it is usually handed down to us by a judge or authority figure). It also has some of the connotation of: when things go awfully wrong for you, your justice will be in the form of seeing harm coming to the one who has done you wrong.

Judgement is more of a karma or religious decision. Human wishes or prejudices don't hold any weight when it comes to Judgement - it comes from God or the Creator and the only way we can receive a good judgement (as in the Old Testament's meaning) is by living a good life and not breaking the commandments.

I know this is sounding very judeo-christian, but I do believe the Tarot cards are greatly influenced by this tradition.

That said, I am using a mythology deck and Justice is represented by Athena (holding the scales) and Judgement is represented by Hermes or Mercury, the messenger god who acted as a go-between for human to god communications. He also guided the soul to the after-life.

What do others think?

Click to expand...

My meanings are not that close to be confusing to me in any way.

For me Justice is about...justice. It's about finding the solution that is fair to everyone. It says that things will work out in a just, fair way. And that things will work out in the best way, fairly and justly, in the end.

judgment is about stopping to look back over the past. Its about learning from the past, both the mistakes and the successes. Looking back and trying not to make the same mistakes again, seeing what caused them and trying to avoid going there again And about seeing what worked well for you in the past, and why and what you can learn about why you succeeded then and how to apply the methods that worked for you in the past to where you are now in your life.


Maybe the main difference is Justice is about letting go and Judgement is about taking action.

In Justice, you can let go of worrying and trying too hard because you are told that these are unnecessary and that it will workout fairly. You do not have to work to try to make it work out that way, you're being told it will on its own So you can let go.

Judgmemt means you have to do the work, You have to see what did not work for you in the past and try to not go there again, You have to see what DID work well for you and how to recreate that kind of success in your life.

Babs