Who are the World and Justice?

Cartomancer

Who are the World and Justice?

Who are portrayed on the World and Justice cards?

Virgo is a portrayal of the Tarot’s World card. Libra is a portrayal of the Tarot’s Justice card. These two cards portray constellations that are next to each other in the zodiac and actually portray the two roles played by Astraea.

Virgo, the constellation, is known in many cultures as the Maiden who holds an ear of wheat in her left hand. She may represent the triple goddess of birth, growth and rebirth. She is associated with agriculture and the harvest. Virgo is also known as Astraea and Libra was known as her scales of Justice. Virgo was also known as Dike (Justice) {Justa or Justitia}, which is a clear connection to the Justice card.

The Harvest Goddess was believed to be the producer of life, and her virginity was renewed each spring or each new moon. She is known as the archetypal Mother or Magna Mater who helps sustain all living things. She is a symbol of innocence, purity, virtue and fertility.

The Egyptians may have known her as Isis, the daughter of Hathor, or as Hathor herself, the personification of the power of nature. On star maps she held a distaff. In myth, Isis carried a sheaf of wheat in her hand that got scattered in the sky and became the Milky Way.

The Babylonians associated Virgo with Ishtar, the Great Mother and Queen of the Stars. Ishtar was the Ashtoreth of the 1st Book of Kings, xi,5,33. She may have been the original Grecian Aphrodite, the Latin Venus and Astarte of Syria.

The Greeks and Romans assigned many of their favorite goddesses to Virgo, including Dike (Justice) {Justa or Justitia}; Tyche (Fortune) {Fortuna}; Erigone, Irene, {Pax}, Concordia or the Singing Sibyl.

Classical Latin writers even called Virgo by the name Diana or Minerva. Apollo is said to have placed Urania in the stars of Virgo. Virgo has been associated with Rhea (Earth), the mother of Zeus. Virgo is often referred to as the Greek Demeter or Deo {Ceres} who was the mother of Persephone {Proserpina}, Plutos, Philomelus and the horse Arion. [Hyginus, Poetica Astronomica, 2.25.]

Demeter was the Earth Mother who was the goddess of corn and the fertility of nature. Demeter bore two sons by Iasion: Plutus and Philomelus. Plutus became the god of the wealth of the earth and Philomelus became a poor farmer who yoked two oxen together and invented the wagon. Demeter later placed Philomelus in the stars of Bootes the herdsman.

Demeter ruled over the crops of the earth and especially gains. She taught the religious rites at the temple in her honor at Eleusis which became celebrated as the Eleusinian mysteries. She also instituted the festival called the Thesmorphoria which was celebrated by Athenian women each year.

Persephone was the daughter of Demeter by Zeus. One day Hades {Pluto} saw Persephone and fell in love with her. Assisted by Zeus, Hades abducted Persephone and carried her off to the underworld. Demeter searched the earth for Persephone, but only after consulting the sun god Helius (Helios) did she find out her whereabouts. She wandered the world in grief and crops failed.

The gods appealed to her to return fertility to the earth, but only when Hermes brought Persephone back to her was she happy. But Persephone had eaten some seeds of the pomegranate, and was destined to spend a third of the year underground.

Demeter and Persephone returned to Olympus and the crops grew again and mankind was saved. The sojourn of Persephone to the underworld is said to symbolize the time a seed waits dormant in the soil underground until springtime when it sprouts and breaks into the light.

Virgo:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virgo_(constellation)

http://www.constellationsofwords.com/Constellations/Virgo.html

http://www.theoi.com/Titan/Astraia.html

http://www.gods-and-monsters.com/virgo-myth.html

Search for: “Virgo constellation myth”

Libra:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Libra_(constellation)

http://www.theoi.com/Ouranios/HoraDike.html

http://www.constellationsofwords.com/Constellations/Libra.html

http://www.gods-and-monsters.com/libra-mythology.html

Search for: “Libra constellation myth”

The World card is seen in the stars of Virgo. The Justice card is seen in the stars of Libra.

- Cartomancer (Lance Carter)
 

Theoferrum

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The Origin for the Scales of Justice was in the Egyptian Goddess Ma'at which meant Truth and Justice but also much more then that. It represented proper Social Order in accordance with the Divine Creative Will. This is the origins for the Masonry, "So Mote it be." She was not Blindfolded and she did not bear a Sword.

The introduction, therefore, of the Sword into the Symbol indicates that war has brought Chaos where Peace had reigned - the Scales have tipped too far in the wrong direction.