Justice (Tarot card)

File:RWS Tarot 11 Justice.jpg

Justice (XI)

Justice is a Major Arcana Tarot card, numbered either VIII or XI, depending on the deck. This card is used in game playing as well as in divination.

Description

The Justice card, as a member of the Tarot deck, appears in early Tarot, such as the Tarot de Marseilles. It is part of the Tarot's major arcana, and usually follows the Chariot, as card VIII, although some decks vary from this pattern. Justice (virtue), accompanies two of the other cardinal virtues in the Major Arcana: temperance and strength.

Numbering

Allegory of Justice, by Raphael. In the Italian Renaissance, Justice did not usually appear blindfolded.

Justice is traditionally the eighth card and Strength the eleventh, but the influential Rider-Waite-Smith deck switched the position of these two cards in order to make them better fit the astrological correspondences worked out by the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, under which the eighth card is associated with Leo and the eleventh with Libra. Today many decks use this numbering, particularly in the English-speaking world. Both placements are considered valid.

In popular culture

• Justice is also the name of the first boss in The House of the Dead 4, It also serves as the first boss in The House of the Dead 4 Special. It is depicted as a giant four-armed humanoid zombie with a razor sharp tongue. Justice continues the House of the Dead series's tradition of naming its bosses after the Major Arcana of Tarot.

• In the SNES video game Ogre Battle: The March of the Black Queen, the Justice Tarot card is labeled as XI, and depicts a long-haired knight standing up, holding a sword in his right hand and scales in his left hand. On drawing the card after liberation of one of the towns, it increases the characters' maximum HP by 1 point, and summons a blizzard to attack enemy units when used in battle.

• In JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, Justice is the name of Enya Geil's Stand. It is made out of mist and can control other people's bodies, living or dead, like a puppeteer.

References

• A. E. Waite's 1910 Pictorial Key to the Tarot
• Hajo Banzhaf, Tarot and the Journey of the Hero (2000)
• Most works by Joseph Campbell
• G. Ronald Murphy, S.J., The Owl, The Raven, and The Dove: Religious Meaning of the Grimm's Magic Fairy Tales (2000)
• Riane Eisler, The Chalice and the Blade (1987)
• Mary Greer, The Women of the Golden Dawn
• Merlin Stone, When God Was A Woman
• Robert Graves, Greek Mythology
• Juliette Wood, Folklore 109 (1998):15-24, The Celtic Tarot and the Secret Tradition: A Study in Modern Legend Making (1998)

External links

This article incorporates text from the public domain 1910 book Pictorial Key to the Tarot by Arthur Edward Waite. Please feel free to update the text.