Tarot del Fuego - Justice - 8

The TdF's Justice features a muscular inverted Lady Justice emerging from the clouds. to her right is the Sun, which represents the Light of the Self which animates and enlivens us all. To her left is a moon that looks like an eyeball, representing the High Priestess (who astrologically is the Moon). The Moon, Consciousness' power of Self-reflective awareness, here, is looking right at Lady Justice. 2 of her 5 eyes are blindfolded and her 3rd eye is closed, calling to mind the phrase, "Justice is blind." Balanced on her mouth is a scale, which is a universal symbol for justice as well. Her right and left hands hold a sword for wrath and severity and a white handkerchief for mercy, respectively. Though she must mete out punishments, she is not punitive for its own sake. "An eye for an eye and the whole world would be blind." Though she has the capacity to dole out the harsh lessons of Saturn, who is exalted in her constellation (Libra), in equal proportion, she carries and bestows the grace and gentleness of Venus, the ruler of her constellation.

Punishment is again symbolized by the hand whose palm is cut, and whose finger is severed. The hand is, to revisit a theme from the Lovers/Māya, simultaneously one and many. On the one hand (no pun intended), there are 5 digits and a palm. Perhaps an individual component of the hand injured another. Let's say it was the finger that cut the palm. It really only ever injured itself, because the notion that it was something separate was only half true at best. Even so, it reaped what it sowed and was itself severed in turn.

The red-orange lion and castle symbolize the domain of earthly rulership, which must rely upon this principle for its continued existence. It must do its best to embody this archetype, above all others, lest it join the long list of fallen civilizations that have come before. The castle also symbolizes a particular locale, which ties into the associated Principle, as taught from a Tantric perspective.

Justice corresponds to the 11th Principle of manifestation, niyati, which is to say "causality" and (by implication) "localization." This Principle, like the one before it, is a kanñchuka (see my entry on the Chariot for more on kañchukas). This kañchuka is Consciousness' limited power of pervasiveness. Since unconditioned Consciousness-absolute is omnipresent and all-pervasive, it stands to reason that it would need to crystallize itself down to a single point in order to experience itself from the perspective of any particular individual. Thus it becomes subject to the laws governing actions between multiple individual units like itself, and the reactions resulting from them. Conversely, just as causality is a function of localization, localization is a function of causality, since the fruits of one's actions contribute to whatever setting one happens to find themselves in. In other words, the two aspects of this principle play into each other.

Since it's potentially a point of controversy, Let's talk briefly about the two main Tarot numbering systems. The Tarot del Fuego follows the pre-Rider-Waite-Smith/Golden Dawn Major Arcana chronology, which is also the system Aleister Crowley utilized when he created the Thoth Tarot. Paul Foster Case argued pretty stridently that this is the incorrect order of manifestation, and that the pre-Golden Dawn numbering system was merely an exoteric convention designed as a blind for non-initiates. The Mystery schools always made use of the RWS/Golden Dawn chronology, he goes on, but it had never been made public before A.E. Waite. The teachings of Nondual Shaiva Tantra, or Kashmir Shaivism, on the 36 Tattvas (Principles) seem to reinforce this assertion, or at least follow the same format. However both positions, 8 and 11, are kañchukas, and so are more or less on the same level in terms of hierarchy. As a matter of personal preference, I tend to favor the RWS numbering convention. But I don't have any major issue, either as a reader or a teacher, with the alternative.

Astrologically, Justice is the constellation of Libra, the scales. The associated Hebrew letter is Lamed, an ox goad. All of these themes - Justice, niyati, Libra, and Lamed -  represent the cosmic law of cause-and-effect; what is commonly (more-or-less) understood as karma. Even if one is inclined to balk at the idea of the consequences of past lives catching up with us in later incarnations, the idea extends to more empirically verifiable phenomena. What goes up, must come down. For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. The Tantras teach us that our actions bind us to the law of cause-and-effect, and to the erroneous presumption of duality, when they are motivated by attachment and aversion. It's worth noting that the moral imperative here isn't placed so much upon performing virtuous actions VS immoral ones because both can be motivated by a strong desire to achieve a particular result and/or avoid another. The road to Hell is paved with good intentions as they say. One of the principle teachings of the Bhagavad Gītā is that one should perform their duty without attachment to the outcome. Instead, it is to become an offering to the Divine. You are here to engage in this play. Do your part as an act of love on behalf of the actor - the Self. This is how, the teaching goes, one's actions become liberating instead of binding. As Swami Muktānanda, the Guru of my Guru, put it, one must renounce the dual ideas of "I" and "mine."