Description
When I was faced with the choice for SACT I felt merely clueless. Gemini indecision is proverbial, and I have no ambition to disprove astrology. Also, picking a soul card or another with which I was personally bound wasn't an option, for I knew the same indecision would have prevented me from realizing a self-satisfactory design - I would have never been able to finish a Lovers card for instance. So, I sat at the fireplace and started pondering... and after a while I was meditating. Card by card, one by one... Was there a vision, a sparkle? Did I have anything new to say about a specific card, an original idea, and a personal view worth representing? So I got stuck with Justice. Also the spiritual theme underlying the project was too interesting to be left out, and the idea of Justice from a spiritual perspective seemed clear at once. Hence, the elements featured in the card represent my vision - the card actually depicts my vision itself - and I am surprised at how accurately I managed to render it.
The main theme is that of a higher entity looking at out paces and steps, and watching our actions - and the penetration of that same entity with life and existence. The presence of such figure is a reminder of the basically mechanistic laws of the world and their expression in time (that I represented as the Threefold Law, Karma and The Golden Mean). Contemplating the stillness of that principle and its implication, there is me in the background. With a purple blindfold, and without lips and ears or nostrils - after all this was a vision, and therefore carried out by the inner eye of my mind, which is identified with the watchful divine eye in the middle of the figure. For it's with the divine eye that we contemplate the nature, structure and laws of the universe - we become the divine ourselves...
Symbolism
The card presents most of the symbols traditionally associated to the card.
From the guard of the golden sword stems like bud a hand holding the Tao; hanging from it the scale carrying a feather that mirrors itself. The sword is needed to cut, and discriminate between things, and this action can be completed only by aid of the scale, that is the tool for weighing and discerning. The feather reminds of Anubis'; used to judge the soul of the dead, reminding us there will always be consequences for our actions brought about by the eye of divine justice. On the plate is the glyph of Libra glowing and above that of Air (element of discernment and analysis) superimposed on the watcher. The other three elements from top-right to bottom-left are my trail to represent the Threefold Law, the Law of Karma and the Golden Mean respectively.
In the first, a hollow-hooded celebrant with a purple robe shows us, as ganglier forms on a net, the primeval impulse put forth by means of will (red) and resolving itself in more and more impalpable actions the farther We reach - yet all of them bound to hit us back. This relates to the future aspect of Justice and the conscience of the exchange existing between our energies and the world: to each of our actions will correspond an opposing reaction. The tortoise walking carrying the oroborus turn by the elephant walking along is a representation of Karma, and the way Justice acts through the past.
The two hands swapping the golden thread are my naive vision of the Golden Mean, the basic ethic principle that can be found in many different shapes in each religion or cult. It is not clear which hand is taking and which one is giving, either could be doing both and probably either *is* doing both, the path to follow in our present.
Card Meaning
The Justice card talks of ethical identity and respect in light of equality.
It implies the need to acknowledge a condition, take charge and do what is needed, putting aside our contingent views and letting the higher divine eye become the one with which we look at things around us. Actions ensue from thought and analysis, and decisions can only be made after gaining decent awareness, weighing sides, and trying to balance them. Or, on the other hand, the ethical impulse can open our eyes on our own responsibilities, and let us realize that the state of things is mere, sensible, logic consequence. Also, the card is linked to legal matters and their positive evolution, and the certainty that everyone is going to receive what deserved through hard work and deeds or misfits and mistakes.
More generally, the card is traditionally associated with the mechanistic law of action and reaction, with karmic patterns in negative or positive expression (punishments provoked or deserved rewards), with the capacity to evaluate our pasts and draw the lesson before starting a new cycle. My personal vision relates especially to the first, brought to extreme in its implication on the way we should live our present, with a genuine perception of the divine, superior equality and balance that life bears.
Artistic Media
The card lines were sketched on a simple A4 sheet, and colored with
Watercolor pencils; then re-colored with pencils and sharpened, resized
and titled in Paint Shop Pro 7.0
Artist's Bio
Pollux is a 19 Neapolitan boy studying Wicca and with an interest in the esoteric ever since. He is attending the 2nd year of Medicine School, and has very common interests such as cinema, reading, comics and art. He's been able to read tarot since his late childhood, but only took seriously at it with proper study in the last three years. He came across the Aeclectic Tarot site and its Forums in the old days of 1999 (but he's not so certain). Among his dreams and ambitions are a future as a happy man, the publishing of the Myth-centered tarot deck he's still to start conceiving; achieving enlightenment; a lot of fun in the process...
Go back to the project index, read the traditional card meaning, or get a free automated reading.
|
