T he Fool’s next phase on the major arcana journey passes through Judgement. As the Fool nears the end of the path, they encounter the depths of wisdom and reflection of the long journey that has unfolded. When the Judgement card appears, it indicates a time of reckoning, a chance to self-reflect on events, relationships, and the life path. It is a call for clarity and perhaps a time to atone for one’s actions through forgiveness, release, and compassion.
Judgement—or Aeon, as Crowley renamed it—is number twenty. At last, we leave behind the essential seed of the Magician and move into the number two of the High Priestess. The Judgement card is imbued with the essence of the wise feminine guardian who sits between the worlds and offers intuitive guidance from the unseen realms. With the connection to number zero also present, we have the Fool’s sense of innocent pure and insightful truth that grounds the wisdom of judgment into our current awareness. Although Judgement is one of the last cards of the supra-conscious cycle of seven, there is a sense of embodied wisdom and human truthfulness that echoes through the elements of this card as well.
Contrary to its name, the Judgement card is more about impartiality and awareness and less about making negative judgments or assumptions about others. In the traditional idea of Judgment Day, the inspiration is a willingness to drop the egoic and attached view of our idea about how things should be and move into a more expansive and overarching view of the situation. The angelic presence in the traditional Rider-Waite-Smith card indicates a call to gather our resolve and uplift the attachments to things being a certain way, to certain stories or habits we become addicted to in our lives.
Well-grounded judgment allows us the ability to see things from a neutral perspective, above and beyond the ordinary story of our small human problems. This card asks us to take the high road from a place of disengaged compassion and a willingness to rise above the small drama so that we may grow into a new phase of life. So often, we find that this process is harder than it seems! Yet every moment is a new opportunity to step into presence.
This card invites us to move beyond our ways of reacting and being in our life path to bring in flow, magic, and creativity but without attachment or expectations for how things should look. This attitude also applies to our relationships, asking us to consider discerning and judging our true needs and desires. Judgement asks us to examine what we are giving ourselves and our friends, lovers, partners, and family members, encourages us to set boundaries, give and receive consent, to say clear yes’s and no’s, and stay open to those particulars changing and becoming more fluid.
In the Waite-Smith deck, the imagery shows the archangel Gabriel blowing a trumpet of grace and divine order, a profound gesture. This symbolizes a clear message from the higher self or awareness, a kind of call to destiny on the path. Below, gray-colored people lift their arms to the sky hoping to be seen and heard in this moment of divine witness. Their gray bodies indicate the mix of black and white, reminding us to move beyond dualistic and binary thinking and all its hang ups around good/evil, male/female, heaven/hell.
Crowley termed this card “the Aeon,” which means a very long time, perhaps as long as a billion years. It takes a diamond at least a billion years to form, comparable in some traditions to the long and slow spiritual evolution of the human consciousness. This card then speaks of rebirth and potential of multidimensional lives and perceptions. Arching across the card is the Nuit, the Egyptian goddess of the sky. Every evening she swallows the sun and gives birth to it every morning. Also featured is Horus, the sky god child who symbolizes rebirth and potent brilliant energy. Horus’s form is standing in the shape of the Tree of Life which links the journey of the tarot to the Kabbalistic path of evolution.
The Judgement card indicates a time when everything comes home to roost, so to speak. When this card appears in a reading it indicates a need to revisit past situations with the clarity of hindsight. Someone may be returning from the past either in person or in thoughts and dreams to allow for a shift in understanding around a past difficult situation. The card indicates the need to take the high road and aim for a larger perspective view on the situation at hand. In relationships and work, the Judgement card indicates a more universal connection, with a greater sphere of influence. This card may also indicate a time when suddenly things that have been clouded or unsure become clear. Insight, truth, or a strong decision are at hand guiding a newly forming destiny. This can be the arrival of a new and important relationship, change in career, or a sudden revelation about one’s life purpose.
Essential Qualities: discernment, neutrality, clarity, wisdom, higher level awareness, balance, sky, above, eternity
Suggestions: Allow time to reflect and look past events. Light a candle or have a fire to honor what has challenged you the most. Write a letter to someone who you still feel a strong connection to, a letter with full heart and truth and love that you may or may not choose to send to the person. This can also be a letter to someone who has passed away with whom you feel you are still connected or have yet to resolve certain things.
Oracle Vision
I am Judgement. I offer the wisdom from high above, a hawk’s-eye view. I remind you that there is always another perspective. I ask to take to the heights with me, spiraling above the tree tops into the air streams that meander the earth and wander the world.
I am divine guidance that offers you the timely hindsight to see the painful lessons of your past with new eyes. I evoke the remembrance that what is challenging is necessary growth for your soul and present new views on old memories. I invite the past into your present with a sense of meditative neutrality, dispassion, and cultivated awareness.