Judgement (tarot card)

Judgement (XX), or in some decks spelled Judgment, is a tarot card, part of the Major Arcana suit usually comprising 22 cards.

The Judgment (XX) from the Rider–Waite tarot deck

Card meanings

• Judgement
• Rebirth
• Inner-calling
• Absolution
• Karma
• Causality
• Second chance

Description

The traditional scene is modeled after Christian imagery of the Resurrection and Last Judgment. An angel is depicted among the clouds blowing a great trumpet, from which hangs the flag of St. George, which references the 1 Corinthians 15. A group of resurrected people (man, woman, and child) of sallow complexion stand, arms spread, looking up at the angel in awe. The Sleeping Dead are emerging from crypts or graves, calling back to the Revelation 20, where the sea gives up its dead. There are snow-covered mountains in the background indicating a winter theme, similar to The Hermit, as a symbolical ending.

Alternative decks

In Aleister Crowley's Thoth Tarot, Judgement is referred to as The Aeon and includes pictorial representations of Nuit, Hadit and Ra-Hoor-Khuit and Harpocrates.

Interpretation

According to A. E. Waite's 1910 book Pictorial Key to the Tarot, the Judgement card is associated with:

Change of position, renewal, outcome. Another account specifies total loss though lawsuit. Reversed: Weakness, pusillanimity, simplicity; also deliberation, decision, sentence.

See also

• Angels in art

References

Works cited

• Waite, Arthur Edward (1979) [1910]. The Pictorial Key to the Tarot. New York: Samuel Weiser. ISBN 0-87728-218-8.

Further reading

• Banzhaf, Hajo (2000). Tarot and the Journey of the Hero. Weiser Books. ISBN 978-1-57863-117-9.
• Butler, Bill (1975). Dictionary of the Tarot. New York: Schocken Books. ISBN 0-8052-0559-4.
• Gray, Eden (1988) [1960]. The Tarot Revealed: A Modern Guide to Reading the Tarot Cards. Signet. ISBN 978-0-451-15673-0.
• Knight, Gareth (1991). The Magical World of the Tarot: Fourfold Mirror of the Universe. Aquarian. ISBN 978-0-85030-940-9.
• Place, Robert (2005). The Tarot: History, Symbolism, and Divination. New York: Penguin Publishing Group. ISBN 978-1-4406-4975-2.
• Pollack, Rachel (1997) [1980]. Seventy Eight Degrees of Wisdom: A Book of Tarot. Thorsons. ISBN 978-0-7225-3572-1.

External links

Media related to Judgement (Major Arcana) at Wikimedia Commons