Sitting in Judgement

I’ve been challenged, recently, about my interpretation of the Judgment card.  In a reading, I’d said that Judgment wasn’t about judging and being judged – or at least, not only about that.  But others clearly don’t agree, so I thought I’d have a look and see what other views are around.

© Judgement

Universal Waite Tarot

The Little White Book (LWB) that accompanies the Universal Waite Tarot deck simple says “Change of position, renewal, outcome.”  Short and to the point. 

Rachel Pollack, in her Seeker: The Tarot Unveiled (Llewellyn, 2005), adds “rebirth, new possibilities, and wholeness” to the list.  In fact, she maintains (as do I) that Judgment is not about judging others, showing good judgement, or being judged themselves at all.  The child in the image reminds us that new opportunities and possibilities can appear when we heed the voice that tells us to let go of old, out-of-date, ways and beliefs.  The nakedness of the figures symbolizes openness as well as new beginnings – the state in which we were born into this world, but also the state in which we need to embrace this “re-birth”.  The trumpet, far from being the call to judgement, is in fact the “voice”, the push, the call – however it manifests – to step into the unknown and stop hiding.

© Judgement

Game of Thrones Tarot

Juliet Sharman-Burke, in her Beginners Guide to the Tarot (Connections, 2001), adds “resurrection and resolution” to the list.  She too sees this as an opportunity to greet the new with joy.  She calls it the card of karma, saying “it heralds the time of reaping what has been sown”.  You might see an element of judgement in that but, reading between her lines, I feel it’s more about assessment.  Yes, she does use the word “judge” – “to judge your actions and appraise what you have done” – but she goes on to say it’s more about the preparation for the next stage in life. 

Liz Dean, in the accompanying guidebook to The Game of Thrones Tarot (Home Box Office, Inc., 2017), doesn’t use the word “judgement” in her description of the card.  She writes about being on the edge of a change, and focuses on the need for second chances after a review or appraisal, and about the chance to make sense of the past.

© Judgement

Shadowscapes Tarot

In the accompanying book to the Shadowscapes (Tarot Llewellyn, 2010), Stephanie Pui-Mun Law and Barbara Moore do refer to making a judgement.  They talk about holding an accounting, and about it being “time to evaluate the phase of life just past, to recognize and to appraise with an unbiased mind and honesty to oneself”.  They too see Judgement as a card of awakening, of hearing and responding to a voice or call, and the need to respond to it.

The creators of the Wildwood Tarot (Connections, 2011), Mark Ryan and John Matthews, are very clear in their view.  In the accompany book, they write that “The major element in this process [surviving inevitable change] is judgement of yourself and others.”, yet the word “judgement” doesn’t come up in their list of keywords.  “Karma” and “cosmic law” do, as does “inescapable truth”.  They do talk about renewal and rebirth, themes that are echoed in the image that Will Worthington has created for the card.  That idea of rebirth is also seen in the DruidCraft Tarot’s image (also by Will Worthington).

© The Great Bear

Wildwood Tarot

© Rebirth

Druid Craft Tarot

So yes, my challenger was right in saying that the card is about judging the self and others, but I think perhaps it depends on how we define “judgment” – and maybe I need to be clearer about that when I read!  (To be fair, the deck I was reading with, Kim Krans’ Wild Unknown Tarot, does focus on the forgiveness aspect, as I did in the reading.)  Kim Krans’ view is that the word carries such negative connotations – fear, guilt, shame – that it’s more helpful to seek the truth and forgive, not blame.  The image, the dove rising up above all the negativity (the darkness) and spreading its wings reflects that beautifully, I think.

© Judgement

Wild Unknown Tarot

Pollack, Rachel. Seeker: The Tarot Unveiled. Llewellyn Publications, 2005.

Beginner’s Guide to the Tarot created by Juliet Sharman-Burke, illustrated by Giovanni Caselli, published by Connections

Druid Craft Tarot created by Philip Carr-Gomm and Stephanie Carr-Gomm, illustrated by Will Worthington, published by Connections

Game of Thrones Tarot, created by Liz Dean, published by Home Box Office, Inc., 2017

Shadowscapes Tarot created by Stephanie Pui-Mun Law and Barbara Moore, published by Llewellyn

Universal Waite Tarot created by Mary Hanson-Roberts & Pamela Colman-Smith, published by U.S. Games Systems, Inc.

Wild Unknown Tarot, created by Kim Krans, published by HarperCollins, 2016.

Wildwood Tarot created by Mark Ryan and John Matthews, illustrated by Will Worthington, published by Connections

Pisces in the Major Arcana

As usual, let’s start our exploration of Pisces in the tarot with the Major Arcana. The card associated with Pisces is the eighteenth one, The Moon.  That often comes as a surprise – you might think that The Moon in the tarot would be associated with the Moon in the sky, but no, confusingly, the Moon that orbits the Earth is linked to the High Priestess. 

XVIII The Moon  (trimmed):

© Druid CraftTarot

So why The Moon?  Well, let’s think back to what we know about Pisces. It’s the mutable Water sign, the sign that puts no boundaries on emotions and feelings, the sign that merges conscious with unconscious, that’s linked to compassion, sensitivity, all-encompassing love and nurturing... all qualities that have become associated with the Moon.  Often referred to as a psychic sign, Pisces is interested in exploring the soul, the psyche. It opposes Virgo on the axis of ‘service’ – while Virgo wants to be of use on a practical level, Pisces wants to be involved on the spiritual level.  Pisces can feel restricted by the ‘mundanity’ of everyday life; it wants to transcend this, and does so through dreams (the daydream variety or in sleep) as well as through creative expression and the imagination.  The Moon card, too, is linked to intense dreams and the power of the imagination.

Pisces floats through life, flowing with the tides – another link to the Moon. The gravitational forces exerted by the Moon and the Sun, combined with the effects of the rotation of the Earth, produce the rise and fall in sea level – the ebb and flow of the tides.  The Moon is also linked to cycles through its phases – new, waxing, full, waning, old.  

XVIII The Moon  (trimmed):

© Shadowscapes Tarot

Depictions of The Moon card often show this – for example, we see in the Sharman-Burke/Caselli, the Druid Craft, and the Haindl decks the new, full and old, representing potential as unfulfilled (‘Maiden’), fulfilled (‘Mother’), and spent (‘Crone’) respectively. 

The Thoth’s Moon card shows us only the waning crescent moon, representing the journey into the depths of the soul, while the Shadowscapes’ Moon is a crescent suggestive of new birth - although there are two much larger, fuller moon-shapes behind it, which could represent the three phases. 

XVIII The Moon (trimmed):

© Thoth Tarot

The shadow side of Pisces can be a tendency to escape into a fantasy world, a world of illusion – which can also lead to addiction.  The Moon card is often associated with illusion – that things are not what they seem. 

Rachel Pollack, in her Seeker: The Tarot Unveiled (Llewellyn Publications, 2005) talks about ‘the passage through the unknown’, and how this can refer to actual journeys as well as inner ones. Either can be adventures, journeys of discovery – but both involve uncertainty.  Sometimes the uncertainty can make us feel a little ‘mad’ – bringing us to the link between the Moon and lunacy (‘luna’ being Latin for ‘moon’).  The dog and wolf (jackal and wolf, in the Thoth) often depicted in the Moon card represent the wildness, the animal instinct to howl at the moon, to run wild, the ‘madness’ that needs to be released, the unconscious.  Have you noticed how rarely people are shown in this card, only animals?

The Moon (trimmed):

© Sharman-Burke/Caselli Tarot

Those animals can also symbolize irrational fears of 'creatures of the night' and of things unseen or hidden, lost or buried in memory.

We often see water in the Moon card, another link back to the water sign of Pisces.  In the Sharman-Caselli deck, the water in the image is the Pool of Forgetfulness, representing not only the unconscious mind but also the experiences we want to forget, or the things we fear (also symbolized by the crayfish/crab, which – half in water, half on land – symbolizes the feelings that are never allowed to be made conscious).  By accepting the fears, the ‘madness’, the uncertainty, we gain access to instinct, to our unconscious – the goal of Pisces!

18 The Moon (trimmed):

© Wildwood Tarot

Water is also prevalent in the Wildwood Tarot's Moon on the Water. Here we have a Full Moon over a marshy landscape - this image makes me think of the Arthurian summerlands (perhaps because I live in that very landscape!).  The 'passage through the unknown', perhaps?  Again, more animal symbolism. The heron, a water bird, represents psychic ability as well as reflection - and there's plenty of reflection in the imagery! The heron also stands at the gateway between life and death, acting as mediator on the soul's journey to the  underworld. Or between conscious and unconscious? That makes me think of the jackals (or dogs, or wolves) in other images.   The horns of the aurochs represent the waxing and waning moon, as well as fertility - and there's the egg, waiting to be fertilized as we head towards Aries, the start of the astrological new 'year'.

Beginner’s Guide to the Tarot created by Juliet Sharman-Burke, illustrated by Giovanni Caselli, published by Connections

Druid Craft Tarot created by Philip Carr-Gomm and Stephanie Carr-Gomm, illustrated by Will Worthington, published by Connections

Shadowscapes Tarot created by Stephanie Pui-Mun Law and Barbara Moore, published by Llewellyn

Thoth Tarot created by Aleister Crowley, illustrated by Lady Frieda Harris, published by U.S. Games Systems, Inc.

Wildwood Tarot created by Mark Ryan and John Matthews, illustrated by Will Worthington, published by Connections

Capricorn in the Major Arcana – The Devil!

Happy New Year!

Carrying on with our exploration of Capricorn, we come now to The Devil – but why? What’s the link between the two?

XV Cernunnos (trimmed):

© Druid Craft Tarot

Well, goats have come to symbolize sexuality in many mythologies – for instance, Pan, the Greek goat-god, who was linked to the idea of ‘wild desire’.  In northern European traditions, we have the Horned God, or the Celtic Cernunnos, representing nature and sensuality. Throughout the ages, though, the goat has also become almost synonymous with the Devil, supposedly representing temptation and giving in to our desires.   With Capricorn being an Earth sign, the references to sensuality and physical desire can be extended to material desires. So when we come across the Devil in the tarot, we’re reminded about what’s overpowering or obsessive, the things we try to suppress or deny. It can represent not only temptation, but also surrender – and reminds us that we have the power within us to keep our feet on the ground! 

XV The Devil (trimmed):

© Haindl Tarot

Hermann Haindl’s depiction of the Devil shows both a goat, the traditional Capricorn image, and a serpent. Rachel Pollack, in her Haindl Tarot: A Reader’s Handbook (published by Llewellyn, 2005), talks about kundalini energy being raised by both creatures, through the spirals of the goat’s horns and the coils of the serpent. 

XV The Devil (trimmed):

© Thoth Tarot

The Devil in Crowley’s Thoth deck always makes me laugh – who can resist that wicked grin of that goat?!  Laughing at how we become imprisoned by our desires and obsessions...and those twisted horns remind me of the twisted sense of humour... There’s an emphasis here on the procreative energy, too, with a very obvious phallic symbol taking centre-stage.

The Devil (trimmed):

© Sharman-Burke/Caselli Tarot

These images are quite different from the more traditional depictions of The Devil, yet the messages are similar. Juliet Sharman-Burke talks about “power and energy imprisoned”, the Devil-goat in the image symbolizing the material world, to which the figures have voluntarily chained themselves – there are chains around their necks but those chains aren’t right, and the figures’ hands are not restricted at all.  I see Saturn, the ruler of Capricorn, coming into play here – those figures show no indication of wanting to make any change, to escape the restrictions they’ve placed on themselves.  Sharman-Burke goes on to say “The Devil refers to all that is dark within your own psyche. That is why we like to think of The Devil’s abode as deep within the bowels of the earth in a place so safely removed from us that we do not have to deal with him. However, such an attitude also means that we live in fear of The Devil, and remain chained to his block of inhibition, restricted because we cannot face the truth about ourselves.”  (The Beginner’s Guide to the Tarot, Juliet Sharman-Burke, Connections 2001)

XV The Devil (trimmed):

© Shadowscapes Tarot

In the Shadowscapes deck, Stephanie Pui-Mun Law gives us a much more ethereal view of The Devil, but we still see that figure seemingly imprisoned – yet not allowing herself to see that there’s an obvious way out. Rather than choose to see the beauty around her, she hides her eyes – what is it she’s so afraid of? The Devil dances above her, laughing at how easy it is to keep what should be a vibrant creature a prisoner – a prisoner of her own fears.

So The Devil acts as a reminder to free ourselves of those restrictions we placed on ourselves and surrender to earthy sensuality (which, as a double Taurus, I shouldn’t have any problems with!) and to meet those who would ‘demonize’ us and what we believe in with humour!

If you’ve enjoyed this post, you might be interested in my e-book, Astrology in Tarot, now available from Amazon.

Beginner’s Guide to the Tarot created by Juliet Sharman-Burke, illustrated by Giovanni Caselli, published by Connections

Druid Craft Tarot created by Philip Carr-Gomm and Stephanie Carr-Gomm, illustrated by Will Worthington, published by Connections

Haindl Tarot, created by Hermann Haindl, published by U.S. Games Systems, Inc.

Shadowscapes Tarot created by Stephanie Pui-Mun Law and Barbara Moore, published by Llewellyn

Thoth Tarot created by Aleister Crowley, illustrated by Lady Frieda Harris, published by U.S. Games Systems, Inc.

Cancer in the court cards: The King of Cups

King of Cups (trimmed):

© Sharman-Burke/Caselli Tarot

Different traditions have different astrological correspondences when it comes to the Court Cards, but I follow the tradition of linking the cardinal signs with the Kings. That gives the King of Cups for Cancer, the cardinal Water sign.

Cardinality suggests taking the initiative - being self-motivated, as well as outgoing. The cardinal signs – Aries, Cancer, Libra, and Capricorn – are all symbolic of being good at starting new things but the element of each helps to define the focus of that energy. In the element of water, Cancer initiates contact on an emotional level; it has the ability to take the first steps in campaigning, for instance. Because the Sun is at a standstill at the point in which it enters Cancer, on the solstice, the outgoing, active nature may have more of a reflective quality.

So why Cancer - why the crab - for the King of Cups? I often think that the King of Cups represents a bit of a contradiction between suit and position – we tend to think of the Kings as being responsible and making decisions, while the Cups are about emotions, dreams, fantasy, romance... Remembering that the Sun’s just been ‘standing still’ gives me a clue to a possibly more reflective, inward-focus for this King. He can symbolize wanting to be emotionally involved but at the same time feeling cautious about going too deep – a bit too Scorpionic, perhaps?! The King is often said to carry masculine energy, while the watery realm of the Cups are thought to carry feminine energy. So we have a King of Cups who might come across as quite ambivalent. What better creature to represent this ambivalence than the crab? At home in water, at home on land... but not belonging completely to one or the other. A foot in both camps, as it were...

King of Cups (trimmed):

© Shadowscapes Tarot

The King of Cups in the Shadowscapes appears to be growing out of a strand of kelp or some other type of seaweed. Turtles swim around him, while he faces a sea-horse in a ball of light. The turtles represent the ability to guide the way calmly through the ever-changing watery realm of emotions, while the sea-horse symbolizes Poseidon’s power. The exoskeleton of the sea-horse is spiny as well as delicate – the male protects its young, symbolizing the King’s role as protector. Patient, tolerant, compassionate.

Father of Cups (trimmed):

© Haindl Tarot

The Haindl Tarot gives us Odin to represent the Father, or King, of Cups. Hermann Haindl chose figures to represent a variety of ‘sacred expression’, to borrow Rachel Pollack’s phrase (Haindl Tarot: A Reader’s Handbook, US Games Systems Inc, 1999), from the Stone Age through to Christianity, symbolizing the beliefs of various cultures – the roots, the family, the community. The things that people believed would protect them, as the shell protects the crab. 

Odin is shown hanging upside-down in the card’s image, representing the myth in which he hung himself from the World Tree, Yggdrasil, for nine nights in order to gain the wisdom of the Runes. It’s the same story that’s often depicted in, or used as a basis for, The Hanged Man – but that’s another post in the making!

Beginner’s Guide to the Tarot created by Juliet Sharman-Burke, illustrated by Giovanni Caselli, published by Connections

Haindl Tarot, created by Hermann Haindl, published by U.S. Games Systems, Inc.

Shadowscapes Tarot created by Stephanie Pui-Mun Law and Barbara Moore, published by Llewellyn

Pisces in the DruidCraft Major Arcana

Let’s start our exploration of Pisces in the tarot with the Major Arcana. The card associated with Pisces is the eighteenth one, The Moon.  That often comes as a surprise – you might think that The Moon in the tarot would be associated with the Moon in the sky, but no, confusingly, the Moon that orbits the Earth is linked to the High Priestess.  

So why The Moon?  Well, let’s think back to what we know about Pisces. It’s the mutable water sign, the sign that puts no boundaries on emotions and feelings, the sign that merges conscious with unconscious, that’s linked to compassion, sensitivity, all-encompassing love and nurturing... all qualities that have become associated with the Moon.  Often referred to as a psychic sign, Pisces is interested in exploring the soul, the psyche. It opposes Virgo on the axis of ‘service’ – while Virgo wants to be of use on a practical level, Pisces wants to be involved on the spiritual level.  Pisces can feel restricted by the ‘mundanity’ of everyday life; it wants to transcend this, and does so through dreams (the daydream variety or in sleep) as well as through creative expression and the imagination.  The Moon card, too, is linked to intense dreams and the power of the imagination. 

The Moon: DruidCraft Tarot (trimmed)
Created by Philip and Stephanie Carr-Gomm,
illustrated by Will Worthington

We often see water in the Moon card, another link back to the water sign of Pisces, and the DruidCraft Tarot is no exception. Pisces floats through life, flowing with the tides – another link to the Moon. The gravitational forces exerted by the Moon and the Sun, combined with the effects of the rotation of the Earth, produce the rise and fall in sea level – the ebb and flow of the tides.  The Moon is also linked to cycles through its phases – new, waxing, full, waning, old. In Will Worthington’s depiction of The Moon card in the Druidcraft, we see clearly the waxing crescent moon, although with a bit of imagination I can also see the outline of the new and full moon as well.

The shadow side of Pisces can be a tendency to escape into a fantasy world, a world of illusion – which can also lead to addiction.  The Moon card is often associated with illusion – that things are not what they seem. Rachel Pollack, in her Seeker: The Tarot Unveiled (Llewellyn Publications, 2005) talks about ‘the passage through the unknown’, and how this can refer to actual journeys as well as inner ones. Either can be adventures, journeys of discovery – but both involve uncertainty.  Sometimes the uncertainty can make us feel a little ‘mad’ – bringing us to the link between the Moon and lunacy (‘luna’ being Latin for ‘moon’).  The dog and wolf depicted here, as in many versions of this card represent the wildness, the animal instinct to howl at the moon, to run wild, the ‘madness’ that needs to be released, the unconscious.  The crab, half in water, half on land, also symbolizes the connection between conscious and unconscious.  

Have you noticed how rarely people are depicted in this card? It’s often only animals...our wild side, our unconscious.

And it takes courage to walk that unknown path, not knowing where we’re going to end up or what we’re going to encounter on the way.  Yes, we could fall prey to illusion or deception on the way, but fear of this shouldn’t stop us. Fear, represented in the image by the two standing stones (the Gateway of Fear that leads to Rebirth, according to the accompanying book), has its place, as the creators of the deck say in their book, “in protecting us from danger and clarifying our emotional limits....but ...fear can also be our ally and teacher”. The dog and the wolf, the Guardians of the Threshold in the DruidCraft Tarot, can become our guides, our allies, as we step into the unknown.

Philip and Stephanie Carr-Gomm go on to say “The challenge offered by The Moon is to confront your fears, and use your discrimination to separate truth from illusion, while at the same time allowing yourself to be open to the realm of imagination..”.  By accepting the fears, the ‘madness’, the uncertainty, we gain access to instinct, to our unconscious – the goal of Pisces!

DruidCraft Tarot created by Philip Carr-Gomm and Stephanie Carr-Gomm, illustrated by Will Worthington, published by Connections 2004