The Truth Shall Set You Free: Mercury Retrograde, Mars in Scorpio and Justice

Today's card is Justice and it is oh so fitting since Mercury has just turned retrograde in Aquarius and is making a tense aspect to Mars in Scorpio.  This astrology is all about sitting in the discomfort of not knowing and allowing the truth, and that means your truth, that is buried deep within, to emerge from the psychological depths of your being.  This astrology is all about resisting the push of Mars to act impulsively, and to wait, to just be, to allow, and to review and reevaluate.

Justice, the eleventh card of the Major Arcana in the Tarot, is about truth, self-honesty and a just outcome.  Just as the planetary energies suggest, this card calls for self-examination and looking honestly at yourself.  It also speaks of balance - of balancing different energies in your life.  

In the book, The New Tarot Handbook, by Rachel Pollack, it says about Justice, "In the Rider deck, Justice stands at the midpoint of the Major Arcana, with ten cards before it and ten after.  The balanced scales suggest that at this halfway mark we need both to put our lives in order and begin to bring together what had seemed a duality of opposites."  

"Let's look at how that works symbolically.  The fool, zero, carries everything within but nothing is realized.  All the potential splits into two figures, the male Magician for light, consciousness, and action, and the female High Priestess for darkness, the unconscious, and stillness.  We also see polar opposites with Adam and Eve in the Lovers or in the black and white sphinxes of the Chariot."

"Ultimately, the World will bring everything together. But look at Justice.  If we do away with the Roman numerals the number becomes 11, the Magician's 1 done twice to echo the High Priestess's pillars. And, of course, 1+1=2, the number of the Priestess.  The figure of Justice, a severe, androgynous woman, sits between two pillars with a curtain behind her, like the High Priestess, but her gesture of one arm up (the sword) and one down (the scales) suggests the Magician, as does the red robe and the way one foot sticks out as if she's about to stand." 

"So what is justice, and why is it so important?  One of the cardinal virtues (along with Strength and Temperance, and Prudence, which is missing - fascinating omission), it represents the ability to look into our lives, honestly and fairly, and in so doing free ourselves from the past, with all its childhood conditioning, the influence of family and society, and even more, all the guilt and fear and resentment built up over time."

"Most of us have seen the image of Justice on courthouses.  There the scales often tilt, for the courts must decide who wins and who loses.  And courthouse Justice wears a blindfold for impartiality.  Tarot Justice, however, wears no blindfold and seems to stare straight at us, as if challenging us to look honestly at our lives."

"The sword points straight up for truth.  In all the cards, only three cards point upright - Justice, the Ace of Swords, and the Queen of Swords."

"People often ask, if the Tarot can predict events, what of free will?  First of all, the cards do not show hard predictions, but possibilities.  More deeply, we always have free will, but we often don't use it.  This is because we act based on unconscious needs.  Justice challenges us to really become conscious of who we are so we can make genuinely free choices."

"But what of actual court cases?  The Tarot, even in its deepest cards, never abandons the everyday.  If you ask about a legal issue and Justice comes up, there is likely to be a just outcome.  Of course, this does not guarantee the outcome you desire."

So we are now asked to confront the truth within ourselves, to sit with the discomfort as we allow it to emerge so that it may guide us in honest communications and balancing our lives.  Rather than acting impulsively on unconscious needs and fears, we are asked to, "...really become conscious of who we are so we can make genuinely free choices."  Now we are given the opportunity to, "....look into our lives, honestly and fairly, and in so doing free ourselves from the past, with all its childhood conditioning, the influence of family and society, and even more, all the guilt and fear and resentment built up over time."  We are being given the opportunity to find the truth within ourselves and consciously create our lives.  The truth shall indeed set you free.