As Samhain approaches and the veil between worlds becomes thin, it feels apt to be taking a deep dive into the penultimate card in the Major Arcana; Judgement. As voyagers in the tarot, we have travelled a pathway that spirals through many gateways to reach Judgement as the XXth card in the deck. If we think of it in this way, we get our first glimpse of how and why this card can be one of the scariest in the tarot. How do you typically feel at the end of a long journey? Chances are you are ready for a hot meal, a warm bed and an opportunity to rest, yet these kinds of comforts are not necessarily what Judgement has in mind, at least not at first glance.
In the Rider Waite Smith version of Judgement we see what appears to be an angel blowing a horn and three figures below, standing naked (like in the Lovers and the Devil card) arms outstretched, looking upwards. It appears as if the greyed-out figures have stood up from empty boxes or coffins.
I love the horn in this card and how it brings sound into the picture. In the Gene Keys, the 20th key (Judgement is the XXth Major Arcana) is known as ‘The Sacred Om’, in Hinduism it is the primordial sound from which all is created whilst the Bible opens with “In the Beginning was the Word and the Word was God”. In modern times, quantum mechanics describes how vibration, i.e. sound, creates, sustains and destroys matter in the universe. We, as living beings, vibrate and although we cannot “hear” this vibration, we can often feel it. We are magnetically attracted to some people and things whilst others we are repelled by.
Much is written in New Age circles about the Law of Attraction and advice on how to manifest what you want. Without wading in on those discussions, in the context of Judgement, we would do well to refer to another Law; the Law of Correspondence which states, as above, so below; that what we encounter in our everyday (so called) reality reflects our inner world. This inner world is largely hidden to us - it’s unconscious - and so we merrily go about our business largely oblivious to it until it is time and we are ready to learn. The revelations of the Judgement card have the power to strip us of our pretences, of what we think or want to be true, particularly the way we see ourselves. Judgement enacts a similar process that the King is subjected to in the folktale, the Emperor’s New Clothes. The King invests in the promise of a set of new garments, more fabulous than before, specially tailored just for him. Only the child in the story is able to see clearly, for the truth is, there are no garments and the Emperor is naked. Without his ego (the clothes), the Emperor is one of us.
Ways in which Judgement shows up in readings are scenarios like when the highly productive, aggressively competitive and outwardly successful corporate queen unexpectedly encounters a mid-life burnout. OR for the husband trying to let go after a painful, long drawn out divorce, receives a sudden insight about the relationship that helps him find closure and finally let go.
“We have to listen to the whispering wind of awareness and let it blow into all the corners of our life.” Richard Rudd, author of The Gene Keys
For the Judgement card calls up stuff from beyond the veil, from our sub conscious, painstakingly drawing up out of our inner being that which has been latent and hidden. These are things that we need to address and release because if we don’t, and they remain part of our vibration, they continue to unconsciously affect us, drawing in negative energies.
Becoming conscious in this way can be painful, humbling and confronting but ultimately liberating and enlivening. The past gets released to make room for the present, for the aliveness of being here, now. Paradoxically this is the scariest prospect of all for we have to surrender control! In the words of Richard Rudd, author of the Gene Keys, “we have to listen to the whispering wind of awareness and let it blow into all the corners of our life”.
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