Justice β€” Tarot of the Absurd

Saturday, July 28th, 2012

Β 

heart feather scale

 

Justice represents justice, fairness, truth and the law. Justice resides within the ancient Egyptian concept of Ma’at, which contains the philosophies of truth, balance, order, law, morality and justice. Ma’at regulates the stars, seasons, and the actions and interactions of both mortals and the deities in order to prevent the universe from returning to chaos. Equilibrium is dependent upon Ma’at. Ma’at embraces all aspects of existence.

 

Ma’at is personified in the form of a goddess whose primary role in Egyptian mythology is that of weighing of souls of the dead on her balance scale. Those with good, pure-soul hearts that balance lighter than the feather of Ma’at go on to paradise. In other words, those of us who spend our lives upholding the concepts of Ma’atβ€”Β  truth, balance, order, law, morality and justiceβ€” live happily in the ever-after. Maat is the application of Justice, not a list of rules.

 

Ma’at acquired her blindfold and sword and the name Justitia in Roman times. (Justice goes by many names.) The blindfold represents objectivity: Justice does not fear or favor; Justice does not heed big names or name-droppers; Justice does not fold before money or power. Justice has no weakness. She is blind and impartial to outside forces. Her double-edged sword may be wielded against either party in a dispute.

 

Ultimately, understanding of Justice differs in every cultureβ€” sometimes by a lot, sometimes by little. Culture is dependent upon shared mythology and history. A culture’s values reside in and are reflected within its notion of Justice. Thus, due to cultural difference, there is no universal concept of Justice. Indeed, her sword has not just two sides, but as many sides as there are peoples.

 

 

Entropy hangs fine:
universe on one side,
universe on the other.

Justice β€” Deviant Moon Tarot

Friday, December 16th, 2011
Artist: Patrick Valenza

 
Interpretation: “A great judge balances two swords as he presides over the city. Although seemly fair, corruption often creeps from the seams of a just society. Upright: Balance. Strong character. Fairness. Reversed: Abused. Taking sides. Bias.”
 
I chose this deck because it is moody, like I am. I pulled justice upside-down. What is thisβ€” justice?
 
Justice is cold and unfeeling. Those who feel righteous when justice has been carried out are those who have not felt its sting. Those who feel wronged when justice is carried out are those who have been hit by the blade.
 
Justice is a search for the Truth. Justice is a decision as to what the Truth is. But what if there is no Truth? Certainly, some things seem more true than others, especially in the physical world. Many people insist that they know the Truth. But just as no two objects can be in the same place at the same time, is it really possible for two humans to have the same idea as to what is true and just? We all have different views and viewpoints. We have a myriad of multi-colored gods and eyes and each one speaks a different Truth.
 
It is impossible to get a group of diverse people to agree on what is fair and just. This is why we are supposed to have diverse juries: to decide what the majority of the people might be satisfied with in terms of justice. This is justice as distributed by humanity. Unfortunately, humanity is notoriously unjust, and it is quite difficult to get people to agree on a jury.
 
What is my justice today? What truth do I seek and what lies have I told myself? What decision do I need to make? Yesterday I spent most of the day sleeping: depressed. This seems to be happening periodically in my second trimester. It never lasts more than a day or two. I could blame it on pregnancy, seeing as how I have never felt like this before in my life. (Nor have my fingernails ever been so perfectly beautiful, but I am not complaining.) I need to make the decision to keep moving, to move forward, even when I cannot see where I am going andΒ  I do not see the point. Stopping is getting stuck. The longer I stop for, the more thoroughly I will be stuck. I do not want to get stuck.