The Judgement Tarot Card: An angel with red wings, golden hair, and a blue gown blows a golden trumpet from behind gray clouds. Connected to the trumpet is a white flag with a red cross. Below the angel, rising out of coffins are women, men, and children. The coffins seem to be floating on water and there are trees and icy mountains in the background.
The Story of the Judgement Tarot Card: The best way to keep you under control is through fear of pain, punishment, and loss. The government does it, churches do it, your school teachers did it, and your parents did as well. In fact, your lovers and friends do it too. Every time you feel scared of being yourself because you fear someone will stop being your friend or stop giving you love, you are being manipulated by fear. Sadly, every time that you threaten to punish someone for not being the way you want them to be, you are doing the same thing. But the Judgement card invites an end to living in fear-based consciousness. It invites us to wake up through forgiveness and the unconditional love of Divine consciousness.
Judgement is an epidemic that makes your life and this world a living hell. From a lover withholding love and a parent taking away a toy, to government jailhouses and armies, you are being controlled and manipulated by fear and judgements. So from the perspective of spiritual growth, the Judgement card is not telling a story about how only the guiltless and sinless will be raised from the dead. Rather, The entire symbolism of the card points to a necessary stage of human spiritual evolution. That of rising through the flames of our internalized self-judgements and negativity. Of being liberated by a spiritual force and rising up from the prison of our negatively imprinted unconscious mind.
Being oppressed by ingrained, internalized, self-judgements feels like being buried deep in a pit, or, as depicted in this card, entombed in coffins. In the card, the coffins seem to be floating on water, indicating a connection to our emotional world and unconscious mind. The nudity in the card represents the vulnerability and authenticity needed on the spiritual path of growth leading to forgiveness, surrender, and letting go. The equal-armed red cross born by the angel represents victory over death, which can also mean victory over our unconscious self-punishing judgements and unconscious conditioning that make us feel like we are the living dead. It represents bringing the suffocated inner child within us back to life.
But the question remains, what force, power, or action can liberate us from all of our deeply unconscious, self-deprecating, and judgmental thoughts? The first clue has already been given - it is the nudity that represents a call to true and authentic vulnerability and honesty. This means no more denial, no more false positivity, and no more spiritual bypassing. You must face your shadow - the part of you that is buried in a dark coffin by oppressive thoughts. And you must face the people whose oppressive voices continue to repeat over and over again in your mind and control you.
The second clue comes from the angel. The angel in this card has golden hair, red wings, and a blue gown, and it (angels have no gender) is partially hidden behind clouds. The red color represents action and willpower, the blue represents intuition, feeling, and faith, the golden hair represents wisdom, and the golden horn represents the sound of that wisdom. It was our ears, after all, that received judgement and it is through our ears and sound vibration that we can receive healing and allow the dissolving of those ingrained negative voices. For even in the darkest of coffins, if you tune into the invisible sound vibration of Divine unconditional love, it will slowly heal you, and finally liberate you from that prison.
The Judgement card insinuates that this kind of healing is not something that you can do yourself. And as every addict in a 12-step program will tell you, you need help from a higher power to move through negativity and heal. Whether you view it as your own higher self or soul, an angel of God, or another Divine archetype, the healing process has to be a partnership. All spiritual growth, in fact, is a partnership - one of merging, and becoming fully intertwined with the higher aspects of yourself. Always remember - it is seeking you, just as much as you are seeking it. And as you learn to hear its voice trumpeting unconditional love and acceptance, aliveness will once again sing its song through the joyful, playful, and innocent inner child within you!
Association with Fire: The Judgement card is linked with Elemental Fire. It tells us that even though we are dealing with the depths of the unconscious emotional realm, that the way out is by finding balance to the water in the element of Fire. Fire represents willpower, determination, purpose, and belief. It is these qualities that will allow you to overcome the tremendous gravity that fear holds on you. It is the qualities of Fire that will give you the strength to face the past and trust the resounding vibration of unconditional love and forgiveness raining down from beyond the clouds. The clouds that may still be keeping you blind to your birthright of spiritual awareness, love, and kindness.
When to use The Judgement Tarot Card: When you are feeling burdened by grudges, judgments of self and others, an inability to forgive, and other fiery emotions that contain blame, the Judgement card can help you overcome them. When you are ready to emerge from being an unconscious being that travels through life like the walking dead, running only on programs given to them by others, this is also the energy for you. Contemplating the Judgement card can help you move past being lost in self-centered emotional dramas into your higher mind. It can help you hear the Divine music of unconditional love, forgiveness, and loving acceptance that we all deeply crave.
Altar Cloth / Tapestry details:
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