justice – Tarot Training

This month’s card to look at is Adjustment.

Now; I realise as I post this, this was the card I spoke about last month. Last month I picked it from the deck – with the ‘What do people what to know more about.’ intention. This month I had completely forgotten last month’s card and just was very drawn to discuss this card. It is only now as I paste this into the email that I see we were talking of it last month. However I feel my approach to the same card is somewhat different in discussion here to last month so I will stay with it and just allow the further discussion to further inform. I hope you enjoy it 😀

In other decks Adjustment is the Justice card. Here Crowley connects the card as the feminine counterpart of the Fool. As the fool jumps and follows his instinct and intuition without any guarantees so Adjustment is the response the universe gives to our impulses. The resulting feedback to our actions in a sense.

When this card turns up in a spread we can see it as the need to maintain balance and recognise our influence in the world – if we are out of balance in ourselves then the world around us seems chaotic and imbalanced. As we increase our self balance so the universe reflects this back to us.

On the card we see the woman has a mask on her and she is not looking at external actions and results in the world but rather is looking internally to her own inner world and her responses to the different sides of herself. As she listens intently so her action can be made accurately and to reflect her own inner truth. This ensures the world around also reflects her inner truth. If we spend time in meditation we can find this inner balance, from this place then we make our decisions and as we do this so what the universe sends back to us is closer to what we truly feel and believe.

It can be seen as the law of karma, however a simplistic look at this removes the sense of self destiny, learning necessary lessons and can tempt us into a punishment and control ethos – this is not what this card is about. It is more about the fine balance we keep ourselves in. The making of decisions after carefully weighing up the ramifications of all we say, do and don’t do. As we consider all points of view from our deepest self so we find the response that moves us forward on our highest path of development.

The card is ruled by libra, which is the scales and also concerned with keeping the peace, finding balance and reducing extreme demonstrations to the minimum. This energy can be blocking in some circumstances where we find we are so busy keeping the peace we have forgotten to listen to our own truth. So when this card is surrounded by difficulty then the need to go within and allow ourselves to witness fully our extremes is the way to release the stuckness experienced. It is as if we are so busy balancing we have forgotten to look what is in the scales and decide whether it has merit.

Fours are represented here by the orbs, these sets of 4 are reminding us that stability is possible if we don’t allow external circumstances to throw us off balance. We can experience peace at this time, and even large difficulties can be navigated successfully.

This month I am going to explore the card Adjustment. This card immediately hits us with a feeling of balance and calmness, the character on the card is balanced very precisely on tiptoe and there are scales indicating things have to be even on all sides to maintain this position. There is a sense of the need for continual micro-adjustment to maintain this balance. Any wild movements throwing the whole scene off.

It is ruled astrologically by Libra – also a sign of great balance, peacekeeping and with this the sense of difficulty making decisions, due to trying to establish what is truly fair as so often things can be viewed from many different perspectives. Consequently we also see the idea of weighing things up, is it this or is it that?

The blue and blue green give us a feeling that part of what we have to weigh is what is in our heart – what is our truth? How can we be the most authentic to ourselves. Then once we have established this how can we communicate this to others in a fair and balanced way – respecting their side and their point of view?

As we contemplate these things we come closer and closer to the truth and reality of a situation. We also may find as we approach the truth we also approach the sides of ourselves that have been developed to protect us from past situations that are no longer relevant. These ‘untruths’ of our current predicament are brought forward to be seen in thelight of the present day. The reality of now. Often this card arises after we have done some work on our old historically driven patterns of behaviour and the current situation challenges us to see and understand our pattern and also simultaneously react from the truth of the hear and now without denying our past. It can be quite tricky.

On a more mundane level we have the associations of justice, fairness and legal contracts of all kinds – communications written and presented that ensure that all people are fairly accounted for in situations that either have had conflict in them, or could have conflict of interests in them. We have divorce arrangements, house contracts, law suits and inheritance issues around a will with this card – other surrounding cards making it clearer which of these and aso how to approach the setting up of a legal document in a specific situation. The emperor perhaps suggesting to take charge, 8 disks suggesting get help from a professional or at least look at the details very carefully, etc etc.

There is high integrity required with this card, as any imbalance is instantly adjusted, so a disharmonious action with the Will of the Whole will be reflected back to us very quickly so we can see where we ourselves need to make our inner adjustments to be in harmony with our highest potential. It is a card of karmic action from this perspective. We are sent feedback, in the form of the situations around us, so as to learn and further progress with our development, and the feedback will be or is, exacting.

There is a great deal of a sense of precision with this card but also an emphasis on love, as Venus rules Libra, and Venus is very concerned with love and beauty, the highest goal of all of us to live with love. So all adjustments are made in the name of love – the balance is not one of retribution, but of honouring more than one perspective in love, sometimes involving a lesson if we resist the truth, but the redress is from a loving heart of high integrity. We say no to those hurting us physically, and direct them to help for their pain rather than melting out retribution for wrongs experienced. As we work in this way we stay in balance in our own lives understanding that the ‘wrong doer’ is also a part of ourselves we keep in balance to be whole.