Learn how to learn an oracle method along with me as I explore the new Publishing Goblin Oracle Dice
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Figures.
Second roll of the dice and I get my old nemesis, Judgement.
I have to admit, I like this one a lot better than the religion influenced Judgment card from Tarot major arcana. Almost giggled when I saw it, because for a split second I thought it was a muppet face.
Luckily the energy today is on the “use good judgement” side of things and not the Judgey McHubrispants side that pushes my religious trauma buttons.
Off the cuff intuition is on the order of … once you make a reasoned decision, it is pretty worthless without some sort of action. It might be one task, or a million little nuanced lifestyle decisions, but good judgement is tied to action nonetheless.
Quick note before we move on with this post – or this series of posts, actually. I know the singular of dice is die. But this is cyberspace and America in 2023. There is a pretty good chance that something automated is going to confuse the singular-dice word with the become un-alive word. Grammar be damned, I’m calling them all dice. I’m out here trying to help (and hopefully entice you to get a private reading) I can’t do that shadow banned. Talk about your Judgy McHubrispants.
Now – back to the Judgement symbol.
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This isn’t an IBM ad. I’m talking about that thing you do with your brain.
Hello and welcome to TaoCraft Tarot blog and podcast. I’m glad you are here.
I’m glad I listened to pure impulse and picked up my Steampunk Tarot today. If you search the blog, you can see all the old posts about the Judgement card. I don’t know how much sense any of it makes. Some people have a significator card, a card they feel represents their essence. Or at least most of us have a card or two or a few that we resonate with more than the others. The judgement card, on the other hand, is my nemesis card. It pushes my buttons and pokes at old scars in ways that aren’t always helpful.
I love the steampunk deck’s version of Judgement though. It is the only Judgement card that doesn’t send me into a puddle of spiraling, evangelical induced post-traumatic babble like other versions the judgement and hierophant (aka pope) cards typically do.
The judgement card, like the rest of the major arcana, has at least two major threads of meaning woven into it.
One is the judgement day, face the music kind of judgement, not unlike how we might say a court judgement or a lawsuit judgement. The legal judgement also connects to the second thread…the decision making process itself. The word “reckoning” works here too. An older meaning for reckoning is to settle a debt or account. But it also means calculation or deciding, like “navigation by dead reckoning.” The biggest problem with judgement card is how easily it can slip into petty judgmentalism.
My least favorite representation of the Judgement card is, as you might expect, is the Waite Smith Tarot. Pamela Smith’s art is saturated with christian symbolism with angels, trumpets, dead looking naked people standing in graves. That whole rapture-ish resurrection second coming thing always gives me that nervous eye tick feeling. Past experience shows the slip to judgmentalism is very short with that kind of symbolism around.
Let’s just say if that kind of religion is your jam, go for it. For me it’s a jar jammed full of glowing green radioactive toxicity. In fact, in the back of my mind, I have always low key hoped that my Tarot work would help others who disliked and rejected by the American evangelicals as much as it has helped me to recover from a childhood in that subculture.
But today, thankfully, all of that is beside the point because the card is pointing to the other connotation, the “use your head” and “use good judgement” part of the card.
The Steampunk deck is good for steering intuition away from the Smith artwork. In fact, this artwork has the opposite effect. It could easily have a “face the music” connotation, but in her guidebook for the deck Aly Fell interprets it as “heeding a call.” That is a card meaning I can resonate with. Not so much a judgement in the traditional sense, not so much answering a “calling” in the religious sense, but rather a actively thinking about our life path and thinking about the meaning we infuse into what we do.
The image also calls to mind some of my favorite D.J. and E.D.M. music like Mystery Skulls and Daft Punk. It taps into my cyberpunk side as much as the Steampunk aesthetic for some reason.
It all takes me to a happy place of thinking and reason perfectly blended with abstract ideas and creativity.
It’s a personality thing that works for some people more than others. It also brings to mind Myers-Briggs personality categories. Today’s card is a comfort zone for all the thinkers, all the people with a T as the third of their four letter category. This is one for my fellow geeks.
For feelings people, those with the “F” in their code, it might be more challenging. It might be harder for them to let their head rule their heart for whatever challenges life might pose for them.
Challenge or comfort zone, the call the Judgment card is asking us to heed is a simple one: Think.
Thank you all for reading and listening!
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Welcome to TaoCraft Short Sip Tarot. I’m glad you are here.
Today’s card is Judgement.
If you have read the blog for a while, you probably already know this card is one of my nemesis in the deck. Both Judgement and the Hierophant as it is drawn in the RWS deck is a little trigger-ish. Luckily it isn’t the religious judgement day aspect of the card stepping forward here.
On the other hand, who the heck uses the word “begets” outside of Shakespeare and the old Testament? The phrase “Harshness Begets Chaos” just dropped into my head when I turned the card this morning, so I’ll roll with it. It must mean something to somebody out there in cyberspace.
I’m not the only one, by the way. When I say “dropped into my head” it refers to that pop of an idea that cartoons used to show as a light bulb turning on over a character’s head. My husband and our martial arts teacher call it “getting the download.” So when the muses, or spirit or intuition or your higher self or whatever you want to call it drops an idea into your head through your crown chakra like a fed ex delivery with an attitude, pay attention. It probably means something one way or another.
“Begets” is an odd word. So let’s say that harshness…or in the context of this card….harsh judgement results in chaos. It can be shattering to a young or vulnerable person. The word shattering also comes to mind. Although the artwork on this particular card is fluid and the word melt would be better than shattered, hard sharp edges of shattered emotions better describes the feelings that harsh judgement can evoke. On the card, the clear eyed image of a bird melts into poorly defined shapes and swirling colors.
It is beautiful the way the artist connects Judgement to a blue jay and, as the Alleyman’s notebook points out, a rising energy not unlike that of a phoenix rising from the ashes. This is where this newer card and the older RWS card overlap. Even within the religious imagery there is a notion of second chances, or rising up from a bad situation. If you have been on the receiving end of bigotry, or judgmentalism or shattered by other harsh circumstances, this can be seen as reassurance that you can rise from that. Know that you are seen by the universe.
The clear eyed bird sees those who can rise above. The clear eyed bird sees those who would tear down.
Ted Andrews associated blue jay energy with the Two of Swords and “the right use of power.” That is where today’s card veers from judgmentalism into judgement as in good judgement or use your own judgement.
Just because you can doesn’t mean you should. Use your judgement when to be strong and when to be gentle.
But remember, the two are often the exact same thing.
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The blog and podcast will be quiet for the next four or five days, but I’ll still see you at the next sip. Have a good weekend!
This is the last YouChoose reading of 2021, and if everything works the way it should, it will be the first video in the podcast stream before the name changes in January 2022. I’m changing Clairvoyant Confessional to TaoCraft Tarot Podcast, and it will be, at least partially, an audio version of the blog here. This is still going to be the only place with ALL of the content in one place, so I hope you will sit tight and follow the blog BUT you have the option to listen if you prefer.
Speaking of listening – I’ll leave you to listen to the YouChoose video. I hope your time of winter quiet and contemplation is a wonderful one.
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Today’s card is Judgement from the major arcana.
The word judgement has to do with assessment and decision making as in “use your own judgement.” But like everything it has a dark side. Good judgement implies wisdom and experience. Poor judgement implies mistakes in reasoning and decision making.
Simple enough, right?
Judgement is my grand nemesis in the Tarot deck. To my mind, it is the essence of that inward looking personal growth and spirituality versus outward, social religion. In my experience, Tarot is all about the former and not the latter. The Judgement card is one of the cards most strongly allied with the Christian influence in the cultures where Tarot first gained popularity. Angelic and “Judgement Day” images are on this card in almost all decks that I’ve seen except for a handful that deliberately step away from the Marseille and Waite – Smith imagery. The Witches Tarot, Animal Wise Tarot, and the Osho Zen Tarot are my favorite examples of this deliberate separation.
In addition to pushing my personal psychological buttons and activating my religion allergy, the downside of all the judgement day/ angelic/consequences images is the way it can slip into judgmentalism rather than reason and judgment. Zealotry and blind idealism can slip in very easily here.
The up side to this line of thinking is the idea of second chances. The judgement card is also associated with a fresh start after paying your dues. It’s about cleaning up the mess you made and moving on.
On one hand you have judgement and reasoning. On the other hand you have judgement day and judgementalism. On the other other hand you have second chances and taking responsibility for your actions. How do you bring all of that into one card?
Compassion.
It is the one measure of it all. Good judgement is guided by compassion. Judgementalism is kept at bay by it. Compassion grants second chances.
Compassion is the ultimate judge and judgement. If it isn’t compassionate, it isn’t good judgement.
Thanks again for watching, reading and listening. See you on the print side!
No, really, take a deep breath. You stopped for a moment to read this (thank you for that) so use it to stare at the screen, look busy but take a deep relaxing breath.
Thanks. I did that too.
The Judgement card is my nemesis. It seems like everyone has a card that resonates with them, that seems to signify where they are in life. Some cards are just comfortable, familiar or welcome. Sometimes a card resonates with an idea or an old battle or some constant struggle…a nemesis.
I won’t introduce you to that particular skeleton in the closet. We’ll get back to that when I get around to writing “Arcana in Balance.”
Still, it is a challenge to connect this card to Valentine’s Day without being overly harsh. So I’ll connect it to a thread of yesterday’s card instead.
Yesterday, the six of cups reminded us of innocence, and the in-the-moment sweetness of simplicity. To taste that sweetness we adults must first release judgements, expectations and pre-conceived notions of what a moment should be. Valentine’s Day this year isn’t business as usual. Let it be the moment it is. Let go of judgement to find your way to the sweetest present moment that you can.
Darkness always happens. Dawn always happens. Whichever is happening now is only as good or as bad as you judge it to be. Or you have the option to not judge it at all.
Left: Judgement. If it is a new day, it’s a new chance. If it is a new moment of life it is a new chance. Who is judging you besides you, and so what if they are? “No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.” – Eleanor Roosevelt
Middle: Seven of Swords. Mischief is afoot. Is it you? If not, why not? A little charm and some street smarts go a long way.
Right: Ten of Pentacles. There are lots of things in this world money can never buy. If you have something of them, cherish it. If you have none, seek it out or call it to you. But don’t focus on one of those many things or other riches could slip through your fingers.
Sage Words Tarot 