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Judgement Tarot Card Meaning

The Judgement Tarot card meaning can be a bit of a complex one with many nuanced layers depending on how you personally like to interpret this concept. Traditionally it can represent discernment and honest judgement, as well as a type of reckoning, Judgement Day so to speak, of looking back on your past cycle and openly assessing your part and those of others’, integrating any lessons to be learnt and moving forward with hindsight and perspective.

Read on for more interpretations including its Astrological and numerological correspondences, and what it can mean if it shows up for you as a reversal and in a career, love, and general reading:

Judgement Tarot Card Meanings

Major Arcana card Judgement comes right after the warmth and solace of The Sun card, bringing us a bit of perspective and objectivity, we can’t bask in the sunshine all day every day! Here in this part of the cycle and The Fool’s Journey, we are tasked with one final, major sweeping overview of things that have gone to pass. It is a call to look without judgement, impartially, and discern what roles you and others played and what lessons there are to be gleaned from it.

The typical Pamela Colman Smith Tarot deck features an image of what appears to be Judgement Day, as corpses rise from their coffins resurrected ready to be met by an angel (sometimes said to be Archangel Gabriel) and held accountable for their actions throughout their life (it is blowing a trumpet with the English flag on it, I believe simply a reference to where the creators of this version of the Italian cards were from).

In this, when the Judgement card shows up for us it can be an invitation to honestly, impartially, and without judgment or blame, take stock of a current phase that we are closing out and openly assess our actions and those of others’ involved. In this, we can learn from our mistakes, perhaps even judge ourselves less harshly, see another’s point of view, or gain valuable insight and wisdom that we can integrate and move forward with as we approach the final end of the cycle with The World card (before beginning again, of course).

Astrologically, Judgement is often attributed to Pluto, God of the Underworld. Hades comes for us all and as the Death card teaches us, is a natural and normal part of life (indeed life cannot exist without it), and one that is easier dealt with surrender. The keyword for dealing with Pluto either in our Natal Charts or by transit is, in fact, surrender. Like an earthquake, resistance is futile. And as Jessica Lanyadoo points out, if we fight the undertow of the ocean, we will be pulled down into its inky depths. Thus, in order to escape we must melt and surrender, accept what is, and we will eventually drift to safety.

When a country goes through its Pluto return (every 250 years or so, as the US is currently experiencing), is indeed a time of reckoning with past actions.

Pluto is a small but mighty “Planet”. As the most distant, it is the coldest and most intense. It is often said to make big things out of small things and small things out of big things, fittingly discovered on the dawn of the atomic bomb.

Numerologically, Judgement is numbered 20, reducing to 2. Interestingly this connects it the High Priestess. The High Priestess is a card of deep inner knowing, of soul wisdom unbound by societal constraints or constructions, it is an ancient feeling, instinctual and intuitive. This marriage is a lovely one for reiterating the concept of when in a Judgement moment, there is not much to do other than be with it, and that often we had the answers all along. If we sit in stillness, they may float to the top.

This connection also speaks to subtlety and of honouring the time needed to learn and integrate lessons in life- there is a certain sageness that can simply only come with age. Similarly, age is most definitely not an automatic indicator of maturity or wiseness- self-awareness and introspection are also needed, a certain level of consciousness and perspective that can only come with dedication, solitude, and giving the space for silence and whispers to come through.

Judgement Tarot Card Meaning

When Judgement shows up for us, it can be a call for self-reflection, and perhaps a “levelling up” in some way. We have reached the end of a cycle and are at a point where we can integrate the lessons we have learnt thus far and our role in them with maturity and consciousness. It can be an invitation to go within and do some soul-searching, to actively look back on our phase in life and see with greater perspective and clarity what went to pass. Some say it can be a time of so-called awakening.

Coming at this pivotal moment in the cycle, just before we complete the whole Major Arcana journey, it is a highly important one to value. We are often so full and busy, living in sensorially extremely loud environments (social media, radio, TV, advertisements etc), and are also so used to seeing things only from our own perspective, not often taking the time to actively assess a situation externally or even simply be without stimulation and allowing room for spontaneous insight to enter; Judgement is an essential seed of enlightenment and one that asks for active participation.

Judgement Reversed

Judgement reversed, like with all reversals, is simply an even stronger invitation to sit with the message, wisdom, and medicine of the card. Perhaps there has been a situation you have been actively avoiding, or an aspect of yourself or someone else you have been turning a blind eye to. Maybe there is something in the way we live our life or the patterns of our behaviour that we keep repeating and are asking to be looked at.

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Judgement in a Love Reading

In a love reading, Judgement is a call for impartial discernment. It can be wise to get trusted external advice, often we are blind in love and sound judgement can be hard to come by (especially if we have harsh Neptune aspects)! Judgement here can be an invitation for assessing the relationship dynamics and roles played by each individual party in a non-judgemental way, much like the “judgement” of Justice- with fairness and openness.

Sometimes it can be an invitation to look at past cycles and dynamics, is there a repeating theme from other relationships that is relevant to the one in question?

Judgement in a Career Reading

In a career reading, Judgement can be an invitation to look over your career and see how you have grown, what your strengths and talents are, as well as where you struggle and have room for growth.

Again, it can be a message that a pattern is repeating itself and it may be useful to look at past jobs to see clues for how/why a current situation is playing out as it is. Overall, it can be like giving yourself your own personal assessment test!

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Those are some of the key meanings of the Judgement Tarot card, I hope they’re insightful for you! Let me know in the comments section below if you have anything else to add or any questions.

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