Throughout the years of reading cards, I’ve developed a practice: no matter what cards I read, or how many are on my table, in my mind I add Justice to the string. I want Justice to act as a full stop, and as a statement of clarity: ‘It is so, beyond any doubt.’
The reason why I call on Justice, so to speak, has to do with the fact that if I don’t know what the truth of a situation is, then at least I can aim to be crystal clear about knowing what is definitely not the case. And what is definitely never the case, is the following, all at odds with the idea of truth and justice:
Generalities, intangible abstracts, ungrounded proclamations, and opinions.
If there’s something that Justice abhors above all, then it’s opinions. Opinions are entertaining, but if you want more from your cards than gossipy notions that don’t go anywhere, or idealism that stretches to the end of the world an invented love or hatred of all things, then you must think of ways to concretize and formalize everything you say about a situation.
To give an example: If you have an analytical bent, that is to say, an inclination towards reflection and investigation, then you will find it very hard to follow the discourse that has grand concepts such as ‘healing’, or ‘how to be successful’ in focus.
What is healing? What does it mean to say that we all have wounds that need healing? How do we know that? And if this were to be the case, that we all walked around with stories of victimization and powerlessness, why is focusing on past trauma beneficial to anything?
What does it mean to say that there’s a lesson in everything? What lesson? What is the purpose of categorizing and labeling our experiences as ‘lessons’? It is because such labels will make us feel better about life? One would think that figuring out what’s significant is more important than serving ourselves narratives that make us feel better about ourselves. Where is Justice in all of this?
Life has its ebbs and flows. There’s nothing special about having a bad hair day, nor is there anything special about being on top of the world. Neither lasts. Devising strategies of healing your hair, or maintaining your success is a complete waste of time. There are more important things to do, such as have fun, play a game, smell a flower, swim in the ocean. These are activities that are within anyone’s reach.
What Justice does in the tarot pack is thus to ask such nasty questions about our tendencies to go with what most people do. People do what others do, old wisdom has it, and that’s fair enough where living life according to dictations is concerned. But if you want more, then you must find your justice.
How do you do that? You can begin with taking a simple step. Imagine Justice talking to you, remonstrating you: ‘Is somebody on the internet talking about healing or success again? Turn that shit off, close your browser, shut down your YouTube channel, close the self-help book. You’re wasting your time. Don’t generalize. Look at what IS and formalize that.’
Sit in silence. Don’t think: I’ll sit in silence for 5 minutes, or 20, or 30 seconds because I don’t have the time for more. Just sit in silence. Ask yourself, ‘What is my Justice?’
If you like to play with the cards, lay down three cards for this question.
Here’s an example:
I read these cards like this:
My Justice is to preach towards bringing down establishments and all their enslaving lies.
A tough act to follow.
How about you? Maybe Justice will be part of your string. If that is the case, then imagine it also at the end of your string, putting a just full stop to your contemplation. If Justice is not part of your string, find it in the pack, and place it along with the others. Let it seal your sentence.
At the end of the day, it might even address a question you don’t ask, one about your reason for doing this, read cards.
Justifying your justice
People often ask me: ‘Why do you read cards?’
The answer is straightforward: I read cards because cards simplify relations, and through the simplification of relations I receive clarity beyond what I think is the case.
In truth no one knows anything about anything. Therefore, the sages of old say, relax; relax about having to do this or that, heal your soul, get empowered, follow a 12-step program, fix your shadow and your alchemy.
These are all very entertaining acts, but they are not acts that give you insight. Healing yourself and empowering yourself has a history of lasting about five minutes. Then what? I’m always interested in this ‘then what’.
Healing yourself and working towards success gives you an opportunity to desire more, to experience more. But experience generates more experience, not insight. Real insight is beyond any clinging to acts of healing or becoming successful.
Some ask me in disbelief: ‘If we discarded the idea of healing and self-healing, then what’s left?’ Now that is a good question. What’s left is freedom. If you’re free of any duties and obligations that are in vogue, free of having to heal yourself, or having to be successful, having to make an impact on the world, having to make a difference, having to conquer the world, or having to score the bank, then you’re left with insight.
Justice is the one that asks you: ‘What are you? Who are you? What is your point of reference, point of origin? Is it in the belly of a mother that you now hate, or in the spirit of an ancestor that you now fancy?
It’s not for me to say what I like or dislike about the world, or the spiritual world in particular where identity, self-empowerment, healing, and success are the major keywords everyone goes to.
But I will say this: None of these concepts are useful. Not even by a long shot. What’s useful is to answer the question of what you are, beyond resorting to yet another label.
If you’re in doubt about your cards on the table, imagine Justice at the end of your string, staring at you, calling on you to recognize what your own justice is, calling on you to cut off your attachments, and to hold your acts of chopping wood and carrying water in check.
After all, when you live and breathe as you do right now, there’s nothing to heal, nothing to be successful about, nothing to boast. There’s just gratitude for knowing the difference between what creates schism, and what crosses the deep waters.
♠
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