Justice
Justice is card 11 of the Major Arcana in the Rider-Waite-Smith deck. Readers traditionally take it as fairness, truth and cause and effect: the idea that actions have consequences and decisions should be weighed.
- Major Arcana
- Card 11
- Golden Dawn
- Libra
- Upright
- fairness, truth, cause and effect
- Reversed
- unfairness, avoided accountability
Upright
Scales in one hand and a sword in the other: the card weighs, then decides. Readers take it as clear thinking, honesty and fairness, and as a moment when the facts matter more than feelings. It often comes up around agreements, decisions and taking responsibility for your part.
Reversed
Tipped scales are the usual reading of the reversed card: unfairness, or accountability avoided. Someone, possibly you, may not be owning a choice. Readers treat it as a call for honesty, not as a verdict.
In love and at work
Readers asked about relationships often see a need for balance and honest conversation, or a partnership judged by how fair it feels. For work, it is associated with law, contracts, ethics and decisions that should be made on the evidence.
In the picture
A crowned figure in red sits between two gray pillars, holding upright a double-edged sword and a pair of golden scales. A purple veil hangs behind. Waite numbered the card 11 to follow the Golden Dawn, which gave it to Libra.
In a Caelumia profile
When Justice comes up upright in a Caelumia reading, it counts toward these themes for that day, alongside the rest of the profile: Analysis, Idealism, Harmony.
Sources
- A. E. Waite, The Pictorial Key to the Tarot (1910). Waite's own guide to the deck he designed with Pamela Colman Smith, with each card's divinatory meanings.
- Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, Book T: The Tarot (1890s, published by Israel Regardie in The Golden Dawn (1937 to 1940)). The source of the planetary, zodiac and elemental attributions of the cards.
Updated September 28, 2026.
See it in your own profile
Caelumia reads your whole birth chart and your numbers together, and shows where they agree. Your profile is free to start, and your first results appear while you answer.