Tarot reading › Major Arcana › The Judgement

Tarot card meaning

The Judgement

Key terms:

honesty, fairness, altruism, pleasure
(retribution, condemnation)

Card meaning:

This card pictures the Last Judgment scene described in the Bible. An angel is trumpeting the arrival of this event. All the dead rise from graves to be judged. Everyone is repaid in the final judgment according to his deeds. Everyone gets either eternal salvation or damnation.

It does not matter whether you are Christians, Buddhists, other religion or atheists. This card only uses the biblical topic as a mean of inspiration and reflection. The Last Judgment serves therefore mainly as a reminder of the need to assess our actions. The angel on the card looks directly into your eyes. It is up to you to judge yourself, at least for the moment. Think about whether your actions are in accordance with your conviction. Then follow further - think about whether your beliefs are in harmony with the unity of the universe.

The life involves more than just individual interests. The card thus draws your attention to the need of a broader assessment of your actions. It is fundamentally good to follow the higher interests rather than only those of your own. The good and the evil take many forms. But the absolute basis is a common decency and honesty.

People are like trees. If any f the roots are bad, it cannot grow up into the sky. It is necessary to be healthy to achieve true spiritual greatness. The roots represent our ethical properties, from which all our actions are growing. They can take the form of something respectable (mature tree crown), or – if they are bad – just remain low albeit dense vegetation (grass and weeds).

If you judge, always strive for impartiality. Everybody and everything has some inborn qualities and others are formed by the time or education. If you judge according to your expectations and not impartially, you will be disappointed and your judgments can harm you as well as others. If you plant a spruce seed, you cannot expect to grow an apple tree or even a rose. But it can become a beautiful spruce, if you care for it and the circumstances are favorable. Do not judge the spruce for being a spruce, because it is its essence.

The Judgment also highlights that the top of our efforts is our calling. And the calling should not be confused with plain work, employment or career. Although all these words at first glance describe the very similar thing, the calling is substantially something of a higher importance.

Work is something we do to earn our living. Whereas the calling is an activity, that has a deeper meaning. The calling is the profession to which one was truly called (from above) – to follow the higher principle. The calling is therefore a matter of honor and inner fulfillment, not just plain work. It does not matter, whether your occupation is to paint fences, cut hair or build houses. Even an ordinary bricklayer can feel, how much his ordinary work makes him happy, if he recognizes, that the result of his efforts affects other people's lives for generations. If he recognizes, that this work is the true calling for him.

If you have this card in front of you, think about whether your work is also your true calling. And whether the acts that you sow into the world, will plant the further growth of honesty and selflessness. Without the inner quality, you get by the calling, it does not make sense to look for the higher quality knowledge of our being.