23 February 2012

Judgment: getting results from your consequences


This is where reading tarot cards gets tricky. Tarot, tea leaves, palm lines, just plain psychic impressions: all intuitive tools are conceptual and symbolic. Intuition-helpers are idea and image driven.


The hard part is putting those pure ideas and images into words. Language can be both powerful, and subtle. Words can have a variety of meanings and connotations. "Judgement" is a good example.


Judgement can mean reason, good decision-making, as in "use good judgement" or "an error in judgement". This is the softer side of the word, alluding to making a healthy, logical way through many options.


In the tarot cards, the major arcana card "Judgement" is associated with a slightly harsher, harder connotation of the word. Here "judgement" speaks more to the idea of authoritarian pronouncement, like "passing judgement" or "being judgmental".


To move tarot readings from the era of a flat Earth into the era of quantum physics, we need to move the connotations of this card from hard to soft, from authoritarian judgmentalism to individual reason and good judgement.


One interpretation of this card is "consequences and renewal" (Diane Morgan). This interpretation, I think, captures the best of old and new.
Consequences is still used in a punitive way in our language. We often talk of the "consequences" when rules are broken...the authoritative pronouncement.
Consequences can have multiple shades of meaning. One is "result" or "outcome". Sure, breaking rules results in punishment. But too, any cause results in an effect. That effect can be - you guessed it - judged to be either good or bad.


Put the Judgement major arcana card into modern language and might get this:  Use your head (judgement)and learn from what happens (cause and effect/consequences) to learn from the experience and do better next time (renewal).


Wishing you a day of easy learning.




www.modern-oracle-tarot.com

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