Judgement Tarot Card Meanings

Judgement Tarot Card Table of Contents

• Key Symbolic Meanings
• The Judgement Upright
• The Judgement Reversed
• Metaphysical Correspondences
• Numerology Symbolism of The Judgement
• Back to the Major Arcana
• Back to all Tarot Card Meanings

The Judgement Tarot Card Meanings

Let’s be honest. Nobody likes the word “Judgement” – especially as when it might mean being “judged” in a cosmic courtroom by the Universe (God, Collective Conscious, Source, etc.) and it might seem that the Judgement tarot brings just that.

But, ignore the title for a moment and just look at the image on the Judgement tarot card. Now think about what the process of judgment really involves.

It’s a process in which you evaluate the known facts. Yes, we’re talking hardcore left-brain logical thinking. But that doesn’t have to contradict spirituality, at all. After all, the cosmos has gifted us with amazing brains.

Wouldn’t it be a shame not to use them?

The Judgment card is a direct channel from the material world to the astral. That’s where our emotions and dreams come from. But the astral plane is a lot like the Internet, a gateway to a whole new world of information – much of it is helpful, but some can be misleading.

Using our rational mind, you can understand your emotions and be more in touch with them. Yes, analyzing our feelings can teach us to trust them.

As the human figures in the Judgement card clearly show, Judgment’s cosmic wake-up call is accompanied by a feeling of tremendous joy. Note how in the Judgement tarot they’re on both sides of the water, the divide between the conscious and subconscious mind.

The message in the Judgement Tarot card is beautifully plain. Like in the song by Yes, “It will happen to everyone eventually.”

No longer confined by their beliefs about what they can and can’t do or their station in life – those open graves in the Judgement tarot – these people almost physically embrace the newfound freedom heralded by the angel’s trumpet.

They’re still a little grey from their entombment on the Judgement tarot, their old beliefs and hangups, but that’ll change.

The Judgement tarot card is the moment the ugly duckling realizes he is actually a beautiful swan.

Associated with the Hebrew letter Shin, the Judgment tarot card represents the energy flow between our experiences in the material world and the limits of our intellectual reasoning. Shin allows your consciousness to explore the farthest reaches of understanding.

This process challenges and expands the boundaries of thought, the mountains in the distance on the Judgement card, giving birth to science, philosophy, religion, and spiritual teachings.

Because this a never ending process, kabbalists also refer to the Judgement tarot as the “perpetual intelligence.”

Upright Judgement Tarot Card Meanings

When the Judgement tarot presents itself upright in a tarot reading it’s to acknowledge that you suddenly understand what the sense of restlessness and anxiety you’ve been feeling was all about – the nagging sense that you’d been stuck in a rut.

True, nothing much may have happened on the surface, but powerful cosmic influences have been busy at subconscious levels. They’ve been working on something wonderful, and it’s bursting to the surface in full force and wonderful brilliance.

Right now.

You have made it through a dark night of the soul, and you are waking up to a brand new, glorious day.

In light of a new understanding about yourself and your place in the universe, your former limitations – whether they were of your own making or not – have lost their hold on you. What you thought could or couldn’t be done no longer has any meaning.

Filled with new vitality, you are feeling powerfully creative impulses that refuse to be ignored. And you realize that you have already begun that great spiritual journey.

If life has been hard and unforgiving up to this point – and you have sent out desperate prayers to the universe for that extra push or that break — here’s good news. Your prayers have been answered. The cavalry has arrived.

There’s no need to wonder what you have done to deserve this blessing. “Deserve” hast nothing to do with it. This is a gift to any man, woman, and child.

You only have to reach out and take it.

It goes without saying that the Judgement tarot card represents a crucial stage in your soul’s development. And with spiritual growth comes a deeper understanding of all aspects of human knowledge, especially in philosophy, religion, and the sciences. The universe has knocked on your door and opened your eyes, physically and spiritually.

If you have received a psychic vision, you can trust it. Coming from a higher source subconscious, this is the real deal.

Judgement Reversed Tarot Card Meanings

When the Judgement card is reversed in a reading you are reminded not to be so stingy with your knowledge. It’s meant to shared, and others can give you important insights that can help you better understand what you have learned.

The world is definitely ready to hear what you have to say when the Judgement card is reversed. There is no need to hold back. Besides, nothing stays secret forever. If you hold back too long, others may beat you to the punch.

When reversed, the Judgment card not only suggests that your insights and ideas are ready to be shared, but that the time to act is now. That someone special you may have set your eyes on, for example, isn’t planning on staying single forever. Wait too long, and you’ll miss the bus.

Keeping your light under a bushel will not only deprive others of important information, it may also keep you running in the same old circles. Your insights require that you step out of your hermit cave. An exchange of ideas will help others as much as it will help you.

But you’ve definitely reached a point where you can no longer make it on your own steam.

Don’t be afraid. You’re not alone, and it’s okay to ask for help.

If you are not taking that leap forward because are over analyzing things, you are wasting energy, time, and opportunities.

William Butler Yeats wrote, “Things thought too long can be no longer thought.”

In light of new knowledge and wisdom, your old ways of thinking no longer apply. You need to be willing to open your mind to new ideas. Don’t worry. Understand will come along the way.

A word of caution: Don’t let your newfound insights go to your head. While smart is the new sexy, a know-it-all is still annoying. As Madonna would say, “Papa don’t preach”.

The Judgement Tarot Card Metaphysical Correspondences:

Ruling Planet: Pluto
Kabbalistic Letter: Shin
Path on The Tree of Life: Hod (Glory) to Malkuth (Kingdom)
Healing Crystals: Azurite, Clear Quartz

The Judgement Card & Tarot Numerology

The Judgment card is the twenty-first Major Arcanum. When viewed as 2+1, the two expresses the divide between the known and the unknown, and the one points to a new beginning. Added together, these numbers make the Number 3, showing that the interaction of opposites creates new life. Here, these numbers combine to express a spiritual birth.

Learn more about the sacred divinatory art of Numerology. Use our Numerology Calculator to find what your Life Path, Soul, Personality, Compatibility and Career Numbers are and how they can help improve all areas of your life!