Judgment

The 20th card in the Major Arcana. In Rachel True’s True Heart Intuitive Tarot deck, this card is depicted with a brown skinned figure with wings in the center of the card, with a horn in their hands. Clouds surround the lower half of their body, a glorious sun behind their back, and an ocean beneath them. Twenty birds are in the middle of the card, flying up. In the bottom foreground of the card, we see the backs of four person’s heads of varying skinned tones, arms raised. 

This is one of the few cards in the deck that still causes a bit of a reactive lurch in my stomach when I see it. I think because it reminds me of my childhood religious upbringing In Christian lore/tradition; this imagery is reminiscent of “The Final Judgement Day”, when all dead souls will arise from the dead, be judged for every action of their life. Those that passed this judgment, went to heaven. Those that didn’t were “thrown into the lake of fire”. I remember carrying intense fear and anxiety that I would never be enough, would always be judged as unsaveable, evil, lacking, banished to torture for eternity. Despite no longer identifying with that faith, those early experiences and feelings stay in my body.

However, once I get past that reaction and am able to respond in this present, I can see the gift of this card—a call to the innermost self, a demanding invitation to come forward, be who you  really are—step into the calling of your life. 

It reminds me that we each hold a special something that only we can bring—sometimes, those parts of ourselves can feel asleep or even dead inside of us. Locked away in coffins due to trauma, societal expectations, self doubt, lack of resources.

This card is a wake up call, a reckoning, an opportunity for transformation. In the journey through the Major Arcana, It comes directly after the Sun card and right before the last card—The World. It invites us to take the strengths and wisdom we’ve gained along our journey and use them to transform, to enter a new era.

To me, the “judgment” feels less like an exterior demand and more of an internal pull towards discernment. I see this card as a call to the innermost/highest self, a demanding invitation to come forward, to step into the calling of your life. Sometimes, we don’t know what that is—but when I see the Judgement card, it often is that we actually do know on some level—we’ve just been holding on to past narratives about ourselves, clinging to past beliefs or structures or fears, staying busy with the day to day busyness, keeping parts of ourselves asleep. When Judgment shows up—make no mistake; the time for Awakening is Now.

Will you answer the call?