Observations placeholder
Wirth, Oswald – 08 Justice
Identifier
028326
Type of Spiritual Experience
Background
Wirth has justice as number eight, a different numbering to that used in other packs, where justice may take on a more literal meaning - nothing functions in a society without justice. Wirth has expanded the meaning of justice to mean order
A description of the experience
The Tarot of the Magicians – Oswald Wirth English translation 1985 Samuel Weiser.
First published in Paris in 1927 under the original title: Le Tarot, des lmagiers du Moyen Age
Justice is best explained as co-ordinating and organizing chaos. Without Justice nothing can live since beings only exist by virtue of the law to which they are subject. Anarchy is synonymous with nothingness.
In the Tarot, Themis reminds us of the Empress ……..but she is no longer the Queen of the Sky, this star eternally young in her heavenly abode. The woman who holds the scales and the sword seems to have aged and her features have hardened. Now that she has come down into the sphere of action, she has lost her wings. Her throne is massive, solid and stable …… The two pilasters which flank it ….. mark the limits of physical life, between them stretches the limited field of life-giving activity.
…………In fact what would become of the Emperor if it were not for Justice? Law would remain theoretical and potential, if it were not applied in the practical sense in the sphere of the positive; it is the same with abstract mathematics which only becomes meaningful when it is applied. Personifying the principle of numeration,· the Emperor would give out mathematics in vain if it were not for Justice who receives and organizes it.
The magistrates cap which Justice is wearing is marked with the symbol of the Sun 0, for the spiritual Sun is the great coordinator who assigns his role to every living person and to everything. The number eight is, moreover, that of Sun- Reason, the light of men, as is proved by the Chaldean emblem of Samas, the god of daylight.
From a central point emanate four rays, doubled cross-wise, symbolizing light and warmth.
Let us note also that in China the Qua, or trigrams of Ib-Hi under whose influence the world has taken shape, are of the number eight. Let us not forget either that the star formed by a double cross, vertical and oblique is, in Assyro-Babylonian writing the definite article to divine names.
......But the instrument of atonement of faults committed is the scale, whose oscillations bring about a balance. Every action, every thought, every desire has an effect upon her beam; as a result there are accumulations which will have their fatal repercussion for good or for ill.
The energies at work are stored; those which proceed from a generous kindness enrich the soul, for he who loves makes himself worthy of being loved ………..; no one is poorer than the egoist who refuses to give of himself.
………we can only appreciate by reason of contrast; so that to be happy one has to have suffered.